George Mesrop Avakian

George Mesrop Avakian was born on March 15, 1919, in Armavir, Russia, to Armenian parents, Mesrop and Manoushak Avakian. His family moved to the United States shortly after he was born. His younger brother, Aram, became a respected film editor and director. An avid jazz fan and record collector, George was a sophomore at Yale and already a published jazz critic when he persuaded Decca Records to let him record the guitarist Eddie Condon and other musicians who had been fixtures of the Chicago scene a decade earlier. Those sessions, in 1939, produced “Chicago Jazz,” a package of six 78 r.p.m. recordings that is widely regarded as the first jazz album. Columbia hired Mr. Avakian in 1940 to assemble and annotate a comprehensive jazz reissue series, something no record company had undertaken before. In 1946, after five years in the Army, Mr. Avakian became a full-time member of Columbia’s production staff. Mr. Avakian later worked briefly for the World Pacific label before joining the Warner Bros. movie studio’s newly formed record subsidiary, where he was in charge of artists and repertoire from 1959 to 1962. He brought the Everly Brothers to the label and signed a young humorist named Bob Newhart, who had been working as an accountant in Chicago and moonlighting as a radio performer. In 1962, Mr. Avakian joined RCA Victor Records, where he was in charge of pop production but also had the opportunity to renew his involvement in jazz. Mr. Avakian was married for 68 years to the violinist Anahid Ajemian, a founding member of the Composers String Quartet. In addition to Anahid Avakian Gregg, Mr. Avakian is survived by another daughter, Maro Avakian; a son, Greg; and two grandchildren.