Francis Wolff (April 5, 1907 – March 8, 1971) was a record company executive, photographer and record producer. Wolff's skills, as an executive and a photographer, were important contributions to the success of the
Blue Note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note that—for expressive purposes—is sung or played at a slightly different pitch from standard. Typically the alteration is between a quartertone and a semitone, but this varies depending on the musical c ...
record label.
Career
Jakob Franz "Franny" Wolff was born in
Berlin
Berlin ( , ) is the capital and List of cities in Germany by population, largest city of Germany by both area and population. Its 3.7 million inhabitants make it the European Union's List of cities in the European Union by population within ci ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
, where he became a
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
enthusiast, despite the government ban placed on this type of music after
1933.
After a career as a commercial photographer in Germany, Wolff emigrated to the United States. A Jew, he left Berlin for New York in the late 1930s. In 1939 in New York his childhood friend
Alfred Lion had co-founded
Blue Note Records (with sleeping partner
Max Margulis, who soon dropped out of any involvement in the company), and Wolff joined Lion in running the company. During Lion's war service, Wolff worked for
Milt Gabler
Milton Gabler (May 20, 1911 – July 20, 2001) was an American record producer, responsible for many innovations in the recording industry of the 20th century. These included being the first person to deal in record reissues, the first to sel ...
at the
Commodore Music Store, and together they maintained the company's catalogue until Lion was discharged.
Until Lion retired in 1967, Wolff concentrated on the financial affairs of the business and only supervised occasional recording sessions produced during his visits to Europe to see surviving members of his family. For the last four years of his life, when Blue Note was no longer an independent label, Wolff shared production responsibilities with pianist and arranger
Duke Pearson. He died of a heart attack following surgery in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
, aged 64.
Wolff took photographs during the recordings sessions, usually shot during session rehearsals, throughout the period of Lion's involvement in Blue Note Records. They were used on publicity material and
LP album sleeves, and have continued to be used in
CD reissue booklets. The two collections of photographs listed below contain entirely separate selections of the many thousands Wolff shot over a thirty-year period.
Reid Miles and Alfred Lion choose to leave the label in 1967 while Francis Wolff remains until his death which occurs on March 8, 1971 by a heart attack. Francis Wolff is considered one of the leading jazz photographers. His work has long remained unknown to the public; the publication in 1995 of a book entitled The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff, a compilation of his principal photographs for the label, helped to make his work more widely known.
Documentary films
* Julian Benedikt: ''Blue Note – A Story of Modern Jazz''.
Documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
1996.
*
Eric Friedler (film director): ''It Must Schwing! The Blue Note Story''.
Documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
, Produzent:
Wim Wenders,
Germany
Germany,, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It is the second most populous country in Europe after Russia, and the most populous member state of the European Union. Germany is situated betwe ...
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
.
Official website of the film, access date 26. September 2018.
'
* Sophie Huber: ''Blue Note Records - Beyond the notes''.
Documentary film
A documentary film or documentary is a non-fictional motion-picture intended to "document reality, primarily for the purposes of instruction, education or maintaining a historical record". Bill Nichols has characterized the documentary in te ...
,
Switzerland,
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the Unit ...
.
Bibliography
* Michael Cuscuna, Charlie Lourie & Oscar Schnider (1995), ''The Blue Note Years: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff'', Rizzoli,
* Michael Cuscuna, Charlie Lourie & Oscar Schnider (2000), ''Blue Note: The Jazz Photography of Francis Wolff'', Universe (Rizzoli),
References and notes
External links
Francis Wolff at Mosaic RecordsBlue Note Jazz Photography of Francis WolffFamily Tree on GENI
{{DEFAULTSORT:Wolff, Francis
1907 births
1971 deaths
20th-century American photographers
Record producers from New York (state)
Jewish emigrants from Nazi Germany to the United States
Photographers from Berlin
Jazz photographers
Jazz record producers
Businesspeople from New York City
20th-century American businesspeople