Recent Acquisitions
Some splendid donations have recently been made to the Archive including:-
The JOHNNY SIMMEN ARCHIVE
This is a remarkable collection of letters donated by John Chilton which had been bequeathed to him by Johnny Simmen.
There are some 3,000 letters written to Johnny by over 160 musicians including such great names as:
- Ruby Braff;
- Doc Cheatham;
- Buck Clayton;
- Art Hodes;
- Illinois Jacquet;
- Max Kaminsky;
- "Mezz" Mezzrow;
- Jimmy Rushing;
- Jess Stacy;
- Ralph Sutton and
- Teddy Wilson.
The Late JOHN McGREGOR
He left a number of splendid books and magazines to the Archive and in addition a statuette of Louis Armstrong and some fine prints relating to New Orleans.
LAURENCE "ALEX" ALEXANDER
Who used to broadcast in the Nottingham area has donated a wonderful collection of books two of which contain well over 100 Autographs including:-
- "A Pictorial History of Jazz"
- Henry "Red" Allen;
- Art Blakey:
- Billy Butterfield;
- Bill Coleman;
- Earl Hines and
- Red Norvo
- "Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies"
- Benny Carter;
- Buddy De Franco;
- Panama Francis;
- Sir Roland Hanna;
- Milt Hinton and
- Jay McShann.