“I just do whatever Norman tells me to do”. These are words uttered by Count Basie who completely trusted Norman Granz‘ intuition and judgment as a record producer. In 1960 Granz had sold his record company Verve to MGM for US$ 2.8 million. He stayed in business as impressario and manager. But by 1972 Granz was back in the recording business and founded Pablo Records, named after his friend Pablo Picasso. At its core, Pablo was a showplace for those artists Granz managed nominally and without fees, Ellington and Basie, as well as those he represented exclusively: Joe Pass, Oscar Peterson and Ella Fitzgerald. He also saw the label as a means of providing better venues for many jazz musicians who he felt, had not enough recording opportunities offered by the big companies. One of his first projects was bringing together Oscar Peterson and Count Basie in a small setting. It was Basie who came up with the album title “Satch and Josh“. In below video a BBC recording of these two giants behind a grand piano, supported by Niels Pedersen on bass and Martin Drew on drums in Basie’s “Jumpin At The Woodside”
Source: Hershorn, Ted - Norman Granz – The Man Who Used Jazz for Justice – University of California Press 2011 – ISBN 978-0-520-26782-4
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