Reflections of Ray Skjelbred
Bill Hoffman
May 31, 2023
At the West Coast Ragtime Festival last November I met for the first time Ray Skjelbred (pronounced SHELL-bred in case you haven’t heard it before),
At the West Coast Ragtime Festival last November I met for the first time Ray Skjelbred (pronounced SHELL-bred in case you haven’t heard it before),
The 2023 Charles H. Templeton, Sr. Ragtime and Jazz Festival was held on Thursday through Saturday, March 23-25 at Mississippi State University in Starkville. This
Some months ago, when I first saw the musician lineup for the 2023 Charles H. Templeton Ragtime and American Music Festival, Scott Kirby was listed.
Upon seeing his name, complete with umlaut, you might assume multi-instrumentalist T.J. Müller is of German heritage. You’d be mistaken. And with the first few
The 2022 San Diego Jazz Festival, the first held in person in three years, got underway on Thanksgiving Eve at the newly (since 2019) expanded
My review in these pages of the 2019 West Coast Ragtime Festival began with this statement: “Sometimes too much of a good thing is, well, too
In 1987, Charles H. Templeton, a 1949 graduate of Mississippi State University, donated his collection of 200 antique music players dating from about 1895 to
The 13th Central Pennsylvania Ragtime and American Music Festival followed a slightly different format this year from past practice. It was extended by one day,
When I attended the Glenn Miller Festival in June in Clarinda, Iowa, I visited his namesake museum, located directly behind the house in which he
The 51st Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival In Davenport, Iowa, got under way, as usual, with a free concert at the Putnam Museum on Thursday afternoon,
On the second weekend in June I attended for the first time the Glenn Miller Festival in Clarinda, Iowa, his birthplace, an event that has
The weather gods smiled on this year’s Scott Joplin Ragtime Festival on June 1-4 in Sedalia, Missouri. After a cold front dumped 2.9 inches of
I made my first visit to the Charles Templeton Ragtime and Jazz Festival on the last weekend in March at Mississippi State University in Starkville.
On the first weekend in November I attended the Arizona Classic Jazz Festival at the Crowne Plaza in downtown Chandler. This hotel has been greatly
After a year’s hiatus due to the pandemic, the 12th annual Central Pennsylvania Ragtime and American Music Festival returned to Orbisonia and Rockhill, PA on
This is not an article I expected to write, but given that the events I’m relating occur on a regular or seasonal basis, I felt
The 50th anniversary Bix Beiderbecke jazz festival in Bix’s hometown of Davenport, Iowa, got underway in its usual fashion on Thursday afternoon, August 5, with
I spent most of this summer in western New York instead of at my usual place, Potsdam in the St. Lawrence River valley, since my
Four and a half years ago I first met Colin Hancock, whose recognition and reputation as an eminent authority on early jazz, especially that performed
Although pianist Domingo Mancuello (pronounced Man-KWAY-o) lives only three miles from me (but not for long—see below), I did not meet him here in Lancaster.
Like many of you since the onset of COVID, I’ve been itching to be able to attend live music events and festivals. There just haven’t
Charlotte Dickison retired as director of the Olympia Jazz Festival after the 2019 edition. She made many friends from all over the US and Canada
Suncoast Jazz Festival director Joan Dragon has had a long and varied worklife, in and outside the music world. Having never attended this festival, I
The renowned French quartet Paris Washboard made a brief trip across the pond in February to play four concerts in my neck of the woods.
