Gopam: Born in 1960 and Still Going Strong

Picture yourself as a hot young jazz artist in 1960. You are touring, building an audience, and getting more famous every day. Think the George Shearing Quintet, or the Cannonball Adderley Quintet.

Now it is time to go into the recording studio and lay down your next LP. You and your bandmates have written a strong collection of original tunes. You know what you want to record, how you want it to sound, and what your music is worth. What you do not want is a record company’s A&R man, short for Artist and Repertoire, stepping in to call the shots and demand your publishing rights.

George Shearing, Cannonball Adderley, and Nat Adderley did not have that problem because they had John Levy as their manager.

Gopam Music Publishing was created by Levy in 1960 specifically for the benefit of his clients. Shearing, Cannonball, and Nat Adderley, and several of the musicians who played in their quintets, were among the first writers in Gopam.

Here is how John explained it:

“Once heard, a lot of their tunes were played and recorded by other groups, and that’s why the music publishing aspect became so important. It was crucial to establish a publishing company to protect those interests, putting money where it belonged, in the composers’ pockets. I had already set up a publishing entity for George Shearing, so the companies for Cannonball and Nat were added to it. Later, we created companies for other sidemen who could write. Each one had its own, but all were under the umbrella of GOPAM. It was successful right from the start. In addition to Nat’s composition, ‘Work Song,’ one of the biggest hits for us was pianist Joe Zawinul’s tune ‘Mercy, Mercy, Mercy.’”

Another prolific artist on the Levy roster was Wes Montgomery. His Taggie Music catalog holds nearly 100 of Montgomery’s compositions, including “Bumpin’ on Sunset,” “Four On Six,” and “West Coast Blues.”

The Levy roster was wide-ranging in style, sound, and interpretation. Across the catalogs are compositions by Freddie Hubbard, Oscar Brown Jr., Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Chuck Mangione, Walter Booker, Bobby Timmons, Gene Harris, and many others. But Gopam was never only about straight-ahead jazz.

Among the most unusual and distinctive catalogs is Semenya Music, created for the Afrocentric works of Letta Mbulu, Caiphus Semenya, and their circle of collaborators, including Sibongile Makeba and Quincy Jones. Caiphus Semenya’s work is connected to landmark screen projects including the television miniseries “Roots” and the film “The Color Purple.” His best-known originals include “Angelina” and “Matswale.” Letta Mbulu’s internationally recognized originals include “Nomalozo,” while “Not Yet Uhuru,” with uhuru meaning freedom in Swahili, became a defining song of the anti-apartheid era.

Then there is Turbine Music, featuring the work of the Turbinton brothers and the unmistakable sound of New Orleans funk, soul, and Mardi Gras Indian tradition. A title like “Smoke My Peace Pipe (Smoke It Right),” recorded by The Wild Magnolias, brings an entirely different energy into the Gopam story.

Many of the original composers have passed on, but their works continue to be performed, recorded, licensed, and sampled by artists around the world.

Gopam, Inc. continues as an umbrella corporation, owning the publishing for multiple catalogs and managing or administering the publishing rights for several more. The original companies John Levy created for his clients are still doing what they were designed to do from the beginning: protecting the music, preserving the legacy, and ensuring that the value of these works continues to reach the people and families behind them.