The “ragtime revival” started with Wally Rose’s surprise hit recording, in December 1941, of George Botsford’s “Black And White Rag.” At that time, there was
Prologue I was in high school—still a freshman, I think—when I first heard the iconic recording of “Sing, Sing, Sing” by Benny Goodman’s band. Goodman
Noel Kaletsky, born in New Haven CT in 1937, passed away on May 30, 2023. Anyone who heard him will never forget the excitement that
While some of the more cynical observers of the music world may claim that traditional jazz is a dying art form, there’s plenty of evidence
In the Ragtime Years when a great personality celebrity died, word would quickly spread through the entertainment districts, Variety shows might be interrupted to report
Since looking back to when I taught jazz history courses at the Community College of Rhode Island, I have come to realize that my coverage
My mother wanted me to move back in with the family. It was 1974. I was eighteen and already had been living on my own
In 2007, I came across a batch of poor-quality transfers of African American films from the 1940s. One title, Boarding House Blues (1948), stood out
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
That James Reese Europe would lead a band in concert at Carnegie Hall was inevitable…but the event has been historically overlooked. The band leader had
While a really swinging beat or rhythm will make sophisticated dancers perform quite extraordinary terpsichorean feats, we also know that the vast amount of social
I was weaned on Benny Goodman by listening to my mother’s youngest brother as he tried to emulate BG. From those early days my love
As I have written more than once, my initial exposure to live jazz was hearing the Firehouse Five Plus Two at Disneyland in 1962. It
Nearly a half-century after his death, one of the most-recorded vocalists of the 20th century, Irving Kaufman, received a Lifetime Achievement Award in his old
We were at Jazz Bash by the Bay in Monterey in 2022, living it up and enjoying the first live festival we had been to
The year 2023 marks the centennial of the publication of the “Charleston,” the tune, dance, and rhythm that has come to define the decade of
The saying “you can’t keep a good woman down” might well have been inspired by the Swedish Queen of Swing, Gunhild Carling. She is bouncing
As a jazz journalist, there are writers I look up to—experts in the field, whose expansive knowledge and well developed tastes make them widely acknowledged
The great pianist and composer André Previn once said, “Stan Kenton can stand in front of a thousand fiddles and a thousand brass and make
“Muggsy Spanier and his Ragtime Band,” a short piece in the Red Hot Jazz Archive (now hosted on syncopatedtimes.com), recalls a dramatic event in the
Dan Barrett’s excellent article “Thoughts on the South Frisco Jazz Band” (TST, February, 2023) is a vivid description of the South Frisco’s sound and the
I am exceptionally excited this month to write this article. However, let me begin slowly and try to remain coherent. On Friday afternoon, September 9,
“The real history of music is not respectable. Far from it. Neither is it boring. Breakthroughs almost always come from provocateurs and insurgents, and they
I have often thought about how much chance, or fate, dictates the direction of one’s life. Some—including me—might also attribute surprising occurrences in their lives
