Stanford's Celebrated Archive of Recorded Sound to provide continuous stream of Jim Cullum Jr.'s radio programs beginning 2013.
“Fans will be able to view an extensive collection of Riverwalk Jazz ephemera like, posters, photos, behind the scenes broadcast elements and artist correspondence at the Library and listen to the entire collection online beginning 2013 and for generations to come," says Margaret Moos Pick, the show's Executive Producer.
Riverwalk Jazz, now in its 22nd season, is distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) and heard on stations in more than 200 cities across North America. “Riverwalk Jazz has, since its debut in 1989, been one of the finest of all jazz radio series," said Los Angeles Times critic Scott Yanow.
Securing a long term future for music documentaries, created as part of the Riverwalk Jazz public radio series and featuring jazz luminaries Lionel Hampton Harry "Sweets" Edison Doc Cheatham Clark Terry and Milt Hinton among others, has been a concern of the producers. Programs now stored on fragile reel-to-reel tape and aging DATS will be converted to stable formats at the celebrated Archive of Recorded Sound at Stanford University Libraries.
Beginning in 2013, the Archive of Recorded Sound will offer a continuous audio stream of all Riverwalk's programs, telling the story of jazz from its earliest beginnings up to the bebop era of the mid-1940s. Live performances by an all-star cast led by The Jim Cullum Jazz Band with piano legend Dick Hyman guitar giant Paul Mehling and his Hot Club of San Francisco, New Orleans' Topsy Chapman, Vernel Bagneris, Duke Heitger and Evan Christopher, plus piano dynamo Shelly Berg, vocalists Rebecca Kilgore and Nina Ferro are frequently heard on the much-loved program series. Co-host David Holt's narratives layered with music beds of historical recordings cast the spotlight on historically important jazz solos and illustrate classic jazz styles. “Nothing like this is available anywhere else," said bandleader and creative director Jim Cullum.
The acquisition consolidates Stanford's reputation for considerable clout in jazz. In a sense, the Cullum partnership with the Stanford University Libraries was born at Stanford's Jazz Workshop. Cullum and his band members were resident teachers and performers there for more than a decade and “contributed to the vibrancy of the program," said Jim Nadel, director and founder of the Summer Jazz Camp and the Jazz Residency programs. Nadel described Cullum as an “upbeat guy, and also a great leader." Noting that the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound already has the recordings of the Monterey Jazz Festival, he said that the new donation raises its stature as an important jazz archive.
Jazz in his blood
Cullum's connection to jazz is almost genetic. The San Antonio-based musician is the son of a prominent jazz musician, Jim Cullum, Sr."My parents were jazz crazy. Their stories are manic and full of the music," Cullum said. His father, a clarinetist, played with such major jazz figures as Jimmy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden in the 1940s. Though Cullum, who turns 70 this month, was initially attracted to the trombone, he caught sight of an antique cornet in a window as a young teenager. Love at first sight. He bought a used cornet for $8 and an instruction book for $1, and taught himself to play the instrument. “He started out from birth immersed in the music," said Nadel. “So that gives him sort of a special status. Music is open—you never master it. You can continue growing as long as you want to practice and pursue it."
Jim Cullum Sr. died in 1973. “He had a great life in music," said his son. In addition to playing music, however, “He also realized that what we were doing was unusual. He would save everything. Every photo, every newspaper clipping." Cullum continued the family penchant for collecting. From one perspective, his first act of preservation was the choice of music itself, a brand of jazz that reinvigorated “the early jazz and swing music of the pre- bebop days." That is the mandate of his seven-piece acoustic ensemble, with its historically- appropriate instruments. His interest in conserving, even from the early days, was indicative of his academic training: he studied history at Trinity University.
But is it also an indication of his musical bent? Jazz is always a balance between the mind and the heart—but Cullum is not primarily a man of the head. “I think Jim Cullum's approach is very melodic. He sings through the cornet. He plays from his heart," said Nadel. “He also has extraordinary technique and facility and is always melodic and accessible."
Riverwalk Jazz was created in 1989 as part of Texas Public Radio, eventually expanding to a 52-week hourly series. Its documentary programs became important keepers of jazz history, according to renowned jazz writer Nat Hentofff. It expanded to XM Sirius satellite radio and Sprint cellphone content delivery, as well as a website, Facebook and Twitter.
In the last decade, it also developed an education outreach curriculum for children.
Clearly, Cullum had become one of the great conservators of jazz. But like all conservators, he began to wonder where the treasure would eventually wind up. “In this rapidly changing arena of recorded sound, I became fascinated with the idea of streaming our programs for the world to hear for decades to come on the web," he said. Given his interests in jazz education, he sought an educational rather than a commercial venue.
The Stanford Jazz residency helped make the decision: “I gained not only an affection for Stanford, but met a lot of people there," he said. Some of his father's archives are already housed at Stanford. But mostly the choice was based on the reputation of the Stanford University Libraries and its Archive of Recorded Sound. “The Stanford libraries and the Archive of Recorded Sound, to put it in musicians' terms, 'have the most chops,' “ Cullum said. “It was the greatest repository for it that I could envision. I hope a lot of people around the world will be able to listen to it when we stream it." For Cullum, it's part of the effort to change lives with sound: “Some of the early jazz is so beautifully conceived and executed, it can become a real stimulus in one's life—and make a difference in one's life," he said. “It can become an energy."
To drive home his point, Cullum recalled attending last month's Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival in Davenport, Iowa. He was the oldest person in a hotel room full of “beautiful kids, some of them musicians, some of them jazz fanatics." He played old 78 rpm records of jazz, circa 1925 to the mid-30s. “Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson—one cut after another. When the records were on, they were completely silent, on Cloud 9...It transcends all generations. A beautiful thing is always a beautiful thing," he said. “There's a beauty there that most young Americans are unaware of. To learn of it is valuable, and it can mean a lot to people's lives."
“It doesn't have to be cool. It doesn't have to be the latest thing—just go with it and see what's there. Jazz can do it to you."
“Fans will be able to view an extensive collection of Riverwalk Jazz ephemera like, posters, photos, behind the scenes broadcast elements and artist correspondence at the Library and listen to the entire collection online beginning 2013 and for generations to come," says Margaret Moos Pick, the show's Executive Producer.
Riverwalk Jazz, now in its 22nd season, is distributed by Public Radio International (PRI) and heard on stations in more than 200 cities across North America. “Riverwalk Jazz has, since its debut in 1989, been one of the finest of all jazz radio series," said Los Angeles Times critic Scott Yanow.
Securing a long term future for music documentaries, created as part of the Riverwalk Jazz public radio series and featuring jazz luminaries Lionel Hampton Harry "Sweets" Edison Doc Cheatham Clark Terry and Milt Hinton among others, has been a concern of the producers. Programs now stored on fragile reel-to-reel tape and aging DATS will be converted to stable formats at the celebrated Archive of Recorded Sound at Stanford University Libraries.
Beginning in 2013, the Archive of Recorded Sound will offer a continuous audio stream of all Riverwalk's programs, telling the story of jazz from its earliest beginnings up to the bebop era of the mid-1940s. Live performances by an all-star cast led by The Jim Cullum Jazz Band with piano legend Dick Hyman guitar giant Paul Mehling and his Hot Club of San Francisco, New Orleans' Topsy Chapman, Vernel Bagneris, Duke Heitger and Evan Christopher, plus piano dynamo Shelly Berg, vocalists Rebecca Kilgore and Nina Ferro are frequently heard on the much-loved program series. Co-host David Holt's narratives layered with music beds of historical recordings cast the spotlight on historically important jazz solos and illustrate classic jazz styles. “Nothing like this is available anywhere else," said bandleader and creative director Jim Cullum.
The acquisition consolidates Stanford's reputation for considerable clout in jazz. In a sense, the Cullum partnership with the Stanford University Libraries was born at Stanford's Jazz Workshop. Cullum and his band members were resident teachers and performers there for more than a decade and “contributed to the vibrancy of the program," said Jim Nadel, director and founder of the Summer Jazz Camp and the Jazz Residency programs. Nadel described Cullum as an “upbeat guy, and also a great leader." Noting that the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound already has the recordings of the Monterey Jazz Festival, he said that the new donation raises its stature as an important jazz archive.
Jazz in his blood
Cullum's connection to jazz is almost genetic. The San Antonio-based musician is the son of a prominent jazz musician, Jim Cullum, Sr."My parents were jazz crazy. Their stories are manic and full of the music," Cullum said. His father, a clarinetist, played with such major jazz figures as Jimmy Dorsey and Jack Teagarden in the 1940s. Though Cullum, who turns 70 this month, was initially attracted to the trombone, he caught sight of an antique cornet in a window as a young teenager. Love at first sight. He bought a used cornet for $8 and an instruction book for $1, and taught himself to play the instrument. “He started out from birth immersed in the music," said Nadel. “So that gives him sort of a special status. Music is open—you never master it. You can continue growing as long as you want to practice and pursue it."
Jim Cullum Sr. died in 1973. “He had a great life in music," said his son. In addition to playing music, however, “He also realized that what we were doing was unusual. He would save everything. Every photo, every newspaper clipping." Cullum continued the family penchant for collecting. From one perspective, his first act of preservation was the choice of music itself, a brand of jazz that reinvigorated “the early jazz and swing music of the pre- bebop days." That is the mandate of his seven-piece acoustic ensemble, with its historically- appropriate instruments. His interest in conserving, even from the early days, was indicative of his academic training: he studied history at Trinity University.
But is it also an indication of his musical bent? Jazz is always a balance between the mind and the heart—but Cullum is not primarily a man of the head. “I think Jim Cullum's approach is very melodic. He sings through the cornet. He plays from his heart," said Nadel. “He also has extraordinary technique and facility and is always melodic and accessible."
Riverwalk Jazz was created in 1989 as part of Texas Public Radio, eventually expanding to a 52-week hourly series. Its documentary programs became important keepers of jazz history, according to renowned jazz writer Nat Hentofff. It expanded to XM Sirius satellite radio and Sprint cellphone content delivery, as well as a website, Facebook and Twitter.
In the last decade, it also developed an education outreach curriculum for children.
Clearly, Cullum had become one of the great conservators of jazz. But like all conservators, he began to wonder where the treasure would eventually wind up. “In this rapidly changing arena of recorded sound, I became fascinated with the idea of streaming our programs for the world to hear for decades to come on the web," he said. Given his interests in jazz education, he sought an educational rather than a commercial venue.
The Stanford Jazz residency helped make the decision: “I gained not only an affection for Stanford, but met a lot of people there," he said. Some of his father's archives are already housed at Stanford. But mostly the choice was based on the reputation of the Stanford University Libraries and its Archive of Recorded Sound. “The Stanford libraries and the Archive of Recorded Sound, to put it in musicians' terms, 'have the most chops,' “ Cullum said. “It was the greatest repository for it that I could envision. I hope a lot of people around the world will be able to listen to it when we stream it." For Cullum, it's part of the effort to change lives with sound: “Some of the early jazz is so beautifully conceived and executed, it can become a real stimulus in one's life—and make a difference in one's life," he said. “It can become an energy."
To drive home his point, Cullum recalled attending last month's Bix Beiderbecke Jazz Festival in Davenport, Iowa. He was the oldest person in a hotel room full of “beautiful kids, some of them musicians, some of them jazz fanatics." He played old 78 rpm records of jazz, circa 1925 to the mid-30s. “Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson—one cut after another. When the records were on, they were completely silent, on Cloud 9...It transcends all generations. A beautiful thing is always a beautiful thing," he said. “There's a beauty there that most young Americans are unaware of. To learn of it is valuable, and it can mean a lot to people's lives."
“It doesn't have to be cool. It doesn't have to be the latest thing—just go with it and see what's there. Jazz can do it to you."
