Since 1995, the Fillius Jazz Archive at Hamilton College has gathered oral histories from over three hundred jazz men and women—as well as from their spouses, roadies, and others who were there. These stories, mostly related to swing and mainstream jazz, are captured by way of videotaped face-to-face interviews conducted by a man who himself has a deep knowledge of the history and the form, Monk Rowe.
Rowe was an adjunct saxophone instructor at the college and a working musician when he was recruited into the enviable position of primary interviewer for the project as it was being organized by Hamilton alum and jazz patron Milt Fillius. Rowe claims to have educated himself in the era before academic jazz programs by tracing the movements of sidemen across LP liner notes. That turned out to be the perfect method for his role at the archive.
The first interviewee was Joe Williams, who had a friendship with Mr. Fillius. Williams then provided the introduction Rowe needed to many former Count Basie sidemen. The project caught its own wind from there and Rowe has interviewed everyone from Bucky Pizzarelli to Bela Fleck.
In addition to being a fine musician, interviewer, and jazz advocate, Rowe also turns out to be an intuitive editor. In Jazz Tales and Jazz Legends, he weaves together the best bits from the archive in segments that are never too long and build to support an unde
