Todd Barkan (born August 13, 1946) is an American
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 major ...
impresario and producer.
Biography
Born in
Lincoln, Nebraska
Lincoln is the capital city of the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Lancaster County. The city covers with a population of 292,657 in 2021. It is the second-most populous city in Nebraska and the 73rd-largest in the United Sta ...
, Barkan grew up in
Columbus, Ohio
Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...
and attended
Oberlin College
Oberlin College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college and conservatory of music in Oberlin, Ohio. It is the oldest Mixed-sex education, coeducational liberal arts college in the United S ...
.
He ran a club in San Francisco called
Keystone Korner
Keystone Korner was a jazz club in the North Beach, San Francisco, North Beach neighborhood of San Francisco, which opened in 1972 and continued operation until 1983. Many live recordings were made at the club. Jessica Williams (musician), Jessic ...
from 1972 to 1983, which became, in the words of journalist Bob Margolis, "legendary for its adventurous bookings and its bohemian ambience".
[ A fan of jazz from a young age, Barkan ran the club despite its inability to break even, and financial troubles resulted in its closure in 1983. Barkan then relocated to ]New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, where he became the manager of the Boys Club of Harlem; around 1990 he returned to the Bay Area to manage the club Yoshi's in Oakland
Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third largest city overall in the Bay A ...
.[ He quit Yoshi's in 1993 and worked as a record producer for the rest of the decade, with labels such as ]Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of speculative fiction involving Magic (supernatural), magical elements, typically set in a fictional universe and sometimes inspired by mythology and folklore. Its roots are in oral traditions, which then became fantasy ...
, Milestone
A milestone is a numbered marker placed on a route such as a road, railway line, canal or boundary. They can indicate the distance to towns, cities, and other places or landmarks; or they can give their position on the route relative to so ...
, HighNote
HighNote Records is a jazz record company and label founded by Joe Fields with his son, Barney Fields, in 1997.
Joe Fields worked for Prestige Records in the 1960s, and in the 1970s founded Muse Records. After he sold Muse, he started the Highn ...
, Columbia, Sunnyside, and Concord
Concord may refer to:
Meaning "agreement"
* Pact or treaty, frequently between nations (indicating a condition of harmony)
* Harmony, in music
* Agreement (linguistics), a change in the form of a word depending on grammatical features of other ...
, as well as many Japanese labels.[
In 2000, Barkan was hired to take ]Joel Dorn Joel Dorn (April 7, 1942 – December 17, 2007) was an American jazz and R&B music producer and record label entrepreneur. He worked at Atlantic Records, and later founded the 32 Jazz, Label M, and Hyena Records labels. He called himself "T ...
's place as head of the jazz label 32 Records
32 Records was a record label established in 1995 by record producer Joel Dorn and attorney Robert Miller. Its 32 Jazz imprint released a successful series of compilation albums. It was named for Dorn's favorite sports number. It also released ...
.Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center in New York City. The organization was founded in 1987 and opened at Time Warner Center in October 2004. Wynton Marsalis is the artistic director and the leader of the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orches ...
, a position he held until 2012.[ Starting in 2013, he began hosting a jazz night at Iridium, a club in New York City.
In 2019, Barkan and Michelin-starred chef ]Robert Wiedmaier
Robert Wiedmaier is a West German-born, Belgian American chef. He owns multiple restaurants in and around Washington, D.C. and is known for creating dishes involving Belgian cuisine, specifically mussels.
Personal life
Robert Wiedmaier was b ...
re-launched the Keystone Korner in Baltimore’s Harbor East.
Awards
* 2018 NEA Jazz Masters
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), every year honors up to seven jazz musicians with Jazz Master Awards. The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellowships are the self-proclaimed highest honors that the United States bestows upon ...
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Barkan, Todd
1946 births
Living people
people from Lincoln, Nebraska
Record producers from Nebraska
cAtegory:Record producers from Ohio