Bruce Garfield

Bruce Garfield is a highly regarded music/entertainment business executive. Beginning his career selling posters on tour for Jimi Hendrix and Cream, he pioneered tour merchandising. He then went on to work for a succession of important independent record producers, labels and managers before beginning a fourteen year run in various creative posts with the Capitol Records/EMI Records label group in 1976. In 1990 he left the ranks of the major label world to manage the careers of artists and walk his own path.
Biography
Early life and career
Born in New York City’s borough of The Bronx , Bruce Garfield was raised in a home filled with music. “His 'mother listened to the radio and sang along with the hits every morning as she prepared breakfast; even the canary sang with her'. His younger brother Randy, now a major executive in the travel and hospitality field, was a child actor in musical theater and his parents insisted Bruce learn to play an instrument (the trumpet his brother had been given by famed composer Meredith Wilson during Randy's run as the lisping Winthrop Paroo in the Broadway musical, The Music Man.
Flying to Los Angeles, California the day after he graduated from William Howard Taft High School to ‘visit just for the summer’ he decided to stay and studied Psychology at UCLA.
Swept away by the winds of social and political change, more interested in music and art than a university degree, he protested against the Vietnam War, marched and demonstrated for Civil Rights and became focused on the early San Francisco, Los Angeles music scene and ‘Summer of Love’ culture as well as the British music invasion.
One night while selling posters at a Jimi Hendrix concert to earn extra cash and a free concert ticket, he met a record producer/song writer named Jerry Goldstein (Hang On Sloopy, , The Strangeloves, I Want Candy) . Goldstein offered him a full time job at his fledgling rock merchandising company The Visual Thing/Music Tours. His first full tour was the legendary band Cream’s Farewell tour of America.
Returning to Los Angeles after the tour ended he asked Goldstein to allow him to try to acquire merchandising rights from other bands and within a year he had signed most of the top rock bands in the world…. Led Zeppelin, the Rolling Stones, The Doors, Steppenwolf, Iron Butterfly, Canned Heat, Blind Faith, Vanilla Fudge, Ten Years After, Joe Cocker, Creedence Clearwater Revival, Eric Burdon, and scores more.
“I signed the artists with my ears, often securing merch rights well before they became successful. I met the guys in Led Zeppelin the first night they played America via an introduction from their tour manager Richard Cole whom I had met one month earlier when he had been tour managing Terry Reid on the Cream tour”.
It was while working for Goldstein he became close friends with British rock star Eric Burdon who had just split from his band The Animals and was looking for a new sound.
One night a bass player friend who had borrowed money from Garfield called to say that he would repay the loan if he would come see his R&B band (which was backing LA Ram footballer Deacon Jones in his ‘off season’ musical review).
Garfield flipped over the band and made Burdon and Goldstein return with him to see the band play the following night. Within a week Goldstein had signed them to Far Out Productions, and had them recording the classic "Spill the Wine" with Burdon. It would be the first major hit for the band would be renamed WAR as a protest statement against the Vietnam War.
Goldstein would continue to produce and co-write albums with WAR for the next three decades, yielding album sales and income in the tens of millions, plus numerous cover recordings and sample uses.
Garfield was a dear friend of' High Times (HT) Magazine's' Shelly Schorr, HT Marketing and Advertising Director in the early and mid 70s and on though 83' while influencing High Times editors to pay a lot of attention to War and several other MCA, Capital and Indies artists that weren’t even on one of his labels. Schorr was a Garfield devotee as well as a power at HT. which sold 600,000 copies a month. Schorr knew "Bruce was loved and respected by not only record industry heavies while having the trust of publishing communities player's ears." Bruce was also suspected to have an equity position in CONCERT Magazine but always denied it (1971-1977).
Following a series of disagreements with Goldstein’s business partner Steve Gold, he left the company and spent the next six years working for and learning from some of the music business’ most colorful and creative mavericks.
He became well versed in all aspects of artist management, record production, publicity, promotion and career development learning from his early mentors producer Stewart Levine (The Crusaders, Simply Red, Hugh Masekela, BB King), manager/producer Charlie Greene (Sonny & Cher, Buffalo Springfield, Dr. John, Iron Butterfly), Blue Thumb Records founders Bob Krasnow & Tommy LiPuma (The Pointer Sisters, Dave Mason, Dan Hicks, T-Rex, Ike and Tina Turner).
Returning to Goldstein’s Far Out Productions in 1975 he managed WAR, Eric Burdon, and Jimmy Witherspoon before being asked to join Capitol Records in 1976.
The Capitol/EMI Years
Hired by Capitol Records president Don Zimmermann to run both the Press and Artist Development departments he was the youngest national level executive in the label’s history. Nominated as Billboard Magazine’s Top Artist Development Executive of the Year for three consecutive years he led the career development initiatives for artists Bob Seger, Steve Miller Band, Natalie Cole, The Band, Paul McCartney & Wings, The Sweet, Kate Bush, Glen Campbell, Dr. Hook, Little River Band, Billy Squier, and countless others.
Wanting to bring an element of fresh cutting edge music and youth to the label he requested to be transferred to the Capitol’s A&R department which was run by British record exec Rupert Perry . After his request was met with resistance from the label hierarchy, it was finally granted after making an empty threat to leave the company.
Combining his ears and artist development resources he was responsible for signing or acquiring from EMI UK, The Knack, The Motels, Missing Persons, The Tubes, Duran Duran, Thomas Dolby, and Iron Maiden.
In 1982 he relocated to Capitol’s New York office to be ‘closer to the source and UK’. In 1984 he was asked to join music business legend Bruce Lundvall’s new EMI label Manhattan Records and the re-launched Blue Note jazz label. As Vice President of A&R he signed Grace Jones, Little Steven Van Zandt’s Artists United Against Apartheid project, Cabaret Voltaire, and Ellen Shipley. He also applied his artist development skills to the careers of roster artists Stanley Jordan, The Red Hot Chili Peppers, Bobby McFerrin, David Bowie, Natalie Cole, and Queensryche.
With winds of corporatization blowing, parent company EMI installed a new conservative executive was over the creative label President Bruce Lundvall. After flying the fledgling Red Hot Chili Peppers from Los Angeles and Cabaret Voltaire from England to New York to be showcased on the 1st CMJ (College Media Journal) convention, he was admonished for spending so much money on ‘such crap bands’ and informed that his contract was not renewed after 15 years of service to the label.
The Chili Peppers contract was sold to Warner Brothers Records and Natalie Cole ‘s to Elektra Records. Both went on to achieve multi-platinum records sales as Garfield vowed to ‘never work for anyone and be tossed away like trash’ and decided to follow his calling to make full use of all his talents by devoting himself to managing the careers of artists.
Artist Management
As an artist manager over the past 19 years, he has managed Nadine Coyle, Hayley Sales, Grace Jones, WAR, Sinéad O'Connor, Isaac Hayes, Tricky, Jonathan Elias, Will Downing, LFO, Mica Paris, Inner Circle, and Tony Butler. As a consultant his clients have been Ziggy Marley, EMI Records, MCA/Universal Records, Warner Chappell Music Publishing, and Pyramid Records.
He is based in New York and London.. spends much time in Los Angeles and on airplanes.

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