Announcing A New Blog: Detroit Jazz History

Lars Bjorn and Jim Gallert have just created a new blog about Detroit Jazz History which will become active on December 1. The blog covers many aspects of Detroit’s glorious jazz history from 1920 up to today. It gives you access to several articles written by these two jazz historians about the famous and not so famous musicians who they have interviewed. Some of these interviews were the basis for Bjorn and Gallert’s pioneering book Before Motown: A History of Jazz in Detroit, 1920-1960, University of Michigan Press, 2001. The blog includes plenty of pictures of clubs and the musicians who worked in them and it also features musical selections and selected film clips.

The first issue of the blog will feature three articles: “Alto Attitude” about Phil Lasley (right), “I Love The Sound of a Trombone” about Jimmy Wilkins, and “Mathew Rucker and the Spirits of Swing.”

This is an interactive site, so you are invited to actively search the blog and comment on what you see and hear.

The blog can be found at detroitjazzhistory.com.