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Texas Jazz Exhibit Page

Texas Jazz Archive Collection Digital Exhibit
Houston and the Gulf Coast have long had a vibrant jazz scene, but it hasn't always been well-documented. In 1986, saxophonist Arnett Cobb and his daughter Lizette Cobb created the Jazz Heritage Society of Texas as a non-profit education, literary, and cultural arts organization. In 1987, the Jazz Heritage Society of Texas partnered with the Houston History Research Center to document the under-represented jazz scene of Texas by establishing the Texas Jazz Archive. The inaugural set of inductees were musicians Arnett Cobb, Jewel Brown, Sammy Price, and I.H. Smalley, though the collection would eventually grow to include 22 artists. Since the archive was only actively collecting for a few years, this collection is not exhaustive of jazz music in Texas. However, through taped performances, recordings, oral histories, photographs, and other documentation, the Texas Jazz Archive illuminates the rich history of saxophonists and performers that were born or lived in Houston.









In addition to photographs, HHRC also has Oral Histories that help tell the story of Jazz in Houston, Texas.
Nathaniel Barnes: Barnes, Nathaniel | Houston Public Library |
James Bolden: Bolden, James | Houston Public Library |
Jewel Brown: Brown, Jewel | Houston Public Library |
Arnett Cobb: Cobb, Arnett | Houston Public Library |
Art Foxall: Foxall, Art | Houston Public Library |
Milton Larkin: Larkin, Milton | Houston Public Library |
Daisy Richards: Richards, Daisy | Houston Public Library |
Campbell Tolbert: Tolbert, Campbell | Houston Public Library |
Lester Williams: Williams, Lester | Houston Public Library |
More images from the Texas Jazz Archive are available on the HPL Digital Archives at https://cdm17006.contentdm.oclc.org/digital/search/searchterm/RGE0071
More information about the archival collection is available at https://hplarchives.lyrasistechnology.org/repositories/2/resources/857