Gus Statiras

Gus P. Statiras (July 6, 1922–April 2, 2004)^[1] was a music dealer, record producer, and briefly a New York radio disc jockey under the moniker "Gus Grant."

The founder of the Progressive Records label, Statiras produced and distributed jazz musical records in the 1950s. His label was bought and sold twice over another twenty years, then re-emerged under Statiras in the 1970s and 1980s with Japanese backing for another run as an independent record label. Statiras sold it for a second time and then ran the label for Jazzology Records.

Biography

Statiras was a first generation American, the son of Greek immigrants, who was born in Jersey City, NJ. His father owned several lunch stands in the greater New York City area. Described as an "eternal optimist." Jazz guitarist Marty Grosz told JazzHouse.org: ""You couldn't help but like Gus because he was so enthusiastic and charming."

He fell in love with Jazz during the Great Depression. In 1937 he and a group of his friends skipped school to see the Benny Goodman big band that was performing at the Paramount Theater in New York City.^[2] Statiras went to work for Milt Gabler the owner of the Commodore Record Shop in Manhattan, one of the best known outlets for jazz recordings in the city at the time.

He wrote about a brief brush with famous movie actresses. While helping screen actress Greta Garbo, rising movie star Marlene Dietrich came into the store demanding to speak to Statiras. Dietrich wanted an introduction to the reclusive Garbo. He then found that Garbo and her friend had gone out the back way to avoid the introduction.^[3]

Statiras learned how to produce records from Gabler. Gabler worked with guitarist Eddie Condon to bring artists into Sunday afternoon jam sessions which Gabler would record. Gabler also picked up the rights to master recordings of music that other labels decided not to reissue, and would reissue them.

Like most young men of the Greatest Generation, Statiras fought in World War II. He met his wife, Elizabeth Genelle Decker, while he was serving. After the war he moved with her to Tifton, Georgia, and tried his hand at a few other enterprises including a hamburger stand. He began a music company called Mail Order Jazz, which resold Jazz records around the country out of Tipton. Highly social, and very much into the Jazz scene he was often a seen at parties and events from New York to Florida. In the 1950s he moved from reselling to producing, founding the Progressive Records label, which produced records with dozens of jazz artists including Cullen Offer, Zoot Sims, and Sonny Stitt.

The label was not economically viable after a few years, and was sold to Savoy which re-released much of the Progressive catalog.^[4] Savoy in turn sold it to Prestige. Statiras bought the label back from Fantasy Records, by then owners of Prestige, in the late 1970s, and he ran the label independently, with a support deal from Japanese record label Bainbridge.^[5][6]

Progressive did not endure as an independent label for much longer though. It was acquired by Statiras' friend George Buck, owner of the New Orleans-based Jazzology label in the 1980s. Buck kept Statiras on as the label's creative supervision, developing albums with tenor saxophonist J. R. Monterose and pianist Al Haig. He picked up a sleeper album by a stride piano player, a woman from California named Judy Carmichael who had produced it but found no distributor. The album would go on to become Statiras' only Grammy Awards nominee.^[7][8][9]

Statiras also had his own sub-label in the 1980s, Statiras Records, which issued a few albums under its own label, including Jazz Piano by Carmichael (SLP-8074).^[10]

Statiras' died on April 2, 2004 at 81 years of age in Milledgeville, Georgia, after the death of both of his sons. Perry had died during the previous month of acute leukemia while Glen, his other son, died of a heart attack two years earlier.^[11]

References