All News

The documentary film Joe Williams: A Portrait in Song, will be screened at the Kirkland Town Library, on Sunday, Oct. 6, at 2 p.m. Monk Rowe, director of the Hamilton College Jazz Archive, will host the event and provide anecdotes about the creation of the film as well as live music relevant to Williams’ signature song, “Every Day I Have the Blues.” The screening of this rarely shown film is part of the America’s Music Film Series and is free and open to the public.

Fallcoming 2013 was one for the record books as sunny skies and perfect autumn temperatures marked the weekend. Among highlights were the dedication of the Milton '44 and Nikki Fillius Jazz Archive, George Baker '74 honored as Volunteer of the Year, and numerous athletic contests.

Hamilton’s annual Fallcoming will take place on campus Oct. 26 through 29. Among highlights of the weekend will be the dedication of  the Jazz Archive, a Wellin Museum artist's talk and numerous athletic contests. The full schedule is here.

Noted jazz pianist Marian McPartland and essayist and critic Albert Murray, two cultural icons of the second half of the 20th century, died the week of Aug. 19. Both were recognized by the college with honorary degrees in 1997, and at that time, sat down with Monk Rowe, Joe Williams Director of the Jazz Archive, for interviews about their lives and careers.  Those interviews and transcripts may be accessed in the archive online.

Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Jazz Archive and lecturer in music performance, was an invited presenter at the Jazz Education Network annual conference Jan. 2-5 in Atlanta. Rowe hosted a screening of the Hamilton College Jazz Archive’s film Joe Williams: A Portrait in Song.

Stephen Ellingson, associate professor of sociology, presented his paper titled "Jazz, Gender, and the Color Line" at both campuses of Mohawk Valley Community College (MVCC) on Oct. 19.

Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Jazz Archive and lecturer in music performance, has been selected to serve on the CNY Arts (formerly the CRC) Regional Advisory Committee for the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) regrant programs.

Singer Joe Williams H’88, a major participant in the establishment of the Hamilton College Jazz Archive, is the subject of a documentary that will be screened on Wednesday, May 23, at 7:30 p.m. at The Other Side in Utica. Monk Rowe, The Joe Williams Director of the Hamilton College Jazz Archive, will present the film.

Hamilton’s Jazz Archive was the source for a story about Duke Ellington that appeared on NPR’s A Blog Supreme on July 18. “Duke Ellington Has His Way” tells the story of how Ellington “poached” trumpeter Clark Terry from Count Basie. The article credits the jazz archive and Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Jazz Archive and Lecturer in Music Performance.

A collection of 300 audio interviews with jazz musicians, arrangers, writers and critics, the jazz greats and the supporting cast from the 1930s to the present, is now available online and free to the public courtesy of the Hamilton College Jazz Archive. Listeners can click on a link and read the transcripts or listen to interviews with some of jazz’s most well-known musicians, including Dave Brubeck, Lionel Hampton, Oscar Peterson and George Shearing as well as former members of bands led by Count Basie, Duke Ellington, Woody Herman, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Stan Kenton and the Dorsey Brothers.