Childhood Heroes — We all had them
Excerpted from exclusive Jerry Jazz Musician interviews, our guests talk of theirs.
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Reverend Ralph David Abernathy’s daughter Donzaleigh Abernathy
Low Down: junk, jazz, and other fairy tales from childhood author Amy Albany
Bessie Smith biographer Chris Albertson
Jack Kerouac collaborator David Amram
Jazz Modernism author Alfred Appel
Joshua Berrett, author of Louis Armstrong and Paul Whiteman: Two Kings of Jazz
New Yorker writer Whitney Balliett
Anthony Bianco, author of Ghosts of 42nd Street: A History of America’s Most Infamous Block
Arc of Justice author Kevin Boyle
New York Times writer, Stork Club author Ralph Blumenthal
Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890 – 1919 author Tim Brooks
Louis Armstrong’s New Orleans author Thomas Brothers
Madam C.J. Walker biographer A’Lelia Bundles
Ralph Ellison ‘s literary executor John Callahan
New York Mayor John Lindsay historian Vincent Cannato
Free Speech Movement historian Robert Cohen
World War II historian David Colley
Gil Evans biographer Stephanie Stein Crease
Cultural critic Stanley Crouch
Writer, critic Francis Davis
Bayrd Rustin biographer John D’Emilio
Chet Baker biographer Jeroen de Valk
Django Reinhardt biographer Michael Dregni
Cultural critic Gerald Early
Bobby Darin biographer David Evanier
Jazz poet Sascha Feinstein
Stardust Melodies writer Will Friedwald
Chet Baker biographer James Gavin
Blowin’ Hot and Cool: Jazz and Its Critics author John Gennari
Bing Crosby biographer Gary Giddins
Ken Burns advisor Matt Glaser
Beat poet Gary Glazner
Harlem Globetrotters biographer Ben Green
Sam Cooke biographer Peter Guralnick
Billie Holiday historian Farah Griffin
Kansas City Jazz: From Ragtime to Bebop — A History author Chuck Haddix
Complete Poems of Kenneth Rexroth editor Sam Hamill
Journalist Nat Hentoff
Ralph Ellison biographer Lawrence Jackson
Making of Kind of Blue author Ashley Kahn
Zora Neale Hurston: A Life in Leters editor Carla Kaplan
Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original author Robin D. G. Kelley
Boogaloo: The Quintessance of American Popular Music author Arthur Kempton
Jazz on the River author William Howland Kenney
Ralph Ellison documentarian Avon Kirkland
Rahsaan Roland Kirk biographer John Kruth
Negro League Baseball: The Rise and Ruin of a Black Institution author Neil Lanctot
Critic and writer, Gene Lees
Tony Award winning playwright Warren Leight
Hip: The History author John Leland
Nelson Riddle biographer Peter Levinson
The Burning author Tim Madigan
Fletcher Henderson biographer Jeffrey Magee
They Marched Into Sunlight author David Maraniss
Beyond Glory: Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling, and a World on the Brink author David Margolick
Matterhorn: A Novel of the Vietnam War author Karl Marlantes
Pulitzer Prize winning author Diane McWhorter
Billy Tipton biographer Diane Wood Middlebrook
Musician, writer Max Morath
Jazz historian, Living With Jazz author Dan Morgenstern
Author, critic Albert Murray
Seriously Funny author Gerald Nachman
Sonny Rollins biographer Eric Nisenson
Paul Bowles biographer Cherie Nutting
Writer Robert O’Meally
Jelly Roll Morton biographer Phil Pastras
Robert Johnson: Lost and Found author Barry Lee Pearson
The Producer: John Hammond and the Soul of American Music author Dunstan Prial
Chasin’ The Bird : The Life and Legacy of Charlie Parker author Brian Priestley
Ralph Ellison in America author Horace Porter
Paul Desmond biographer Doug Ramsey
New York Times jazz critic Ben Ratliff
Saxophonist Joshua Redman
Writer Ishmael Reed
W.C. Handy biographer David Robertson
Richard Wright biographer Hazel Rowley
Reverend C.L. Franklin biographer Nick Salvatore
Bill Evans biographer Keith Shadwick
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Cab Calloway biographer Alyn Shipton
Jackie Robinson biographer, NPR journalist Scott Simon
Lenny Bruce biographer David Skover
Comedian Tom Smothers
Hoagy Carmichael biographer Richard Sudhalter
Miles Davis biographer John Szwed
Jazz photographer Lee Tanner
Journalist Terry Teachout
Can’t Find My Way Home: America in the Great Stoned Age, 1945 – 2000 author Martin Torgoff
Pianist McCoy Tyner
Jack Johnson biographer Geoffrey Ward
Flying over 96th Street: Memoir of an East Harlem White Boy author Thomas Webber
Newport Jazz Festival founder George Wein
Satchmo Blows Up the World author Penny Von Eschen
Fire in a Canebrake author Laura Wexler
Our Mothers’ War: American Women at Home and at the Front During World War II author Emily Yellin
Mitchell and Ruff biographer William Zinsser
Dixie Hummingbirds biographer Jerry Zolten
