RIPMJAZZ
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JazzTimes

JazzTimes was one of the foremost jazz magazines worldwide at the end of the twentieth century. Founded by record store owner Ira Sabin, JazzTimes was a continuation of Sabin’s previous Radio Free Jazz, a newspaper devoted to jazz and radio play which had grown significantly from its humble roots as a record store flier. JazzTimes was published in print until 2023. This introduction and RIPM’s treatment concerns the years 1980 to 2000.

Ira Sabin was born in Brooklyn in 1928 but relocated to Washington, D.C. at age 11. He began to play drums and as a teenager played in and organized professional bands. After a stint in the US Army playing in big and small bands, he returned to Washington and founded Sabin’s Discount Records, a record store which developed into one of the premier jazz record stores in the United States. It also became something of a musician’s hangout, through which Sabin developed longtime friendships with many in the jazz world, most notably Dizzy Gillespie. 

Sabin began publishing newsprint fliers for the store, first Sabin’s Discount Records, then Sabin’s Happening’s, then Sabin’s Radio Free Jazz USA, which became simply Radio Free Jazz, all across the 1970s. By 1980, Radio Free Jazz outgrew its roots in the record store and radio. As noted by Sabin in his 25 year retrospective, published in JazzTimes in 1995, the change of title was suggested by Leonard Feather “because it was too confusing. Is it free? Is it about free jazz? What is it? Leonard came up with the name JazzTimes and it stuck.” [JazzTimes 25, no. 7 (September 1995): 14]

Although Sabin began JazzTimes as a new endeavor with volume 1 number 1, for the first ten years it was printed in the same format: as a newspaper, always with a clear love for the art and those who created it. Regular contributors included Feather, Ira Gitler, Stanley and Helen Oakley Dance, Joel E. Siegel, Doug Ramsey, W. Royal Stokes, Fred Bouchard, Bob Porter, Michael Zwerin, Martin Williams, Bob Thiele, Willard Jenkins, Dan Morgenstern, Lee Mergner, Tad Hershorn, Scott Yanow, and David Zych. The scope of issues was broad: recorded and live jazz, domestic and international, major and minor record labels. The regular JazzTimes conventions were an organizing force over the years, drawing large numbers of attendees including musicians, writers, critics, educators, students, and the jazz-loving public.

In December 1990, JazzTimes shifted from a newspaper to a full-color, glossy magazine. By the mid-1990s, issues averaged around 100 pages per issue with significant amounts of advertising. Circulation by the late 1990s peaked around 115,000 and Sabin was assisted by his sons Glenn and Jeff Sabin, along with Lee Mergner, in running the magazine. 

 


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