Gus Statiras

Gus Statiras (1923-April 2, 2004) was a music dealer, record producer, and briefly a New York radio disc jockey under the monicker "Gus Grant."

The colorful founder of the Progressive Records label, Statiras produced and distributed jazz musical records in the 1950s. His label was bought and sold twice over another twenty years, then re-emerged under Statiras in the 1970s and 1980s with Japanese backing for another run as an independent record label. Statiras sold it for a second time and then ran the label for Jazzology records.

Biography
Statiras was a first generation American, the son of Greek immigrants, who was born in Jersey City, NJ. His father owned several lunch stands in the greater New York City area. Described as an "eternal optimist." Jazz guitarist Marty Grosz told JazzHouse.org: ""You couldn't help but like Gus because he was so enthusiastic and charming."

He fell in love with Jazz during the Great Depression. In 1937 he and a group of his friends skipped school to see the Benny Goodman big band that was performing at the Paramount Theater in New York City. Gus went to work for Milt Gabler the owner of the Commodore Record Shop in Manhattan, one of the biggest and most happening outlets of jazz recordings in the city that catered to many stage and film celebrities.

Statiras learned how to produce records from Gabler. Gabler worked with guitarist Eddie Condon to bring artists into Sunday afternoon jam sessions that Gabler would record. Gabler also picked up the rights to master recordings of music that other labels decided not to reissue, and would reissue them.

Gus, like most young men of the Greatest Generation, fought in WWII. He met his wife, Elizabeth Genelle Decker, while he was serving. After the war he moved with her to Tifton, Georgia, and tried his hand at a few other enterprises including a hamburger stand. He began a music company called Mail Order Jazz, which resold Jazz albums around the country out of Tipton. Highly social, and very much into the Jazz scene he was often a seen at parties and events from New York to Florida. In the 1950's he moved from reselling to producing, founding the Progressive Records label, which produced records with dozens of jazz artists including Cullen Offer, Zoot Sims, and Sonny Stitt.

The label was not economically viable after a few years, and was sold to Savoy which re-released much of the Progressive catalog. Savoy in turn sold it to Prestige. Statiras bought the label back from Prestige in the 1970s and ran the label independently, with a support deal from Japanese record label Bainbridge.

Prestige did not endure as an independent label for much longer though. It was acquired by Statiras' friend George Buck, owner of the New Orleans-based Jazzology label in the 1980s. Buck kept Statiras on as the label's creative supervision, developing albums with J.R. Monteroseand Al Haig. He picked up a sleeper album by a rare stride piano player, a woman from California named Judy Carmichael who had produced it but found no distributor. The album would go on to become Statiras' only GRAMMY® nominee.

Statiras' latter years were filled with tragedy. He died on April 2, 2004 at 81 years of age in Milledgeville, GA., after both of his sons passed. Son Perry died the month prior of acute leukemia. Son Glenn died of a heart attack two years prior.