August 2025

On the Cover

Features

Allen Lowe: Saxophonist, Composer, and Music Historian

There are a fair number of jazz musicians who wrote autobiographies (often “as told to”) including Rex Stewart, Eddie Condon, Louis Armstrong, and Charles Mingus. Many musicians have written technique books and a few have active blogs. However, there are very few musicians who have written scholarly history books, built

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Bill Dart: Un-blocked and Uncaged Drumming!

Hal Smith: Brother Kevin, let’s stay on the topic of West Coast drummers and talk about one of the best: Bill Dart. I think it’s safe to say that most of our readers associate him with Lu Watters’ Yerba Buena Jazz Band and a particular way of drumming that was

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Get Out and Get Under the Moon

From my house I can hear baseball games at our local stadium. In my youth it hosted a Single A team that regularly sent players on to the majors. Today it hosts a collegiate team under the same name for top college players to stay active during the summer, and

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In Sedalia, Joshua Rifkin Recounts Sparking the 1970s Rag Revival

Joshua Rifkin, whose recordings of Scott Joplin’s compositions on the Nonesuch label are considered paragons, is reputed to have helped spark the Ragtime Revival of the 1970s. Yet he had never appeared in Joplin’s stomping grounds in Sedalia, Missouri. That changed on Friday May 30, 2025, when Rifkin performed a

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Les Paul: From Chicago to New York

In 1952, the Gibson Guitar Company unveiled a new instrument at a special event featuring star guitarists Tony Mottola, George Barnes, and Mundell Lowe. It was to present the first version of what came to be the iconic Les Paul line of guitars. That line long reigned as a dominant

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Memories of the first Elkhart Jazz Fest

Seventy-five years ago, I was introduced to trad and big band jazz. A close friend, Don Boyer, asked me if I had any jazz records. I told him I had no records, and I knew very little about jazz. He invited me to his home and he played two 78s:

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The New Black Eagle Jazz Band: Pt. 3

JB: I’m concluding an interview/listening session with New Black Eagle Jazz Band members Stan Vincent (trombone), “Pam” Pameijer (drums) and Billy Novick (reeds) about the band they were in together in Boston for almost 40 years, the New Black Eagle Jazz Band (NBEJB). The NBEJB accomplished performing complicated pieces like

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Columns

Recording Pioneers

Banjo and Vocal Records

The banjo was an essential mode of entertainment in the latter 19th century, but often it was accompanied by other instruments, usually piano. There were, however, since the beginning of the 19th century performers who became famous for singing and playing the banjo. When it comes to recording, banjo and

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Profiles In Jazz

Bix Beiderbecke: Legend, Reality, and Legacy

Bix the Cult Figure A legend among many musicians and fans even during his relatively brief life, Bix Beiderbecke was jazz’s first cult figure. After his passing in 1931 at the age of 28, Beiderbecke’s fame grew steadily through the decades. Those “in the know” savored every note that he

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My Inspirations

The Remarkable John Williams

I was ten when Star Wars changed the world in 1977. This film was special to me for multiple reasons. It was a movie my Dad and I went to see, just us: two blokes going to a real he-man film with violence, monsters, spaceships, aliens, villains, heroes, a damsel

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Quarter Notes

Downtown: Where All the Lights Are Bright!

In Downtown Tucson, the Hotel Congress is definitely the “place to be” with several onsite music venues at any one time. Recently the lobby area held the monthly First Tuesday Pop-Up Piano Bar series originated by vocalist Briggs Clinco and multi-instrumentalist Marco Rosano. Marco is primarily the reed player with

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Festival Roundup

The Festival Roundup August 2025

BIX BEIDERBECKE JAZZ FESTIVAL (Davenport, IA) July 31-Aug 2 Hot Jazz will return to the Upper Mississippi River during the Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival. Scheduled bands include: Graystone Monarchs, led by Quad Cities drummer Josh Duffee, this big band plays music from the 1920s and 1930s made famous by Jean

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Static From My Attic

I’m Sorry, I Can’t Apologize

This past month, I made noises in a fundraising letter that I was planning to shut up for a month or two. “I am likely at this point to cede my monthly column because I cannot focus on music. That should come as a relief to those of you who

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Jazz Birthday

Eddie Durham

Eddie Durham was born August 19, 1906, in San Marcos, Texas. From an early age, Durham performed with his family in the Durham Brothers Orchestra, which consisted of Eddie and his three brothers along with three cousins and family friend, trumpeter Edgar Battle. The Durham Brothers spent a dozen or

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Ragtime Vignettes 

Broadway Rag (1922)

Broadway Rag (1922) is James Scott’s final published composition. It is thickly-chorded in keeping with Scott’s style. However, the tonic chord resolutions in the B section are not according to the norm of other Scott rags: these chords come to rest in root form, versus the usual first inversion. The

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News and More

Alan Bergman

Alan Bergman, the Oscar-winning lyricist whose timeless songs became jazz and pop standards, died July 17, 2025, at 99 in Los Angeles. With his wife, Marilyn Bergman, who died in 2022, he crafted iconic songs like “The Windmills of Your Mind” and “The Way We Were,” introducing poetic depth to

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Delayed and Missing Papers Beset our July 2025 Issue

It has come to my attention that there is a problem with postal delivery of the paper. Subscribers to The Syncopated Times have written to say that their copies of the July 2025 issue had arrived late or had not showed up altogether. In a few instances the one-section, 32-page

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Marjorie T. Scooros

Marjorie T. Scooros, affectionately known as Washboard Marj, passed away on June 11, 2025, at the age of 84. Born on April 5, 1941, Marj was a beloved figure in the jazz community of Arizona, where she was well known as a washboard player always ready to answer the call.

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Reviews

Nights at the Turntable

Hot Toddies Jazz Band • Live From Somewhere Nowhere

The word that best describes the Hot Toddies Jazz Band’s Live From Somewhere Nowhere is celebratory. The performances by the seven-piece band which is led by drummer Patrick Soluri are so full of energy, enthusiasm and excitement that they are irresistible. While the group frequently performs for dancers as in

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Champian Fulton and Klas Lindquist • At Home

At a dinner party hosted by Scott Asen, the founder of Turtle Bay Records, pianist-singer Champian Fulton and altoist/clarinetist Klas Lindquist performed a set of duets. Asen enjoyed the relaxed music so much that he knew that he wanted to record the duo. A few months later at two sessions

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Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra • That Eccentric Rag

One of the finest ragtime ensembles around today, the Peacherine Ragtime Society Orchestra was founded by Andrew Greene in 2010. The group has a gigantic repertoire with over 15,000 scores in their library. For That Eccentric Rag, their sixth recording, Greene put together a well-rounded program of some of the

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Ozzie Nelson • All The Hits And More

When one thinks of such songs as “About A Quarter To Nine,” “She’s A Latin From Manhattan,” “Is It True What They Say About Dixie,” “They Can’t Take That Away From Me,” and “Change Partners,” the names of Al Jolson and Fred Astaire come to mind, but not that of

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Duke Ellington Carnegie Hall

The Duke Ellington Carnegie Hall Concerts, January 1943

JAZZ CLASSIC OF THE MONTH Duke Ellington could have made his debut at Carnegie Hall during Benny Goodman’s historic concert in 1938 that did include trumpeter Cootie Williams, altoist Johnny Hodges, and baritonist Harry Carney on “Blue Reverie” and the latter two as guests on a jam session version of

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Bert's Bits and Beats

The Amazing Grace of Rosetta Tharpe

Sister Rosetta Tharpe was one of America’s great gospel singers, arguably its greatest gospel singer. She was also an accomplished jazz and blues musician, as well as being a herald of rock and roll and being acclaimed by many giants of that genre as their mentor. Discographies show that over

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Roger Marks’ Armada Jazz Band • Blowing a Storm

While a number of British trad jazz players are fairly well-known in the US, Roger Marks is not one of them. He enjoys considerable acclaim in the UK, however, having formed his first Armada Jazz band in 1976 and having been been part of the jazz scene there ever since.

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Table of Contents

In Sedalia, Joshua Rifkin Recounts 1970s Rag Revival, by Christian Frommelt 

Les Paul: From Chicago to New York, by Schaen Fox 

Columns

Jazz Birthday of the Month: Eddie Durham, illustration by Sara Lièvre 

Static from my Attic, by Andy Senior 

Final Chorus, compiled by Joe Bebco 

My Inspirations: The Remarkable John Williams, by Jeff Barnhart 

Quarter Notes: Downtown Where Lights Are Bright!, by Shelly Gallichio 

Ragtime Vignettes: Broadway Rag, by Brandon Byrne 

Banjo and Vocal Records, by R.S. Baker 

Profiles in Jazz: Bix Beiderbecke, Legend and Reality, by Scott Yanow 

Festival Roundup, compiled by Michael Buonaiuto 

Ain’t Cha Got Music: NBEJB, Pt. 3, by Barnhart, Vincent, Pameijer, & Novick 

News and More

Delayed and Missing Papers Beset our July 2025 Issue, by Andy Senior 

Once Upon a Time: Early Days of the Elkhart Festival, by Van D. Young 

Reviews

Nights at the Turntable, CD reviews by Scott Yanow 

Bert’s Bits and Beats, CD reviews by Bert Thompson 

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