In 1951, Ross Burdick voluntarily left his senior year at Los Angeles State College to pursue a job offer with the Stan Kenton Orchestra as public relations manager. His subsequent work in public relations at Gene Howard & Associates from 1952-1954 not only included Stan Kenton, but also Nat King Cole, Peggy Lee, Mel Torme, The Four Freshmen and other record artists. This led to promotion and publicity stints for Gene Norman Presents “Just Jazz” concert tours, KLAC radio programming, The Tiffany and The Crescendo jazz night clubs, and GNP-Crescendo Records.
During his association with record producer Gene Norman, Ross Burdick began photographing jazz artists, many appearing on GNP-Crescendo record jackets from 1954-1956. Ross’s fine photographic skills documented a historically important jazz era when many visiting musicians would tour or record in the Los Angeles area.
Ross Burdick continued his association with Gene Norman as his associate producer of the Gene Norman TV Show from 1954-1960 and later went on to artist relations at Paramount Records. Ross Burdick’s very high quality and timely photographs of legendary jazz artists, in studio and in concert performances, remain visually inspiring. |
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