Jean Georgakarakos (aka Jean Karakos; 26 June 1940 – 22 January 2017) was a French-born Greek

music producer A record producer or music producer is a music creating project's overall supervisor whose responsibilities can involve a range of creative and technical leadership roles. Typically the job involves hands-on oversight of recording sessions; ensu ...

record label "Big Three" music labels A record label or record company is a brand or trademark of Sound recording and reproduction, music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a Music publisher, ...

owner, and artist manager.

Biography

In 1960, he created the label Star Success and in 1964, followed this with a second label Joc. Around the same time he began importing albums from the United States which he sold in his network of record stores in France, Pop Shop, in cities such as Paris, Lyon, Grenoble, Aix-en-Provence. In 1967, along with Jean-Luc Young and Fernand Boruso, he formed

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

record label BYG Records, which collapsed in the mid-1970s. Georgakarakos also produced albums such as Sonny Sharrock's ''Monkie-Pockie Boo'', and some Art Ensemble of Chicago, Archie Shepp, Don Cherry

Magma Magma () is the molten or semi-molten natural material from which all igneous rocks are formed. Magma (sometimes colloquially but incorrectly referred to as ''lava'') is found beneath the surface of the Earth, and evidence of magmatism has also ...

and

Gong A gongFrom Indonesian language, Indonesian and ; ; zh, c=鑼, p=luó; ; ; ; ; is a percussion instrument originating from Southeast Asia, and used widely in Southeast Asian and East Asian musical traditions. Gongs are made of metal and ...

material. In 1969 he organised the infamous with Jean-Luc Young featuring

Frank Zappa Frank Vincent Zappa (December 21, 1940 – December 4, 1993) was an American guitarist, composer, and bandleader. In a career spanning more than 30 years, Zappa composed Rock music, rock, Pop music, pop, jazz, jazz fusion, orchestra ...

as master of ceremonies and artists like Sam Apple Pie, Soft Machine, Blossom Toes, Caravan, The Nice,

Pink Floyd Pink Floyd are an English Rock music, rock band formed in London in 1965. Gaining an early following as one of the first British psychedelic music, psychedelic groups, they were distinguished by their extended compositions, sonic experiments ...

, Archie Shepp, Captain Beefheart, Martin Circus, Ame Son, Cruciferius, We Free, Gong, Burton Greene, Ten Years After, Sunny Murray, Alexis Korner, Colosseum and the Art Ensemble of Chicago. In 1976 he founded Celluloid Records in

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, and produced a series of eclectic and ground-breaking releases, particularly in the early to late 1980s, largely under the auspices of de facto in-house producer Bill Laswell. In 1982 he organised the tour, , which shows for the first time hip-hop culture to non-Americans. In 1989, Georgakarakos having returned to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

, produced in partnership with film director, Olivier Lorsac, the zouk/Brazilian music influenced, Kaoma band which consisted of ex-Celluloid recording artists from Toure Kunda and the main group to musically represent the repertoire of the lambada

dance music Dance music is music composed specifically to facilitate or accompany dancing. It can be either a whole piece or part of a larger musical arrangement. In terms of performance, the major categories are live dance music and recorded dance musi ...

explosion in

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during that same year. Originally intended for Celluloid's Brazilian division, the lambada music compilation and video was eventually released on CBS Records worldwide, reaching no. 1 on top of the

pop music Pop music is a genre of popular music that originated in its modern form during the mid-1950s in the United States and the United Kingdom.S. Frith, W. Straw, and J. Street, eds, ''iarchive:cambridgecompani00frit, The Cambridge Companion to Pop ...

charts in Europe. Facing the worldwide success of the hit, and the necessities of its management, Georgakarakos sold in debt Celluloid to American businessman John Matarazzo for a symbolic dollar. Matarazzo was to repay Celluloid's debt to French Bank Société Générale, which had mortgaged the whole recording, publishing and branding catalogue. As he failed to do so, Societe Generale got back its rights over the catalogue and sold it back to Georgakarakos and his associates of Adageo in 1994. In 1995, he created the dance label Distance. He also co-founded Musisoft Next which operated from 1997 until 2005. This company merged with Sonodisc in 1998 and was responsible for launching many labels. He died in Paris on 22 January 2017 and is buried in the Saint-Ouen Cemetery.

References

External links

interview
at the BnF
Redbull music academy articlearticle
on France Musique * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Georgakarakos, Jean 1940 births 2017 deaths People from Malestroit French people of Greek descent French record producers Talent managers French music industry executives