From the Interview Archive: Ornette Coleman biographer Maria Golia

In this April, 2020 interview, Ms. Golia discusses her book and the artist whose philosophy and the astounding, adventurous music he created served to continually challenge the skeptical status quo, and made him a guiding light of the artistic avant-garde throughout a career spanning seven decades.

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August 28th, 2025

From the Interview Archive: Paul Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey

In a 2005 Jerry Jazz Musician interview, Paul Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey discusses his subject – a jazz artist who transcended genres to establish one of the most immediately recognizable sounds in all of music.

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June 3rd, 2025

From the Interview Archive: Will Friedwald, author of Stardust Melodies: A Biography of Twelve of America’s Most Popular Songs

In a 2002 interview, award-winning music writer Will Friedwald talks about great versions of standards such as “Lush Life,” Stardust,” “St. Louis Blues,” and “Summertime.”

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January 28th, 2025

From the Interview Archive: Dan Morgenstern and Christian Sands discuss the legacy of Erroll Garner

In this 2020 interview, the late jazz scholar Dan Morgenstern and pianist Christian Sands engage in a lively discussion that reminds readers of the brilliance of Erroll Garner

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December 16th, 2024

From the Interview Archive: Barry Lee Pearson, author of Robert Johnson: Lost and Found

The myths surrounding the life and career of blues legend Robert Johnson is discussed in a November, 2003 interview with the blues historian Barry Lee Pearson.

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October 18th, 2024

From the Interview Archive: David Amram, Jack Kerouac’s musical collaborator

Amram talks about his work with Kerouac blended poetry, jazz, blues, theatre and what is now considered performance art into an unforgettably intoxicating stew that became a life-changing experience for the many people who witnessed it.

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October 4th, 2024

From the Interview Archive: Neil Lanctot, author of Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution

In May of 2024, Major League Baseball announced that it is absorbing available Negro Leagues statistics into the sports official record books.  In this 2004 interview,  Neil Lanctot, who painstakingly reconstructed the institutional history of Black professional baseball, talks in detail about the league’s important role in the sport (and country) during the height of its existence.

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June 28th, 2024

From the Interview Archive: Jazz Producer, Discographer, and Entrepreneur Michael Cuscuna

Few music industry executives have had as meaningful an impact on jazz music as Michael Cuscuna, who passed away on April 20 at the age of 75.  He dedicated his life to music – particularly to the concept of mining and marketing the music recorded a generation ago by essential and under-appreciated jazz musicians buried deep in record label catalogs. 

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April 23rd, 2024

From the Interview Archive: Dunstan Prial, author of The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music

 . . In this 2006 interview, John Hammond biographer Dunstan Prial talks about the life and career of one of the most charismatic and powerful figures in the history of American music.   . . ___ . .     photo by David Schull . Dunstan Prial, author of The Producer: John Hammond and the … Continue readingFrom the Interview Archive: Dunstan Prial, author of The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music

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April 19th, 2024

From the Interview Archive: A 2011 conversation with Alyn Shipton, author of Hi-De-Ho: The Life of Cab Calloway

In this interview, Alyn Shipton discusses Cab Calloway, whose vocal theatrics and flamboyant stage presence made him one of the country’s most beloved entertainers.

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December 20th, 2023

From the Interview Archive: A 2013 conversation with Guthrie Ramsey, author of The Amazing Bud Powell: Black Genius, Jazz History, and the Challenge of Bebop

In a 2013 Jerry Jazz Musician interview,  Guthrie Ramsey talks about Bud Powell, one of the greatest pianist’s in jazz history, and the collision of two vibrant political economies: the discourses of art and the practice of Blackness.

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November 28th, 2023

Interview Archive: Gary Giddins on Thelonious Monk

The former Village Voice writer Gary Giddins, who was prominently featured in Ken Burns’ documentary Jazz, and who is the country’s preeminent jazz critic, joins us in a December 23, 2002 conversation about jazz legend Thelonious Monk.

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November 10th, 2023

Interview Archive…A 2006 conversation about historic New Orleans with Thomas Brothers, author of Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans

In a 2006 Jerry Jazz Musician interview, the eminent Louis Armstrong scholar Thomas Brothers talks about the city of New Orleans, and how it imprinted itself on a young Louis Armstrong…

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September 18th, 2023

Interview Archive: A conversation with Michael Dregni, author of Django: The Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend

Michael Dregni talks about the life of the acknowledged jazz master, Django Reinhardt – and the extraordinary times and circumstances in which he lived.

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May 6th, 2023

Site Archive

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Jerry Jazz Musician has been commercial-free since its inception in 1999. Your generous donation helps it remain that way. Thanks very much for your kind consideration.

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

Community

Calling All Poets…Submissions guidelines for the anthology “Black History in Poetry”...We are currently seeking poetry from writers of all backgrounds for Black History in Poetry, an anthology scheduled for publication in the Summer of 2026. The anthology will be a means of celebrating and honoring notable Black Americans by offering poetry that teems with imagery, observation, emotion, memory, testimony, insight, impact, and humanity. Our aim is to give readers a way to visualize Black history from a fresh perspective.

In This Issue

21 jazz poems on the 21st of October, 2025...An ongoing series designed to share the quality of jazz poetry continuously submitted to Jerry Jazz Musician. This edition features poems inspired by the late Chuck Mangione, several on other trumpeters, the blues, and nods to Monk, Ornette Coleman, Coltrane, and Sonny Rollins.

Poetry

Monk, as seen by Gottlieb, Dorsett and 16 poets – an ekphrastic poetry collection...Poets write about Thelonious Monk – inspired by William Gottlieb’s photograph and Rhonda R. Dorsett’s artistic impression of it.

Publisher’s Notes

A dispatch from Portland, 2025 – and Boston, 1969...Peaceful protest is nothing new to America. It is happening every day in Portland, where I live. It is what makes our country great. And those of us who grew up in the 1960’s probably have a history of protest – some turning violent – ourselves. The poet Russell Dupont shares text and photos from his experience while photographing the October, 1969 March against the [Vietnam] War in Boston, when plainclothes Federal officers attempted to confiscate his camera.

The Sunday Poem

”Dance Naked with Your Poems and Howl at the Lilac Moon” by Namaya

The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.... Namaya reads his poem at its conclusion


Click here to read previous editions of The Sunday Poem

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.

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.

Short Fiction

Short Fiction Contest-winning story #69 – “My Vertical Landscape,” by Felicia A. Rivers...Touched by the stories of the Philadelphia jazz clubs of the 1960s, a graffiti artist transforms an ugly wall into something beautiful – meaningful, even.

Poetry

photo via Wikimedia Commons
Jimi Hendrix - in four poems

Short Fiction

“Alas, for My Poor Heart” – a short story by Daryl Rothman...The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – concerns art and its truest meanings—where you just might have to look twice at what the shadow and light of a piece says about that within your soul.

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.

Short Fiction

“Heroics” – a short story by Michele Herman...The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – is about brothers coping with an angry father whose solution for dealing with a family crisis is to take them to a Howard Johnson’s for ice cream.

Feature

Jazz History Quiz #184...Maurice Ravel (pictured) acknowledged basing his Bolero on an improvisation of this clarinetist, who was also influential in the careers of Benny Goodman and Nat Cole, who made famous this musician’s theme song, “Sweet Lorraine.” Who is he?

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. 26: “Bougainvillea Sutra”...An occasional series of the writer’s poetic interpretations of jazz recordings and film. In this edition, his inspiration comes from the guitarist John Scofield’s 2013 EmArcy album Uberjam Deux, and specifically the track titled “Scotown.”

Short Fiction

photo via Wikimedia Commons
“Apparitions” – a short story by Salvatore Difalco...The story – a short-listed entry in the recently concluded 69th Short Fiction Contest – is about a Sicilian immigrant with an interesting history in traditional string instruments and Sicilian puppet theater.

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.”

Publisher’s Notes

Creatives – “This is our time!“…A Letter from the Publisher...A call to action to take on political turmoil through the use of our creativity as a way to help our fellow citizens “pierce the mundane to find the marvelous.”

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.

Feature

William Gottlieb/Library of Congress
“Lester Young Cools a Village” – by Henry Blanke...On the origins of cool, and the influence (and greatness) of Lester Young.

Interview

photo Louis Armstrong House Museum
Interview with Ricky Riccardi, author of Stomp Off, Let’s Go: The Early Years of Louis Armstrong...The author discusses the third volume of his trilogy, which includes the formation of the Armstrong-led ensembles known as the Hot Five and Hot Seven that modernized music, the way artists play it, and how audiences interact with it and respond to it.

Poetry

photo via pixabay
“Sensual Autumn” – a poem (for September) by Jerrice J. Baptiste...Jerrice J. Baptiste’s 12-month 2025 calendar of jazz poetry winds through the year with her poetic grace while inviting us to wander through music by the likes of Charlie Parker, Hoagy Carmichael, Frank Sinatra, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Sarah Vaughan, Melody Gardot and Nina Simone. She welcomes September with a poem of love that brings to mind the music of Joe Pass.

Essay

“Is Jazz God?” – an essay by Allison Songbird...A personal journey leads to the discovery of the importance of jazz music, and finding love for it later in life.

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.

Playlist

“Look Ma, No Net!” – a playlist of nonets, by Bob Hecht...In this episode of our progressive instrumentation playlists, we add a ninth instrument to the mix to form a Nonet!

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......  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.