The Jazz.com Blog
January 15, 2009 · 0 comments
New Jazz Bios: From Buddy Bolden to Sun Ra
Hidden away in the inner recesses of jazz.com is our ambitious Encyclopedia Project. Dozens of contributors have been working, under the leadership of editor Tim Wilkins, on creating a comprehensive collection of jazz biographies for our site. The project is far from completed—there are still many gaps to fill. But you can take a look for yourself at Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians. Just remember that it is still “under construction.” So please ignore the scaffolds and cranes, and remember to wear a hard hat.
The encyclopedia was founded by Dr. Lewis Porter, and initially focused on currently active jazz musicians. Porter created a unique reference by actually approaching the musicians themselves for information. More than one thousand artists responded to his queries—many of them covered inadequately (or not at all) in other jazz reference works.
After the encyclopedia moved to jazz.com, Wilkins & Co. began adding commissioned entries on jazz greats from the past, as well as filling other gaps among current day performers. This reference work now has almost 1,700 entries—and is getting bigger and bigger with each passing month.
Below are links to a few recently published entries in the Encyclopedia of Jazz Musicians. If you are interested in contributing, or have comments or queries, send them to Tim Wilkins, at reference@jazz.com.
Toshiko Akiyoshi
by Jared Pauley
Lil Hardin Armstrong
by Will Friedwald
Tony Bennett
by Will Friedwald
Buddy Bolden
by Dave Krikorian
Ray Brown
by Eric Wendell
Ray Charles
by Jared Pauley
Joey DeFrancesco
by Jared Pauley
Al Foster
by Eric Novod
Roy Hargrove
by Jared Pauley
Woody Herman
by Will Friedwald
Harry James
by Frank Murphy
Lonnie Johnson
by Dean Alger
Thad Jones
by Eric Wendell
Stan Kenton
by Jared Pauley
Kenny Kirkland
by Jared Pauley
Steve Lacy
by Brad Farberman
Scott LaFaro
by Eric Wendell
Nellie Lutcher
by Will Friedwald
Herbie Mann
by Jared Pauley
Marian McPartland
by Jared Pauley
Jelly Roll Morton
by David Tenenholtz
Herbie Nichols
by Gene Seymour
John Patitucci
by Jared Pauley
Oscar Peterson
by Eric Wendell
Sun Ra
by Frank Murphy
Dewey Redman
by Eric Novod
Marc Ribot
by Brad Farberman
Dannie Richmond
by Eric Novod
Roswell Rudd
by Brad Farberman
Lalo Schifrin
by Doug Payne
Maria Schneider
by Jared Pauley
Woody Shaw
by Matt Leskovic
Matthew Shipp
by Eric Wendell
Nina Simone
by Eric Wendell
Zoot Sims
by Will Friedwald
Stanley Turrentine
by Doug Payne
Randy Weston
by Jared Pauley
Lee Wiley
by Sue Russell
This blog entry posted by Ted Gioia
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