Ken Barnes
 Record
producer, music publisher, author, jazz critic and filmmaker,
Yorkshire-born Ken Barnes began his career in the entertainment
industry in the 1960s as an executive with two major record
companies ( Polydor and Decca). It was during this period that he
produced his first commercial recordings. From 1969 to 1972, he
worked as European Product Director for the Ampex Corporation of
America. It was in 1972, seeing the potential of his many corporate
recordings, that Ken turned freelance.
Throughout the 1970s and ’80s, he produced a wide body of work
encompassing music of all kinds, including Indian music, jazz,
country and western, film soundtracks and even comedy recordings
with Peter Sellers. He also masterminded a long and important series
of classic vocal albums with such luminaries as Bing Crosby, Peggy
Lee, Rosemary Clooney, Johnny Mercer, Frankie Laine, Connie Francis,
Jack Jones and Fred Astaire.
The three albums with Fred Astaire—which were planned in Beverly
Hills and recorded in London—marked the start of a 12-year
friendship with the celebrated song-and-dance man. As Ken puts it,
“Fred Astaire was not only a very gifted individual; he was also a
true gentleman and a fine human being.” It was through his
association with Fred that Ken also came to know Astaire’s daughter
Ava and her husband, Richard McKenzie—friendships that endure to
this day.
Recognizing the potential of the emergent DVD in the ’90s, Ken
formed the Laureate Company, an organisation devoted to the
restoration of classic films for presentation on DVD. In the past
eight years, Laureate has become one of the leading independent
companies specializing in the production of special features for
DVD, with a long string of important clients including such major
companies as Universal and 20th Century Fox.
Ken lives in Benfleet, Essex with his wife, Anne.
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