February, 1972

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Cassette a

Childhood—concerts in mother's house in N.Y. City—anecdote about Szigeti concert—Yale as a family tradition—traces beginnings of interest in jazz—education at Hotchkiss, Yale--first records for Columbia, 1931—recording of Fletcher Henderson, 1932—employed by European companies: Gramophone Magazine, The Melody Maker, English Columbia—recording of Benny Goodman--interest in desegregating musical groups, from having covered Scottsboro case--1933: produces play on Broadway, discovers Billie Holiday, records Bessie Smith—Eubie Blake--interest in James P.  Johnson—Henry Sloane Coffin as influence on life—concern over the role of the Church in integration—dealings with bourgeois Negro musical world, 1943—more on Eubie Blake—employed by Columbia Masterworks, 1937—Charlie Christian, Lester Young, Coleman Hawkins—experiences as a naive young man in Harlem—lack of good jazz in N.Y. today, also Westport, New Haven.

Cassette B (begins p.41)

Billie Holiday (extensive)—Count Basie—Basie vs. Blake—Café Society, Spirituals to Swing program—Pete Seeger's, Bob Dylan's association with Columbia—opinions on "bop"—Mel Powell—Aretha Franklin—finding new "stars"—brief experience as a disc jockey for WEVD.