Welcome to the website of jazz saxophonist, pianist, bandleader, educator, radio host, and author Loren Schoenberg.
News
Lorin Schoenberg can now be heard twice every weekend on Jazz88.org!
Big Band Bash (Saturdays, 1–3pm PT): Too many times the wonderful world of the big band is compressed to just a decade known as “The Swing Era” (1935 to 1945). And even beyond that, only a handful of bands are usually heard to represent that magical time. Join Loren for the best of the swinging big bands, going back to the 1920s, and going way beyond 1945.
Jazz Potpourri (Sundays 12–2pm PT): Join Loren for a tour through over 100 years worth of recorded jazz. So much has been made of what separates the various eras of jazz — Jazz Potpourri mixes and matches music from several decades’ worth of classic recordings, along with commentary bringing a musician’s perspective to things. Some of the shows are focused on a specific theme and/or artist, while others will range far and wide, looking for the connections that link them together. You may hear things differently afterwards, and the one thing we can guarantee is that you’ll hear swinging jazz you’ve never heard before.
Now Available, the New Album from Turtle Bay Records
So Many Memories
Some four decades after his original ensemble, the Loren Schoenberg Big Band, recorded the first of five albums, and 40 years after he began overseeing the Benny Goodman Archives at Yale University, the multi-faceted, two-time Grammy winning musician, bandleader, jazz scholar and longtime Juilliard jazz history professor combines the many musical loves of his life on SO MANY MEMORIES, the debut album for Turtle Bay Records by LOREN SCHOENBERG AND HIS JAZZ ORCHESTRA.
The compelling 16-track collection features previously unheard arrangements from 1936-39 by swing era composer/arranger Eddie Sauter created for bandleader and early jazz vibraphone great Red Norvo and his wife, singer Mildred Bailey, known as “Mr. and Mrs. Swing.” The repertoire is performed by a 15-piece ensemble featuring Schoenberg on piano and Juilliard-affiliated musicians (students and alumni) including vocalist KATE KORTUM, in addition to renowned vibraphonist WARREN WOLF (a prolific recording artist and longtime member of the SFJAZZ COLLECTIVE) playing the xylophone parts originally arranged for Norvo. Schoenberg is proud of the fact that Sauter’s son Greg Sauter, now in his 80s, lived to hear this album and is quite thrilled about it – and the opportunity it offers the world to hear his father’s long undiscovered arrangements.
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Mr. Schoenberg, a tenor saxophonist/pianist, has played and recorded with Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Heath, Eddie Durham, Marian McPartland, Clark Terry, John Lewis, Christian McBride, Buck Clayton, and was musical director for Bobby Short from 1997-2005. As a historian, educator, and Senior Scholar and former executive director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, Schoenberg’s work has been crucial in preserving and promoting the history of jazz, particularly the big band and swing eras. Having played early in his career with alumni of the Count Basie and Duke Ellington bands, he formed his own big band in 1980, which in 1985 became the last Benny Goodman orchestra. In addition to his two decades plus at Juilliard, Schoenberg has taught at Manhattan School of Music and the New School and lectured everywhere from the Metropolitan Museum of Art and Stanford University to the White House. Schoenberg has also conducted the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra as well as the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and the WDR Jazz Orchestra in Koln, Germany. He has also received two Grammy awards for Best Album Notes.
In early 2024, Schoenberg met Turtle Bay owner Scott Asen, who asked if he had any projects in mind. Schoenberg suggested “a big band record of esoteric material” – and Asen approved the idea. A major champion of the Sauter canon, Schoenberg had performed and recorded Sauter’s work many times throughout his career – including on his own big band albums in the 80’s and 90s. He knew the perfect group to work with for this repertoire – starting with the group of Juilliard students he led for several years at Dizzy’s Jazz Club as part of the Essentially Ellington High School Jazz Band Competition & Festival.
With the exception of Warren Wolf and Juilliard alums, saxophonist JULIAN LEE and trumpeters JOE BOGA and ANTHONY HERVEY, Loren Schoenberg and His Jazz Orchestra comprises musicians in their early 20’s who, were at the time of this recording, students at the school. These include trumpeter SUMMER CAMARGO, trombonists ANDRE PERLMAN and NICK MESLER, saxophonists ADAM STEIN (who also plays splendid clarinet throughout), LANGSTON HUGHES II and DANIEL COHEN, guitarist JAMES ZITO, bassist JOHN MURRAY, drummer MATT LEE and featured vocalist Kate Kortum, who sings lead on all but four of the pieces.
Recorded in a Juilliard band rehearsal room, SO MANY MEMORIES’ dynamic repertoire begins with soulful, spirited renderings of Duke Ellington’s “Azure” (which introduces us to Wolf’s mesmerizing xylophone skills) and the Gershwins’ “Nice Work If You Can Get It,” featuring Kortum, before the sensual romance kicks in on “You Go To My Head.” After a peppy romp through the full instrumental “I Know That You Know” (which has been recorded by Doris Day, Glenn Miller, Errol Garner and Oscar Peterson), Kortum’s pure, sensual voice regales us anew on Tommy Dorsey’s easy swinging heartbreaker “Music, Maestro Please,” the charming, torchy ballad “September in the Rain” (originally written for the 1935 film Stars Over Broadway) and the dreamy, nostalgic title track “So Many Memories,” first performed by Benny Goodman and his orchestra with singer Martha Tilton in 1937.
The program continues with Kortum imparting the clever narrative of the laid back, ironic love song “Two Sleepy People,” followed by Sammy Fain’s lighthearted, hopeful “I Can Dream Can’t I” (most renowned for its rendition by The Andrews Sisters), the sweet heartfelt caress of “I See Your Face Before Me” (recorded by Frank Sinatra and Johnny Hartman) and the bright, swaggering fun of Jerome Kern’s “You Couldn’t Be Cuter.” After two back-to-back instrumentals — the elegant, lyrical instrumental ballad “Old Folks” and a whimsical stroll through “Roses in December,” Kortum breezes back in with the winsome Jimmy McHugh/Dorothy Fields gem “Exactly Like You” and Irving Berlin’s sultry, slightly melancholy “You’re Laughing At Me” before the closer, the festive, fast-paced “After You’ve Gone,” an instrumental highlighted by the powerhouse clarinet duality of Adam Stein and Daniel Cohen.
SO MANY MEMORIES will be released on November 7, 2025 on Turtle Bay Records and will be available on CD, vinyl and all streaming platforms.
Now Available from Eakins Press
Lisette Model:
The Jazz Pictures
Shelved during the McCarthy era, Model's photographs of jazz musicians—together with a text by Langston Hughes—are finally published for the first time.
Photographer Lisette Model spent a decade photographing Louis Armstrong, Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington, Percy Heath, Miles Davis, Dizzy Gillespie and countless other luminaries of America's jazz scene. From the 1956 Newport Jazz Festival to nightclub shows and raucous afterparties in cramped apartments, Model’s images are effusive and full of empathy, celebrating jazz at a time when the genre was under increasing political and cultural scrutiny.
During the 1950s, the New York Photo League was investigated by the House Un-American Activities Committee for purported connections to the Communist Party. Model was interviewed by the FBI and eventually placed on its National Security Watchlist. This mounting political pressure led publishers and funders to rescind support of Model and ultimately caused her to shelve the book dedicated to her jazz pictures, which was to feature an essay by Langston Hughes.
Now, this beautifully produced book finally realizes Model’s self-censored project, providing a fresh look at familiar faces who today signify the fight for freedom, equality and creative expression. Alongside Hughes’ original essay, “Jazz As Communication,” texts by author Audrey Sands and saxophonist Loren Schoenberg underscore the importance of this series and the revelatory insight it shines on jazz music, both onstage and off.
Lisette Model: The Jazz Photos reviewed in the Wall Street Journal:
