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Jim Cullum Jr.

In the 1950s when everyone else his age was listening to Elvis Presley and Connie Francis, Jim Cullum locked onto the sounds of early jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton. At first he thought he might want to play trombone, but one day while helping his dad in the grocery business, Jim caught sight of an antique cornet in a store window and fell in love.

While attending Trinity University in San Antonio, Jim formed a seven-piece traditional jazz group, the Happy Jazz Band, with his father the late Jim Cullum, Sr., who had played professionally with Jack Teagarden and others in the 1940s. In 1963, a group of San Antonio business leaders established The Landing, a jazz club on the San Antonio River Walk, as a showcase for the Happy Jazz Band. Under Jim, Jr.'s direction the band evolved into a nationally- acclaimed professional company known as The Jim Cullum Jazz Band.

Jim Cullum’s lifelong passion has been researching, preserving and presenting jazz and popular song from the turn of the 20th century to the mid-1940s.

Gear

Getzen cornet


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4
Album Review

The Jim Cullum Jazz Band: Porgy and Bess Live

Read "Porgy and Bess Live" reviewed by Jack Bowers


Since its New York City debut in September 1935, George Gershwin's beloved folk opera Porgy and Bess has been recreated and performed in almost every possible context, from classical opera to musical theatre to mainstream jazz, in America and overseas. The opera has been probed and dissected so often, in fact, that at first blush another version, this one by a seven-piece trad jazz group that calls San Antonio, Texas, home may seem superfluous at best. What sets this double-disc ...

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Radio

A Triple Crown Of Tunesmiths This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

A Triple Crown Of Tunesmiths This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Source: Don Mopsick

This week on Riverwalk Jazz, it’s the music of songwriters Vincent Youmans, Johnny Green and Harry Barris. Special guests Shelly Berg and Dick Hyman join The Jim Cullum Jazz Band on piano and Topsy Chapman, Marty Grosz and Carol Woods handle the vocals. The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on Sirius/XM satellite radio and can be streamed on-demand from the Riverwalk Jazz website. You can also drop in on a continuous stream of shows at ...

Radio

Jim Cullum Jazz Band Live From Stanford This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Jim Cullum Jazz Band Live From Stanford This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Source: Don Mopsick

This week on Riverwalk Jazz, The Jim Cullum Jazz Band presents a collection of early jazz classics from New Orleans and beyond. It's a summer concert captured live at the Stanford Jazz Workshop with Evan Christopher on clarinet. The Jim Cullum Jazz Band brings a fresh approach to its classic repertoire. The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on Sirius/XM satellite radio and can be streamed on-demand from the Riverwalk Jazz website. You can also drop ...

Radio

Whiz Kid Of Swing John Hammond This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Whiz Kid Of Swing John Hammond This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Source: Don Mopsick

This week on Riverwalk Jazz, The Jim Cullum Jazz Band with guests Dick Hyman, Topsy Chapman, Harry Allen and others, explore the towering legacy of John Hammond, the man called “the most influential talent scout and music producer in history.” The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on Sirius/XM satellite radio and can be streamed on-demand from the Riverwalk Jazz website. You can also drop in on a continuous stream of shows at the Stanford Archive ...

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Radio

This Week On Riverwalk Jazz: Wizard Of Oz With Vernel Bagneris

This Week On Riverwalk Jazz: Wizard Of Oz With Vernel Bagneris

Source: Don Mopsick

This week on Riverwalk Jazz, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz comes to life as Broadway actor Vernel Bagneris portrays all the characters of Oz in a new script for radio based on the original L. Frank Baum book. The brilliance of Harold Arlen’s art as a songwriter is displayed in new jazz arrangements and performances by The Jim Cullum Jazz Band, of Arlen’s music from the movie score. The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on ...

Radio

Songwriting Bandleaders Of The Swing Era This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Songwriting Bandleaders Of The Swing Era This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Source: Don Mopsick

This week on Riverwalk Jazz, vocalist and Arbors recording artist Rebecca Kilgore joins The Jim Cullum Jazz Band to celebrate Songwriting Bandleaders of the Swing Era with music by Ray Noble, Isham Jones, Artie Shaw and Duke Ellington. The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on Sirius/XM satellite radio and can be streamed on-demand from the Riverwalk Jazz website. You can also drop in on a continuous stream of shows at the Stanford Archive of Recorded ...

Radio

This Week On Riverwalk Jazz: The Great Innovator---benny Goodman

This Week On Riverwalk Jazz: The Great Innovator---benny Goodman

Source: Don Mopsick

Benny Goodman, the clarinet virtuoso from Chicago, became a central figure of the Swing Era and popularized the jazz form with a worldwide audience in the 1930s and beyond. To celebrate Goodman’s innovative style, Riverwalk Jazz has assembled performances and stories from our stable of jazz greats drawn into his orbit—Lionel Hampton, Doc Cheatham, Helen Ward—and our own Ron Hockett and Jim Cullum. In 20 years of Riverwalk Jazz radio broadcasts, we’ve welcomed several artists closely associated with Goodman, or ...

Radio

This Week On Riverwalk Jazz: Battle Of The Bands With Banu Gibson, Savion Glover & William Warfield

This Week On Riverwalk Jazz: Battle Of The Bands With Banu Gibson, Savion Glover & William Warfield

Source: Don Mopsick

Riverwalk Jazz this week presents an old-fashioned Battle of the Bands pitting the Jim Cullum Jazz Band against Banu Gibson and her New Orleans Hot Jazz. The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on Sirius/XM satellite radio and can be streamed on-demand from the Riverwalk Jazz website. You can also drop in on a continuous stream of shows at the Stanford Archive of Recorded Sound. Early 20th-century New Orleans demanded live music for almost every occasion, ...

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Radio

Eccentric Genius Of Jelly Roll Morton This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Eccentric Genius Of Jelly Roll Morton This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Source: Don Mopsick

This week on Riverwalk Jazz, Vernel Bagneris joins The Jim Cullum Jazz Band for Wild Man Blues, a musical biography based on stories from the personal diaries of Jelly Roll Morton, compiled by the late William Russell, the first curator of the Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University in New Orleans, and published in the book Oh, Mister Jelly. The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on Sirius/XM satellite radio and can be streamed on-demand from ...

Radio

Porgy & Bess Part 2 This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Porgy & Bess Part 2 This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Source: Don Mopsick

This week Riverwalk Jazz offers an encore presentation of the concluding episode in George Gershwin’s folk opera, Porgy and Bess, featuring acting legend William Warfield as narrator. This two-part series features an original jazz transcription of the music from Porgy and Bess, created by The Jim Cullum Jazz Band and recorded at The Landing in San Antonio in 1992. Among his many accolades, Mr. Warfield is known for his role as Porgy opposite Leontyne Price (see photo). The program is ...

Radio

Porgy And Bess Part I This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Porgy And Bess Part I This Week On Riverwalk Jazz

Source: Don Mopsick

For the next two weeks, Riverwalk Jazz presents a two-part special, The Jim Cullum Jazz Band’s acclaimed jazz transcription of George Gershwin’s American folk opera Porgy and Bess. Theater legend William Warfield, the award-winning bass-baritone famous for his memorable stage role as Porgy, appears as narrator in this encore presentation. The program is distributed in the US by Public Radio International, on Sirius/XM satellite radio and can be streamed on-demand from the Riverwalk Jazz website. You can also drop in ...

John Berlau wrote in the May 21-27, 2006 American Profile’s “Jazzing the Airwaves:” “Cullum’s popular radio program, along with the work of top-selling jazz artists like trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and singer Diana Krall, is among the factors credited for a renewed interest in classic jazz throughout the country.”

Bill McFarlin, Executive Director of the International Association of Jazz Educators notes: “The Jim Cullum Jazz Band is one of the nation’s premiere ensembles.”

Primary Instrument

Cornet

Clinic/Workshop Information

Jim Cullum and the Jazz Band describe and demonstrate the techniques and theory behind early jazz playing, such as polyphony, or "many voices" improvisation common in the early days of jazz, and how an early jazz rhythm section functions. Each ndividual player demonstrates the role of his instrument in the ensemble, and the band performs selected masterworks from the early jazz repertoire, such as from Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller, King Oliver, Sidney Bechet, etc. Time permitting, there is a Q & A session with the students

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