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Overview edit
Bibliography
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(2003)
Negotiate This!: By Caring, But Not T-H-A-T Much
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You Can Negotiate Anything
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You Can Negotiate Anything
Personal edit
- Legal name: Herb Cohen
- Birthdate: December 30, 1932
- Birthplace: New York City, New York, United States of America
- Nationality: American
- Gender: Male
- Official Website: http://N/A
- Genres: American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher
- Date of death: March 16, 2010 (aged 77)
- Burial location: (add)
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Herbert "Herb" Cohen (December 30, 1932 – March 16, 2010) was an American personal manager, record company executive, and music publisher, best known as the manager of Frank Zappa, Tom Waits, and many other Los Angeles-based musicians in the 1960s and 1970s.
<edit> Life and career
Cohen was born in New York. After a period in the army in 1952, he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, and started to put on concerts with folk singers such as Pete Seeger and Odetta.<1> He began running coffee bars and folk clubs, such as The Unicorn and Cosmo Alley, during the late 1950s and early 1960s.<2><3>
He began acting as manager for many artists, his eventual roster including Screamin' Jay Hawkins, George Duke, Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Tim Buckley, Lenny Bruce, and Linda Ronstadt. He was best known as the manager of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention from 1965, arranging their first club dates and, after encouraging record producer Tom Wilson to see them perform, securing their first record deal. He and Zappa went on to set up and jointly own the Straight, Bizarre, and DiscReet Records labels. After a ten year association, he and Zappa parted company amid litigation in 1976. Zappa claimed that Cohen and his brother were profiting unduly from his earnings, and Cohen countersued, claiming that Zappa had taken his album Zoot Allures to a rival record label contrary to a contract between them.<2><4>
He also handled Montreux Jazz Festival tours of Japan and the US, and produced the US portion of the Nelson Mandela concert in Wembley Stadium upon Mandela's release.<1> Cohen managed Waits until 1982, and, after that time, his main management client was jazz musician George Duke. Cohen reactivated the Bizarre and Straight labels in 1988, calling it "Bizarre/Straight Records," which was distributed by Enigma Records, and, later, Rhino Records. Bizarre/Straight released early recordings of both Waits and Tim Buckley.<2> Some of the Bizarre/Straight releases were later released by Manifesto Records, a label formed in 1995 and run by his nephew, Evan Cohen.
In 2009, Cohen filed suit for libel against British journalist Barney Hoskyns and his publisher, Random House, Inc., with regard to statements in Hoskyns' book Lowside of the Road, A Life of Tom Waits.<1>
<edit> Death
Cohen died aged 77 in 2010, in Napa, California, of complications from cancer.<2><5>
<edit> Life and career
Cohen was born in New York. After a period in the army in 1952, he moved to Los Angeles in the mid-1950s, and started to put on concerts with folk singers such as Pete Seeger and Odetta.<1> He began running coffee bars and folk clubs, such as The Unicorn and Cosmo Alley, during the late 1950s and early 1960s.<2><3>
He began acting as manager for many artists, his eventual roster including Screamin' Jay Hawkins, George Duke, Alice Cooper, Tom Waits, Tim Buckley, Lenny Bruce, and Linda Ronstadt. He was best known as the manager of Frank Zappa and the Mothers of Invention from 1965, arranging their first club dates and, after encouraging record producer Tom Wilson to see them perform, securing their first record deal. He and Zappa went on to set up and jointly own the Straight, Bizarre, and DiscReet Records labels. After a ten year association, he and Zappa parted company amid litigation in 1976. Zappa claimed that Cohen and his brother were profiting unduly from his earnings, and Cohen countersued, claiming that Zappa had taken his album Zoot Allures to a rival record label contrary to a contract between them.<2><4>
He also handled Montreux Jazz Festival tours of Japan and the US, and produced the US portion of the Nelson Mandela concert in Wembley Stadium upon Mandela's release.<1> Cohen managed Waits until 1982, and, after that time, his main management client was jazz musician George Duke. Cohen reactivated the Bizarre and Straight labels in 1988, calling it "Bizarre/Straight Records," which was distributed by Enigma Records, and, later, Rhino Records. Bizarre/Straight released early recordings of both Waits and Tim Buckley.<2> Some of the Bizarre/Straight releases were later released by Manifesto Records, a label formed in 1995 and run by his nephew, Evan Cohen.
In 2009, Cohen filed suit for libel against British journalist Barney Hoskyns and his publisher, Random House, Inc., with regard to statements in Hoskyns' book Lowside of the Road, A Life of Tom Waits.<1>
<edit> Death
Cohen died aged 77 in 2010, in Napa, California, of complications from cancer.<2><5>
