A Christmas Yuleblog

The jazz and musical world lost a great friend two days ago when Dr. Billy Taylor died at the age of 89 in Manhattan. Taylor was born in Greenville, North Carolina and had his first piano lesson at the age of seven. His family later moved to Washington D.C. and attended Virginia State College for Negroes (now known as Virginia State University) where he studied music. After graduation in 1946, Billy moved to New York City at a time when jazz and bebop was about to explode onto the music scene. Within two days of his arrival, he began working with noted jazz musician Ben Webster and later became the house pianist at the famous Birdland Jazz Club. He formed his own jazz combo in 1951, toured all across the United States, and even put his music degree to good use; lecturing at schools on jazz, writing extensive articles for DownBeat magazine, and even had a long tenure of concerts at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NYC. Taylor's diverse resume deepened with stints on tel...

Merry Christmas! Usually at this downloading season, I would be posting new Christmas albums that I would have rummaged for at thrift stores, haggled for at record shows, and sniped at the last minute on eBay. Several things prevented me in doing that this year - I could bore you with the details but I'll refrain. I did want to continue the tradition that I started five Christmases ago - the annual Yuleblog Sampler. Normally, this would have been posted on Christmas Day - my present to you. But I decided to move the release date up by 10 days since I don't have anything else to post this season. I'm excited about this release for two reasons: 1.) Many of the 45s and 78s I found for the sampler were nowhere to be found in my 22,000+ Christmas song library. 2.) These singles were the first vinyl transferred on my new Stanton T.92 USB turntable and captured to digital on my new Dell PC. None of the vinyl I've transferred before has sounded better than...

To my family and friends: Still haven't found the playlist? First time receiving the CD? If so, click here .

Several years ago, I started a feature on this blog that showcased selections from my vintage Christmas ad collection. In years past, my collection of ads had come from antique malls and flea markets.  Vendors would take old magazines of LIFE, TIME, Look, Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Newsweek, Ladies Home Journal, and dozens of older vintage magazines and rip the ads out one by one to sell individually. The profit margins were substantial and a huge market began. Many people still sell ads on eBay, the antique stores and flea markets still peddle them. Then someone noticed the effect it had on the used magazine market - old magazines that normally sold for $5 or less were now $20 or more. Thanks to the continued shredding of older magazines, finding complete magazines are getting more scarce in the marketplace. I began to look at the ads I had collected and noticed the uneven cuts out of the magazine with a box cutter. The quality of many of the ads were good but could ...