[Dixielandjazz] Down Beat Magazine

[Randy Fendrick]

A friend gave me some 100 or so Down Beat magazines from the 1950's.  
What a ball, I have had in rereading our past.  As I was going through 
the issues, I found a couple of ads featuring Mary Osborne,  a very 
good jazz guitarist from the 50s.  As it turns out,  I was due to work 
with her son over the Fourth of July weekend. He told me the real story 
of the guitar she was advertising.   My wife and I were watching an old 
movie on Turner Classic Movies, entitled "Revelry with Beverly" and 
here the movie was being discussed in a 1953 or 54 article in Down 
Beat.  I also discovered that Don Ellis played in the Glenn Miller 
band, amazing!  What is more interesting is the development of rock, 
and the realization that the market share for jazz music, and as some 
say OKOM,  was beginning to decline.  The reasons for the decline is 
discussed and suggestions to prevent this decline from taking place,  
seems to reflect the same discussion today, over 50 years later.
What has been really cool is seeing the names of many jazz stars as 
they emerge onto the scene, and to read reviews of many of the albums 
that I have in my own collection and go back and listen to these albums 
with 20/20 hindsight.
If you have the time and inclination go to your local library and check 
out some of these old magazines and rediscover our past,
later,
rf
Randy Fendrick
Southside Chicago Seven
Bakersfield Symphony Orchestra, ret