Jazz fans in the 21st century enjoy jazz primarily by listening to recordings on LPs, CDs, music streaming services, and by attending live performances in cozy clubs, concert halls, or outdoor settings. But beginning in the early 1950s, there was another way to enjoy jazz, if only sporadically. And that was television.
When it comes to finding jazz performances on TV, it’s never been an easy thing to do, and it’s also a bit of a head-scratcher to figure out why jazz has been played and celebrated so rarely on the tube in the past 60 years or so. But there was a time when there were far more opportunities to see the all-time greats performing jazz classics on television. Today, unfortunately, it’s a different story.
Going back to the beginning, we can start with The Ed Sullivan Show, a variety program that ran for 23 years and had many jazz legends as guests (as well as every other entertainment act you can think of). The series first aired in 1948 as The Toast of the Town, and throughout its more than two decades on the air, Sullivan invited the likes of Louie Armstrong, Nina Simone, Duke Ellington, Ella Fitzgerald, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Woody Herman, Nat “King” Cole, Dave Brubeck, Harry James, Illinois Jacquet, Stan Kenton, Astrud Gilberto, and many more to perform on the show. Of course, these were pretty much random appearances, and hardcore jazz fans couldn’t r
