Jazz
- Place of Publication: New York City, NY
- Language: English
- Date of Publication: 1942-1943
- Periodicity: 10 nos., irregular
- Editors: Daniel B. Priest & Robert Thiele
- Publishers: Jazz Magazine
- Type: Full Text
- Continued by: Jazz
Jazz was a small-format journal devoted to jazz in all of its facets: history, criticism, reception, collection, perception, and more. Edited by Bob Thiele and Dann Priest, the journal published articles by important jazz writers, many represented on the journal’s Advisory Board, from a post office box in Forest Hills Station in the borough of Queens, New York. Ten issues were published before the journal was temporarily suspended after the December 1943 issue, likely due to both editors being drafted into military service, although both managed to keep the journal afloat while in active service during 1943. Later, the journal was restarted under the same title in December 1944.
The main driving force behind Jazz was Thiele (1922-1996). Born in Brooklyn, by his teenage years he was hosting a jazz radio program, leading a band, and had founded a recording company. Thiele wrote under the name Doctor Jazz (he would later found a record company under this name), largely contributing jazz news in a column titled “On the Jazz Front,” often with contributions on Chicago from John Steiner. In the January 1943 issue, Thiele contributed a retrospective on twenty years of Duke Ellington and the various Ellington bands, along with a lengthy discography, in an Ellington-themed issue.
Other contributors to Jazz included Roger Pryor Dodge, who wrote very perceptive and thoughtful articles on multiple aspects of jazz; Muriel Reger on jazz history and issues of race; William C. Love on record collecting; and George Hoefer, Jr., Leonard Feather, Charles Edward Smith, Charles Payne Rogers, and Kenneth Meyer on specific musicians or topics. The record review column was shared amongst the various writers, with a different writer taking up this column in each issue.