The jazz world is mourning the loss of 8-time Grammy Award winner Dan Morgenstern, the acclaimed writer and long-time director of the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University-Newark.
Morgenstern's son Josh told the New York Times that the legendary jazz archivist died from heart failure in a New York City hospital on Saturday. He was 94.
WBGO's Daybreak host Gary Walker says Morgenstern's knowledge and stories were awesome.
“Dan was primer for all things jazz, from the night Billie Holiday bought him a drink when he was home on leave from the service, his long service as editor of DownBeat magazine, his vision for the Institute For Jazz Studies at Rutgers Newark, his writings, profiles, reviews and recommendations of what we should be listening to today, through Dan’s writings and observations, we have something of significance to embrace.”
Morgenstern also hosted the Jazz From The Archives program that aired on WBGO for several years.
It was in 2004 that NPR's Michele Norris spoke with Morgenstern, about the historic 50th anniversary of the Newport Jazz Festival. You can hear that conversation here.
Morgenstern was one of the most prominent jazz writers in the world, covering the genre for decades, including as editor of DownBeat. He also authored the books Jazz People and Living with Jazz. He became a mainstay in the Best Album Notes category at the Grammys, receiving 17 nominations in his career.
He won the award eight times for his linear notes for Art Tatum's God Is in the House, Coleman Hawkins' The Hawk Flies, the compilation The Changing Face of Harlem, Erroll Garner's Erroll Garner: Master of the Keyboard, Clifford Brown's Brownie: The Complete Emarcy Recordings of Clifford Brown, Louis Armstrong's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man, Fats Waller's If You Got to Ask, You Ain't Got It!, and Louis Armstrong's The Complete Louis Armstrong Decca Sessions (1935-1946).
