One can never have too many Ella Fitzgerald records. She was remarkably consistent during her prime years (which lasted for over four decades) and was ...

Please Say You Will (1895) is Scott Joplin’s first published composition. Though the “I’m sorry, please take me back” lyrics (written by Joplin) are bland and one-dimensional, the music points forward ...

“Eureka!” the thundering cry of the Gold Rush! In 1848, gold was discovered at John Sutter’s Mill in Coloma located on the outskirts of Sacramento. Searching for this precious metal, thousands of ...

Since 2016, the New Orleans Ragtime Festival has been dedicated to preserving and promoting the vibrant legacy of ragtime music, vintage dance, and early American culture through world-class ...

Hal Smith: Hello to our readers! Thank you for your interest in the music of great American composer Fred Rose. Jeff Barnhart and I have one more article to share with you where we will talk about ...

Although he is rarely listed as one of the top prebop tenor-saxophonists along with Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Ben Webster, and Bud Freeman, Eddie Miller (1911-91) deserves to be ranked at that ...

Gregor Benko, a self-taught collector-historian who spent six decades tracking down lost recordings of the great Romantic-era pianists, died August 12 in Syracuse, NY. He was 82. Benko co-founded the ...

Elliott “Stackman” Callier, a saxophonist who split his life between New Orleans and Portland and spent decades as one of the city’s most in-demand horn men, died August 21 in New Orleans. He was 83.

Earl Bostic (1913-65) was a major name in the 1950s and early 1960s. A superb alto-saxophonist who had impeccable technique that always impressed his fellow musicians, Bostic had a string of popular ...

Mitchell Player, a bassist and music entrepreneur who became a fixture of the New Orleans traditional jazz scene, died September 9 in New Orleans of complications from a recent kidney transplant. A ...

Larry Linkin, who had a colorful career as a featured entertainer and the highly-successful head of the largest trade association in the music industry promoting ...