At the Library: Jazz time on the Palouse

With the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival at the University of Idaho scheduled for April 17-20, now is a good time to be a jazz fan on the Palouse. The Washington State University Libraries houses a collection of jazz music that often goes overlooked. John Elwood was the head of the Department of English at WSU from 1971 to 1988 and an avid jazz fan who attended the festival regularly. Elwood made significant contributions to the WSU Libraries, most notably the acquisition of the personal library of Virginia Woolf, and bequeathed nearly 300 jazz CDs and 80 vinyl records. The collection is impressive due to its scale and range of genres and time periods. While Elwood did many things during his life, music was a part of every stage.

Elwood was born into a musical household as the son of jazz pianist Arthur Elwood. As a young man in Portland, Ore., John further developed his interest in music by frequenting jazz clubs which resulted in a diverse appreciation for multiple styles and an ability to recognize the strengths of individual artists. Elwood admired jazz musicians for their virtuosity and believed that the improvised nature of jazz served as a vehicle for inspired invention. Later in life, this would manifest through Elwood seeking out records with different versions of the same song recorded at different times or by different artists.

Procuring an extensive music collection prior to the digital age required a different commitment of time and effort, and Elwood’s encyclopedic knowledge of jazz allowed him to follow the movement of musicians from group to group. A voracious reader, he perused reviews and liner notes before ordering albums from catalogs. Through travel, he browsed new and used offerings at record stores. As a result, the collection contains imported albums from Japan and Europe that would be of interest to today’s jazz enthusiasts.

Like many connoisseurs of music, Elwood believed that how one listens to music is just as important as the music itself. Elwood’s aptitude for electronics developed during World War II as a radio operator, and he merged his interest in audio equipment with music to become an audiophile. One of Elwood’s first jobs after the war was at a stereo shop where the owner offered him a good deal on a mahogany Scott hi-fi cabinet. Even with a discount, he spent most of his savings at the time to acquire it. The cabinet became a centerpiece of the family home, and music was a constant presence. Elwood’s sons recall “High Fidelity” and “Stereo Review” magazines being delivered regularly, and Elwood updated the cabinet’s equipment several times through the years.

Washington state residents and Palouse community members 16 years or older can obtain a free library card at any of the WSU Libraries locations and check out the albums from the John R. Elwood Jazz Collection for a week. Some of my favorites from the collection are:

n “Color Schemes” – Bobby Hutcherson

n ”It Don’t Mean a Thing if You Can’t Tap Your Foot to It” – Milt Jackson Quartet

n “Time Out” – The Dave Brubeck Quartet

n “Blues Farm” – Ron Carter

n “Speak Like a Child” – Herbie Hancock

Thank you to Kirk and Sean Elwood for an interview for this article. Tickets for the Lionel Hampton Jazz Festival are available at uitickets.com, the Bruce Pitman Center box office during the week of the festival, and the ICCU Arena box office one hour before the concert for walk-up sales.

Conver is the GIS Librarian at Washington State University libraries.