Ohio Jazz

Most jazz historians give short shrift to the Buckeye state, regarding as a go-through rather than a go-to place. However, the fact is jazz has been practiced in Ohio and with a vengeance. For 30 years, these authors have been researching and documenting the history of music, particularly jazz in Ohio. Their 1999 exhibit at the Ohio Historical Society, Jazz Ohio ran for twelve months before portions of it moved to the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame. The exhibit inspired the book, and much of what you will read here has never been brought together in one place before and it may well change the way you think about jazz. And Ohio.

David Meyers has spent nearly thirty years documenting the history of music in central Ohio and was formerly host of Bring 'Em Back Alive, a weekly radio program on local music history. An artist and community activist, Candice Watkins is a driving force behind two of the city's largest annual music festivals: Hot Times and ComFest. Arnett Howard, arguably the best-known musician in Columbus, has devoted much of the past three decades to interviewing many of the pioneering jazz musicians in the community. James Loeffler, former publisher of the Antique Review, is a well-known collector of jazz recordings and is a board member and former president of the Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society.