Education
When he graduated from the University of Minnesota, love for words and music led him to a job in Chicago at Down Beat magazine, where he was editor from 1953-1958.
When he graduated from the University of Minnesota, love for words and music led him to a job in Chicago at Down Beat magazine, where he was editor from 1953-1958.
Tracy enlisted in the Navy in World World War II and served as a medic treating and caring for the returning wounded. Tracy left the magazine to produce for recordings for the Mercury, Argo, Limelight, and Liberty record labels. In 1959, he worked for record label head Leonard Chess of Chess Records.
In 1961, Quincy Jones convinced him to rejoin Mercury as an A&R man in Los Los Angeles
Artists he worked with included Dizzy Gillespie and Sarah Vaughan, Roland Kirk and Oscar Peterson, Woody Herman, Cannonball Adderley, John Coltrane, Delegate Close, Harry Nilsson, Mike Nichols and Elaine May, and Terry Gibbs. In 1963, he collaborated on an anecdotal memoir of jazz humor, Laughter from the Hip.