Through our special partnership with The Jazz Syndicate (part of the nonprofit University of North Texas Music Library), we started putting up the classic NPR radio show, “Jazz Profiles,” on our YouTube channel (and wherever you get your podcasts) a year or so ago. Tim Owens, the longtime producer of jazz at NPR – and creator of “Jazz Profiles” – has graciously selected these shows and provided personal introductions for us – all to shine a light on the important work that The Jazz Syndicate and UNTML are doing to archive and preserve jazz content for present and future generations.
With a milestone 50 Jazz Profiles shows now featured on our YouTube channel, Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iTunes, etc., we, in turn, reached out to our nation’s best jazz colleges (and some international ones) to share the news. The idea being that the Jazz Profiles shows offer a wealth of music history and useful information for students – and perhaps can be used by professors and incorporated into jazz school curriculums. To date, we’ve heard back from the department heads of more than 20 universities – all enthusiastic about sharing the Jazz Profiles shows and the work of UNTML with their students.
Upcoming Jazz Profiles shows will be some special 2-part presentations on jazz giants like Dizzy, Duke, Miles, Billie, Nat, Brubeck and Hampton. Stay tuned for a lot more to come.
ABOUT JAZZ PROFILES
Originally aired between 1995 and 2002, “Jazz Profiles” is a Peabody Award-winning documentary radio series chronicling the people, places, and themes of jazz. By combining interviews, archival recordings, music, and narration by singer Nancy Wilson, each program tells an informative and sometimes gripping story that celebrates our uniquely American art form and the people who make it. The “Jazz Profiles” shows – nearly 200 of them – are part of the Tim Owens Jazz & Broadcast Collection at the University of North Texas Music Library.
ABOUT THE JAZZ SYNDICATE AND UNT MUSIC LIBRARY
As America’s very first Jazz Studies program (est. 1946) – and consistently one of the world’s finest music schools – the University of North Texas has amassed a treasure trove of jazz history over the decades. The UNT Music Library’s Jazz Syndicate aims to make this material freely available to everybody. Forming a centralized online hub, the archive will connect scholars, musicians, and enthusiasts nationwide to an extensive array of media — from audio, film and video recordings to scores, still images, and texts. You’ll find the Tim Owens Jazz & Broadcast Collection (including the Peabody Award-winning “Jazz Profiles” series), radio programs by Voice of America DJ Willis Conover, UNT college archives, and chart libraries from musicians like Maynard Ferguson – just to name a few. To help the nonprofit Jazz Syndicate digitize and build this profoundly important resource, we created a special section on the 32 Bar Blues website – giving 100% of the profits from the sales of special items directly to the nonprofit UNT Music Library. For more information about The Jazz Syndicate and UNT Music Library, click here.