Jazz Backstory

Project Title: Jazz Backstory

Description: Supported by members of the Digital Initiatives, Scholarship, and Collaboration (DISC) and Research & Instructional Design teams (R&ID), the podcast series “Jazz Backstory” — now four seasons long — features interviews with jazz greats conducted by Monk Rowe, the Joe Williams Director of the Filius Jazz Archive and Lecturer in Music Performance at Hamilton. Interviews are pulled from the Fillius Jazz Archive, which houses over 500 videotaped interviews and over 300 transcribed interviews with artists, writers, producers, and performers active as far back as the 1920s, including former members of Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and the Dorsey Brothers’ bands. The podcast excavates multifaceted perspectives on jazz music and the jazz life through personal, humorous anecdotes on topics ranging from recording sessions, traveling for work, money problems, and improvisation. It also delves into profound topics surrounding race and racism, the power and beauty of jazz music, and the vicissitudes of the performance life.

Deliverables: Podcast

Date: 2020 - 2024