News

Another packed newsletter this month. Read about the Adrian Cox Quartet reviews from our last fundraising concert. There is news on our AGM this coming December along with a couple of dates for next year fundraisers. There are pieces on remembering Ian Hunter-Randall, celebrating the 100 Club and Ronnie Scott's. And much, much more. Do …

September’s Newsletter This issue has news about our forthcoming fundraising concerts and a report from our last ‘sell out’ concert. The ‘Gems from the archive’ this month are about George Shearing with links to interviews (go to EXPLORE > INTERVIEWS). There are also some pieces on where the archive has been involved in helping wit …

Interested in a volunteering role with us? National Jazz Archive (NJA) holds the UK’s finest collection of written, printed and visual material on jazz, blues and related music, from the 1920s to the present day. Its vision is to ensure that the rich cultural heritage of jazz is safeguarded for future generations of enthusiasts, professionals …

Ottilie Patterson To celebrate International Jazz Day, we take a look at a collection that has caused much excitement with researchers and for one professional archivist (Penny Hutchins) who explored the world of jazz and blues for the first time. The collection consists of scrapbooks and photographs documenting Ottilie Patterson’s early life …

Don Lusher In October 2014 the Archive received some materials from Diana Lusher, wife of the late jazz and big band trombonist, Don Lusher. Don (1923–2006) started playing trombone aged 6 and joined the Peterborough Salvation Army Band, following in the footsteps of his father and grandfather. During World War II he was called up and served …

Nat Gonella In March 2014 the National Jazz Archive acquired a collection of materials from Nat Gonella’s personal papers.  The collection was donated to the Archive by his daughter, Natalie, and includes Nat's personal scrapbooks documenting his musical career, photos spanning decades including some of his time in the army during the Second …

Arts Council of Great Britain Tours One of the collections the Archive has is of promotional posters for the Arts Council of Great Britain Tours. In 1971 the Arts Council of Great Britain set up The Contemporary Music Network with the aim of increasing the number of performances of contemporary works throughout the UK, particularly outside Londo …

Southall Swing Club - 1948 In January 2014 Jo Blyghton, a NJA Project Archivist at the time, was searching for potential materials to add to our digitised collections. While handling the Kenneth Pitt collection, a great picture came to light. Pitt was a leading publicist/press agent and manager to significant popular music artists. The client file …

  Happy International Women’s Day! At the archive, we are incredibly lucky to have so many dedicated women who volunteer and work for us (such as Jenny pictured working on the digitisation of the Brian Foskett collection, with a picture of Nina Simone). We are also incredibly lucky to have had the opportunity earlier last year to put on an e …

Joe Daniels As well as the many photographs, books, programmes, journals, posters and letters that get donated to the Archive as part of jazz collections, we also have some jazz related objects donated. One of these jazz related objects donated to the Archive by Joe Daniels is this trick drum. The drummer constructed this wooden bass drum, with a …