Clarence Avant
| Clarence Alexander Avant | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 25, 1931 Climax, North Carolina, U.S. |
| Genres | R&B, soul, pop |
| Occupation(s) | Music executive, entrepreneur, and film producer |
| Labels | Venture Records Inc. Sussex Records Tabu Productions, Inc. Motown Records |
| Associated acts |
Bill Withers Dennis Coffey Gallery The SOS Band Cherrelle Alexander O'Neal Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis Sixto Rodriguez |
Clarence Alexander Avant (born February 25, 1931) is an American music executive, entrepreneur, and film producer, sometimes called the "Godfather of Black Music".
Avant's 75th birthday was celebrated by Billboard magazine, on its February 2006 issue.
Clarence Alexander Avant was born in Greensboro, North Carolina, one of eight children. He attended a one-room school in Greensboro until the eighth grade. He spent his freshman and second years of high school at Dudley High School in Greensboro before moving to New Jersey in 1947 as a teenager. In New Jersey, Avant worked as a stock clerk at Macy's and for a law directory. He began in the music business in the 1950s as a manager of Teddy P's Lounge in Newark, New Jersey, owned by promoter Teddy Powell.
Joseph G. Joe Glaser (December 17, 1896–June 6, 1969), music manager of Louis Armstrong from 1935 until his death in 1969, and the original proprietor of Sunset Gardens on the South Side of Chicago, mentored Avant. Glaser founded Consolidated Booking Corporation and Associated Booking Corporation on November 26, 1943.
Avant later managed R&B singer Little Willie John, jazz singer Sarah Vaughan, rock and roll pioneer Tom Wilson, whom Avant partnered with in the Wilson Organization, jazz producer Creed Taylor, Jimmy Smith (jazz musician of the Hammond B-3 electric organ), and Argentine pianist-composer, Lalo Schifrin. Schifrin and Smith collaborated to make The Cat, released on Verve Records on April 27, 1964.
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