44 résultats
1939réf. 61627York Pennsylvania: The Valencia Ballroom 1939. Quarto. Spiral-bound leatherette boards hardcover; 94pp; illus. Trivial soil to covers with front board very slightly bowed at fore edge; internally fresh clean and unmarked; Near Fine. Promotional album for the storied Valencia Ballroom a popular musical venue during the Swing Band era. Strategically located on a route that connected New York Philadelphia and Baltimore the Valencia caught traveling orchestras on their way north or south thus bringing an impressive assortment of acts to the unlikely industrial city of York PA. Richly illustrated with photographs of the venue of the Tassia family owners and managers of the Valencia architectural views and dozens of portraits of the popular performers who played there including Eddie Duchin Kay Kyser Benny Goodman Sammy Kaye Guy Lombardo Bunny Berrigan the Dorseys and a host of others. Though the Valencia clearly favored white orchestras a few noteworthy African-American performers appeared there regularly and are pictured including Jimmy Lunceford Cab Calloway Duke Ellington and Claude Hopkins. A lavishly-produced souvenir and highly uncommon; OCLC notes four locations and we trace no other copies in the trade. The Valencia Ballroom unknown books
1924réf. List3678New York City: Clarence Williams 1924. Folio measuring 12 x 9 inches 5 pp. With an attractive period style illustration by Sydney Leff with his printed signature in the lower right corner. Fine condition. A very scarce surviving example of the sheet music for "Cakewalking Babies from Home" a cornerstone early jazz-blues composition issued through Clarence Williams’s publishing enterprise at the moment when New Orleans–derived ensemble practice was reshaping American popular music. Written by Williams with Chris Smith and Henry Troy the piece bridges late ragtime syncopation and emerging small-group jazz textures. Though widely disseminated through performance and recording it appears to have circulated only sparingly as domestic sheet music. The song achieved lasting fame through the celebrated 1924 New York recording sessions by the Clarence Williams Blue Five Okeh 8256 featuring Eva Taylor vocal Louis Armstrong cornet Sidney Bechet soprano saxophone Clarence Williams piano and Buddy Christian banjo; a landmark early small-ensemble performance often cited for its dynamic Armstrong–Bechet interplay and its role in defining early jazz ensemble language.12 Circulating widely among classic blues singers vaudeville performers and musicians within Williams’s publishing network and the TOBA circuit the composition reflects the porous boundary between theatrical blues dance music and emerging jazz repertory in mid-1920s Harlem and Chicago. As noted in Smithsonian jazz educational materials “the roots of jazz are heard clearly… in ‘Cake Walking Babies from Home’”.3 Despite its well-documented performance and recording history institutional holdings of the sheet music itself appear extremely limited. We locate a single copy at the Stanley King Jazz Collection at Oberlin with none presently recorded in OCLC. 1 Brian Rust Jazz records 1897–1942 Arlington House Publishers 1978. 2 Tom Lord Jazz Discography Lord Music Reference Inc. 1992. 3 “Act 3. New York Introduction: 1924–1925” Smithsonian Louis Armstrong Education Kit https://amhistory.si.edu/jazz/education/Act3.pdf. Clarence Williams unknown books
1964réf. 1513341964. unbound. Signatures by Percy Humphrey Jim Robinson Albert Burbank James "Sing" Miller Louis Barbario and Narvin Kimball who appended his instrument banjo to his signature decorate the verso of the album sleeve corners slightly bumped small stain on verso does not obscure signatures. 12 1/2" x 12 1/2". No place no date. Circa 1964. Fine condition. unknown books
1950réf. 223221950. Complete 1950 run of Jazz Journal Vol. 3 Nos. 1-12. London: L. M. Publications 1950. Complete run of the 1950 volume. Twelve issues with each issue around 20 pages. Black-and-white photo illustrations throughout. Printed paper wraps. Founded in 1948 by editor Sinclair Traill Jazz Journal became a critical platform for serious jazz criticism in Britain at a time when the country began appreciating the impact of African American musical innovation. This volume features twelve monthly issues each spotlighting legendary musicians in deeply reverent portraits: Louis Armstrong Baby Dodds Coleman Hawkins Fats Waller Earl Hines and others. The December cover has a Christmas theme. This archive is a window into Britain's postwar jazz awakening. The articles range from retrospectives to musicology and artist discographies. Floyd Levin's "The American Jazz Scene" captures the transatlantic tone of the journal mourning the death of Buster Wilson and lauding figures like Sidney Anderson and Kid Ory as vanguards of "authentic" jazz-framed as endangered in a postwar America increasingly seduced by commercialism. Meanwhile Derrick Stewart-Baxter's "Preachin' the Blues" traces rural-to-urban migration patterns in blues development analyzing Sleepy John Estes' discography and folk influences. The December issue features a full-page bibliophilic essay "A Case for Books" reviewing A Treasury of the Blues by W. C. Handy whom it names "the composer of the classic Memphis Blues and Joe Turner Blues" emphasizing the book's role in preserving "the true and historical survey of the blues." Taken together the essays discographies and image curation construct a coherent theory of jazz not only as music but as cultural heritage. Moderate and consistent soiling and creasing to wrappers; binding intact but some covers remain delicate. Occasional chipping at spine. Covers remain vivid with strong photographic contrasts. Overall good condition. A complete year's run of one of the earliest and most influential British jazz journals with signatures from leading musicians of the era such as Armstrong Dodds and Hawkins. unknown books
1921réf. 82277New York: Palmetto Music Pub. Co 1921. First Edition. Slim quarto 30.5cm; original pictorial wrappers; 6pp. Moderate wear handling and dust-soil to wrappers some creases and edge-tears with inner spine-fold archivally reinforced with a patch of paper tape remnant to upper end of same; complete Good to Very Good. One of the earliest hits by African American songwriter and composer Thomas Henry Delaney 1889-1963. Born in Charleston SC he would eventually become one of the most popular jazz and blues composers on Tin Pan Alley. The front wrapper reproduces a photograph of Lucille Nelson Hegamin 1894-1970 backed by the band Albury's Blues and Jazz Seven. In 1920 she became the second African American blues singer to record following Mamie Smith and Perry Bradford's August 1920 recording of "Crazy Blues." She recorded "Jazz-Me Blues" in 1921 backed by her husband Bill and his band the Blue Flame Syncopators; thanks to her recording Delaney's song would go on to become a jazz standard. OCLC notes a scant 8 holdings. 82277. Palmetto Music Pub. Co unknown books
1925réf. List3672New York City: Henry Waterson Inc 1925. Folio illustrated wraps. 5 pp. Fine condition. A striking Jazz Age sheet music issue and likely first edition for “Dinah” the widely popular song composed by Harry Akst with lyrics by Sam M. Lewis and Joe Young here promoted as a “Featured Song Success” from The New Plantation Society’s Rendezvous of N.Y. a Harlem revue-style theatrical production. The revue was advertised as an all-Black production reopening the Plantation Cabaret at 50th Street and Broadway featuring prominent performers including blues singer Ethel Waters alongside Will Vodery’s Parisian Orchestra Josephine Baker Bessie Allison Leonard Harper Jimmy Ferguson and the Plantation beauty chorus.1 “Dinah” would go on to become one of the most enduring standards of the decade. Multiple versions were published in 1925 this one in June and though we are not able to establish definitive priority we guess that this is the first edition. Very scarce with three copies found institutionally at the Francis G. Spencer collection at Baylor University BYU and the British Library reference collection. 1 “Ethel Waters Is Featured In New Plantation Revue” The New York Age June 20 1925 6. Henry Waterson, Inc unknown books
1948réf. 223231948. 1 Traill Sinclair ed. Jazz Journal issues 1948 document postwar British jazz culture as readers collectors critics and musicians rebuilt access to American jazz after wartime disruption and expanding record scarcity. Founded by Sinclair Traill in 1948 Jazz Journal became a major English-language jazz periodical; its inaugural year placed African American performers blues aesthetics revivalist debate discography and record reviews at the center of British jazz criticism. These issues support research into jazz reception in the United Kingdom transatlantic music journalism record collecting racialized cultural admiration and the postwar circulation of African American musical authority through British print culture. Jazz Journal. Volume 1 Nos. 1-3 5-6 8-9. London: J.J. Publications May-November 1948. Seven issues each approximately 12 pages in pictorial wrappers. The run includes the May June July September October and November 1948 issues with one additional issue represented by number rather than month in the supplied description and contains record reviews discographies artist profiles editorials criticism and jazz news. The premier issue opens with Traill's editorial appeal to jazz readers recalling that "Even in those far-off days between the two wars when paper was to be had for the asking and printers' costs didn't resemble a millionaire's hotel bill it was always a dubious endeavour" and closing with the hope that readers would see "a new issue of JAZZ JOURNAL on the first of each month for many years to come." Contents cited in the supplied description include "Make Way for Dixieland or Return to Sanity" a Thomas Waller discography a September 1948 appreciation of Hoagy Carmichael with signed portrait cover and Hugues Panassié's November essay "Count Basie and the Blues" which argues that "Count Basie knows how to play the blues as well as it seems possible to do so on the piano." Cover portraits include Louis Armstrong Nellie Lutcher Count Basie and Humphrey Lyttelton placing African American jazz innovators alongside British revivalist musicians within a magazine aimed at a postwar readership hungry for recordings biographical knowledge and critical guidance. Traill Sinclair ed. Jazz Journal. Vol. 1 No. 1. London: J.J. Publications 1948. The opening issue establishes the magazine's postwar purpose through Traill's editorial address to jazz enthusiasts and its promise of sustained monthly criticism. Its contents including revivalist commentary and discographical attention to Thomas "Fats" Waller show the early publication's effort to organize jazz knowledge for British readers dependent on print mediation and record collecting. 2 Traill Sinclair ed. Jazz Journal. Vol. 1 No. 2. London: J.J. Publications 1948. This issue continues the magazine's early program of criticism record commentary and performer-centered coverage for a readership attentive to American jazz and its British reception. It belongs to the first sequence of issues issued after the May 1948 relaunch from Traill's earlier Pick Up whose final issue preceded the first Jazz Journal in May 1948. 3 Traill Sinclair ed. Jazz Journal. Vol. 1 No. 3. London: J.J. Publications 1948. The third issue forms part of the magazine's initial attempt to stabilize a postwar jazz readership through recurring reviews essays and documentation of recordings and artists. Its position in the first volume is useful for tracing how British jazz criticism developed a regular periodical form in 1948. 4 Traill Sinclair ed. Jazz Journal. Vol. 1 No. 5. London: J.J. Publications 1948. This issue continues the first-year sequence with the supplied description emphasizing the magazine's mix of artist portraits discographical writing and critical essays. The issue contributes to the archive's broader value as evidence of how British jazz readers encountered American performers through images reviews and commentary. 5 Traill Sinclair ed. Jazz Journal. Vol. 1 No. 6. London: J.J. Publications 1948. The September 1948 issue features an appreciation of Hoagy Carmichael with a signed portrait cover connecting jazz readership to popular song composition and the American music industry. Its treatment of Carmichael alongside coverage of African American jazz performers demonstrates the publication's wide understanding of jazz-adjacent culture in the late 1940s. 6 Traill Sinclair ed. Jazz Journal. Vol. 1 No. 8. London: J.J. Publications 1948. This issue belongs to the later portion of the inaugural-year run and continues the magazine's regular pattern of record culture criticism and performer documentation. In the context of the seven-issue group it helps show the durability of Traill's monthly editorial project beyond the launch months. 7 Traill Sinclair ed. Jazz Journal. Vol. 1 No. 9. London: J.J. Publications 1948. The November issue includes Hugues Panassié's "Count Basie and the Blues" a critical essay distinguishing blues feeling and phrasing from commercialized improvisation. Its attention to Basie foregrounds African American musical authority within British jazz discourse and gives the archive direct relevance to the study of blues reception swing-era memory and postwar criticism. Moderate soiling and creasing to wrappers occasional spine chipping intact stapled bindings delicate covers and vivid photographic contrasts good overall. Substantial inaugural-year run of a long-lived British jazz periodical preserving the early critical vocabulary through which postwar British readers studied African American jazz swing-era performers blues expression and record collecting. unknown books
1932réf. List3818New York City 1932. Silver gelatin photograph measuring 8 x 10 inches. Stage photograph of Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra with Calloway at center before the band brass and reed sections drums bass guitar and stage lighting visible. Verso with mounting residue and manuscript note reading in part "from Irondome Bessemer album" or similar. Some wear creasing toning and mounting residue; very good. A large stage photograph of Cab Calloway and His Cotton Club Orchestra corresponding to a known 1932 image of the band made to mark the arrival of trumpeter Doc Cheatham. The photograph shows Calloway at center bending forward in his characteristic theatrical posture with the orchestra arranged behind him on the Cotton Club stage. By 1932 Calloway had become one of the defining entertainers of the Cotton Club era. He had taken over the Missourians in 1930 and the success of "Minnie the Moocher" in 1931 helped make him a national figure. The orchestra was also being reshaped during these years with musicians such as Doc Cheatham Morris White Walter "Foots" Thomas Benny Payne and others forming the sound and stage presentation of Calloway's early 1930s band.1 Mills Music used this same image in another press photograph indicating that it functioned as a promotional view of Calloway and the orchestra rather than merely as a private stage snapshot. 1 Jean-François Pitet "Morris 'Fruit' White: from the Missourians' banjo to Calloway's guitar" The Hi de Ho Blog May 20 2021 accessed July 21 2026 https://www.thehidehoblog.com/blog/2021/05/morris-fruit-white-from-the-missourians-banjo-to-calloways-guitar. . unknown books
1930réf. List2913Omaha Nebraska: The Metropolitan Press 1930. 14 x 21 ½ inch poster. Worn with marginal damage; very good plus. Nat Towles 1905–1963 was a jazz musician and bandleader from New Orleans. His band first called Nat Towles’ Creole Harmony Kings was a renowned territory band in Texas Oklahoma Kansas and Nebraska. They would later have residences in Omaha and Chicago and tour New York City. Offered here is a poster for the Nat Towles Orchestra at the Trianon Ballroom in Croweburg Kansas likely from the 1930s given the location and band name. Croweburg was a coal mining town—and a sundown town until 1912.1 1 “A.P.Roundtree Esq.” The Kansas Baptist Herald May 20 1912 1. The Metropolitan Press unknown books
1977réf. 24039Liege Belgium: The Author 1977. First Edition. Original printed wrappers. Very good; modest sunning to the backstrip. A news article about Taylor neatly spot mounted to the front endsheet facing the title no offset - yet. 8vo 8 9 - 301 302 - blank 14 - index 2 - blank 2 - printer's slug verso blank pp. This copy with a dated presentation inscription signed by the author on the Dedication page reading: "For Sylvie printed and Igor etc. / I hope you enjoy / Art Taylor / Jan. 13 1978" autograph. The rare true first of one of the great books of modern jazz history. Taylor - who had lived in Europe most of his career - self-published this book based on interviews of the preceding decade. Taylor played drums in a series of bands in the 1950s that defined modern jazz. The book records his one-on-one conversations with a "who's who" of jazz artists of the period. And what conversations! As an accomplished musician and Afro-American he was able to query his subjects in a manner that no one else could approach. An invaluable resource. The Author unknown books
1929réf. List2808Sedalia Missouri 1929. 11 x 18 inches heavy cardstock. Manuscript note verso reads “Flor Alpino Vals / Vanderbeck”. Some staining and tears mainly marginal. Overall very good to excellent. An advertisement for a performance by the Original Eleven Clouds of Joy likely an iteration—of which there were many—of the popular Kansas City-based swing jazz band Clouds of Joy. The group was formed in 1921 by trumpeter Terrence Holder 1897–1983 and in 1929 was led by saxophonist Andy Kirk 1898–1992 and found success largely due to the arrangements and playing of Mary Lou Williams. They would tour the US through 1948 playing Kansas City-style jazz had the top song on the Billboard chart in 1938 and the first single to hit number one on Harlem Hit Parade in its inauguration in 1942 with the song “Take It and Git.” Contemporary newspaper accounts list the band as performing under the name “The Original Eleven Dark Clouds of Joy” during this period though the banner in the photograph here omits the word ‘dark.’ This poster represents an uncommon relic of the band’s early days touring regionally roughly a decade before they enjoyed national success. unknown books
1920réf. List3817Chicago Illinois: Chicago Amusement Service Corporation 1920. Silver gelatin photograph measuring 8 x 10 inches. Photograph shows Jimmie Wade and his Club Alabam Orchestra posed in tuxedos before a curtain with drums banjo brass reeds and string bass beneath a printed sign reading "Chicago Amusement Service Corporation Presents / Jimmie Wade and his Club Alabam Orchestra / Chicago / Vocalion Records. Some wear toning and soiling; verso with staining; very good. A large promotional photograph of Jimmie Wade and his Club Alabam Orchestra. Wade was an African American jazz trumpeter and bandleader active in Chicago from the 1910s through the early 1930s. His orchestra appeared at major Chicago venues and recorded for Vocalion in 1928. Club Alabam opened at 747 Rush Street in 1927 during Prohibition and operated as a cabaret-style nightclub under showman Dan Blanco who had previously worked in saloons amusement parks vaudeville and Chicago cabarets. The club belonged to the city's late-1920s nightlife world of floor shows dance orchestras illicit liquor and entertainment promotion. The sign in this photograph identifies Wade's orchestra Club Alabam Chicago Amusement Service Corporation and Vocalion Records. A strong Jazz Age photograph of an African American Chicago bandleader and his orchestra with connections to the Chicago nightlife scene of the period. Chicago Amusement Service Corporation unknown books
1910réf. List2810San Francisco California 1910. Single photograph approximately 6 ½ x 9 inches manuscript verso reading “SF Barbary Coast 500 Block of Pacific ”THE SO DIFFERENT” now 550 Pacific Ave 1911”. Appears to be trimmed from a larger photograph. Portion of image cut and pasted with editorial overpainting. Some damage to edges and corners with one tear at right middle some residue from pasting a now-missing object; overall very good. A photograph taken on Pacific Street in about 1910 showing a group of men standing by the curb in front of The Midway The Bear and The So Different nightclubs note that the sign for The Midway is pasted in. This block in Barbary Coast—”Terrific Street”—was home to a number of dance halls and early jazz clubs many of which like Purcell’s So Different Café were “black and tan” – catering to all races. Founded by former Pullman porters Lew Purcell and Sam King shortly after the neighborhood was rebuilt from the 1906 earthquake and fire Purcell’s was one of the better-known clubs. Influential ragtime and jazz pianist Sid LeProtti led the So Different Jazz band and King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton are among the alleged guest performers. Patrons could buy twenty-cent vouchers for a quick dance with one of the girls who worked and sometimes lived at the venue. Around 1913 though police began to crack down on drinking and dancing in the neighborhood and by the 1920s the venues were gone. unknown books
1958réf. List1514New York 1958. Silver Gelatin Photograph measuring 8 ½ x 11 ½ inches with Schatt's marks verso with his notation "Vintage '58" in ink. A fine example fine contrast. A striking image of Eartha Kitt and her band performing at the 1957 Newport Jazz Festival taken by the prolific photographer Roy Schatt perhaps best known for his photographs of James Dean. This is a vintage example likely printed in 1958 from the "1958" and "Vintage" marks to verso. We find no other record of this specific image only a similar image from Kitt's performance taken by Schatt. unknown books
réf. 84869Roosevelt NJ: by the Author c.1956. Quarto 37cm. Printed card portfolio holding twelve lithographic plates loose as issued. All lithographs are signed in plate; Martin has inscribed the portfolio "Jean and Sol Libsohn / David" undated. Very mild external toning and soil; Near Fine. Inside of portfolio is printed with a holiday sentiment and also a brief blurb from Alan Lomax commenting on the illustrations. Scarce portfolio of lithographic prints reproducing Martin's illustrations for Alan Lomax's Mr. Jelly Roll a biography of jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton published in 1956. Issued without imprint presumably printed as a Christmas gift to friends of the artist. This copy is inscribed to the photographer Sol Libsohn and his wife Jean who were Martin's neighbors in Roosevelt New Jersey a WPA town founded in 1939 which by the Fifties had become a destination for artists writers and musicians seeking refuge from but proximity to the New York art scene. Martin 1913-1992 was a noted mid-century illustrator known best for his many jazz album covers for Folkways and Blue Note in the Fifties and Sixties. Of the present portfolio we locate only a single copy in OCLC Pitt with no other example traced in commerce. unknown books
1940réf. 158584New York: The Hickory House 1940. Vintage three-color dinner menu from the renowned 52nd Street jazz club circa 1940s with a "Chef's Special" card stapled to the top outer corner of the second leaf. One of the longest running and premiere jazz clubs of "Swing Street" as 52nd Street between Fifth and Seventh Avenues was known in the 1930s through the 1950s Hickory House was opened shortly after the repeal of Prohibition in 1933 by impresario John Popkin. Featuring a huge oval music bar depicted on the cover of the menu on offer here Hickory House was both a swing venue and the spot to grab dinner and cocktails before a show. A musician's club Hickory House presented and served jazz luminaries for three decades. Among those known to perform or frequent the venue included Duke Ellington Louis Armstrong Benny Goodman Artie Shaw and Thelonious Monk among countless others many of whom were known to be found sitting in with the house band The Hickory House Trio Marian McPartland Bill Crow and Joe Morello on Sunday afternoons in the 1950s. In 1956 jazz pianist and composer Jutta Hipp released two acclaimed Blue Note albums recorded at the club "At the Hickory House Volume 1" and "At the Hickory House Volume 2." By the mid 1960s the venue was one of the last of the jazz clubs left on 52nd street and by the end of the decade closed. As noted on the back of the menu "Life! Life! From ten thirty until scrambled eggs there is always a popular swingy rhythm band to beat out tuneful and catchy syncopations in their own inimitable style." 10.75 x 14.25 inches bi-fold. Very Good plus with light soiling rubbing and edgewear overall and a faint horizontal crease. The Hickory House unknown books
1960réf. CAT206New York et al. 1960. Five 8 x 10 and two 5 x 7 inch gelatin silver prints with Bradley’s estate marks to versos. Excellent. Jack Bradley was a Cape Cod native who after graduating from the Massachusetts Maritime Academy fell in love with Jazz after seeing Louis Armstrong perform at the Boston Armory in 1956. In 1958 he moved to New York from Cape Cod and began dating Jeann Failows a member of Louis Armstrong’s inner circle. Through Failows Bradley gained access to Armstrong eventually becoming very close friends with the trumpeter and his inner circle. Bradley already had amassed a large collection of jazz material much related to Armstrong and he augmented his own collection by photographing Armstrong and his Jazz circle for the next decade. The bulk of Bradley’s collection now resides at the Louis Armstrong House Museum in Queens. This collection is of seven photographs of jazz musicians from Bradley’s estate showing a wonderful window into the tail end of the Classic Jazz era. Photographs as follows: Willie Cook. 5 x 7 inches. A portrait of Cook seated. Excellent condition. Count Basie and Duke Ellington. 5 x 7 inches. The two jazz greats are seated at their respective pianos during rehearsal. Excellent condition. Duke Ellington’s Empty Bandstand. 8 x 10 inches. The horns chairs and sheet music are laid out. Very good condition with some toning to margins and a faint scratch at outer edge of image. Duke Ellington Conducting his Band. 8 x 10 inches. Excellent condition. Ella Fitzgerald at the Apollo Theatre New York c. 1959. 8 x 10 inches. Excellent Condition. Count Basie Seated at a Table Smoking a Cigar. 8 x 10 inches. Excellent condition. Pee Wee russell Painting at his New York Apartment c. 1966. Good condition marginal tear affecting ½ inch of image. Overall a nice group and an example of a photographer whose work is not often available on the market. unknown books
1938réf. 33168Tokyo: Symphony Publishing Company 1938. Very Good. Tokyo: Symphony Publishing Company 1938. Presumed First Edition. 12mo 15.5 cm; publisher's pictorial yellow and orange card wrappers lettered in black; 1923pp.; brief illus. sheet music throughout. Moderate wear and dust-soiled to wrappers small loss mid-spine briefly affecting text textblock a bit browned and foxed else Very Good bright and sound. Evidently unrecorded Japanese guide to popular jazz music the first half almost entirely in Japanese the latter half bilingual primarily in Japanese and English. Includes the music for classics by Jerome Kern like "Ol' Man River" and "Can't Help Lovin' Dat Man"; Romberg and Hammerstein's "Lover Come Back To Me"; Moises Simons' Cuban rumba foxtrot "The Peanut Vendor"; instantly recognizable classics like "Blue Moon" and "La Cucaracha"; and songs by Mabel Wayne and Irving Berlin. The compilation also includes songs in Spanish French and German accompanied by its Japanese translation. A fascinating and beautiful little guide documenting the rise in popularity of Jazz music in Japan and Tokyo in particular issued between the devastating earthquake of 1923 and the beginning of World War II. The import of Jazz to Japan was first heralded with the rise in trans-Pacific luxury liners. A Japanese version of "My Blue Heaven" reproduced here became available as early as the 1920s and the popular 1929 Japanese film "Tokyo March" employed Jazz in its soundtrack. The genre was popular enough that Columbia and Victor records formed subsidiary companies in Japan. The popularity of jazz in Japan continues to this day touted by one of the country's most prominent public and literary figures Haruki Murakami who first opened his Jazz club right out of college after falling in love with the genre at an Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers show in Kobe in 1964. No copies of this work located in OCLC as of June 2025. References: "How Japan Came To Love Jazz" online interview with historian E. Taylor Atkins author of "Blue Nippon" "Jazz Messenger" by Haruki Murakami available online. Symphony Publishing Company unknown books
1922réf. BK0009Pittsburgh: Sissman Studio 1922. Photograph measuring approximately 8 x 10 inches. Studio portrait of nine African American musicians posed with saxophones brass instruments violin banjo drums and other instruments with a rug prominently lettered "Bradford's Orchestra" at their feet. Photographer identified as Sissman Studio of Pittsburgh. Some wear and toning particularly at edges and corners; generally well preserved. An early photograph of Bradford's Orchestra an African American ensemble active in Pittsburgh under the direction of Walter Felix Bradford during the early 1920s. Nine musicians pose with an unusually extensive display of their instruments while the orchestra's name is incorporated prominently into the composition on a rug at their feet. The photograph was made by Sissman Studio a Pittsburgh photographic firm later located on Centre Avenue in the city's Hill District. Contemporary sources document Bradford's Orchestra performing over Pittsburgh's pioneering radio station KDKA during this period. A December 1922 program announced an 8:30 evening "Concert by Bradford's Orchestra under the direction of Walter Felix Bradford" with a varied program ranging from Mendelssohn and Verdi to popular marches and light orchestral music.1 The group is also listed as performing on KDKA in the Utica Observer-Dispatch in December 1922.2 The present photograph appears to be an otherwise unrecorded studio portrait of the same Pittsburgh organization. Bradford belonged to a substantial but poorly documented community of African American bandleaders and musicians working in Pittsburgh during the early twentieth century. Later accounts of musical life in the Hill District place him alongside such local ensembles as the Harlem Troubadours Gerty Long and Her Night Hawks and Walt Rainey's High Schoolers.3 These local orchestras formed an important part of the musical culture from which Pittsburgh would subsequently produce an extraordinary generation of nationally prominent Black musicians. 1 "Monday December 11 1922" Radio Broadcasting News 2 no. 28 December 9 1922 6. 2 "To-day's Radio Program" The Utica Observer-Dispatch December 11 1922 5. 3 Hugo A. Freund "Working the Seams: African American Professional Performers Moving Between White Public Culture and African American Private Culture" Pennsylvania Folklife 45 no. 2 1996: 91-97. . Sissman Studio unknown books
