Harvey Glatt

Harvey Glatt (b. March 28, 1934 in Ottawa, Canada) is a notable and award-winning Canadian music promoter, manager, broadcaster, record and instrument retailer, and record label owner.

History

Glatt, born in Ottawa, Canada, graduated from Glebe Collegiate Institute in 1951. He thereafter obtained a Bachelor of Business Administration degree in 1956 from the Clarkson College of Technology in Potsdam, New York.[1]

Glatt commenced his professional association with music in the early 1950s, as a broadcaster, both at Clarkson College and for CFRA Radio in Ottawa. In 1957, he opened his first retail music store, The Treble Clef, in Ottawa, which grew to a chain of fifteen stores. Glatt also expanded into concert promotion (through Bass Clef Productions), music distribution (through Treble Clef Distribution) and music publishing (through Bytown Music Publishing).[1] Glatt's interest in music publishing had evolved from his management experiences with Ottawa-area bands, particularly The Children, which featured William Hawkins and, in later versions, Bruce Cockburn[2] and David Wiffen. In particular, he had encouraged Hawkins, a poet, to complement his poetry with songwriting.[3] Songs by Hawkins, Cockburn and Wiffen were published by Bytown Music Publishing. In the later 1960s, Glatt also managed The Soul Searchers, an influential Toronto-based band featuring keyboardist William "Smitty" Smith, drummer Eric "Mouse" Johnson, singer Diane Brooks and others, all of whom went on to play important roles in the music industry in Canada and the U.S.A. Glatt was also an investor in Le Hibou Coffee House, which promoted many international artists as well as local bands, such as The Children.

Through Bass Clef Productions, Glatt became the major producer of concerts of international artists playing in Ottawa. For example, it was Glatt who brought Jimi Hendrix to Ottawa, for an historic concert in March 1968, when Hendrix also met Joni Mitchell. Mitchell was playing at the Glatt-financed Le Hibou Coffee House that same evening.[4][5]

In 1977, Glatt founded CHEZ-FM, an Ottawa-based rock radio station, which was notable for its promotion of Canadian as well as international artists.[1] Glatt's radio holdings expanded through the 1984 acquisition of the CKUE[6] and CJET radio stations in Smiths Falls, Ontario,[1] the broadcasting ranges of which included Ottawa. In 1985, he acquired a 75% interest in Calgary's CKIK,[7] assisting it during a period of financial distress, and then selling his interest ten years later. To concentrate on his radio interests, Glatt sold his Treble Clef record stores in 1979 and his Bass Clef concert promotion business in 1985. In 1999, Glatt sold his radio interests to Rogers Media and served with Rogers as a board member (1999–2004) and director of Canadian music development (1999–2005).[1] In 2007, he was an investor, along with Linus Entertainment, in the acquisition of True North Records.[8]

In 2007, Glatt was honoured through his induction by the Canadian Association of Broadcasters into the Canadian Broadcast Hall of Fame.[9]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e Pip Wedge, Biography of Harvey Glatt; www.broadcasting-history.ca.
  2. ^ Glatt also managed The Flying Circus, which featured Cockburn, prior to Cockburn commencing a solo career; see The Flying Circus.
  3. ^ Greg Quill, William Hawkins: Lost and Found Songwriters Magazine, Fall, 2008.
  4. ^ March 19, 1968. This was the Hendrix concert at the Capitol Theatre, during which the famous hat that Hendrix wore in concert (and featured in photographs, such as those accompanying Electric Ladyland), was stolen by an audience member close to the stage, as Hendrix leaned forward. It was Glatt who acted immediately to successfully recover the hat as the audience left the theatre. The hat had a particular sentimental value to Hendrix. See uncredited, Oh what a night! Jimi and Joni Come Together. The Ottawa Citizen, October 24, 1998; www.jonimitchell.com.
  5. ^ Glatt had similarly introduced Joni Mitchell to Graham Nash, when Nash was with The Hollies and also playing at the Capitol Theatre in 1966, while Mitchell was playing at Le Hibou. That meeting resulted in a romance between Nash and Mitchell and, indirectly, the formation of Crosby, Stills and Nash in 1968, since it was through Mitchell that Nash first met David Crosby. See Mark Kearney and Randy Ray, Whatever Happened To...?: Catching Up With Canadian Icons (Hounslow Press, 2006), p. 199. This recollection by Harvey Glatt is at variance with other accounts in relation to dates and facts. Mitchell did not commence her solo career until 1967 (see Joni Mitchell), while others assert that Graham Nash first met David Crosby in England, during the course of a 1966 tour by The Byrds (see Crosby Stills and Nash). Others assert that it was Stephen Stills and David Crosby who first met Nash in 1968, after attending a performance by The Hollies at the Whiskey A Go Go in Los Angeles (see The Hollies).
  6. ^ Evolving by 2004, through several call letter and music format changes, to become country music station CKBY-FM, formerly located in Ottawa. See Bill Dulmage, History of CKBY-FM; www.broadcasting-history.ca. The abandoned call letters of CKUE were acquired by CKUE-FM, a rock station in Chatham-Kent, Ontario, when the station was established in 1999.
  7. ^ Which changed call letters to CFGQ-FM in 2004.
  8. ^ Robert Thompson, Linus Acquires True North Records. Billboard, December 18, 2007; www.billboard.biz.
  9. ^ Lynne Saxberg, November 5, 2007 Ottawa's Harvey Glatt enters Canada's Broadcast Hall of Fame