Albert Grossman
b. 1926, Chicago, Illinois, USA, d. 25 January 1986. Nicknamed ‘the floating Buddha’, this stout impressario's Windy City club, Gate Of Horn, was a showcase for Big Bill Broonzy, Odetta and other entertainers who would reach a wider audience via his annual Newport Festivals—the most important date on the US folk/blues devotees's calendar in the early '60s. As manager, his most famous charges were Peter, Paul And Mary until, on the advice of CBS producer John Hammond, Bob Dylansigned up for seven years in 1962. Grossman's faith in the youth as a composer as well as a performer was justified with all manner of remunerative covers of his songs from Peter, Paul And Mary's million-selling Blowing In The Wind to Manfred Mann's cache of UK smashes which were initiated through Grossman's scraping acquaintance with their manager during Dylan's British tour of 1964. Grossman's bellicose stance in negotiation was instanced in DON'T LOOK BACK, the film documentary of the visit. Though the Band and the late Janis Joplin were to come under his wing as well, his name became as synonymous with Dylan's as Colonel Tom Parker's was to Elvis Presley. Nevertheless, their contract was not renewed and the song Dear Landlord, on JOHN WESLEY HARDING was widely interpreted as an acerbic response by the artist. Grossman subsequently devoted more attention to Paul Butterfield, Todd Rundgren, Jesse Winchester and other artists on his Bearsville record label—named after the town of which he became something of a patriarch.