“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” – Vol. 9

“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history. This edition’s narratives are “Nat King Cole: The Shadow of the Word,” “Slain in Cold Blood” and “Local 767: The Black Musicians’ Union”

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“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” — Vol. 8

“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history. This edition’s narratives are “The Entrance of Bessie Smith into San Diego”, “Lionel Hampton Is Coming to Dinner at Dr. Gordon’s House”, and
“Lionel Hampton: Central Avenue Breakdown”

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“Indianola Is a Place Apart”– a photo-narrative by Charles Ingham

. .   Charles Ingham’s photo-narratives connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing music history. . . ___ . .       Indianola Is a Place Apart (Church and Second Streets, Indianola, Mississippi) 2020 .   . Charles describes the work . ….If … Continue reading ““Indianola Is a Place Apart”– a photo-narrative by Charles Ingham”

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“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” — Vol. 7

Charles Ingham’s “Jazz Narratives” connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history. This edition’s narratives are “Torn from Its Moorings”, “Watching the Sea” and “Plantations”

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“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” — Vol. 6

Charles Ingham’s “Jazz Narratives” connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history. This edition’s narratives are “”The Artists Salute Each Other”, “Monk’s Mood at the It Club” and “Communing with Ghosts”

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“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” — Vol. 5

Ingham’s “Jazz Narratives” connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history. This edition’s narratives are “The Annunciation of Chet Baker,” “Frank O’Hara Whispers to Scott LaFaro,” and “Blessing the Child.”

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“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” — Vol. 4

Ingham’s “Jazz Narratives” connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history. This edition’s narratives are “Released from Camarillo State Hospital, Charlie Parker Plays Jack’s Basket Room,” “Diz Railing at the Cosmos,” and “Speaking in Tongues”

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“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” — Vol. 3

Ingham’s “Jazz Narratives” connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history. This edition’s narratives are “”Exactly Where She Is Supposed to Be,” “In Memory of Clora Bryant, Standing Outside the Downbeat,” and “Out West, Thinking About Miles Davis”

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“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” — Vol. 2

Ingham’s “Jazz Narratives” connect time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history. This edition’s narratives are “The Death of Chet Baker, 13 May 1988,” “Out There Somewhere,” and “Dreaming of Bird”

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“Charles Ingham’s Jazz Narratives” — Vol. 1

These photo-narratives are provocative, meaningful and brilliant – connecting time, place, and subject in a way that ultimately allows the viewer a unique way of experiencing jazz history.

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“What one song best represents your experience with 2020?”

The community of poets, writers, artists and photographers who have recently contributed their work and time to Jerry Jazz Musician to answer this question, “What one song best represents your experience with 2020?”

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Spring 2020 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter

Jerry Jazz Musician, Spring 2020 Newsletter Information about new content published on Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue   A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring, 2020 Edition …. ….. “The world is never the same once a good poem has been added to it. A good poem helps to change the shape of the … Continue reading “Spring 2020 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”

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Winter 2020 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter

Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter — Winter, 2020 Information about new content published on Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue   A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Winter, 2020 Edition ….The winter collection of poetry offers readers a look at the culture of jazz music through the imaginative writings of its 32 contributors. Within these 41 poems, … Continue reading “Winter 2020 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”

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Fall/Winter 2019 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter

Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter, Fall/Winter 2019 Information about new content published on Jerry Jazz Musician In This Issue   A collection of jazz poetry — Fall, 2019 edition ….Twenty-eight poets contribute 37 poems to the Jerry Jazz Musician Fall Poetry Collection, living proof that the energy and spirit of jazz is alive — and quite well. (Featuring … Continue reading “Fall/Winter 2019 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”

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The Jazz Photography Issue

. . Carol Friedman’s 1976 photograph of Chet Baker . _____ . …..For many of us who revere jazz music – especially those fortunate enough to have grown up during the era of the 12 x 12 record album jacket and coffee table photography books– the images of great musicians taken by photographers like William … Continue reading “The Jazz Photography Issue”

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Summer 2019 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter

Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter, September 2019 Update about newly published content In This Issue   The Jazz Photography Issue …..For many of us who revere jazz music – especially those fortunate enough to have grown up during the era of the 12 x 12 record album jacket and coffee table photography books– the images of … Continue reading “Summer 2019 Jerry Jazz Musician Newsletter”

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From the Interview Archive: Travis Atria, author of Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp

In this 2021 interview, the author Travis Atria discusses the story of trumpeter Arthur Briggs’s courage in the face of racism and hatred during World War II, when he was arrested in Paris and sent to the Nazi prison camp at St. Denis, France, where he learned to survive the daily horror of his incarceration through the strength of his spirt and the gift of his musical talent.

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A Black History Month Profile: An interview with Nick Salvatore, author of Singing in a Strange Land: C.L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America

There are few American lives more powerful or more moving than that of C. L. Franklin. Born in rural Mississippi, he would go on to become the most famous African American preacher in America. His style of preaching revolutionized the art, and his call for his fellow African Americans to proclaim both their faith and their rights helped usher in the civil rights movement. In this 2005 Jerry Jazz Musician interview, Franklin biographer Nick Salvatore talks about this immensely complicated public figure (and father to Aretha).

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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Summer, 2023 Edition

This edition features poetry chosen from hundreds of recent submissions, and from a wide range of voices known – and unknown – to readers of these collections.  The work is unified by the poets’ ability to capture the abundance of jazz music, and their experience with consuming it.

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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Spring, 2023 Edition

This is the 14th extensive collection of jazz poetry published on Jerry Jazz Musician since the fall of 2019, when the concept was initiated. Like all previous volumes, the beauty of this edition is not solely evident in the general excellence of the published works; it also rests in the hearts of the individuals from diverse backgrounds who possess a mutual desire to reveal their life experiences and interactions with the music, its character, and its culture.

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Interview with Travis Atria, author of Better Days Will Come Again: The Life of Arthur Briggs, Jazz Genius of Harlem, Paris, and a Nazi Prison Camp

…..The Grenada-born trumpeter Arthur Briggs was among the first to introduce and popularize jazz music, and did so from Europe, where he permanently settled after arriving from Harlem in 1919, and where he eventually grew to be considered “the Louis Armstrong of Paris.”  Little-known in America, his musical biography features his befriending and performing with the likes of Sidney Bechet (who Briggs was with when he bought his first soprano saxophone), Josephine Baker, Coleman Hawkins, and Django Reinhardt.

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Two of a Mind: Conversations on Creative Collaboration, Vol 1: featuring Bill Charlap and Sandy Stewart

An intimate portrait of Bill Charlap and mother Sandy Steward, who explore the art of musical collaboration and accompanying singers.

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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Autumn, 2020 Edition

Jazz and poetry have always had a symbiotic relationship.  Their creative languages share the common soil of imagination and improvisation, from which their audiences discover inspiration and spirit, and perhaps even a renewed faith in life itself.

This collection features 50 gifted poets from places as disparate as Ohio and Nepal, Estonia and Boston, Guyana and Pittsburgh, each publicly sharing their inner world reverence for the culture of jazz music.

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Poetry reflecting the era of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a heated political season — Vol. 2

23 poets contribute 26 poems that speak to the era of COVID, Black Lives Matter, and a heated political season

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A Collection of Jazz Poetry — Winter, 2020 Edition

The winter collection of poetry offers readers a look at the culture of jazz music through the imaginative writings of its 32 contributors.  Within these 41 poems, writers express their deep connection to the music – and those who play it – in their own inventive and often philosophical language that communicates much, but especially love, sentiment, struggle, loss, and joy.

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Interview with Gerald Horne, author of Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music

. .     . .     photo by Bouna Ndaiye/used by permission of Gerald Horne Gerald Horne, author of Jazz and Justice:  Racism and the Political Economy of the Music . ___ . . …..Jazz music — complex, ground breaking and brilliant from its early 20th century beginnings — would eventually become America’s … Continue reading “Interview with Gerald Horne, author of Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music

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Book Excerpt — Jazz and Justice: Racism and the Political Economy of the Music, by Gerald Horne

Jazz music — complex, ground breaking and brilliant from its early 20th century beginnings — would eventually become America’s popular music.  That it did so in the face of the severe obstacles of blatant racism and sexism, organized crime and corrupt labor exploitation so prevalent in America at the time is at the heart of historian Gerald Horne’s new book,  Jazz and Justice:  Racism and the Political Economy of the Music.

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A collection of jazz poetry — Summer, 2019 edition

Seventeen poets contribute to a collection of jazz poetry reflecting an array of energy, emotion and improvisation

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Aretha and her father — the Reverend C.L. Franklin

      The passing of Aretha Franklin yesterday hits hard on a variety of levels.  I am sure we all have wonderful Aretha memories.  For me, she will always be remembered as the singer who opened my world to the sounds of soul and gospel music, and doing so during the height of the civil rights movement, when so much important work was being achieved — and cutting edge art was being created in response to it — virtually every day.

     Aretha learned to sing at the New Bethel Baptist Church in Detroit, where her father, the Reverend C.L. Franklin, was minister — “the most famous African American preacher in America,” according to his biographer Nick Salvatore.  Franklin’s style of “booming, soaring, flashy and intense” preaching “revolutionized the art, and his call for his fellow African Americans to proclaim both their faith and their rights helped usher in the civil rights movement.”

     Rev. Franklin had an intense influence on daughter Aretha,  …[Aretha] always sang from her inners,” Ray Charles once said.  “In many ways she’s got her father’s feeling and passion,’ [for when C.L.] — one of the last great preachers — delivers a sermon, he builds his case so beautifully you can’t help but see the light. Same when Aretha sings.”

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“Icarus” — a short story by Ian MacAgy

     Near the end of high school I thought myself sophisticated, a fan of Pink Floyd and King Crimson and Kevin Ayers, but at a Weather Report Concert in 1972 I had a nearly religious conversion.  It was as though a stranger had run up to me and said, “hold this for minute” and ran off. Then the music exploded. I had never heard anything like this. Everything changed. 

      It was as though I grew hair in secret places and a new appendage.  I became a different creature.  After that night few of my suburban DC white friends’ guitar and lyrics-oriented ears could hear what mine could; the joy and heartbreak in this unfamiliar and ebonic timbre, this canvas painted in horn, acoustic bass, and polyrhythm; this blues, this brokenness, this homesickness.   

     There it was, though, for anyone who had ears for it—there, in the absence of verse, in the uncertainty and unpredictability of lengthy solos, in the timelessness of power beyond the moment from which

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Graham Lock and David Murray, editors of Thriving on a Riff: Jazz & Blues Influences in African American Literature and Film

The widespread presence of jazz and blues in African American visual art has long been overlooked. The Hearing Eye makes the case for recognizing the music’s importance, both as formal template and as explicit subject matter. Moving on from the use of iconic musical figures and motifs in Harlem Renaissance art, this groundbreaking collection explores the more allusive — and elusive — references to jazz and blues in a wide range of mostly contemporary visual artists.

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Reminiscing in Tempo: Memories and Opinion/Volume Eight: When you were growing up, what were three or four of your parents’ favorite recordings?

“Reminiscing in Tempo” is part of a continuing effort to provide Jerry Jazz Musician readers with unique forms of “edu-tainment.” As often as possible, we pose one question via e mail to a small number of prominent and diverse people. The question is designed to provoke a lively response that will potentially include the memories and/or opinion of those solicited.

When you were growing up, what were three or four of your parents’ favorite recordings?

Featuring Dee Dee Bridgewater, Hubert Laws, Jacky Terrasson, Jimmy Owens, Kurt Elling and others…

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Reminiscing in Tempo: Memories and Opinion/Volume Five: What are five books that mean a lot to you?

“Reminiscing in Tempo” is part of a continuing effort to provide Jerry Jazz Musician readers with unique forms of “edu-tainment.” As often as possible, we pose one question via e mail to a small number of prominent and diverse people. The question is designed to provoke a lively response that will potentially include the memories and/or opinion of those solicited.

What are five books that mean a lot to you?

Featuring Ben Ratliff, David Maraniss, Diane McWhorter, Don Byron, Gary Giddins, James Gavin, Kevin Boyle and others…

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Peter Guralnick, author of Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke

. .   Peter Guralnick, author of Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke .   He was the biggest star in gospel music before he ever crossed over into pop. His first single under his own name, “You Send Me,” was an historic success, going to number one on the charts and selling two … Continue reading “Peter Guralnick, author of Dream Boogie: The Triumph of Sam Cooke

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Reminiscing in Tempo: Memories and Opinion/Volume One: What is the greatest saxophone solo in the history of jazz?

“Reminiscing in Tempo” is part of a continuing effort to provide Jerry Jazz Musician readers with unique forms of “edu-tainment.” As often as possible, we pose one question via e mail to a small number of prominent and diverse people. The question is designed to provoke a lively response that will potentially include the memories and/or opinion of those solicited.

What is the greatest saxophone solo in the history of jazz?

Featuring Dan Morgenstern, Ishmael Reed, James Carter, Jason Moran, Martha Bayles, Terry Teachout, Kitty Margolis and others…

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Penny Von Eschen, author of Satchmo Blows Up the World

At the height of the ideological antagonism of the Cold War, the U.S. State Department unleashed an unexpected tool in its battle against Communism: jazz. From 1956 through the late 1970s, America dispatched its finest jazz musicians to the far corners of the earth, from Iraq to India, from the Congo to the Soviet Union, in order to win the hearts and minds of the Third World and to counter perceptions of American racism.

In Satchmo Blows Up the World: Jazz Ambassadors Play the Cold War, Penny Von Eschen escorts readers across the globe, backstage and onstage, as Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and other jazz luminaries spread their music and their ideas further than the State Department anticipated.

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Nick Salvatore, author of Singing in a Strange Land: C.L. Franklin, the Black Church, and the Transformation of America

There are few American lives more powerful or more moving than that of C. L. Franklin. Born in rural Mississippi, he would go on to become the most famous African American preacher in America. His style of preaching revolutionized the art, and his call for his fellow African Americans to proclaim both their faith and their rights helped usher in the civil rights movement. Booming, soaring, flashy, and intense, C.L. was one of a kind. And yet Franklin was, like many great public figures, immensely complicated. A beacon of faith and light, he also knew the shadows. He knew the power of the Lord, yet he was no saint. In Singing in a Strange Land, Bancroft Prize-winning historian Nick Salvatore tells Franklin’s story for the first time.

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Site Archive

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Click here to read about plans for the future of Jerry Jazz Musician.

In this Issue

A collection of poetic responses to the events of 2025...Forty poets describe their experiences with the tumultuous events of 2025, resulting in a remarkable collection of work made up of writers who may differ on what inspired them to participate, but who universally share a desire for their voice to be heard amid a changing America.

Poetry

photo by William Gottlieb/design by Rhonda R. Dorsett
21 jazz poems on the 21st of November, 2025...An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features poems communicating the emotional appeal of jazz music, as well as nods to the likes of Miles Davis, Regina Carter, Maynard Ferguson, Ornette Coleman, and Max Roach.

The Sunday Poem

photo by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress

”Snowfall” by Bernard Saint

The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work....

Bernard Saint reads his poem at its conclusion


Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

Feature

Press Release for “The Weary Blues: Celebrating The Harlem Renaissance and Langston Hughes...I recently wrote about a new endeavor of mine – producing a show in Portland celebrating the poetry of Langston Hughes and the Harlem Renaissance. What follows is the complete press release for the February 7 performance at the Alberta Abbey in Portland, Oregon.

Short Fiction

photo via Freerange/CCO
Short Fiction Contest-winning story #70 – “The Sound of Becoming,” by J.C. Michaels...The story explores the inner life of a young Southeast Asian man as he navigates the tension between Eastern tradition and Western modernity.

Feature

Linnaea Mallette/publicdomainpictures.net
A 2026 jazz poetry calendar...12 individual poets contribute a jazz-themed poem dedicated to a particular month, resulting in a 2026 calendar of jazz poetry that winds through the year with a variety of poetic styles and voices who share their journeys with the music, tying it into the month they were tasked to interpret. Along the way you will encounter the likes of Sonny Stitt, Charles Mingus, Jaco Pastorius, Wynton Kelly, John Coltrane, and Nina Simone.

Poetry

“To Renee Nicole Good, a poet” – a poem by Erren Geraud Kelly

Poetry

photo via Shutterstock
“The Music of Lana’i Lookout” – a poem by Robert Alan Felt...The 17th anniversary of president-elect Barack Obama's scattering of his beloved grandmother's ashes is at the center of the poem, and serves as a reminder that moral personal character of leadership is what makes a country great.

Poetry

Poems on Charlie “Bird” Parker (inspired by a painting by Al Summ) – an ekphrastic poetry collection...A collection of 25 poems inspired by the painting of Charlie Parker by the artist Al Summ.

Community

Letter from the Editor: “A Jerry Jazz Musician Experience”...Sharing a bit of what I’ve been up to of late, and make you aware of a new endeavor of mine…

Poetry

National Archives of Norway, CC BY 4.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
“Wonderful World” – a poem by Dan Thompson

A Letter from the Publisher

The gate at Buchenwald. Photo by Rhonda R Dorsett
War. Remembrance. Walls.
The High Price of Authoritarianism– by editor/publisher Joe Maita
...An essay inspired by my recent experiences witnessing the ceremonies commemorating the 80th anniversary of liberation of several World War II concentration camps in Germany.

Poetry

Wikimedia Commons
“Dorothy Parker, an Icon of the Jazz Age” – a poem by Jane McCarthy

Short Fiction

photo via publicdomainimages.net
“Welcome to America” – a short story by John Tures...The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 70th Short Fiction Contest – is a combination of two true linked stories, both of which involved the same person. In one, he’s a witness to history. In the second, he’s an active participant in history, even becoming a hero. But one can’t understand the second until they know the first.

Feature

photo via Wikimedia Commons
Memorable Quotes – Lawrence Ferlinghetti, on a pitiable nation

Short Fiction

“Frusick: Making Sweeter Music” – a short story by J. W. Wood...In the 22nd century, a medical professional takes a bunch of kids to meet one of the last musicians left in England, and has an epiphany when he hears live music for the first time …

Community

Nominations for the Pushcart Prize L (50)...Announcing the six writers nominated for the Pushcart Prize v. L (50), whose work appeared on the web pages of Jerry Jazz Musician or within print anthologies I edited during 2025.

Interview

Interview with Tad Richards, author of Listening to Prestige: Chronicling its Classic Jazz Recordings, 1949 – 1972...Richards discusses his book – a long overdue history of Prestige Records that draws readers into stories involving its visionary founder Bob Weinstock, the classic recording sessions he assembled, and the brilliant jazz musicians whose work on Prestige helped shape the direction of post-war music.

Poetry

"Swing Landscape" by Stuart Davis
“Swing Landscape” – a poem by Kenneth Boyd....Kenneth Boyd writes poetry based on jazz paintings. “Swing Landscape” is written for a Stuart Davis painting of the same name.

Playlist

“A Perfect 10” – a playlist of tentets by Bob Hecht...Bob adds another instrument to his progressive playlist feature, and shares what a variety of arrangers have been able to accomplish writing for a tentet.

Jazz History Quiz

Jazz History Quiz #185...This posthumously-awarded Grammy winning musician/composer was the pianist and arranger for the vocal group The Hi-Lo’s (pictured) in the late 1950’s, and after working with Donald Byrd and Dizzy Gillespie became known for his Latin and bossa nova recordings in the 1960’s. He was also frequently cited by Herbie Hancock as a “major influence.” Who is he?

Poetry

photo via Wikimedia Commons
Jimi Hendrix - in four poems

Playlist

A sampling of jazz recordings by artists nominated for 2026 Grammy Awards – a playlist by Martin Mueller...A playlist of 14 songs by the likes of Samara Joy, Brad Mehldau, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Branford Marsalis, the Yellowjackets and other Grammy Award nominees, assembled by Martin Mueller, the former Dean of the New School of Jazz and Contemporary Music in New York.

Poetry

Ukberri.net/Uribe Kosta eta Erandioko agerkari digitala, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons
In Memoriam: “Color Wheels” – a poem (for Jack DeJohnette) by Mary O’Melveny

Essay

“Escalator Over the Hill – Then and Now” – by Joel Lewis...Remembering the essential 1971 album by Carla Bley/Paul Haines, inspired by the writer’s experience attending the New School’s recent performance of it

Poetry

“Still Wild” – a collection of poems by Connie Johnson...Connie Johnson’s unique and warm vernacular is the framework in which she reminds readers of the foremost contributors of jazz music, while peeling back the layers on the lesser known and of those who find themselves engaged by it, and affected by it. I have proudly published Connie’s poems for over two years and felt the consistency and excellence of her work deserved this 15 poem showcase.

Feature

photo of Barry Harris by Mirko Caserta
“With Barry Harris at the 11th Street Bar” – a true jazz story by Henry Blanke...The writer - a lifelong admirer of the pianist Barry Harris - recalls a special experience he had with him in 2015

Interview

Interview with Sascha Feinstein, author of Writing Jazz: Conversations with Critics and Biographers...The collection of 14 interviews is an impressive and determined effort, one that contributes mightily to the deepening of our understanding for the music’s past impact, and fans optimism for more.

Feature

Trading Fours, with Douglas Cole, No. 27: “California Suite”...Trading Fours with Douglas Cole is an occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. This edition is dedicated to saxophone players and the mood scenes that instrument creates.

Essay

“J.A. Rogers’ ‘Jazz at Home’: A Centennial Reflection on Jazz Representation Through the Lens of Stormy Weather and Everyday Life – an essay by Jasmine M. Taylor...The writer opines that jazz continues to survive – 100 years after J.A. Rogers’ own essay that highlighted the artistic freedom of jazz – and has “become a fundamental core in American culture and modern Americanism; not solely because of its artistic craftsmanship, but because of the spirit that jazz music embodies.”

Community

photo of Dwike Mitchell/Willie Ruff via Bandcamp
“Tell a Story: Mitchell and Ruff’s Army Service” – an essay by Dale Davis....The author writes about how Dwike Mitchell and Willie Ruff’s U.S. Army service helped them learn to understand the fusion of different musical influences that tell the story of jazz.

Feature

Excerpts from David Rife’s Jazz Fiction: Take Two– Vol. 16: Halloween on Mars? Or…speculative jazz fiction...A substantial number of novels and stories with jazz music as a component of the story have been published over the years, and the scholar David J. Rife has written short essay/reviews of them. In this 16th edition featuring excerpts from his outstanding literary resource, Rife writes about azz-inflected speculative fiction stories (sci-fi, fantasy and horror)

Poetry

“With Ease in Mind” – poems by Terrance Underwood...It’s no secret that I’m a fan of Terrance Underwood’s poetry. I am also quite jealous of his ease with words, and of his graceful way of living, which shows up in this collection of 12 poems.

Poetry

What is This Path – a collection of poems by Michael L. Newell...A contributor of significance to Jerry Jazz Musician, the poet Michael L. Newell shares poems he has written since being diagnosed with a concerning illness.

Art

photo by Giovanni Piesco
The Photographs of Giovanni Piesco: Art Farmer and Benny Golson...Beginning in 1990, the noted photographer Giovanni Piesco began taking backstage photographs of many of the great musicians who played in Amsterdam’s Bimhuis, that city’s main jazz venue which is considered one of the finest in the world. Jerry Jazz Musician will occasionally publish portraits of jazz musicians that Giovanni has taken over the years. This edition features the May 10, 1996 photos of the tenor saxophonist, composer and arranger Benny Golson, and the February 13, 1997 photos of trumpet and flugelhorn player Art Farmer.

Community

Community Bookshelf #5...“Community Bookshelf” is a twice-yearly space where writers who have been published on Jerry Jazz Musician can share news about their recently authored books and/or recordings. This edition includes information about books published within the last six months or so (March, 2025 – September, 2025)

Contributing Writers

Click the image to view the writers, poets and artists whose work has been published on Jerry Jazz Musician, and find links to their work

Coming Soon

Interview with John Gennari, author of The Jazz Barn:  Music Inn, the Berkshires, and the Place of Jazz in American Life; Also, a new Jazz History Quiz, and lots of short fiction; poetry; photography; interviews; playlists; and much more in the works...

Interview Archive

Ella Fitzgerald/IISG, CC BY-SA 2.0 , via Wikimedia Commons
Click to view the complete 25-year archive of Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, including those recently published with Judith Tick on Ella Fitzgerald (pictured),; Laura Flam and Emily Sieu Liebowitz on the Girl Groups of the 60's; Tad Richards on Small Group Swing; Stephanie Stein Crease on Chick Webb; Brent Hayes Edwards on Henry Threadgill; Richard Koloda on Albert Ayler; Glenn Mott on Stanley Crouch; Richard Carlin and Ken Bloom on Eubie Blake; Richard Brent Turner on jazz and Islam; Alyn Shipton on the art of jazz; Shawn Levy on the original queens of standup comedy; Travis Atria on the expatriate trumpeter Arthur Briggs; Kitt Shapiro on her life with her mother, Eartha Kitt; Will Friedwald on Nat King Cole; Wayne Enstice on the drummer Dottie Dodgion; the drummer Joe La Barbera on Bill Evans; Philip Clark on Dave Brubeck; Nicholas Buccola on James Baldwin and William F. Buckley; Ricky Riccardi on Louis Armstrong; Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands on Erroll Garner; Maria Golia on Ornette Coleman.