Godfather of the Music Business
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A01=Richard Carlin
Author_Richard Carlin
bebop
Biography
Birdland
Bootlegging of records
Bop City
Broadway
Bud Powell
Buddy Knox
Capitol Records
Category=AVLP
Category=AVN
Category=AVP
Category=DNBF
Charlie Parker
Columbia Records
Count Basie
Dizzy Gillespie
Dominic Ciaffone
Embers
eq_art-fashion-photography
eq_bestseller
eq_biography-true-stories
eq_isMigrated=1
eq_isMigrated=2
eq_music
eq_nobargain
eq_non-fiction
extortion
FBI
Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers
Gaetano Vastola
George Goldner
Hell's Kitchen
Hell’s Kitchen
Hugo and Luigi
IRS
jazz
Joe Kolsky
Joey Dee and the Starliters
John LaMonte
Mafia
MCA
Morris Gurlek
Music
Nat McCalla
Popular Culture
Ralph Watkins
Roulette Records
Sol Pisello
Sonny Brocco
Tommy Eboli
Tommy James
Vincent Gigante
Product details
- ISBN 9781496805706
- Weight: 640g
- Dimensions: 162 x 238mm
- Publication Date: 10 Mar 2016
- Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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This biography tells the story of one of the most notorious figures in the history of popular music, Morris Levy (1927-1990). At age nineteen, he cofounded the nightclub Birdland in Hell's Kitchen, which became the home for a new musical style, bebop. Levy operated one of the first integrated clubs on Broadway and helped build the careers of Dizzy Gillespie and Bud Powell and most notably aided the reemergence of Count Basie. In 1957, he founded a record label, Roulette Records. Roulette featured many of the significant jazz artists who played Birdland but also scored top pop hits with acts like Buddy Knox, Frankie Lymon and the Teenagers, Joey Dee and the Starliters, and, in the mid-1960s, Tommy James.
Stories abound of Levy threatening artists, songwriters, and producers, sometimes just for the sport, other times so he could continue to build his empire. Along the way, Levy attracted ""investors"" with ties to the Mafia, including Dominic Ciaffone (a.k.a. ""Swats"" Mulligan), Tommy Eboli, and the most notorious of them all, Vincent Gigante. Gigante allegedly owned large pieces of Levy's recording and retail businesses.
Starting in the late 1950s, the FBI and IRS investigated Levy but could not make anything stick until the early 1980s, when Levy foolishly got involved in a deal to sell remaindered records to a small-time reseller, John LaMonte. With partners in the mob, Levy tried to force LaMonte to pay for four million remaindered records. When the FBI secretly wiretapped LaMonte in an unrelated investigation and agents learned about the deal, investigators successfully prosecuted Levy in the extortion scheme. Convicted in 1988, Levy did not live to serve prison time. Stricken with cancer, he died just as his last appeals were exhausted. However, even if he had lived, Levy's brand of storied high life was effectively bust. Corporate ownership of record labels doomed most independents in the business, ending the days when a savvy if ruthless hustler could blaze a path to the top.
Stories abound of Levy threatening artists, songwriters, and producers, sometimes just for the sport, other times so he could continue to build his empire. Along the way, Levy attracted ""investors"" with ties to the Mafia, including Dominic Ciaffone (a.k.a. ""Swats"" Mulligan), Tommy Eboli, and the most notorious of them all, Vincent Gigante. Gigante allegedly owned large pieces of Levy's recording and retail businesses.
Starting in the late 1950s, the FBI and IRS investigated Levy but could not make anything stick until the early 1980s, when Levy foolishly got involved in a deal to sell remaindered records to a small-time reseller, John LaMonte. With partners in the mob, Levy tried to force LaMonte to pay for four million remaindered records. When the FBI secretly wiretapped LaMonte in an unrelated investigation and agents learned about the deal, investigators successfully prosecuted Levy in the extortion scheme. Convicted in 1988, Levy did not live to serve prison time. Stricken with cancer, he died just as his last appeals were exhausted. However, even if he had lived, Levy's brand of storied high life was effectively bust. Corporate ownership of record labels doomed most independents in the business, ending the days when a savvy if ruthless hustler could blaze a path to the top.
Richard Carlin, Glen Ridge, New Jersey, is the author of several books on popular music, including Worlds of Sound: The Story of Smithsonian Folkways and Country Music: The People, Places, and Moments That Shaped the Country Style. He also coedited ""Ain't Nothing But the Real Thing"": How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment and edited the eight-volume series America's Popular Music.
