RIPMJAZZ
photo of journal cover for NED.png

The Needle

Described as “The Record Collector’s Guide,” The Needle was published and edited by Robert Reynolds in Jackson Heights (Queens) New York. Russel Sanjek was listed as publisher for the first issue but gradually fell away from the magazine. A total of six issues were published, five in 1945 and a single one in 1946. In the opening editorial, Reynolds observes that too often record collectors and musicians do not understand each other. Bridging this mutual lack of knowledge is stated as a “policy plank” of The Needle, and while there might be a preference for traditional jazz, Reynolds states a neutrality on whether jazz was “dying,” as often professed by traditionalists in the mid-1940s.


Portraits of musicians — Barney Bigard, Duke Ellington, Rod Cless, among others — appear alongside lists of records for sale and lists of records wanted for purchase. New records and rereleases are reviewed; Frederic Ramsey, Jr. reviewed books and other printed publications. A “Collector’s Corner” column catered to record collectors; Adrian Michaelis provided a four part radio broadcast for schools entitled “An Outline of Aframerican Jazz.” It is unclear why The Needle ceased publication.


“This short-lived monthly, edited and published by Robert Reynolds, was distinguished well out of proportion to its brief run. Among the significant writings to appear were William Russell’s early musicological investigations of Jelly Roll Morton and other pianists, Herman Rosenberg’s piece on Bobby Stark, and Ken Hulsizer’s ‘A Dozen Lines of Investigation,’ on future directions of jazz criticism. A dispute between Duke Ellington and Winthrop Sargeant was fought in the pages of The Needle, George Wettling reminisced there, and there appeared Frederic Ramsey’s important column, ‘Jazz in Print’.”

Jazz Periodicals: 1930-1970, Greenwood Press,
Center for Research Libraries (1977)

Discography Record Collecting