After hitchhiking from New York to Los Angeles, Norman promoted concerts at the
Shrine Auditorium,
The Hollywood Bowl and the Pasadena Civic Center, hosted popular radio shows on
KFWB and
KLAC, and opened his own nightclubs, the Crescendo and The Interlude, on the Sunset Strip.
The Crescendo hosted a wide swath of jazz legends and comedians, from
Duke Ellington,
Ella Fitzgerald and
Billie Holiday to
Lenny Bruce,
Mort Sahl,
Don Rickles,
Dick Gregory,
Woody Allen and
Bob Newhart. Norman often paid acts their weekly rate for a single night's engagement. The inspiration for the label was to issue live recordings made at concerts promoted and organized by Norman, under the umbrella of "Gene Norman Presents". GNP expanded beyond jazz. In the 1960s, it recorded
Billy Strange, the surf band
The Challengers and the rock group
The Seeds, which landed four singles in the
Billboard Hot 100 chart. In the 1980s, GNP gave
Robin Trower and
Savoy Brown comebacks. In 1982
zydeco musician
Queen Ida won the label its first and only
Grammy Award out of multiple nominations. Gene Norman's son Neil, a fan of science fiction, secured a licensing deal from Paramount to release soundtracks of
Star Trek, both in its TV and movie incarnations. This led to a new area of concentration for the label. Neil Norman is also a musician who has released many albums on GNP (including numerous albums of themes from science fiction film and television). He also directed feature-length films about GNP artists
The Seeds and
Rusty Warren. Currently, he is president of the label having started in the mail room and eventually producing many albums. == Artists ==