Features

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

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

Circus Culture is alive and well. Young creatives have taken to learning the trades of the sideshow as well as the entertainments of the center ring. Acrobats

This is a special year for Denver’s Queen City Jazz Band. It’s their diamond anniversary, which means they have been entertaining jazz fans for the

While mourning the loss of leader Tony Pringle, the band plays on Cornetist Tony Pringle always told his bandmates in the New Black Eagle Jazz

Tony Pringle was a founding member, cornetist, vocalist, and musical leader of the Boston-based New Black Eagle Jazz Band. Originally from Liverpool, England, he was

Reporting on Dick Hyman’s multi-faceted career is like inscribing a poem on a pinhead. His autobiography is, in effect, “published” in many audio, video, print

One of the few women-only college level jazz programs is coming to an end. The jazz program at Spelman College, a historically black institution for

At the time of his passing, in 2000, Milt “The Judge” Hinton was considered by both fans and fellow musicians the Dean of Jazz bassists.

In these times of heated partisanship this paper tries to be an oasis of unity around a shared musical interest. It’s with some hesitation I even

When I came to be associated with this paper I brought with me an assumption that my obsession with vinyl records and 78s would be

I was twenty-two years old, on my first trip to Europe with a now-legendary band called the Sunset Music Company. People often ask me for

With the continual announcements regarding jazz societies and festivals shutting down, it would appear that the good ship TradJazz is sailing in turbulent waters. But

Located just off of Interstate 5 in Carlsbad, California, 30 miles north of San Diego, the Museum of Making Music describes itself as the only

Joe Bebco’s article (“What Is To Be Done?” March 2018) resonated strongly with me. As someone whose deepest sense of jazz’s immediacy and importance was

I was introduced to song stylist Wesla Whitfield at one of her numerous appearances at the Plush Room, a popular San Francisco cabaret, and immediately

Olivier Lancelot, an exceptional French pianist and a master of the “stride” piano style, died unexpectedly in a motor scooter accident in Paris on January

As news of festival closings came in a steady drip through December and January I found myself repeatedly assuring people that the sky was not

Dick Ames fell in love with jazz when it was America’s popular music in the 1930s, went on to play cornet with a college dance

During the original heyday of ragtime music in the very late 1800s and the very early 1900s, banjos were in common use in minstrel shows

Marlene VerPlanck, one of the best-known interpreters of the American Popular Songbook died Sunday, January 14, 2018, at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Hospital after a brief illness.

Benny Goodman’s jazz concert at Carnegie Hall on January 16, 1938, was the first jazz concert to be held there. It was historic in a

Writing in his The Age of Roosevelt three-volume series, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Arthur Schlesinger Jr. referred to the Depression days of the early 1930s as

New Jersey Jazz Society starts 2018 in style with Big Apple all-stars They’ll be jumpin’ for joy in Jersey in January when a seven of

Guitarist and fellow-Mississippian Mundell Lowe died on December 2nd, 2017 at age 95. My encounters with Mundell were brief but meaningful and I’d like to

Mere days after the announcement of the permanent cancellation of America’s Classic Jazz Festival in Lacey, Washington [Editors note: It made a comeback in 2019],

Wynton Marsalis thinks he’s on the right track at Lincoln Center. The talented New Orleans jazz trumpeter initiated a jazz program at Lincoln Center for

The Cakewalkin’ Jass Band pack Tony Packo’s in Toledo, Ohio, for their 50th anniversary celebration. From left: Russ Damschroeder, trombone; Dave Kosmyna, cornet; Buddy Lopez,

After Bruce Boyd Raeburn moved to New Orleans in 1971 to work on his doctoral dissertation in United States Cultural History at Tulane University, he