If the contributions Gary Giddins has made in the last 50 years to the dissemination of Jazz and Jazz history were all listed here, they
Between about 1890-1910 there was a lively, successful Black theatrical-vaudeville-minstrelsy scene, centered in New York, but active throughout the country. Author Daniel E. Atkinson tells
It can’t have been easy for the kid who later became known as Little Jimmy Scott. Born in Cleveland in 1925, Scott’s mother died when
The sound of muted trumpets and trombones has been woven into the fabric of jazz almost from the beginning. They are a tool that can
We all search for our place in the world. Some find it and some don’t. For Jon-Erik Kellso, the stars lined up early. To borrow
What does it mean to be underappreciated in jazz? Most of us can name several musicians we think might not be getting their due. I
Jazz and comedy have always been intertwined. No surprise. Both are rooted in a sense of timing, creating a personal voice, living a life on
While jazz continues to thrive, it doesn’t get much mainstream media attention. However, there was a time when the clarinet, sax, and the trumpet were
People interested in popular music always welcome films that dig into the history of the music they love. A recent documentary about King Records, King
There are songs that have entered the jazz vocabulary and never left: “Body and Soul,” “Stardust,” “Autumn Leaves,” and many others. We call these tunes
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.
Before films began to talk, in the late 1920s, live musicians delivered the soundtracks for silent films. This was sometimes a single pianist or organist,
Author Aaron J. Johnson covers a lot of ground in Jazz Radio America, detailing the rise and fall of stations and their changing formats, the
Paul Whiteman was a formidable figure in jazz/popular music history. The facts of Whiteman’s career have been well covered by The Syncopated Times. His place
James Monroe Iglehart’s career has been varied and high profile. On Broadway, he’s known for starring in Aladdin (Genie), Spamalot (King Arthur), Hamilton (Marquis de
Given saxophonist Charlie Parker’s renown, you might think his career was extremely well documented, In fact, although he was already a known quantity by about
The book In With the In Crowd, named after Ramsey Lewis’ big 1965 hit, has two major threads. One thread is factual, devoted to giving
Fumi Tomita is Associate Professor of Jazz Pedagogy and Performance at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. He is the author of The Jazz Rhythm Section:
Sometimes, those of us interested in music of the late 19th or early 20th century feel fortunate at the number of recordings available for us
Arranging is an underrated element in jazz and arrangers have not been given the credit they deserve. Arranging has almost always been considered piecework, paid
The flugelhorn has become a staple in the jazz brass player’s arsenal. Its large bore and conical tubing make the tone mellower than the trumpet
Introduction Milton “Mezz” Mezzrow was a jazz musician/marijuana seller and author (with writer Bernard Wolfe) of a singular autobiography, Really The Blues. The book, set
One of the most popular pastimes in jazz is debating a musician’s status in the jazz pantheon. There are some about whom there is little
Interracial Jazz Recordings Before 1935: An Introduction Over the last 20 years, the trend has been to interpret jazz history through the lens of current
