Results for "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 ...

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. ...

Adithya Vaidhyan

Born: January 2, 2002

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 ...

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), ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...

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 ...