The Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives at the University of the District of Columbia has acquired a significant collection of recordings, books, and periodicals from jazz author, historian, radio personality, and critic W. Royal Stokes, a D.C. native and former writer for The Washington Post.

“The University of the District of Columbia is a natural and most appropriate repository for my donation. After all, I am a D.C. native, graduated from Woodrow Wilson High School, and, after living here and there in the States and overseas, resided in the area for more than three decades before relocating to the mountains of West Virginia four years ago,” said Stokes. “Two more factors add to the attractiveness of UDC as a home for my books and CDs, namely, that it is an historically black institution and that my collection will be a part of the Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives. Felix—whose voice was heard on D.C. radio frequencies for just short of a half-century—and I were longtime good friends and broadcasting colleagues.”

Photo: W. Royal Stokes amidst some of his books before the collection’s removal to UDC. (Photo by Erika E. Stokes ｩ 2010)

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Improved access to recorded sound collections in the Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives

The access to the Felix E Grant Archives holdings has been greatly improved by the creation of thorough inventory lists for several of the larger sound recording collections. These are available to the world in enough detail to allow researchers to make informed decisions. This new information is stored in a standardized format that facilitates use and data exchange between computer applications possible. In the future, we hope to refine these new finding aids, using improved technological tools to provide more power to the users so they can quickly and easily find the information they seek. We are also working to prepare lists for additional collections. We anticipate that this initiative will boost awareness of both the jazz archives and the university and that we will see an increase in the use of our collections by a wide range of patrons.

UDC Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives receives prized jazz collection

Washington, D.C. — Acclaimed author and critic Will Friedwald has donated his vast collection of more than 10,000 jazz recordings to the Felix E. Grant Jazz Archives at the University of the District of Columbia.

“This is a collection that my dad starting putting together around fifty, sixty years ago when he was a kid and I just kept going with it,” said Friedwald to NY1.com reporter, Stephanie Simon.

Herb Friedwald (1935-1997) was born in Brooklyn, NY and developed an early love for jazz. While an undergraduate student at Tulane University, he became an active participant in the New Orleans jazz revival of the late 1950s and early 1960s. He helped to produce a classic series of traditional jazz albums for Riverside Records, was a key participant in the founding of Preservation Hall, and worked with Richard B. Allen in the early years of the William Ransom Hogan Jazz Archive, conducting oral histories that documented the music’s roots. After leaving New Orleans, he earned a law degree at St. John’s University in Brooklyn and worked as a lawyer but stayed involved in music activities. His son, Will, enthusiastically shared his father’s love of jazz and is a noted jazz critic who has written seven books on music and popular culture, including the autobiography of Tony Bennett, the survey Jazz Singing, and Stardust Melodies, which tells the history of twelve of America’s most popular songs. He was the jazz critic for The New York Sun and currently writes for The Wall Street Journal. He has received eight Grammy nominations and his biography of Frank Sinatra, The Song Is You, received the ASCAP Deems Taylor award in 1996.

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