By Paige VanVorst

August 16, 1949- A very hot day in the Big Apple- Six musicians were gathered in the Beltone Studios in Midtown Manhattan, picking up some spare change doing a recording session commissioned by a jazz-hungry collegian. George Buck wasn't a twenty-something, he was twenty spending his life savings to document some of the music he'd become fond of.

There was a sea-change in the recording industry during the late 1940s- while in prewar days the industry was dominated by a handful of major labels, things were considerably more fluid after the War and the Musicians' Union recording ban shook up the industry. There were literally hundreds of small record labels popping up during the immediate postwar years- some, like Capitol and Mercury, became substantial businesses, while others vanished after putting out a few releases.

One result of this change was the possibility of a record label devoted to one type of music- the prewar labels tried to be all things to all people, providing big bands, vocalists, classical performers, and hillbilly and 'race' artists. The one-man labels could do whatever the owner wanted- as long as he could record and press the records, he could put out whatever he wanted, subject, of course, to the market.

George Buck grew up in New Jersey, the son of a consulting engineer to the water supply industry (the GHB logo is based on George H Buck Sr's handwriting), and while in high school he sold newspapers on the street and plowed his profits into War Bonds. He cashed in his bonds,,to his parents' dismay, and decided to invest in what he really liked- hot jazz. He'd listened to Rudi Blesh's This is Jazz broadcasts religiously and made visits to New York to hear some of the concerts and jam sessions put on during that era, as well as haunting the record shops looking for music from his growing list of favorites.

Buck attended Lynchburg College in Virginia and studied, among other things, Sociology and Psychology. He decided that if there was such a thing as the study of jazz it would be Jazzology. He'd begun broadcasting a jazz radio show by that name while he was in college in 1947 and decided that would also be the name of his record label.

The session went well- Clarinetist Tony Parenti, a New Orleanian then working at Eddie Condon's was the leader. Parenti was a gifted player with a technique that kept him busy in theater pit bands and radio studios throughout the thirties and early forties. He decided at some point to get out of the velvet rut and work with jazz groups- he may not have had the security he'd enjoyed before but I'm sure he had a lot more fun.

Wild Bill Davison played cornet- he was also well known from his time with Eddie Condon, and in addition he'd been featured extensively on Rudi Blesh's This is Jazz show, which had one-year run on radio station WOR and the Mutual Network. Davison was featured on the show for its last six months. Davison, from Defiance Ohio, kicked around the Midwest for the first twenty years of his career until a wealthy old lady from Milwaukee offered to stake him to a trip to New York to try and crack the big time. He wound up leading the band at Nick's and never looked back.

Trombonist Jimmy Archey was relatively unknown then and now. He'd been active in big bands, including that of King Oliver, during the 1920s and 30s but recast himself as a dixieland player when he took Georg Brunis' place in the This is Jazz band (the All-Star Stompers) beginning May 3, 1947.

Art Hodes took up the piano in the 1920s, studying at Chicago's famous Hull House, after which he went to work in a number of the speakeasies that then dotted the Windy City. He tired of the grind in the late 30's and headed for New York. He became a well-known advocate for traditional jazz beginning in the 1940s- he had a radio show on public radio, edited a jazz magazine, the Jazz Record, and worked all over New York. He was one of many pianists featured on This is Jazz. He was always interested in furthering jazz and he was willing to cooperate with shoestring record producers like George Buck.

Bassist Pops Foster was the Old Man of the group. He wasn't really much older than the others but always looked old. He'd been fired from the Louis Armstrong big band in the late 1930s because he looked too old. (Jimmy Archey was fired about the same time for being too short.) Foster was a fabulous bass player though he'd been out of music for most of the 40s working as a ticket-taker on the Subway System. He'd been a member of the All-Star Stompers for virtually the entire run of This is Jazz.

Arthur Trappier was principally a big-band drummer, though he was recorded from time to time in dixieland and mainstream outfits during the 1950s.

The session went well, resulting in nine complete takes and a number of alternate and partial takes. The men really suffered in the heat- photos from the session show Davison stripped to the waist. The records were issued as a three-78 set in a cardboard sleeve.

There was even a photo of the session published in the Pictorial History of Jazz, indicating it was from a session done for a short-lived record label. While Jazzology may not have been very visible when Keepnews and Grauer assembled their book in the mid-50s, it was far from dead. George Buck followed Jazzology #1 with Jazzology #2- Wild Bill Davison and his Jazzologists, featuring many of the same men who`d played on J-1. This was issued originally as an LP, and J-1 also came out as an LP during the 1950s.

While George Buck may have been relatively slow to build his catalog during the 1950s, he was far from inactive. He went into the radio business. He`d been on the radio as a broadcaster beginning when he was in college- the Jazzology name was originally applied to his campus radio show, and the show has continued on to this date.

Buck became active in the business end of radio, buying struggling outlets in small towns, mostly in the South, building them up through shrewd programming, then selling them at a profit, which would then be invested in further stations. George always separated his radio business from his jazz interest- if his radio show didn't match the format he'd set for a station he'd purchased, it didn't air. The radio business continues to thrive under the management of his son-in-law.

The 1950s were relatively difficult for small record labels. The industry was in a state of flux, weathering switches in format from 78s to 45s and 10' LPs, then to 12' LPs. then to stereo. A number of small labels just gave up- American Music, John Steiner's revived Paramount label and Rudi Blesh's Circle label all perished during the mid-1950s. The GHB label was born in the mid-50's when Buck had the chance to buy an LP from the Paradox label, a small New York-based label that was folding. Originally he'd envisioned using the GHB marque for sessions he purchased from other labels, reserving the Jazzology label for sessions he produced himself.

After a few years he changed his thinking a little, using GHB for New Orleans-oriented releases and Jazzology for Chicago-style releases. There were still relatively few releases- when I became a mail order customer in 1965 there were less two dozen LPs- thirteen on GHB and eleven on Jazzology, which was then a little blue folder that held loose sheets that detailed each release; you were supposed to stick the new sheets in the folder as new releases came out. By this time Buck had settled in Columbia SC to be nearer to his radio holdings. He was active on the jazz scene in the Southeast and periodically brought groups to Columbia to appear under the auspices of the local jazz club with a side trip into the recording studio for Mr. Buck. Artists like Art Hodes, Tony Parenti, Kid Thomas and George Lewis made the trek to Columbia during the 1960s.

The late sixties began the appearance of a regular Jazzology mailing. The labels have always been available through retailers but direct mail became an important source of business as the record business became more fragmented and retailers concentrated on the best-sellers, devoting less space to 'fringe' music like jazz and classical music. The early newsletters were basically what we know now as the Buck Box along with a sheet detailing four or five new releases- the whole thing was about four pages- no photographs, though an exception was made in 1965 when George Lewis took sick while touring Japan- there was a special photo feature covering some of his concerts as well as photos of Lewis in the hospital.

The label deepened its involvement with New Orleans jazz about the same time, scoring with New Orleans-based sessions from the George Lewis-Kid Thomas Ragtime Stompers, Emanual Sayles' Silverleaf Ragtimers and two groups featuring Johnny Wiggs and Raymond Burke.

There were a lot of other labels in the business during that time and they were fairly cooperative with each other- Leonard Brackett (Center), Sonny Faggart (Pearl) and Bill Bissonnette (Jazz Crusade) all produced session with some of the financing provided by selling the outtakes for issue on GHB. George Buck was very encouraging to novice producers. As he indicated in his March 1965 newsletter: 'Time is growing very short to record the pioneers of jazz. Years from now the cry will go up, 'Why weren't the pioneers of jazz recorded more while they were living?' It is financially impossible for the few of us to record all we would like to record. Don't expect the large commercial companies to do it...they are interested only in a profit on each project they produce. and there is no profit in traditional jazz. It is thus up to the dedicated jazz fans to try and document as much as possible by the living pioneers of both New Orleans and Chicago jazz. If any of you would be interested in starting your own label- just begin by recording the jazzmen you like and then put it out on an LP. I would be pleased to help by giving advice or production assistance.'

When I first read it I thought it sounded foolish, but I got the bug myself a few years later and became a partner in a small record label. I now wish more people had taken George's advice as a lot of good players finished their days during the 1960s without recording again.

1965 also saw the release of the results of the first Jazzology Poll, which was conducted as of the prior year's Anniversary Release. The results were unique and surprising- reflecting the basically New Orleans-centric nature of the audience at the time- the winners were basically the main players at Preservation Hall, except with Louis Armstrong on trumpet.

The label grew quickly during the late 1960s- George Buck bought the Southland label, Ken Mills' Icon label, Bill Bissonnette's original Jazz Crusade label, Rudi Blesh's Circle label, Barry Martyn's MONO label and a handful of other labels. Then, a unique opportunity presented itself- World Transcriptions. World had been in business since the mid-1930s, providing pre-recorded programming for independent radio stations, who didn't have access to the network feeds from the radio wires installed in many large ballrooms and nightclubs. They instead rented their programming from services like World, Thesaurus and Lang-Worth. These programs featured many of the same artists you heard on network radio, though in some cases the artists' names were changed for contractual purposes- World Transcriptions owned prime material by Eddie Condon and Wild Bill Davison as well as a rare session featuring Bunk Johnson and, of course, sessions by most of the major swing bands of the 1930s and 40s as well as many of the hotel bands of that era.

This was obviously a very attractive proposition for Mr Buck, but one that was beyond his means, as he'd stretched himself thin buying Circle and Southland. He appealed to his readers- we all had the opportunity to invest in GHB by buying, for $50, a certificate entitling you to $60 worth of records at a later date. He sold enough certificates to convince his bank to lend him the remaining funds needed to finish the deal. Many of his investors believed so strongly in GHB that they never took him up on the LPs offered as an incentive- I still have a certificate somewhere in my files entitled me to six LPs for my investment in the World purchase.

The 1970s saw even more additions to the fold- John Steiner, who rescued the Paramount label from obscurity in the 1940s, sold its historic catalog to GHB, and the material recorded by Paramount in the 1920s became available on the newly-organized Back Swan label

The Circle label came with an associated trademark- Solo Art. This was an historic label daring from the boogie woogie craze of the late 1930s, and it was resurrected as a home for piano soloists, whether they're playing jazz, ragtime or boogie woogie.

The company went into a relatively dormant period during the early 1970s- the Bucks relocated to Charlotte NC for a few years and the facilities were inadequate for efficient operation of the company.

There was one change during this period, however. The Jazzology newsletter had the breathless headline that effective December 1, 1972 Jazzology would no longer sell its products by direct mail. They formed the Collectors' Record Club for that purpose and for a small one-time fee you could buy GHB, Jazzology, Circle and Southland releases at a reduced price. The Jazzology newsletter was renamed the CRC Newsletter effective January 1, 1975.

The label relocated in 1973 to Atlanta, where Buck set up shop in a historic converted grist mill. George became active on the Atlanta jazz scene, even becoming an investor in the Big Horn, a jazz club in then-thriving Underground Atlanta, a tourist district located within some historic storefronts that had been buried many years earlier when the city changed the grade levels. Once again, a number of GHB artists came to Atlanta for appearances at the club and wound up making an LP or two for GHB or Jazzology. The Atlanta location also resulted in considerable efficiency for the organization as George was able to build a warehouse and consolidate his inventory, which made processing orders far more efficient than it had been previously.

Disaster struck in 1973 with the discovery that the pressing plant they'd been using for many years, RCA Victor's custom pressing division, was phasing out and had thrown out the master tapes and stampers for anything that hadn't recently been repressed, assuming that if no one had ordered a pressing recently it wasn't worth anything- they never offered to return the masters. The firm lost $40,000 worth of masters and it took many years to get the catalog back in print.

In 1975 John Steiner, who rescued the Paramount label from obscurity in the 1940s, sold its historic catalog to GHB, and the material recorded by Paramount in the 1920s became available on the newly-organized Back Swan label.

The Audiophile label was one of the most historic labels in the traditional jazz field. E. D. Nunn was one of the premier recording engineers of the 1940s and 50s- he recorded all sorts of music in what was at the time unparalleled sound- his catalog included classical ensembles, church organists, music boxes, sound effects-- and traditional jazz. Mr. Nunn was a huge jazz fan and recorded all sorts of groups, principally from the states surrounding his home in Wisconsin, though in his later years he recorded traditional jazz groups from all over the US. The label was ultimately sold to Jim Cullum Sr, leader of the Happy Jazz Band of San Antonio, one of the label's most popular groups. When Mr. Cullum passed away, Audiophile was sold to GHB- the jazz has been coming out on Jazzology, while the label was reborn in 1976 as a home for cabaret music.

The Jazzology group expanded greatly when George Buck brought Wendell Echols on board. A native of Atlanta, Wendell had been a lifelong fan of jazz and cabaret music and he revitalized the Audiophile label as a home for cabaret music and worked at reissuing the World Transcription material on Circle, which was resurrected as a label for big band music. The renaissance of Audiophile corresponded with an upsurge of interest in the Great American Songbook as a result of Alec Wilder's pioneering series on NPR. Several of the artists close to Wilder wound up recording for Audiophile and the label picked up some artists who would be longtime Audiophile artists- particularly Marlene VerPlanck and Barbara Lea.

The next big acquisition came in 1981 when a deal was sealed for the purchase of the Lang-Worth Transcription Company in a reported six-figure deal. Lang-Worth was as venerable as World and the two firms together provided almost seamless coverage of the swing era- all the major bands had recorded for Lang-Worth as well as stars of small-group jazz like Fats Waller and Clarence Williams. The Circle label has been functioning for thirty years now with material acquired from the transcription firms. At the same time Buck announced the purchase of US rights to sixty albums produced in Europe by drummer Ted Easton.

The late 1980s continued as before- there were lots of new sessions for GHB, Jazzology and Audiophile, as well as the continued reissue of the transcription material on Circle and the material purchased from Bill Bissonnette's Jazz Crusade label, much of it previously-unissued, began to appear. The label was heaped with honors- there was a Grammy nominations for a Maxine Sullivan LP on Audiophile and a Big Joe Turner LP on Southland, superb reviews in major music magazines, and an in-depth profile by John S Wilson for the New York Times.

The Jazzology family of labels continued to grow- in 1985 the Progressive label, a modern jazz label founded by Gus Statiras in the early 1950s, was purchased by George Buck and at the same time we announced the purchase of a number of masters from Monmouth-Evergreen and Bob Wilber's Bodeswell label.

1986 saw the creation of the George H Buck Jazz Foundation and the reorganization of the Collectors' Record Club. The Foundation is a not-for-profit corporation which owns the various record labels and related operations. This is designed to insure that the recordings carefully assembled by George Buck remain available eternally. The GHB group of labels, unlike most commercial record companies, is committed to keeping all of its products in print eternally- we don't delete product and dump our remainders on the market like other companies do. Aside from the fiasco with the RCA Custom Pressing operation noted above, the LP catalog remained available until the switchover to CDs, and the Foundation will hopefully assure the continued existence of the firm in some form long into the future.

The original Board of Trustees of the Foundation included George Buck, Wendell Echols, William Russell, Johnson McRee, Barry Martyn, and Hal Smith. The seventh slot was initially intended for Rudi Blesh, but he died before the Board became functional and his place was taken by Art Hodes.

At the same time, the CRC was reformatted and all members were asked to reapply for membership along with a $5 check payable to the Foundation.

The Atlanta operation continued until 1987, when the entire firm relocated to New Orleans, to the building on Decatur Street that still houses the record companies and the adjacent Palm Court Jazz Cafe. The move to New Orleans was done gradually- George Buck acquired real estate in New Orleans a few years earlier and advertised rental apartments for use by visiting jazz fans, and it made sense to centralize the entire operation there.

1987 also saw three other important milestones- the beginning of the Complete Eddie Condon Town Hall Concert Series, the beginning of the reissue of material from John Steiner's Paramount label on the Black Swan label, and the issuance of the firm's first CD- JCD-1003/4, Volume Two of the Eddie Condon Town Hall Series. CDs cost $15.98 list, $13 for CRC members, the same as they are now. During the switchover, we, like many labels, often issued new product on LP, cassette and CD, as there was no clear consensus as to where the industry was headed and one had to cover all the bases.

George Buck even queried his readers for guidance- in the January issue of the CRC Jazz Journal he asked for feedback from his customers- the Audiophile buyers were overwhelmingly in favor of CDs, while the GHB and Jazzology customers were more evenly split, still favoring LPs over CDs. Fortunately the switchover to CDs went fairly quickly .

January 11, 1989 saw the opening of the Palm Court Jazz Cafe in quarters adjacent to GHB headquarters. Managed by Nina Buck, the spot became a must visit for jazz fans visiting New Orleans, both for the food and the music

The Anniversary Release (August 16, 1989) was something special. Not only was it the fortieth anniversary of the company, but the GHB-Jazzology group's house organ was reborn as JazzBeat, edited by Gus Statiras. But the big news was the announcement that the firm has purchased the legendary American Music masters from William Russell. American Music was run by Russell himself from 1944 to about 1957. Subsequently he leased material to Storyville and the Japanese DAN label, but the advent of the CD made the previous issues extraneous. The American Music CD series began auspiciously with AMCD-1= Bunk Johnson- King of the Blues.

The the first JazzBeat mailing was an amazing 15,000 copies, probably the largest circulation ever achieved by a magazine devoted largely to traditional jazz. JazzBeat Vol 1 No 1 was an inch narrower than the current magazine, ran to 24 pages, largely the Buck Box and the new releases. The magazine was printed on newsprint with a glossy cover. Gus Statiras, who was one of the great jazz storyvtellers, began a series of memoirs in this issue with a reminiscence of his involvement in the Bunk Johnson Office of War Information film.

By the third issue of JazzBeat, the magazine was turned over to Jon Pult, a young New Orleans-based writer. It began to resemble a magazine more, with articles, poems and photographs.

The last GHB LP was issued in the Fall/Winter 1991 release, ending 42 years of record releases. There were still a few cassettes coming out, as well as repressings of long-unavailable vinyl, but the company was firmly focused by this time on the production of CDS.

There were a few small label acquisitions in the early 1990s- Plato Smith's Land O'Jazz Label, Paul Lentz' Great Ones label and Clive Wilson and Paige VanVorst's New Orleans label.

The 42nd Anniversary Release (8/16/91) saw JazzBeat's page size increase to the present format and the issue (42 pages) was the largest yet, devoted to Wild Bill Davison, who had died two years previously; in typical JazzBeat fashion, it took two years to get a memorial issue together, though it was a good one, consolidating remembrances of Davison from a number of sources.

A lot of activity during the 1990s was centered around the reissue of LPs on CD- the Audiophile and Circle releases of the era were largely drawn from LPs. The Condon series continued and American Music was busy on two fronts- reissuing the original recordings done by William Russell in the 1940s as well as the Oxford Series, drawn from a cache of live recordings done in the early 1950s at Miami University of Ohio.

The 43rd Anniversary issue (8/16/92) introduced Audiophile Studios. Built in conjunction with one of George Buck's radio stations, the studio was state-of-the-art and became popular with other record labels and local groups in addition to being used for all locally-produced sessions.

The 44th Anniversary Release (8/16/94) introduced another new product, the Sampler. The samplers are CDs with one track each by a number of different groups, generally on the CD in the order the CDs they were drawn from were released. The Samplers ($3 list- $2 for CRC members) are an excellent way to try out new artists- sort of like carrying a pile of records into the listening booth at an old-time record store- you may hear something quite unexpected and discover a whole new group or artist you'd never thought you liked.

1993 also saw publication of Bill Russell's American Music by Mike Hazeldine, the first of eleven books from Jazzology Press. Drawn from Bill Russell's diaries, this was a session-by-session analysis of Bill Russell's recording sessions, including a CD drawn from a number of AM sessions.

The Board of Directors made their feelings felt and after many years the cover of JazzBeat would no longer honor recently-deceased artists as it was felt the magazine had become one large collection of obituaries- the prior issue had featured no less than four deceased artists. While many of the people on our cover are deceased, they are not there because they just passed away.

JazzBeat had grown to 48 pages by the 45th Anniversary release. Editor Jon Pult took a one-issue rest and was replaced by Theresa Askew, a local editor formerly with New Orleans magazine.

The company continued through the 90s, putting out product at a furious clip- there were times when there were four new releases on American Music and as many on Audiophile.

The makeup of the Board of Directors changed slightly- Art Hodes passed away and was replaced by Danny Barker, who then passed away as well. His place was ultimately taken by Lars Edegran.

The last pieces of the present GHB staff came on board during the 1990s. Houcine Harrabi, a Tunisian national who had worked previously as a schoolteacher, joined the headquarters staff. He's become George Buck's righthand man, dealing with customers and suppliers as well as assembling a number of the new releases, particularly on Audiophile and Circle.

Barry Martyn works fulltime on American Music and has also been responsible for Jazzology Press and in 1999 he inaugurated the group's video series, which now includes four American Music videos and four GHB videos.

The editorship of JazzBeat changed in 1996 when Paige VanVorst came on board. Paige had been Associate Editor of the Mississippi Rag for 25 years and he'd written liner notes for a number of labels, including GHB

The Palm Court continued to flourish, developing into one of the principal venues for traditional jazz in New Orleans, with music five nights a week except in the summer. The restaurant even extended its influence to Europe, once touring an all-star group to European jazz festivals, another time the restaurant was virtually shipped to Europe to provide authentic New Orleans cuisine at the Ascona Jazz Festival in Switzerland.

The makeup of the Board of Directors changed slightly when Paige VanVorst joined, replacing John Steiner, who had passed away; Nina Buck also joined the Board about 2004.

Things continued on fairly normally- there were two or three releases a year, each introduced in a new issue of JazzBeat. The next big project after the Complete Eddie Condon Town Hall Concerts was the This is Jazz series- nine two-CD sets containing every broadcast from Rudi Blesh' s pioneering network radio series, which ran for nine months in 1947- guest artists included Louis Armstrong, Sidney Bechet, James P Johnson and Luckey Roberts and the house band included stars like Muggsy Spanier, Wild Bill Davison, Albert Nicholas, Art Hodes, Pops Foster and Baby Dodds. A truly memorable series of broadcasts, issued in complete and chronological form for the first time.

The Audiophile and Circle labels thrived under the management of Wendell Echols, and the Progressive label was expanded by the addition of a number of masters purchased when we purchased Harry Lim's Famous Door label. Wendell continued the exploration of the Great American Songbook begun when the label was reactivated, including a series of twenty CDs by Marlene VerPlanck and a number of projects featuring Loonis McGlohon, who'd been closely associated with Alec Wilder's American Popular Song radio series.

Disaster struck in 2005- Hurricane Katrina headed straight for New Orleans and by the time she was done wreaking havoc New Orleans was a ghost town. George Buck and Houcine Harrabi locked up the office and headed out of town to George Buck's summer home on the Gulf Coast, only to find that it was also uninhabitable- they headed to Atlanta, where George still owned real estate. Barry Martyn went into the country for a few days then headed to Tallahassee, where he has real estate. Lars Edegran and Nina Buck had been in Europe as part of a tour and just got to town after the hurricane.

The French Quarter was built on the highest land in New Orleans and the Decatur Street headquarters, including the recording studio, master tapes and CD inventory, survived intact. George Buck's radio station went off the air when the tower blew down and smashed the building housing the transmitter. The LP inventory did not fare so well- they were in a warehouse in the Ninth Ward which was completely ruined- we lose our entire LP inventory- over 300,000 items, as well as the spare CD booklets- it is economical to print a thousand booklets even if you only need half that amount- the remainder were saved in the warehouse for use when it was time to re-press.

The GHB staff all returned to New Orleans after a few months but it took over a year to get things back to normal- Houcine Harrabi, Lars Edegran and Barry Martyn all had major structural damage to their homes which necessitated months and months of negotiations with adjusters, contractors and various governmental agencies which slowed the pace of CD production down to a crawl, and the post office was closed for most of a year, requiring Houcine to drive to Metairie twice a week to mail packages. Our printer also suffered major damage and relocated to temporary quarters in the country.

One of the neater opportunities during this period was the chance to lease material from the major labels. Our ownership of the Paramount label meant that anyone wishing to legally reissue this material had to clear it with us, and CBS-Sony needed some early country music for one of their projects and Universal needed some of our blues sides for an anthology being prepared in conjunction with the PBS series on the blues. Barry Martyn made deals with the major labels, obtaining the rights to Kid Ory's Columbia session with Mutt Carry and Decca's complete Bunk Johnson session as well as the Bunk Jazz Information sides, which were also owned by Universal as the result of Decca's acquisition of the Commodore label. These sides would have languished in the files of the major labels or they would have been subject to hastily-assembled or incomplete editions of this important music.

The GHB-Jazzology combine has one of the largest catalogs of classic jazz, swing and cabaret music.

The CRC Group comprises nine labels, each devoted to a different type of music, ranging from material acoustically recorded in the early 1920s to contemporary groups recorded in our state-of-the-art Audiophile Studio.

George Buck is eighty, far from the apple-cheeked youth who parted with his War Bonds to record Tony Parenti's band. He hasn't lost his joy for jazz, as evidenced by the fact that his Jazzology radio show has been on the air even longer than the sixty years his recording business has been going. He still looks forward to each new release and he enjoys visits from jazz fans from all over the world, who wouldn't visit New Orleans without picking up the latest from GHB, Jazzology and the other labels. And, of course, if he doesn't hear enough jazz around the office he can always walk next door to the Palm Court and hear one of the many fine bands that appear regularly there. Not many people have been able to do exactly what they want for that long.