Journal of Jazz Studies (JJS)
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Dig - It: The Musical Life of Ted Brown
No full textAmid the mass of jazz scholarship which still concentrates on the most famous architects of the music (Parker, Davis, Coltrane etc) it is all too easy to overlook the contributions of less recorded and commercially successful artists. Ted Brown, tenor saxophonist and former student of pianist / educator Lennie Tristano, is such a player. Never quite as successful or well known as fellow Tristano students Lee Konitz and Warne Marsh, Brown nonetheless participated fully in the musical culture that grew up around Tristano's Manhattan studio. A unique and melodic improviser and composer who contributed several tunes to the Tristano canon, Brown managed to reach the highest levels of jazz performance while simultaneously working a full-time day job. An examination of his musical life lends insight into what Nat Hentoff called 'the jazz life', as well as into the practical application of Tristano's pedagogical methods. A talented artist with a decidedly unique story, Ted Brown serves to remind us that some of the most interesting voices of jazz can be of those few people recognize
Skin Deep: Race, Bias, and Fallacy in Terry Teachout’s Ellington Biography
No full textA review of the work of writer Terry Teachout, especially the biography Duke: A Life of Duke Ellington, by Ellington's nephew
The Night I Became a Jazz Musician
No full textBill Kirchner recalls a formative episode his life at the 1965 Pittsburgh Jazz Festival
Was Bix Beiderbecke Poisoned by the Federal Government?
No full textExplores the government's strategy to eradicate alchohol consumption in the United States by adding poisonous compounds to render it undrinkable and how these efforts affected Bix Beiderbecke, perhaps precipitating his physical decline and early deat
Garibaldi to Syncopation: Bruto Giannini and the Curious Case of Scott Joplin’s Magnetic Rag
No full textThe richness and complexity of layered meanings hidden inside Scott Joplin's opera, Treemonisha leaves one wondering. Is it an exception in his opus? Or did he weave a similarly thick web of symbols in other pieces as well? It is known that The Crush Collision March and Wall Street Rag bear headings pointing to the specific events described—a deliberate train collision organized in September 1896 and the moods unleashed by the October 1907 stock market panic. Also, The Cascades makes reference to actual cascades built for the 1904 St. Louis World Exposition and shown on the original cover. Such facts suggest a consistent approach on Joplin’s part. If so, more evidence might exist. Actually, this writer detected descriptive elements in Solace and Country Club; their decipherment was delivered in a video-recorded presentation but not yet committed to paper. The logical next step was, tackling the daunting task of systematically decoding all of Joplin’s titles and covers to go beyond isolated cases and seek evidence of a recurring approach. This research yielded a rich harvest. Its crux, although cumbersome, will ultimately require a comprehensive exposition, as it calls for a unified discussion. However, Magnetic Rag has a somewhat separate story, that calls for a separate treatment. Readers are thus invited to take this essay as a first morsel of a bigger—and hopefully tempting—musicological banquet
Sentimental Journeys
No full textA review of Gregg Akerman's The Last Balladeer: The Johnny Hartman Story
"You've got to appreciate all kinds of music"
No full textA review of Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism by Thomas Brothers
Charlie Parker: Two New Bios And A Revision - Crouch, Haddix and Giddins
No full textA review of two recent Charlie Parker biographies: Kansas City Lightning: The Rise and Times of Charlie Parker by Stanley Crouch; Bird: The Life and Music of Charlie Parker by Chuck Haddix; a revised version of Celebrating Bird: The Triumph of Charlie Parker by Gary Giddins
Down to Business: Herman Lubinsky and the Postwar Music Industry
No full textThis article assesses the claims of exploitation leveled against mid-twentieth-century Jewish record company owners, focusing on Herman Lubinsky and his Savoy Records. Lubinsky faced a highly competitive economic climate as the commercial popularity of jazz waned in the 1950s. By attending solely to the few record company owners who became successful, and treating favorably those with noticeable appreciation for the music or the musicians, historians have mischaracterized owners, like Lubinsky, who prioritized risk management in their business ventures
Conflicting Strategies of Management and Memory at the Indiana Roof Ballroom, 1933-34
No full textThe Indiana Roof Ballroom in downtown Indianapolis houses a unique artifact relating to the reception of jazz and popular music in the early 1930s known as the “Jazz Door.” Two stagehands listed the bands that played at the Roof from 1933 to 1936 on the door, giving a rating of one to four stars (fair to extraordinary), for each band. This paper compares the entries on the Door for the 1933-34 season with ticket prices and publicity for the Ballroom, as seen in the local newspapers. Such a comparision demonstrates that the creators of the Jazz Door and the management of the Indiana Roof Ballroom had differing opinions on the roles and purposes of popular music. In seeking to explain these differences, this paper views the Jazz Door not only as a record of jazz criticism, but seeks to place the Door within the larger contexts of society and commerce at the height of the Depression