Production · Other credits

Michael Brooks

Michael Brooks is credited on 626 releases across 275 albums tracked on Gatefold, active 1972–2015 — the collector-built map of who actually made the music.

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626

Credits

275

Albums

Decades active

501

In collections

Biography

source

Born: November 15, 1935, Tooting, London, England, UK
Died: November 20, 2020, Newark, New Jersey, USA
Michael Brooks is a music historian, archivist, consultant, and producer. He started his career in 1971 by doing a Count Basie retrospective, Super Chief (US 1972) (opens in a new tab) for Columbia, which got him his first Grammy nomination.
Among the historical reissues he has produced are boxed sets of the works of Billie Holiday, Louis Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael, Lester Young and Bing Crosby.
In 2019, the Michael Brooks Collection - his personal archive of over 10,000 records - was acquired by the University of California Santa Barbara Performing Arts Library (opens in a new tab).
Career:
- 1987-present: Producer/archivist for CBS Records and Sony Music. Winner of six Grammy Awards as producer, co-producer or liner-note author.
- 1981: Became chief producer for Time Life Music's mail-order record division.
- 1977: Returned to CBS as reissue producer for its Columbia special products division.
- 1976: Left CBS to work for Hammond at his short-lived music company, SNUM.
- 1971: Producer John Hammond hired Brooks to work on jazz reissues at CBS Records.
- 1960: Began career as book trade editor and advertising executive.