Wolff's skills, as an executive and a photographer, were important contributions to the success of the Blue Note record label.
[1] Jakob Franz "Franny" Wolff was born in Berlin, Germany, where he became a jazz enthusiast, despite the government ban placed on this type of music after 1933.
Until Lion retired in 1967, Wolff concentrated on the financial affairs of the business and only supervised occasional recording sessions produced during his visits to Europe to see surviving members of his family.
For the last four years of his life, when Blue Note was no longer an independent label, Wolff shared production responsibilities with pianist and arranger Duke Pearson.
Reid Miles and Alfred Lion chose to leave the label in 1967, while Francis Wolff remained until his death on March 8, 1971 from a heart attack.