Impresario Harvey Glatt brought fabled musical artists to Ottawa

Ottawa music impresario Harvey Glatt, who died on Aug. 21, at age 91, played an oversized role in turning the country’s sleepy capital city from a cultural desert into a musically vibrant place.

He was the son of scrap metal merchants and a music fanatic who began reading music trade journals as a 13-year-old. In 1957, he co-founded the Treble Clef record store, a retail outlet devoted solely to music at a time when vinyl was typically sold in department stores or distributed by mail through record clubs. The initial shop grew to a chain of 15 locations, earning Mr. Glatt the unofficial title of Sam The Record Man of the Ottawa Valley.