The Jazz Session
- Place of Publication: Chicago, IL
- Language: English
- Date of Publication: 1944-1946
- Periodicity: Monthly, 1944; generally bi-monthly, 1945-1946
- Editor: John T. Schenck
- Publishers: John T. Schenck
- Type: Full Text
Billed as “the most original magazine in jazz,” The Jazz Session was published in Chicago with a masthead noting the cities of Chicago, New York, Boston, and Colorado Springs. Published and edited by John T. Schenck, the first issue consists of a series of typescript pages only but gains a professional layout from issue 2 onwards. A total of 13 issues were published.
John T. Schenck was a promoter and supporter of hot jazz in Chicago. According to Art Hodes in a remembrance [Down Beat 33, no. 20 (6 October 1966)], Schenck received an inheritance which he used to promote hot jazz through concerts and publications. Schenck desired that the Jazz Session be “one of the farthest advanced magazines” in jazz and he contributed frequently, along with assistant editors Allen Grossman and Marshall Turoff, on jazz in Chicago, musicians from New Orleans, old and new records, concerts, and more — most all concerning hot jazz or swing. Other contributors included John Steiner, George Avakian on Leonard Feather and the debate around modernism in jazz, Charles Payne Rogers, and John Lucas.
The final issue (no. 13, July 1946) is billed as the “New Jazz Session” with an editorial entitled “Board of Directors established to guarantee Jazz Session’s future as the leading ‘Jazz Bible’”. However, appended to the end of the issue is an announcement of Schneck’s resignation from The Jazz Session, which would be continued by the Hot Club of Chicago. Unfortunately, it did not seem to do so.