The Legend is True

“Erickson, usually erroneously labelled a Dixieland jazzman, was in every way a comprehensive modern musician, performer and composer whose interests ranged from the blues to

WWII Jazz boom, The Fillmore, Oakland Blues, North Beach & Forbidden City Nightclubs San Francisco was the location for dynamic developments in popular entertainment: Traditional,

We first met, Jazz and I, at a dance hall dive on the Barbary Coast. It screeched and bellowed at me from a trick platform

A Brief History of the Premier All-Women Swing Orchestra The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was a racially mixed sixteen-piece all-women Swing orchestra.  The word ‘International’

The all-female Big Band of Ada Leonard (see Part 1) was the best-known of around 100 “all-girl” Swing orchestras playing for the troops during WWII.

Bandleader Ada Leonard was a dancer, singer and show business professional who led the first all-female Swing orchestra touring Army training camps during WWII filling

Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan, 1915-59) continued a busy schedule of recordings, concerts, radio broadcasts, television appearances and international tours in the 1950s. Publication of her

Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan, 1915-1959) emerged as a fully formed artist in the 1940s, her voice was its richest and most expressive.  She imparted unprecedented

For Jazz singer Billie Holiday the 1930s was a time of emergence.  She was a little astonished to discover the effect her singing had.  In

POLYMATH: a person of wide-ranging knowledge or learning. Jazz trumpeter and bandleader Humphrey Lyttelton was an author, broadcaster, illustrator, composer and journalist. A popular radio

“This session is not simply a historical record. It’s the culmination of 14 years of gigs, tours, festivals, recording sessions and lots of rehearsal: spontaneous,

Also See: Buck Clayton’s Jazz World, Part One Jazz trumpeter Buck Clayton published a colorful and sincere autobiographical memoir thirty-five years ago. His literary voice is

Read: Benny Goodman’s Kingdom of Swing, Pt 1: The Early Years In the late 1930s the Swing combos of Benny Goodman  (1906-1986) created a game-changing small-band

Benny Goodman (1909-1986) did for clarinet what Louis Armstrong had done for the trumpet, gave it a virtuoso leadership role in the jazz ensemble. Benny’s

Stanley ‘Stan’ Montrose McDonald, Jr. (1935-2021) loved the music of Sidney Bechet, his wife Ellen, their historic semi-rural Massachusetts home and a hard-driving rhythm section

Fiddler Bobby Bruce lived one of the longest and most diverse professional music careers I’ve encountered, performing and arranging for seven decades in Vaudeville, Jazz,

Bunny Berigan is best remembered for his hit recording of “I Can’t Get Started” on which he played trumpet and sang. He was one of

Arranger, composer and multi-instrumentalist Spud Murphy wrote 600 charts for the top Swing orchestras of the 1930s, creating colorful and dynamic arrangements that shaped the

At the outset of the Swing era, Casa Loma Orchestra set the highest standards for superb musicianship, arranging, presentation, sweet ballads and hard-driving dance rhythms.

Jazz trombonist Bill Bardin played gutty two-beat Stomps, sophisticated four-beat Swing and lowdown Blues. His rich tone and tasteful instrumental voice made him a stalwart

Whether you love New Orleans tailgate trombone or sophisticated Swing, Bill Bardin (1924 – 2011) is your man for tasteful, expressive jazz trombone. He was second