Verve Records is home to the world’s largest catalogue of jazz recordings. It was founded in 1956 by American producer, artist manager and concert promoter Norman Granz to release new music by jazz icon Ella Fitzgerald..
During the 1950s and 1960s, the label signed many other iconic artists, including Charlie Parker, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday and Oscar Peterson. When Creed Taylor became head producer in the 1960s, he brought bossa nova to America, turning Verve into one of the key destinations for the Latin jazz movement. Subsidiaries for folk and rock were created, and Verve even released music by influential experimental rock band The Velvet Underground. From the 1990s on, Verve started signing several jazz legends, while also focusing on the development of new artists and managing the rich jazz catalogue of the label’s past decades. It has expanded its artist and repertoire vision beyond jazz to include contemporary classical, pop, and rock music.
