Herb Wong

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Herbert "Herb" Wong (* 1926 in Oakland ; † April 20, 2014 in Menlo Park ) was an American jazz historian, radio journalist, music educator and author who was active in the San Francisco Bay Area .

Live and act

Wong grew up in Stockton and worked as a disc jockey during his military service in Tokyo . After the end of the war he studied zoology at UC Berkeley , where he earned a doctorate . He also earned a Masters Degree in Science Education from San José State University . He worked as a DJ for the radio station KJAZ. In later years he put together a jazz exhibition for the Smithsonian Institution and organized the Palo Alto Jazz Festival ; he was also a co-founder of the Palo Alto Jazz Alliance . In 1959, after a listening competition, he was given the opportunity to run his own jazz show, which he directed until 1996.

In the mid-1960s, Wong founded a program in which musicians taught jazz at the schools in Berkeley , which he ran together with Dick Whittington and other musicians. also supported the Monterey Jazz Festival and taught at UC Berkeley and Huxley College of the Environment at Western Washington University . He was the co-author of several books, wrote a number of liner notes (including for Woody's Winners by Woody Herman and His Orchestra ) and organized jazz courses at elementary schools in Berkeley. In the 1980s he worked as a producer for the jazz label Black-Hawk Records and Palo Alto Records , responsible for productions by musicians such as Meredith D'Ambrosio , Stan Getz , Elvin Jones , Sheila Jordan , McCoy Tyner and Mal Waldron . In 1993 he was inducted into the IAJE Jazz Educators Hall of Fame of the International Association for Jazz Education ; In 2008 he received the Team Award from the Jazz Journalists Association . At the end of 2013, Wong was honored with the Palo Alto Excellence Award in the field of jazz education.

Publications (selection)

  • Herb Wong (Ed.): The Real Little Ultimate Jazz Fake Book . Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation, 1992

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Obituary in Mercury News
  2. ^ History of the Berkeley High Jazz Program
personal data
SURNAME Wong, Herb
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Wong, Herbert (full name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz historian, radio journalist, music educator, and author
DATE OF BIRTH 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Oakland
DATE OF DEATH April 20, 2014
Place of death Menlo Park