Eddie Durham: The Jazz Innovator a City Refuses to Forget

Eddie Durham's Legacy

Few names in jazz carry the quiet weight of Eddie Durham. Born in San Marcos, Texas, in 1906, Durham was a trombonist, guitarist, composer, and arranger whose fingerprints are all over the sound of swing. He was a pioneering electric guitarist—the first to record with the instrument—and a key arranger for Bennie Moten, Jimmie Lunceford, Count Basie, and Glenn Miller. Durham helped shape the Count Basie Orchestra's small-group feel, expanded orchestral voicings in ways that gave the band its distinctive resonance, and arranged the immortal "In the Mood" for Glenn Miller.

Calaboose African American History Museum

The Calaboose African American History Museum in San Marcos has become the spiritual home of Durham's legacy. Located in the former Hays County Jail and later a WWII-era USO for Black soldiers, the Calaboose houses artifacts, handwritten scores, photographs, and instruments that connect visitors to Durham's contributions. The museum maintains a permanent Eddie Durham exhibit, highlighting his role as both a musical innovator and a local figure whose reach extended worldwide.

The Calaboose also anchors the annual Eddie Durham Jazz Festival, blending music, history, and community celebration. It stands as a rare example of a small-town museum preserving the story of a jazz figure whose work influenced the entire trajectory of American music.

San Marcos: A Community Connection

San Marcos has embraced Eddie Durham in ways few cities embrace their jazz legacies. The city named a park in his honor, supports the festival through the San Marcos Arts Commission, and continues to host educational and cultural programming around his name. Texas State University has further amplified his story through its Hill Country Jazz Festival, which added the Eddie Durham Celebration in 2004. Over the years, the event has brought guest artists such as Clark Terry, Randy Brecker, Rufus Reid, and Loren Schoenberg, and it has featured lectures by Dan Morgenstern, linking Durham's history to new generations of players and listeners."I can't think of very many places in the United States that are doing something like this. What's happening here in San Marcos is unique—and incredibly important." —Saxophonist Doug Lawrence

My Perspective

I've been fortunate to play piano for the Eddie Durham Celebrations since their beginning. My work as a National Endowment for the Arts grant recipient also led me to produce All About Eddie, a short NEA-funded film featuring recollections from Dan Morgenstern and Loren Schoenberg. Their testimonies remind us just how essential Durham was—not just a sideman, but an architect of swing, and one of jazz's underrecognized innovators.

For me, the connection is more than historical. It is personal and community-based: celebrating Durham means celebrating the cultural fabric of San Marcos, where music, memory, and identity converge.

Legacy in Motion

Durham died in 1987, but his music lives on through the Calaboose Museum, the park that bears his name, the annual celebrations, and the city that proudly calls him a native son.

As the Eddie Durham Jazz Festival returns on October 11, 2025 with music, art, and film across Eddie Durham Park and the Cephas House, it will serve less as a promotion of an event than as a testament—that jazz history can be remembered, renewed, and celebrated by a community that understands the weight of its past.

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