Orrin Keepnews died today, just one day shy of his 92nd birthday. I knew his work, of course, but I went to his Discogs page just to look around and I was totally blown away. He is credited on 752 records for production. And a huge percentage of those are absolute classics. There’s Monk, Sonny Rollins, Wes Montgomery, Cannonball Adderley, Nat Adderley, Bill Evans, Abby Lincoln, Gerry Mulligan, Toots Thielemans, and so many more. He founded three record labels which all set incredibly high standards. If any three people combined accomplished all that he did, we call them geniuses. We need a better word for his resume. Now, I’m going to go listen to some great music.
