Saxophonist, band-leader and writer Loren Schoenberg, now Executive Director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, spent an interesting childhood and teenager-hood growing up in New Jersey in the 1970s, meeting and befriending both Teddy Wilson and Hank Jones, and ultimately becoming employed by Wilson's famous '30s boss, Benny Goodman. Schoenberg was first an assistant to Goodman and then Goodman's manager, and, as a tenor saxophonist, formed the big band that Goodman was eventually to lead himself for a year until his death in 1986.
Schoenberg is also a jazz and classical music historian, a two-time Grammy winner for his historical essays accompanying box set releases from Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. In addition to essays published in reference books such as the Oxford Companion To Jazz, he is also the author of The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Jazz, published by Penguin Books in 2002 with a forward by Wynton Marsalis.
The Museum recently acquired the Savory Jazz Collection—a treasure trove of live recordings of the leading figures of swing made by jazz fan and Harvard drop-out Bill Savory—and it seemed like the perfect time for All About Jazz contributor Simon Jay Harper to talk with Schoenberg about his own history, and this remarkable find of music from 1935-41, with performances by artists including Lester Young, Goodman, Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday and Coleman Hawkins.
Check out Loren Schoenberg: From Benny Goodman to The Savory Collection at All About Jazz today!
Schoenberg is also a jazz and classical music historian, a two-time Grammy winner for his historical essays accompanying box set releases from Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. In addition to essays published in reference books such as the Oxford Companion To Jazz, he is also the author of The NPR Curious Listener's Guide to Jazz, published by Penguin Books in 2002 with a forward by Wynton Marsalis.
The Museum recently acquired the Savory Jazz Collection—a treasure trove of live recordings of the leading figures of swing made by jazz fan and Harvard drop-out Bill Savory—and it seemed like the perfect time for All About Jazz contributor Simon Jay Harper to talk with Schoenberg about his own history, and this remarkable find of music from 1935-41, with performances by artists including Lester Young, Goodman, Roy Eldridge, Billie Holiday and Coleman Hawkins.
Check out Loren Schoenberg: From Benny Goodman to The Savory Collection at All About Jazz today!
