True Jazz Stories: “An Evening With George,” by Terry Sanville
The writer tells his story of playing guitar with a symphony orchestra, backing up jazz legend George Shearing.
...January 11th, 2024
True Jazz Stories
True Jazz Stories: “Well You Needn’t: My Life as a Jazz Fan” by Joel Lewis
The journalist and poet Joel Lewis shares his immensely colorful story of falling in love with jazz, and living with it and reporting on it during his younger days in New Jersey and New York
...October 23rd, 2023
Remembering and honoring my father
. . My dad…Joseph Maita, Sr. 1917-2000 This photo would have likely been taken in the late 1950’s/early 1960’s . .. . ___ . . “Good fathers not only tell us how to live, they show us.” -Mark Twain . As we get older, memories become more precious, and we hold them closer to … Continue reading “Remembering and honoring my father”
...June 18th, 2023
“Memories of Ray” — a true jazz story by Alan Swyer
The author writes of his friendship with Ray Charles, and his son’s 2000 interview with him.
...October 21st, 2022
“Yalies Save Ellington Tune from Obscurity,” a true jazz story by Janet Lever, with Brad Dechter
The authors describe the circumstances surrounding the creation of an extended version of Duke Ellington’s little-known 1953 composition “Janet”
...June 30th, 2022
“So What!…or, Where were you when you first heard Kind of Blue?” — a true jazz story by Bob Hecht
Bob Hecht recalls his experience of first hearing “Kind of Blue,” the 1959 jazz album by trumpeter Miles Davis
...April 21st, 2022
“The Sybil on 34th Street”– a true jazz story by Ray Robinson
The author recalls an eventful evening listening to a jazz singer at New York’s McAlpin Hotel in the early 1970s
...April 12th, 2022
“Smoke” — a true jazz story by John Riley
The author’s experience with racism, ignorance, poverty, and jazz in the American South of the 1960s.
...March 2nd, 2022
“The Cloth Coat” — a true jazz story by Ray Robinson
We’re going through Security at Dublin airport, headed to Philadelphia, thinking about what’s ahead of us. There’s something sinister about lines of people queuing up to be processed. Nobody likes it. Belt, jacket, phone, laptop, wallet. Do they need my shoes? Everyone feels displaced, dehumanized somehow.
...February 10th, 2022
“A Quick Kill: A Final Episode Among Brothers” — a true story by J.S. Kierland
Three in the morning in the Hollywood Hills feels like five in the morning anywhere else. The coyotes and owls cross the northern boundaries and stray down under the big HOLLYWOOD sign that glistens in the moonlight at the top of Beachwood Canyon. Field mice, possum, snakes, and house cats become fair game for the wild intruders that prowl the narrow streets and canyons for a quick kill and a quiet meal with the family.
...January 11th, 2022
True Jazz Stories: A remembrance of jazz aficionado Al Summ
Friends remember Al Summ, whose love and appreciation of jazz showed up in a variety of ways. His artwork was found (and rescued) by his friends Dan Brown, Dave Watson, Bob Crimi and “Andy” – a.k.a. “The Gang of Four”.
This remembrance is a reminder of how jazz and its culture can touch the soul of an enthusiast, and a demonstration of a longtime, devoted friendship. I am proud to assist the “Gang” in sharing their heartfelt connection to their departed friend.
...November 24th, 2021
“Opus For Mary Lou,” a true jazz story by John Bliss
. . photo by William Gottlieb/Library of Congress Mary Lou Williams, c. 1938 . . ___ . . Opus for Mary Lou By John Bliss . …..“Baloney Bliss,” Mary Lou Williams said, lacing into my father. …..Mary Lou was Black and brought a spiritual magic into my white world. Her nose was petite like an … Continue reading ““Opus For Mary Lou,” a true jazz story by John Bliss”
...October 11th, 2021
True Jazz Stories: Musical Adventures of Joe Maita, Sr.
. . Joseph Maita, Sr. c. 1935 . ___ . …..My father Joseph Maita (Sr.) was affable, charismatic, and loving – gifted as a musician and, ultimately, a successful business owner. He was also extraordinarily complex and challenged by having to make choices so many young parents find themselves confronting – following … Continue reading “True Jazz Stories: Musical Adventures of Joe Maita, Sr.”
...June 20th, 2021
“My Father Sings” — a prose poem (and true jazz story) by William Minor
I grew up in a household where music was second nature, always present, ingrained. My mother could sight read well and played not only classical pieces on the piano (Schumann, Liszt, Chopin) but show tunes—the full range of Gershwin, Cole Porter, Rogers and Hart, Irving Berlin, which she and I sang together.
...November 1st, 2020
“Sinatra and Me” — a true jazz story by Paul Brophy
Frank Sinatra floated through the air in my boyhood home and Philadelphia neighborhood. My mother and two of her older sisters, Henrietta and Marge, had seen young Frankie in person at Atlantic City’s Steel Pier in the late 1930s, the thrill that wed these young Italian-Americans to Frank for life. “It’s Always You” reached them. He was part of our Staffieri family — their fantasy husband.
...October 3rd, 2020
“Un Euro? An Evening at the Rome Jazz Festival” — a true jazz story, by Dan Morey
Mother and I took the metro to the Piazza del Popolo, then boarded a northbound tram for the Parco della Musica, where the Rome Jazz Festival was being held.
...July 29th, 2020
“The Night McCoy Tyner Said ‘That’s Cool'” — by T. S. Davis
.It must have been the late 1980s when my girlfriend and I put on our best clothes and shelled out more money than we had to hear McCoy Tyner at the very elegant Dimitriou’s Jazz Alley in downtown Seattle.
...March 14th, 2020
“All Blues: The Story of a Lost Friendship” — a true jazz story by Bob Hecht
…..I have to wonder how many friendships have been forged over mutual love of Miles Davis’ album, Kind of Blue. The one I want to tell you about came to pass in an unlikely setting back during the winter of 1963…
...December 19th, 2018
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In This Issue
The Sunday Poem
”“Mingus au Paradis” by Manuel J. Grimaldi
The Sunday Poem is published weekly, and strives to include the poet reading their work.... Manuel J. Grimaldi reads his poem at its conclusion
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