Jazz Information


Jazz Information was an American non-commercial weekly jazz publication founded as a record collector's sheet in 1939 by Eugene Williams, Ralph Gleason, Ralph de Toledano, and Jean Rayburn, who married Ralph Gleason in 1940.

History

The first issue, dated September 8, 1939, was a four-page newsletter that was mimeographed late one night in the back room of the Commodore Music Shop in Manhattan at 46 West 52nd Street. In July 1940, Jazz Information, went from a newsletter to a little magazine format, hip pocket in size with modest typesetting. George Hoefer, Jr., began the "Safety Valve" column on collecting, collectors, and how collectors annoyed musicians. The publication ran sporadically until November 1941.

Editorial bent

Stephen W Smith, editor of the Hot Record Society Rag, leaned towards what then was progressive jazz. Eugene Williams, through Jazz Information, leaned towards a New Orleans revivalists bent.

Record label

Jazz Information was a record label distributed by Commodore Records that produced recordings of Bunk Johnson in 1942. Bill Russell, while gathering material for Jazzmen in 1938, discovered long forgotten New Orleans trumpeter Bunk Johnson on a farm in New Iberia, Louisiana. In 1942, Russell helped get Johnson a new set of teeth and a new trumpet. And, with Eugene Williams, editor if Jazz Information in New York; and Dave Stuart, owner of the Jazz Man Record Shop in Hollywood, traveled to New Orleans and made the first recordings of Bunk Johnson.

Selected articles

  • "Zue Robertson: King of the Trombone", by William Russell 1 : 3
  • "Omer Simeon", by Herman Rosenberg & Eugene Williams, Vol. 2, No. 1, July 26, 1940, pps. 8–9
  • "William Russell", by Ed Nylund, Vol. 2, No. 2, August 9, 1940, pps. 15–16
  • "Ma Rainey Discography,", by William C. Love, Vol. 2, September 6, 1940, pps. 9–14
  • "Jimmie Noone", by Wesley Miles Neff of Chicago, Vol 2, October 4, 1940, pps. 6–9, 45
  • "Cow Cow Davenport", by Donald Haynes, Vol. 2, October 25, 1940, pps. 8–10
  • "Barney Bigard", by George Hoefer, Jr., Vol. 2, November 8, 1940, pps. 7–13
  • "Little Mitch", by Wesley Miles Neff, Vol. 2, No. 16, November 1941, pps. 31–32
  • "A History of Jazz Information", by Eugene Williams, Vol. 2, November 1941, pps. 93–101
  • "New Orleans Clarinets: 2 – Edmond Hall", by Herman Rosenberg & Eugene Williams, Vol. 2, No. 2, August 9, 1940
  • "New Orleans Clarinets: 7 – Sidney Bechet", by Mary Evelyn Karoley , Vol. 2, No. 8, December 6, 1940
  • Jazzways, George Sigmund Rosenthal & Frank Zachary ''

    Selected discography

  • Freddie Keppard
  • Ollie Powers
  • Leola B. Wilson
  • Trixie Smith
  • Red Onion Jazz Babies
  • Bunk Johnson
  • Bunny Berigan
  • Frank Froeba
  • Don Albert
  • Boots and His Buddies
  • Carolina Cotton Pickers
  • Ernie Fields
  • Louis Armstrong
  • Joe Newman
  • Gerry Mulligan
  • Bunk Johnson

    Personnel

Magazine staff

Library access

Re-publications

  • Online transcriptions, current and archived


























Annotations

Books, journals, magazines, and papers



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  • Retrieved May 18, 2019 – via – jazz forum site that was active for 16 years, through January 2019, registered to and maintained by Jesse Miner, a San Francisco area chef and jazz history enthusiast. The forum boards were closed in January 2019, but much of its content, as of May 2022, is accessible. The 23 links to transcripts of Jazz Information on a former website of the late Joseph Elbert Shepherd of Sterling, Virginia, have been archived by Wayback Machine.

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Category:1939 establishments in [the United States]
Category:Classical music record labels
Category:American jazz record labels
Category:Record labels based in New Jersey
Category:Mail-order retailers
Category:Defunct record labels of the United States