Albert Grossman (May 21, 1926 – January 25, 1986) was an American entrepreneur and manager in the American folk music and rock and roll scene. He was famous as the manager of many of the most popular and successful performers of folk and folk-rock music, including Bob Dylan; Janis Joplin; Peter, Paul and Mary; the Band; Odetta; Gordon Lightfoot; and Ian & Sylvia.
Early life
Grossman was born in Chicago on May 21, 1926, the son of Russian-Jewish immigrants who worked as tailors. He attended Chicago's Lane Technical High School before graduating from the city's Roosevelt University with a degree in economics.
Career
After finishing college Grossman worked for the Chicago Housing Authority, leaving in the late 1950s to go into the club business. Seeing folk star Bob Gibson perform at the Off Beat Room in 1956 prompted Grossman's idea of a "listening room" to showcase Gibson and other talent, as the American folk-music revival movement grew. The result was the Gate of Horn in the basement of the Rice Hotel, where Jim (later Roger) McGuinn began his career as a 12-string guitarist.
In 1961, Grossman put together Mary Travers, Noel Stookey, and Peter Yarrow as the folk group Peter, Paul and Mary. They achieved success the following year when their eponymous first album entered the Billboard Top Ten. The group had been avidly pursued by Atlantic Records, who were on the verge of signing them when the deal inexplicably fell through. The group signed with Warner Bros. Records instead and Atlantic's executives later discovered that it was because music publisher Artie Mogull had introduced Grossman to Warner executive Herman Starr, from whom Grossman was able to extract an unprecedented deal that gave the trio complete creative control over the recording and packaging of their music.
On August 20, 1962, Bob Dylan signed a contract that made Grossman his manager. Grossman also extended hospitality to Dylan at his home in Woodstock in upstate New York. Dylan liked the area so much he purchased a house there in 1965.
When managing both Bob Dylan and Peter, Paul and Mary, Grossman brought the trio Dylan's song "Blowin' in the Wind" which they promptly recorded (on a single take) and successfully released.
In 1967, Grossman signed Janis Joplin and her four bandmates from Big Brother and the Holding Company with the condition that they not take intravenous drugs. When he discovered in the spring of 1969 that Joplin was injecting drugs anyway, he did not confront her. Instead, in June 1969 he took out a life insurance policy that would pay him $200,000 if she died in an accident.
In addition to Rundgren's solo recordings and those of his band Utopia, the label also recorded Jesse Winchester, Foghat, Gil Evans, Paul Butterfield, Sparks, Felix Cavaliere, Randy Vanwarmer, Lazarus, Jesse Frederick, Roger Powell, NRBQ and the dB's. When Michael Friedman joined the Grossman office, he brought Rundgren with him and signed him to a management contract with Grossman. This was soon after leaving his original group Nazz and during the early 1970s Rundgren worked extensively on record production projects, either for the Bearsville label or for Grossman's other clients. It was Grossman who recommended Rundgren to Robbie Robertson of the Band as the engineer on an album by Jesse Winchester, which in turn led to Rundgren working on the Band's third LP Stage Fright. Rundgren also worked briefly on the early Pearl sessions with Janis Joplin, but these came to nothing and the project was subsequently taken over by Paul A. Rothchild. Joplin's Rundgren-produced recording of the song "One Night Stand" from March 28, 1970 stayed in a vault for more than a decade, then became part of her posthumous Farewell Song album.
The Bearsville label continued into the early 1980s, folding in 1984, two years before Grossman's death. Bearsville Studios became Rundgren's recording base through the late 1970s and 1980s and was used by a slew of top-line American and international acts.
Management style
Grossman had a reputation for aggressiveness in both his method of acquiring clients and the handling of their careers. That aggression was based in large measure on Grossman's faith in his own aesthetic judgments. In the film, fictional folk singer Llewyn Davis (played by Oscar Isaac) auditions for Bud Grossman, who replies: "I don't see a lot of money here." This comment refers to the experience of Dave Van Ronk, After this comment, Grossman offers Davis a part in a band he is about to put together, consisting of two guys and a girl, which one journalist notes is "a reference to Peter, Paul, and Mary, the trio that Albert Grossman put together in 1961—ultimately choosing Noel Paul Stookey as the third member of the group, rather than Van Ronk, whom he also considered." Davis turns down the offer.
In the 2024 Bob Dylan biopic A Complete Unknown, Grossman is portrayed by Dan Fogler.
Personal life and death
Grossman married Sally Buehler, whom he had met while she was working as a waitress, in 1964. They settled in Woodstock, New York.
Grossman died of a heart attack on January 25, 1986, while flying on the Concorde, aged 59. He was en route to London and was planning to make a trip to Cannes, France, to attend a music convention. He is buried behind his own Bearsville Theater near Woodstock, New York.