History of Jazz

His Name was Tommy Sims. He played Trumpet. Too Bad You Probably Never Heard Him

by Richard J Salvucci
September 11, 2026

Ok, this one is strictly for jazz nuts--and a specific subset known as trumpet players and aficionados. Not everyone who likes jazz necessarily digs trumpet players, and those who do rarely agree on what constitutes a good one. Believe me, the sectarian differences would make an Anabaptist tremble, because this isn't just music; it's a religion. To truly understand, you have to have had carnal relations with the “Brass Beast," preferably over many years and across four or five octaves. ...

John Coltrane in Detroit: A Brief History

by Paul Rauch
September 8, 2026

When the calendar turned to 2026, a spirit of celebration was sparked in the jazz community. It marked one hundred years from the birth dates of two jazz titans in John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Coltrane departed us in 1967 from cancer, a life of barely more than forty years that changed the course of jazz. He had forged his approach to playing as a member of Davis' groundbreaking, mid-1950s sextet. Davis, after a brief hiatus in the mid 1970s, ...

The Only Radio Station in the World With a Real Bar: Philly Jazz, The Click, and Other Postwar Ephemera

by Richard J Salvucci
June 10, 2026

If you don't know the name Frank Palumbo, you are not a Philadelphian. If you never went to Palumbo's or to the CR Club, you are not a Philadelphian of a certain age. And if you remember the Click, much less went there, you've reached a stage in life when you look in the mirror and see your parents. Because for a few glorious moments in the late 1940s, Philadelphia was one of the jazz radio beacons in the country. ...

In Circuses and Carnivals, Sideshows Brought Black Music To The Heartland

by Arthur R George
May 30, 2026

Black musicians in circus and carnival sideshow bands from the late 1800s well into the Twentieth Century brought ragtime and what would become jazz and rhythm and blues to white audiences deep into Midwest agricultural regions. Trumpeter Lester Bowie, later known for the avant-garde Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), Art Ensemble of Chicago, and Brass Fantasy, joined circus and carnival bands early in his career when he needed any job he could get, ...

Honky Tonk at Seventy

by Daniel Gould
May 17, 2026

Seventy years ago this summer, a group of jazz men made a record that became the genre's first million-seller. The group was the Bill Doggett Combo, and the track was “Honky Tonk, Parts 1 & 2" (King, 1956). It sold 4 million copies worldwide and went to #2 (Pop) and #1 (R&B). While Bill Doggett always said that the group spontaneously created the song on a bandstand in Lima, Ohio, the full story is perhaps a bit more nuanced and ...

That's Club Harlem in West Philly, NOT Club Harlem in Atlantic City

by Richard J Salvucci
May 6, 2026

History can be a funny thing. The established story--the received wisdom--can be difficult to contest. And yet, there are subtle indications that something is not quite right. The weight of prejudice, self-interest, and or sheer inertia may stand in the way of getting things right. And material circumstances change too, especially over a lengthy period of time. Such would seem to be the story of the Club Harlem in Philadelphia, a kind of footnote to the history of jazz in ...

1502 Ridge Avenue and Other Extinct Philly Jazz Temples

by Richard J Salvucci
March 25, 2026

So we give Cannonball Adderley the floor. It is late 1955, and Adderley was in Philadelphia at the legendary Blue Note Café--yes, there was a Blue Note in Philly, in Chicago, and in New York, no kin to each other. Adderley was making an initial tour in the North, this after his sensational debut in Café Bohemia in New York. It isn't entirely clear who Adderley had with him in Philadelphia: he called them his “Florida men." And they had ...

Charlie Parker, Harry "Father" White, and Sweet Lucy

by Con Chapman
January 16, 2026

While it is undeniably true that formal education is generally a benefit both to the student and to society as a whole, it is equally indisputable that many jazz greats got their best education outside a classroom. Johnny Hodges claimed he got the nickname “Rabbit" from his ability to outrun truant officers. Charlie Parker said of his four years at Kansas City's Lincoln High School that he “Went in a freshman, and came out a freshman."

Vince Guaraldi’s Christmas Sauce: Adding Spice to Charlie Brown Vanilla

by Arthur R George
December 21, 2025

It's not simply that pianist Vince Guaraldi slipped jazz past the unsuspecting in composing A Charlie Brown Christmas, the evergreen “Peanuts" animation and soundtrack that has become inescapably part of the holiday. First broadcast in 1965, going on to six decades ago, A Charlie Brown Christmas is a tradition unto itself. It returns to television through PBS and PBS Kids on the evening of Sunday, December 19. Some who can't wait, or want to watch and listen again and again, ...

Tantilla's Majestic Grip on Richmond's Scene

by Troy Hoffman
August 6, 2025

The “South's most beautiful ballroom," Tantilla Gardens, at 3817 W. Broad Street, in Richmond, Virginia, was an acoustically treated structure built by the Byrd Theatre Group in 1933. The building stretched a block long, featuring nightly dancing, along with the Nation's greatest dance orchestras. This all took place on the second floor, atop Tiny Town Bowling Alleys, the “South's most modern bowling plant." Tantilla Gardens averaged at $1.50 entry fee per night ($30.00 in today's money) and had a capacity ...