Orrin Keepnews | Jazz producer, 91

Orrin Keepnews, who produced many influential jazz recordings in the 1950s and 1960s on his independent record label and won four Grammy Awards for his meticulous work in reissuing collections of classic jazz, died Sunday at his home in El Cerrito, Calif., a day before his 92d birthday.

Mr. Keepnews, who once said he had "not the faintest inkling of musical talent," was a cofounder of Riverside Records, among the leading jazz labels of its time. He produced seminal recordings by Thelonious Monk, Cannonball Adderley, and Abbey Lincoln, among others.

He worked well into his 80s, launching other jazz labels and reissuing multi-disc sets by Monk, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Benny Goodman, and other giants.

After serving as a radar operator in the Pacific in World War II, the Bronx-born Mr. Keepnews worked in book publishing while editing the jazz magazine Record Changer on the side. In 1953, he and a college friend launched Riverside Records.

Decades later, he won Grammys for best historical album for a Monk collection in 1987 and an Ellington set in 1999. - Washington Post