Golden Age Jazz Publications
Introduction & Jazz Today
As a Jazz collector, my interest has never been purely limited to collecting LPs, often extending to various books, publications, photography, and more. While cataloguing my various magazine issues, I was reminded of the wonderful photography, design, and articles that have been largely unseen for decades and made the decision to start a series of posts that will feature some of the periodicals in my collection, starting with the magazine ‘Jazz Today.’
Jazz Today was founded by Metronome’s (another magazine) publishers Ned and John W. Bitner to be a magazine purely focused on Jazz editorial content during a time when Metronome was branching out and including other genres in their magazine. Bill Coss — the editor of Metronome — also filled the same role for this unfortunately short-lived publication, with only 13 issues spanning from October 1956 through November 1957. I chose Jazz Today as the first feature since I have a full set.
Since this magazine was so short-lived, I will share all 13 covers, along with some highlights from inside pages, including advertisements, typography, art, photos, and maybe an article or two.
Please note: This post is not intended to violate copyright and is purely for educational and archival purposes.
Covers
Click to view each full size!
Photography
Fun photos of various musicians! Click to view each full size.
Advertisements/Graphical Elements/Typography
Click to view each full size.
Bonus: Hi-Fi Article!
One of the sections in each issue was dedicated to providing general information on how to build a home hi-fi system, often focusing on a specific piece of gear — turntables, amplifiers, speakers, etc. This section also covered topics such as the rapid takeover of stereo recordings vs mono, looks at the home hi-fi system of Jazz artists, and more.
I hope you enjoyed taking a look through this wonderful little magazine! I do own a fair amount of issues (thought not complete sets) from Metronome, Downbeat, Jazz Journal, Jazz Magazine (Fr), Jazz Hot (fr), and Coda. In future editions, I’ll focus on one at a time similar to this!
Which is your favorite cover? Any surprising photos or scans I added here? Leave your thoughts in the comments!