Jazz History Database - A Digital Museum of Jazz History

A living, online, multimedia museum.

The Jazz History Database is an interactive multimedia museum focused on artists deserving of wider recognition and dedicated to the preservation of "at-risk" jazz artifacts. The rare and unique materials on our website have been contributed by individuals, academics, institutions and media from the US and Internationally. Our collections have been reviewed by our Curators and Editorial Team, but remain the sole property of the Contributor. The Jazz History Database is non-profit and is hosted by Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI) under the direction of Professor Richard Falco, Director of Jazz Studies. The team at WPI works in partnership with the Jazz Education Network, the Massachusetts Association for Jazz Education, WICN Radio, WCCA TV, The Vermont Jazz Center, WCUW, American Big Band Preservation Society, Open Sky Jazz, and Jazz Archeology. Read more about us.

JazzHistoryDatabase.com is now migrating all content to our new website, JazzHistoryDatabase.org. Newly added content can be found here or by clicking the boxes and links below.

Barney Price

Mamie Moffitt

Howie Jefferson

Linda Dagnello's painting of Miles Davis

NEW CONTRIBUTIONS

New England Jazz Hall of Fame

New content featured on our new website.

Paul Alberta

New content featured on our new website.

Rich Ardizzone

New content featured on our new website.

These audio interviews were made for radio rebroadcasts and print distribution. Largely culled from interviews conducted by Joe Zupan and Chet Williamson, the collection includes conversations with such historic figures as Sonny Rollins, Eartha Kitt, and Charles Lloyd.

Visual Arts: Jazz

Included here are original works by Linda Dagnello, Peter DeVeber, George Fayard, AJ Juarez, among others. It is a stunning collection of sketches, paintings, photography, and other forms of visual art that have been created by jazz musicians.

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EVENTS

Lennie Tristano Symposium

The first symposium ever held on the life and impact of legendary pianist Lennie Tristano was hosted at WPI. This video collection includes full panel presentations by Connie Crothers, Bud Tristano, Jimmy Halperin, Harvey Diamond and author Eunmi Shim.

WCUW Jazz Festivals

Community radio station WCUW, Worcester, MA, sponsored an annual festival that included performances by internationally acclaimed avant-garde jazz artists. This collection offers recordings of concerts from 1978 to 1990. Some of the many highlighted here include Max Roach, Archie Shepp, and Anthony Braxton.

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MEDIA

WICN Radio 90.5 FM

Presenting jazz music seven days per week, WICN remains an active and integral participant in the community. As producer of the Brown Bag and Jazz at Sunset series, WICN is an indisputable vital force on the Central New England jazz scene. This collection presents an overview of the station's remarkable history, interviews, and recorded live performances.

John Voci

John Voci has worked in all areas of public media including radio, TV and digital, since 1977. He began his career in community radio at WCUW in Worcester, MA where he worked as a producer, on-air host, Development Director, Program Director and concert producer.

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MUSICIANS

Ron Ernst

Vibraphonist and bassist Ron Ernst has been a part of the New England jazz scene for decades.

Gene Carrescia

When you need a trumpeter to blow the bats out of your belfry, Carrescia is the man. Even now, in his late '70s, he can still hit the high notes. For years he held the lead trumpet chair in the stage band at Caesar's Monticello in Framingham, a showcase for such traveling stars as Marlene Dietrich. Still active, he appears locally with the Worcester Jazz Orchestra and the Blackstone Valley Big Band.

Mike Crowley

Michael Crowley was born in 1949 and grew up in Milford, Massachusetts. He began playing clarinet at the age of ten, and proceeded to study Tenor Saxophone under Jazz Musician, Boots Mussulli, and his high school band leader Lou Lombardi.

Leo Curran

Former Jazz Historian for the New England Jazz Alliance, and known by virtually everyone in the jazz world, Leo Curran was intimately connected to the international jazz scene.

Bill Fanning

Trumpeter, composer and teacher Bill Fanning performs concerts and conducts clinics both in the U.S. and internationally as a member of the Jeff Coffin Mu’tet. He also leads his own quintet and performs his original compositions.

Norm Grant

Norm Grant is a videographer in the CCRI Marketing and Communications Department at The Community College of Rhode Island. He oversees video production across all campuses. His duties include digital video production for marketing purposes, training and instruction.

David Jost

DAVID N. JOST has recently retired after 14 years as the Coordinator of Fine Arts for the Westborough Public Schools. He has been a professional music educator for the past 36 years. During this time, he taught at the elementary, high school, and collegiate level in a wide variety of areas...

Mitchell A. Kaplan

Mitch's performances include: The Newport Jazz Festival (1981), the Kool Jazz Festival (1982), Rhine Born Blues Festival (1999), Rick Mendes and Blues Wagon, Shoshana Feinstein (recorded with), The Frank Sinatra (ghost) band, and presently in bands such as the Mark Cipriano and the Good News Rhythm and Blues band and the Megan Guilbert Band...

Tony Lada

Tony Lada was a Professor of Performance Studies and Trombone at Berklee College of Music in Boston, Massachusetts for 40 years until his retirement in 2013.

Mark Marquis

Marquis has been a full-time professional musician since the mid-1970's, playing thousands of concerts and club gigs all throughout the New England area...

Harry Platcow

Harry Platcow has contributed greatly to the Jazz Scene in the North East U.S. as a performing musician, radio host, TV producer and prolific photographer...

Jim Russo

Jim graduated Berklee College of Music in 1976 with a BA in music education, where he studied with Andy McGhee and Bill Pierce. After Berklee and a tour with soul icon Chuck Jackson, Mr. Russo began a 35 year teaching career with the Northbridge Public Schools in Massachusetts...

Tom Shaker

Tom Shaker grew up in Poughkeepsie NY and attended Emerson College in Boston as an undergraduate student. He received a master's degree in instructional design and technology...

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Research at WPI

Prof. Falco talks about the Jazz History Database and the importance of preservation

The Holy Trinity of Milford, MA

Lecture by Steve Minichiello regarding Boots Mussulli, Ziggy Minichiello (Kelly), & Bob Varney

Jazz Riffing on a Lost Worcester

Jazz History Blog by Chet Williamson

Jazz Poetry

Audio, video, and written poetry inspired by jazz

"Worcester's Jazz History Database"

Jazz Music Blog, by Tom Reney

Studio 3

Performances and interviews from the nationally-acclaimed TV series

ABOUT US

The Jazz History Database is an active and growing library of materials focused on the preservation and education of the History of Jazz in New England. We invite jazz historians, musicians, family members, educators and students to contribute materials!

The Jazz History Database is a service of the Massachusetts Association for Jazz Education. All materials have been processed and edited by faculty and students of Worcester Polytechnic Institute in Worcester, MA. All items are used with the permission of contributors and are edited to remove copyrighted content for which permission is not explicitly provided.

The content in this site is provided for non-profit personal or scholarly use. No content may be resold, republished, or otherwise used for profit without the express permission of its respective copyright owner.