Collection Guide
Collection Title:
Collection Number:
Get Items:
Guide to the Jim Goggin Oral History Collection
MS 185
View entire collection guide
Search this collection
Table of contents
Title: Guide to the Jim Goggin Oral History Collection
Dates: circa 2000s
Collection number: MS 185
Creator:
Goggin, Jim.
Collection Size:
.5 linear feet
((1 box)
Repository:
African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Oakland, CA 94612
Abstract: Jim Goggin was the founder of the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation. During his career Goggin helped produce many
West Coast jazz recordings and liner notes, and authored numerous jazz articles and ten published books about West Coast jazz
music and its performers. The Jim Goggin Oral History Collection consists of 8 oral histories with jazz drummer and band leader
Earl Watkins, an oral history with musician and session pianist Rodney Burge, and material as published in the book
Earl Watkins: The Life of a Jazz Drummer by Jim Goggin.
Physical location: African American Museum & Library at Oakland (Oakland, Calif.)
Oakland, CA 94612
Languages:
Languages represented in the collection:
English
No access restrictions. Collection is open to the public.
Materials are for use in-library only, non-circulating.
Permission to publish from the Jim Goggin Oral History Collection must be obtained from the African American Museum & Library
at Oakland.
Jim Goggin Oral History Collection, MS 185, African American Museum & Library at Oakland, Oakland Public Library. Oakland,
California.
Biography / Administrative History
Jim Goggin was the founder of the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation. Created as a non-profit in 1981, the San Francisco
Traditional Jazz Foundation stated, as its primary mission, the archival preservation of thousands of items related to the
West Coast Jazz Revival that began in San Francisco about 1939. In 2009 the Foundation completed the transfer of the main
body of those materials to Stanford University’s Music Library.
During his career Goggin helped produce many West Coast jazz recordings and liner notes, and authored numerous jazz articles
and ten published books about West Coast jazz music and its performers. Many of these books were produced as scrapbooks that
gave recognition to musicians who were personally known to the author such as Bob Mielke, Dude Martin, Turk Murphy, Sal Carlson,
and Bob Scobey. In 2005 Goggin published Earl Watkins: The Life of a Jazz Drummer, a scrapbook dedicated to jazz drummer and
band leader Earl Watkins.
Earl Thomas Watkins, Jr. (January 29, 1920 - July 1, 2007) was born in San Francisco, the only child of Earl Watkins Sr. and
Susie Bynum Watkins. Watkins grew up in the Fillmore, San Francisco, California and attended Galileo High School where he
was a 2nd Lt. in the ROTC. While in his teens Watkins developed an interest in the drums and learned to play from John Randolph.
During World War II, Watkins worked in the shipyards during the day and in clubs at night. One memorable evening he played
an impromptu jam session with Billie Holiday and musicians from the Jimmy Lunceford Band. Watkins was recruited into the Navy
as a musician and stationed at St. Mary's College which had become a pre-flight school. After the war Watkins played at the
Slim Jenkins Supper Club in Oakland. He played with Johnny Cooper at the California Theater Club in San Francisco and from
there he worked at other San Francisco clubs such as the Story Club, the Blackhawk, the Say When and "Gay and Friskie." He
also played the Cotton Club, now the Great American Music Hall. In 1950 Watkins was the first drummer at Jimbo's Bop City,
the famous after-hours club in the Fillmore district. Bob Scobey called Watkins to perform with his Dixieland Band at the
Tin Angel, in 1955. San Francisco was promoting Dixieland as "Frisco Jazz" and the band was very busy with their regular gig,
a TV show on Channel 5 as well as club dates in Chicago, Milwaukee, New York and Los Angeles. He joined the Earl "Fatha" Hines
Band at the Hangover Club in 1956 and the band played there for five years. They also traveled the country and did a radio
show every Saturday morning. In 1965 Watkins was recruited to work in the Oakland office of Musicians Union Local 6. He retired
from the Local in 1994 and was elected to the board of directors where he served until he died. Watkins received a Certificate
of Congressional Recognition for being a jazz legend and historian in 2003 and was inducted into the West Coast Blues Society
Hall of Fame in 2006.
Scope and Content of Collection
The Jim Goggin Oral History Collection consists of 8 oral histories with jazz drummer and band leader Earl Watkins. All interviews
include audio recordings (7 cassettes) and an interview transcript. The collection also includes 1 oral history on cassette
with musician and session pianist Rodney Burge. Additionally included are reproductions of illustrations and photographs,
newspaper clippings, postcards, and ephemera as published in the book Earl Watkins: The Life of a Jazz Drummer by Jim Goggin.
Excerpts from the interview transcripts also appear in the Earl Watkins: The Life of a Jazz Drummer scrapbook. The collection
is organized in two series: I. Oral history interviews II. Earl Watkins: The life of a jazz drummer.
Series I. Oral history interviews Series II. Earl Watkins: The life of a jazz drummer.
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in
the library's online public access catalog.
African American jazz musicians--Biography.
Dixieland music.
Blues (Music)--California--San Francisco Bay Area.
Jazz--California--San Francisco--1951-1960.