Guide to the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society
Collection
Collection processed and finding aid created by Lola Aguilar
Center for Sacramento History
551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.
Sacramento, California 95814
Phone: (916) 264-7072
Fax: (916) 264-7582
Email: csh@cityofsacramento.org
URL: http://www.centerforsacramentohistory.org
© 2006
Center for Sacramento History. All rights reserved.
Guide to the Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society Collection
Collection number: 2001/062
Center for Sacramento History
Sacramento, California
- Processed by:
- Lola Aguilar
- Date Completed:
- December 2006
- Encoded by:
- Lola Aguilar
© 2006 Center for Sacramento History. All rights reserved.
Descriptive Summary
Title: Sacramento Traditional Jazz
Society Collection
Date Range:
1950-2003 inclusive,
Date (bulk): 1974-1998
bulk
Collection Number: 2001/062
Collector:
Sacramento Traditional Jazz
Society
Extent: 57 linear
feet
Repository:
Center for Sacramento History
551 Sequoia Pacific Blvd.
Sacramento, California 95814
Location: See Finding Aid for exact location of
materials.
Abstract: The Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society (STJS)
began on Sunday May 5, 1968 with a group of local jazz musicians gathering at
the Orangevale Grange Hall to play for a small group of jazz fans. The
musicians included Dr. Bill Borcher, the Dean of Men at American River College
and trumpet player for the Delta Moonlighters, John Knurr, a local high school
music teacher, jazz trombonist Jerry Kaehele, and George Boyd and his Good Time
Go-to-Meeting Band. The non-profit organization holds an annual Jazz Jubilee
Festival on Memorial Day weekend and conducts jazz education programs and
community outreach. The Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society is the largest
traditional jazz organization in the United States. The files date from 1952 to
2003, with the bulk of the material dating from 1974 to 1998. The collection
includes correspondence, financial documents, legal documents, meeting records,
grant applications, publications, directors files, photographs, programs, and
brochures.
Administrative Information
Access
Collection is open for research.
Publication Rights
Copyright has not been assigned to the Center for Sacramento History for private collections.
All requests to publish or quote from private manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Archivist.
Permission for publication is given on behalf of the Center for Sacramento History as the owner of the
physical items and is not intended to include or imply permission of the
copyright holder, which must also be obtained by the reader. No permission is
necessary to publish or quote from records.
Preferred Citation
[Identification of item, prepared according to standard citation style
such as MLA, ALAL, or Turabian], [2001/062]. Sacramento Traditional Jazz
Society Collection, Center for Sacramento History.
Acquisition Information,
Acquired in 2001 from Mike Foley, agent of the Sacramento Traditional
Jazz Society.
Processing History
Processed by Lola Aguilar, 2006. Finding aid prepared using DACS by Lola
Aguilar, 2007. Machine-readable finding aid created by Lola Aguilar, 2007.
Administrative History
The Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society (STJS) began on Sunday May 5,
1968 with a group of local jazz musicians gathering at the Orangevale Grange
Hall to play for a small group of jazz fans. The musicians included Dr. Bill
Borcher, the Dean of Men at American River College and trumpet player for the
Delta Moonlighters, John Knurr, a local high school music teacher, jazz
trombonist Jerry Kaehele, and George Boyd and his Good Time Go-to-Meeting Band.
Originally named the New Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society, the musicians met
informally in the afternoon on the first Sunday of the month and elected Jerry
Kaelhele as the first President, Jack Burke as Vice President, and Roy Harper
as Secretary-Treasurer. As news of the Jazz Society spread, more jazz musicians
joined the Sunday sessions and their membership grew. In October 1969, Bill
Borcher helped friends arrange a fundraiser on the Delta King riverboat, which
attracted a crowd of 4,000. Publicity from the fundraiser and two successful
fundraisers in November and December of that year generated even more interest
in jazz.
With a renewed public interest in jazz music, the STJS outgrew the
Orangevale Grange Hall and by 1970 the musicians moved their Sunday concerts to
larger venues, such as the El Rancho Motel and the Carmichael Elks Lodge. For
the next three years paid guest artists and bands joined STJS musicians in
performances around Sacramento. In late 1973, then-President Ozzie Belmore and
Bill Borcher organized a committee to investigate the feasibility of a Jazz
Festival in Sacramento. Other jazz festivals in Monterey and Newport had
attracted wide audiences and the STJS believed Sacramento could accomplish the
same. The committee decided on Memorial Day weekend because the high rate of
vacancies of Sacramento area hotels would accommodate visitors. The STJS
presented the Dixieland Jazz Jubilee on Memorial Day weekend in 1974. Seven
performance sites in West Sacramento and in Old Sacramento featured 21 bands,
300 volunteers, and attracted 3,000 jazz fans. Admission badges for that first
year cost $12.50 for three days and revenues totaled $32,000, but expenses
totaled $35,000. Despite the loss, the STJS decided to continue the Jubilee as
an annual event.
The original intent of the STJS was to promote and preserve the roots of
jazz, which to Bill Borcher and his colleagues meant Dixieland Jazz. After much
heated discussion, the Jazz Jubilee decided in 1995, to include other types of
jazz in an effort to attract a wider and younger audience. In addition to
Dixieland, the music included Swing, Gospel, Latin Jazz, Zydeco, and
Barbershop. Prestigious acts such as the Pied Pipers, Boots Randolph, Gary
Crosby, Julius LaRosa, Pat Yankee, Bob Crosbys Bob Cats, the Ink Spots, and the
Mills Brothers have performed at the Jubilee.
In 1979 the STJC incorporated as a non-profit organization with the
mission of preserving and promoting traditional jazz music. The same year, the
organization established a Youth Scholarship Program, which provides
scholarships for young musicians for private music instruction with an emphasis
on jazz. The program expanded into an annual Trad Jazz Camp in 1986. This week
long camp provides intensive jazz instruction for approximately 100 young
musicians ages 12-18. The Jazz Ambassadors, instituted in 1992, travel
throughout Northern California providing information about STJS programs and
events to hundreds of organizations at breakfast, lunch, and dinner meetings.
The STJS included the Elderhostel program in 1992, which provides jazz
instruction for seniors. In 2000, the Trad Jazz Camp added a week long camp for
approximately 90 adults to its program.
According to their web site (http//:www.sacjazz.org), the Sacramento
Traditional Jazz Society is now the largest traditional jazz organization in
the United States. Organization membership has reached 5,000 with 4 paid
employees. The Jazz Jubilee now attracts over 100,000 attendees, with 146 bands
including 9 international groups, and 1,097 musicians playing at 47 performance
sites. Venues in Sacramento include Cal Expo, Old Sacramento, the Sacramento
Community Center, and various hotels throughout the city. Volunteers now number
3,800 to ensure a successful festival, with revenues exceeding $20 million.
Scope and Content
The Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society Collection is arranged in eight
series: 1. Artifacts, 2. Administrative Files, 3. Jazz Jubilee, 4. Trad Jazz
Camp, 5. Jazz Ambassadors, 6. Elderhostel, 7. Scrapbooks, and 8. Media. Items
span the years 1950 to 2003, with the bulk of the items dating from 1974 to
1998. The first series, Artifacts, consists of 5 cubic feet and includes button
badges, t-shirts, hats, and a garter. Appendix A includes the complete list of
the artifacts.
The second series, Administrative Files, which consists
of eight cubic feet and three map case drawers, is divided into eight
subseries: Correspondence, Financial Documents, Meeting Records, Legal
Documents, Reports, Grant Applications, Publications, and Ephemera. The items
are arranged chronologically within each subseries and include balance sheets,
treasurers reports, financial statements, committee reports, incorporation
papers, by-laws and constitution, and musicians union information. These
documents chronicle the growth of the organization from a small, informal
gathering of musicians, to a highly successful non-profit organization. The
documents include changes made to the constitution and the by-laws as the
organization grew. Committee reports include valuable information about the
direction of the STJS, with changes in the types of committees which were
necessary during the years when the organization started to expand. The STJS
efforts to acquire grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and the
Sacramento Regional Foundation highlight the organizations non-profit status.
Publications contain an extensive collection of external jazz publications from
other jazz organizations throughout the United States and Canada and are
arranged alphabetically and are listed in Appendix B. Ephemera includes flyers
and brochures from other jazz festivals in the Northern California area.
The third series contains the records of the Jazz Jubilee and consists
of six cubic feet and three map case drawers, which are divided into twelve
subseries: Correspondence, Directors Files, Financial Documents, Legal
Documents, Reports, Meeting Records, Band Information, Site Information,
Concessions, General Information, Publications, and Ephemera. Correspondence is
divided between letters, arranged chronologically, and hardcopies of email
correspondence, arranged chronologically within alphabetical order.
Correspondence includes letters between Jubilee organizers and several
musicians, notably one letter from an ailing Hoagy Carmichael written by his
wife. General Information includes Jubilee files on only thirteen years, but
includes complete information of those particular Jubilees. Internal
publications include programs and newsletters but are also missing several
years.
The fourth series, Trad Jazz Camp contains one cubic foot and includes
correspondence, financial documents, minutes, class material, scholarship
information, publications, and ephemera. Trad Jazz Camp newsletters are
incomplete, but offer information about the inner workings of the camp. The
fifth series, Jazz Ambassadors, consists of one file folder and includes
general information detailing the duties and events concerning this program,
including agendas and newsletter. The sixth series, Elderhostel, consists of
one cubic foot. Items are arranged chronologically and include correspondence,
class material, catalogs, newsletters, publications, ephemera, and general
information about the programs. Class material includes handouts and class
manuals used for jazz instruction. The seventh series, Scrapbooks, include
general information STJS scrapbooks, Jubilee scrapbooks, jazz history
scrapbooks, and band scrapbooks. The eighth series includes VHS videotapes,
reel-to-reel audiotapes, cassette tapes, slides, negatives, and over five
thousand photographs. Photographs include images of guest artists such as Molly
Ringwald, Tommy Newsome, and Phil Harris. Jubilees through the years are
represented by hundreds of color and black and white photographs. Jazz band
photographs are arranged alphabetically with a complete list in Appendix C.
Arrangement
The Sacramento Traditional Jazz Society Collection is subdivided into
eight series:
Indexing Terms
Corporate Name
Sacramento
Traditional Jazz Society
Subjects:
Jazz
Jazz festivals
Sacramento
(Calif.)--History
Container List:
Boxes 1-7
Series 1.
Artifacts,
1974-2000
Physical Description: 485 items
Boxes 8-15
Series 2
. Administrative Files,
1952-1999
Physical Description: 275 file folders
Box 8, Folder 489-509
Subseries 2.1.
Correspondence,
1976-1996
Physical Description: 21 file folders
Box 8-9, Folder 510-519
Subseries 2.2.
Financial Documents,
1973-1998
Physical Description: 10 file folders
Balance Sheets,
1987-1993
Treasurers Reports,
1979-1991
Financial Statements,
1980-1990
Monthly Meeting Expenses,
1973-1995
Box 9-10, Folder 520-559
Subseries 2.3.
Meeting Records,
1972-1998
Physical Description: 40 file folders
Building Feasibility,
1988
Fund Development,
1993-1994
Jubilee Management,
1975-1993
Member and Committee Lists,
1980-1986
Master Membership List, Oversized Material,
1993-1995
Convention Material,
1993
General Information,
1969-1994
Box 10, Folder 560-569
Subseries 2.4.
Legal Documents,
1968-1996
Physical Description: 10 file folders
By-laws and Constitution,
1981-1989
Musicians Union,
1984-1988
Certificate of Insurance,
1990
Mailing Permits,
1968-1986
Charitable Trust,
1991-1996
Box 10, Folder 570-576
Subseries 2.5.
Reports,
1988-1996
Physical Description: 7 file folders
Building Feasibility Study,
1988
Communication Package,
1996
Downtown Sacramento Retail Strategy,
1995
STJS: Long Range Plan,
1991-1995
STJS Marketing Plan,
undated
Box 10, Folder 577-578
Subseries 2.6.
Grant Applications,
1978-1992
Physical Description: 2 file folders
National Endowment for the Arts,
1978-1992
Sacramento Regional Foundation, Arts and Culture Grant,
1990
Box 11-14, Folder 579-763
Subseries 2.7.
Publications,
1950-2001
Physical Description: 185 file folders
Press Releases,
1975-1992
News Clippings,
1972-1996
Box 14-15, Folder 764-788
Subseries 2.8.
Ephemera,
1974-1999
Physical Description: 25 file folders
Non-STJS Annual Reports,
1989-1992
Other Jazz Festival Programs,
1985-1999
Other Jazz Festival Programs, Oversized Material,
1977-1996
Other Jazz Festival Flyers,
1974-1998
Other Brochures,
1985-1996
Certificates, Oversized Material,
1978-1983
"Dance Steps" Broadside, Oversized Material,
undated
Other Jazz Festival Posters and Banners, Oversized
Material,
undated
Boxes 16-21
Series 3.
Jazz Jubilee,
1969-2003
Physical Description: 106 file folders
Box 16, Folder 789-796
Subseries 3.1.
Correspondence
1973-2003
Physical Description: 8 file folders
Correspondence,
1973-1998
Correspondence-Email Hardcopies,
1996-2003
Box 17, Folder 797-802
Subseries 3.2.
Directors Files,
1969-1999
Physical Description: 6 file folders
General Information,
1969-1999
Box 17, Folder 803-807
Subseries 3.3.
Financial Documents,
1977-1995
Physical Description: 5 file folders
Ticket Sale Logs,
undated
Box 17, Folder 808-815
Subseries 3.4.
Legal Documents,
1986-1997
Physical Description: 8 file folders
Box 17-18, Folder 816-829
Subseries 3.5.
Reports,
1989-2001
Physical Description: 14 file folders
"The Arts from the CEOs Desk,"
1995
"Attendance/Site/Band Reports,"
1989-1996
"Concession Managers Report,"
1992
"1996 Jubilee Percentage of Seat Occupancy Report,"
1996
"Quality Research Report,"
1996-1999
"Sacramento Jazz Jubilee Demographics Report,"
1991-2001
Box 18, Folder 830
Subseries 3.6.
Meeting Records,
1978
Physical Description: 1 file folders
Committee Reports: Jubilee Fact-Finding,
1978
Box 18-19, Folder 831-843
Subseries 3.7.
Band Information,
1978-1996
Physical Description: 13 file folders
Musician Information,
1969-1980
Gold Card Members,
1970-1985
Artist Correspondence,
1979-1993
Artist Resumes,
1979-1996
Musician Sign-up Sheets,
1972-1996
Reprise (Set) Lists,
1972-1996
General Information,
1994
Box 20, Folder 844-846
Subseries 3.8.
Site Information,
1984-1996
Physical Description: 3 file folders
General Information,
1988-1996
Jubilee Site Maps,
1989-1994
Box 20, Folder 847-852
Subseries 3.9.
Concessions,
1979-1997
Physical Description: 6 file folders
Concessions Inspection Report,
1988
Operations Newsletter,
1991-1993
Vendor Information,
1988-1997
Box 20, Folder 853-863
Subseries 3.10.
General Information,
1987-2000
Physical Description: 11 file folders
"1988-2000" Jubilee,
1987-2000
Box 21, Folder 864-886
Subseries 3.11.
Publications,
1974-2001
Physical Description: 23 file folders
"Jazz Jubilee Bugle," Oversized Material,
1974
"The Jubilee Volunteer,"
1985-1999
"Jazz Sunday Programs,"
1984-1987, 1998
"Jubilee Programs," Oversized Material,
1975-1994
"Official Program,"
1974-2001
"Official Program," Oversized Material,
1987-1988
"Pianorama Program,"
1985-2001
"Sacramento Jubilee Jazz,"
1998
Press Releases,
1977-1984
Box 21, Folder 887-894
Subseries 3.12.
Ephemera,
1974-2001
Physical Description: 8 file folders
Jubilee Brochures,
1981-2000
Jubilee Bumper Stickers, Oversized Material,
1977-2000
Jubilee Flyers,
1980-1994
Jubilee Broadsides, Oversized Material,
1975-2001
Jubilee Posters, Oversized Material,
1977-2001
Other Festival Flyers,
1974-1999
Boxes 21-22, Folder 895-911
Series 4.
Trad Jazz Camp,
1973-1999
Physical Description: 17 file folders
General Information,
1989-1992
Correspondence,
1978-1998
Financial Documents,
1986-1993
Class Material,
1987-1992
Fundraising Material,
1986-1988
Boxes 22, Folder 912
Series 5.
Jazz Ambassadors,
1992-1995
Physical Description: 1 file folder
General Information,
1992-1995
Boxes 22-23, Folder 913-938
Series 6.
Elderhostel,
1992-1999
Physical Description: 25 file folders
Correspondence,
1994-1999
Financial Documents,
1994-1996
Legal Documents,
1994-1995
Program Material,
1992-1997
Publications, Oversized Material,
1992-1995
Boxes 23-31, Folder 939-967
Series 7.
Scrapbooks,
1952-1995
Physical Description: 66 volumes
Jubilee and STJS Scrapbooks
undated
Jubilee and STJC Scrapbooks, Oversized Material,
1974-1994
Boxes 32, Folder 968-1791
Series 8.
Media,
1977-2000
Physical Description: 154 folder files
Box 32, Folder 968-976
Subseries 8.1.
VHS Videotapes,
1989-1999
Physical Description: 9 file folders
"Camp-Saturday P.M.,"
1989
"Jazz for Kids Program,"
1991
"Hanson Thank You Luncheon,"
1996
"Jazz Jubilee Volunteer Picnic,"
1997
"NHK Network (Japan) T.V. Special,"
undated
Box 32, Folder 977-978
Subseries 8.2.
Reel-to-Reel Audiotapes,
1971-1980
Physical Description: 2 file folders
Scott Ellsworth Show,
1971
KCNU Bob Ringwald Interview,
1980
Box 32, Folder 979-980
Subseries 8.3.
Cassette Tapes,
1978-2000
Physical Description: 2 file folders
Capital Public Radio Jazz Preview,
2000
Box 32, Folder 981-1109
Subseries 8.4.
Slides,
1987-1999
Physical Description: 7 file folders
Jubilee and STJC,
1987-1999
Box 32, Folder 1110-1386
Subseries 8.5.
Negatives,
1977-1997
Physical Description: 14 file folders
Jubilee and STJS,
1977-1997
Box 32, Folder 1387-1791
Subseries 8.6.
Photographs,
1976-2003
Physical Description: 140 file folders
Musicians, Jubilee, STJS, Trad Jazz Camp, and
Elderhostel,
1976-2003
