Marshall Stearns

Marshall Winslow Stearns ( born October 18, 1908 in Cambridge (Massachusetts ), † December 18, 1966 in Key West, Florida) was an American jazz historian and professor of English literature.

Work

Stearns was actually a professor of medieval English literature at Hunter College, but is primarily known for his meticulous work, "The Story of Jazz" of 1956, based on numerous interviews ( and hearing his very extensive record collection ) is based and in which he, among other the African roots of jazz pursued. In 1937 he was appointed to the Advisory Board of the Hot Record Society. Since the 1940s, he wrote articles for the jazz magazine Down Beat. In 1952, he was the founder of the Institute for Jazz Studies, which is located at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey since 1966. At that time it was at the New School and Stearns was there since 1951, courses on jazz history. Stearns held a promotional role in the founding of the Newport Jazz Festival. With his wife, Jean, he undertook intensive research and numerous interviews that resulted in the encyclopaedic book Jazz Dance.

Due to his reputation, he was also hired in 1956 by the State Department to explain the history of jazz in the context of the global tour of the Dizzy Gillespie Big Band.

Works about jazz

• "The Story of Jazz", Oxford University Press 1956, 1970, German The Story of Jazz, Munich, Southern Germany Publisher 1959
• ( with his wife Jean) "Jazz Dance - the story of American vernacular dance", 1968, da Capo 1994