Features

I could not have been more pleased when Mike Zirpolo contacted me, and asked me to share my memories about having played for the soundtrack

With the exception of a few lady pianists, Swing Era women sang while the men played; that’s what some less academic, coffee table jazz histories

The role of each instrument in a jazz ensemble has changed as the music has changed, but the most dramatic transformation has been the role

Bob Mielke, a very great jazz artist, a hero on trombone and a dear friend, has just died at 93. For me, Bob defined a

A Happy Accident that Lasted a Lifetime For most of his musical career, Upstate New York banjoman Dick Sheridan has made his bones with trad-jazz

Doug Benson’s work on King Oliver and Wolverines material quickly became benchmarks for what proper audio restoration could reveal. Since those discs in 2007 and

Much has been written about Johnny Dodds. Unfortunately the biography by Lambert (1961) that inspires much of it is not well-researched and is mostly a

The title for this talk is both intimidating and academically demanding. We recognize Lucille Salerno’s hand here. The paper was originally presented June 10, 2010,

As a Brit, when I think of US national parks I think Yosemite—thousands of miles of lakes, trees, bears, and continent-threatening supervolcanoes. (Keep an eye

1973 found me in New Orleans exhibiting at an antiques fair. A somewhat pudgy short man wearing a dark suit over his white t-shirt stopped

There is a persistent myth, especially among younger swing dancers, that 1942 marked a watershed in Britain’s toe-tapping habits. That was the year the US

If you can imagine turning on the radio and hearing a song you wrote credited to someone else, you’re probably a believer in the concept

From the dusty recesses of my jazz history archives, I recently came across a slim 32-page pamphlet published in 1942 entitled “America’s Band Leaders” by

Swing dance instructors, like other kinds of teachers, should be a nurturing, accommodating influence. The needs of the student should come first and the expert

In the late 1970s, Bay Area banker Jim Goggin, a longtime friend and fan of Turk Murphy, envisioned a “Turk Murphy Jazz Foundation” – a

In a recent review of the Suncoast JazzFest I noted how much I enjoyed Jason Marsalis covering the Benny Goodman Quartet’s version of “Moonglow”. You

Mathematical sticklers may demur, but I take pleasure in declaring the twenties have finally arrived again. The ringing in of a new decade—a twenties that

Mardi Gras dates back thousands of years to pagan celebrations of spring and fertility, such as the raucous Roman festivals of Saturnalia and Lupercalia. When

When looking at music history, it is easy to focus on the canon—artists of undisputed importance who more often than not have achieved some kind

Sound recordings as documents of stylistic development are an integral part of jazz research. Being able to hear musical transformation and evolution over a period

It all began innocently enough in the late 1960s when Dave Oppermann, a business person by day and a sing-along piano player by night, and

Colin Yates’ musical resume straddles the Atlantic, encompassing two very different styles. He was born in South Yorkshire, a county famed for collieries and their

On November 11, 1918, a 17-year-old Louis “Dipper” Armstrong, driving a coal cart around his down-and-out New Orleans neighborhood, heard a commotion. World War I