Features

Of all the Lindy Hop videos on all of YouTube, one stands out as my clear favourite. Shot at Lindy Focus XI in 2013—at the

“Immorality: the morality of those who are having a better time.” — H. L. Mencken In 1900, editorializing on jazz and “other black music,” Etude

Like many of his musical peers, Joseph “Wingy” Manone had an enthrallingly eventful rise to fame; a rollercoaster railroad ride, documented in his 1948 book

Discerning influences – why musicians sing or play or write the way they do – can be as straightforward as recognizing a stolen/borrowed lick or

This fall Syncopated Times reporter Steve Provizer met with Ted Gioia, author of many important jazz histories, to discuss his latest project Music: A Subversive

Nat Morison – patriarch, devotee of early New Orleans jazz, Mets fan, host of the annual Welbourne Cakewalk/Stoke Stomp, and treasured friend of many in

From The Ragtime Ephemeralist to Rusty Brown For some time now I have wanted to interview Chris Ware for The Syncopated Times. Over the years

I’ve played a b’zillion jazz piano and banjo gigs over the past 60 years. None can compare, however, with my long-time gig at Capone’s Chicago

With reservations, I’ve chosen to weigh in on the debate started by the publisher’s column asking: Is the term “Dixieland Jazz” racist? Almost everyone will

Ask a Lindy hopper to describe blues dancing and most will evoke spacious ballrooms, the lights turned low in the wee small hours after most

D.A. Pennebaker was a filmmaker, born in 1925, died on August 1, 2019. He was one of a small group of filmmakers who created a

In the language of jazz, “doubling” means playing more than one instrument (not at the same time, c.f. Wilbur Sweatman and Rahsaan Roland Kirk). Doubling

The ukulele Martin 1K, the “Dick Konter” of the early 1900s, is perhaps the most famous ukulele in the world. It traveled on the plane

While soldiers fought across Europe, one American jazzman wrote a song urging leaders to “Stop the War.” But was Wingy Manone sincere in his plea?

While listening to cornetist Nat Adderley light it up during a recent listening session, I thought “Why does he play this aggressive style on cornet

Good friend, wise mentor, engaged and storied musicianer, active community leader, strong role model, curator and caretaker of jazz, spirited character: Jim Cullum. This is

The music teaching career of Peter Davis began when he was hired as the warden at the Colored Waif’s Boys Home in New Orleans and

I’ve written a lot about how jazz is portrayed in film, but never paid specific attention to how we jazz trumpet players have been portrayed.

During the 20th Century music became big business, but the 21st Century may lead us back to an older mode of existence for artists. In

Times are tough for school music programs, and for print publications. Here’s an idea that can help with both. Now you can buy a half

The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance offers us one of American film’s great moments. U.S. Senator Ransom Stoddard (James Stewart) has gained his position of

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Soon we’ll come to the end of life’s journey,And perhaps we’ll never meet anymore;Till we gather in Heaven’s bright city,Far away on that beautiful shore.

Pioneering Lindy Hopper and jazz dancer Norma Miller, known as “the Queen of Swing” to modern Lindy Hoppers, passed away May 5, 2019 from degenerative

Red Allen, Tommy Ladnier, Baby and Johnny Dodds, Pops Foster and many others giged with bandleader Fate Marable, who ran the bands for the Streckfus

One of the wonderful things about jazz music is the enormous back catalogue of B-sides and rarities waiting to be rediscovered, even by long-time fans

British politicians are the bad jazz musicians of Europe. Smugly self-absorbed, they honk tone-deaf, repetitive solos out all time and tune with their confused, Continental

Teddy Wilson (November 24, 1912 – July 31, 1986) was one of the most consequential figures in jazz right when jazz was making its greatest

One of New Orleans’ most unabashedly entertaining jazz combos—the Dukes of Dixieland—started out in the late 1940s strictly as a family affair featuring brothers Frank

On Saturday evening, April 6, 2019, an enthusiastic crowd of nearly 200 welcomed organist Tony Thomas to Pittsburgh for a highly anticipated screening of Buster

Realizing that they had amassed a huge collection of important artifacts of the jazz revival, and hoping to ensure their preservation, The San Francisco Traditional

I owe a debt I can never repay to the community of African-American musicians who had settled in the Los Angeles area years ago. They

On the afternoon of February 12th, 1924 at New York City’s Aeolian Hall Paul Whiteman and his Palais Royal Orchestra held a concert billed as

When I interviewed Gerry Mulligan in 1981, he told me that his dream was to have a television show patterned after Lawrence Welk’s. An odd

In December we announced that a high school trio out of Sacramento was sending two musicians on to The Berklee School of Music. We were

Over the past 70 or so years, traditional and swing jazz have been my primary jazz interests, beginning as a young listener in my early

‘Don’t You Feel My Leg!’ Maria Muldaur, the jug-band chanteuse who scored a surprise pop hit with 1973’s “Midnight at the Oasis,” released her 41st

When given the task of writing about a legend of ragtime, I was instantly struck by how inadequate a few words describing such a life

The Sultans of Swing It’s the Saturday before Halloween at the James Joyce Pub in Santa Barbara, and in the long narrow room with the

In our November 2018 issue, we published an essay, “Record Collecting: Where Do I Begin?” by Terri Bruce. The following is a reader’s response by

The Map In 1932, E. Simms Campbell, considered the first commercially-successful African-American illustrator, created a map of a two-block area of Harlem between Lenox Avenue

Campaign songs became increasingly important with the rise of sheet music from about 1840. The recording era made them even more accessible to the people.

The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly About seventy years ago when I was a young teen and a precocious collector of jazz, my mom

The Harlem Renaissance was a cultural, social, and artistic explosion that took place in Harlem, New York and spanned the 1920s into the mid-1930s. It

I’m standing in my favorite flea-markety antiques store panicking a little as I stare at milk crates filled with used records. My husband and I

Dan Barrett shares some of his experiences in playing with legendary trombonist Spiegle Willcox (1903-99) and gives insight as to the interplay among musicians while

A Young Jazz Fan in the French Quarter Ask anyone what street comes to mind when they think of Dixieland jazz and the response, usually,

An Enlightened Jazz Era The Berkshires of Western Massachusetts with its historic landmarks, museums, and performing arts venues have long been a vacation mecca for

Don Suhor spent all but two of his 55 years as a jazz clarinetist and alto saxophonist in his native New Orleans, playing Dixieland and

(What you sow, so shall you reap) While still a high school tuba player I discovered that I could play along with Elvis Presley records

For more than four decades former Stan Kenton lead-trumpeter Mike Vax has traveled the United States and overseas preaching and playing the Jazz Gospel. So

For what, and by whom, you may ask, is Irving Berlin owed an apology? Glad you asked. In the immortal but likely apocryphal words of

“Dancing is poetry with arms and legs.” (Charles Baudelaire) “I can’t feel my legs…” (Ross Konikoff) A few weeks ago I was in a pretty