Subject Guide: Jazz

Subject Guide: Jazz

Jazz sparked Chris Strachwitz’s lifelong passion for American roots music. He fell in love with the genre after seeing the movie New Orleans while attending boarding school in California. He later recalled, “It had Louis Armstrong leading the full Kid Ory Creole Jazz Band, which absolutely was gorgeously recorded, like a real New Orleans jazz band of that time, with solid 4/4 rhythm. I was just absolutely captivated by it.” Soon, Strachwitz began seeking out live jazz performances with his camera in hand, beginning a long documentary relationship with the genre. 

The Chris Strachwitz Collection contains rich documentation of New Orleans jazz, brass bands, and the San Francisco Bay Area jazz scene of the 1960s. This subject guide highlights varied materials from across these thematic areas, including photographs, videos, flyers, and ephemera.

Banner image: Jazz symposium at Newman Hall, Berkeley, 1969 (see below)

New Orleans jazz photographs, 1950s-60s

Following his discharge from the U.S. Army at Camp Chafee, Arkansas, in 1956, Chris Strachwitz traveled by bus to New Orleans – his “city of dreams.” There, he sought out clarinetist George Lewis, the piano/trumpet duo Billie and DeDe Pierce, and other jazz bands in the clubs that lined Bourbon Street, all the while photographing what he encountered with a Leica 35mm camera. The photographs he took on that trip are the earliest materials in the Strachwitz Collection. 

Strachwitz returned to New Orleans almost yearly during his long career as a songcatcher, record producer, and documentarian. He photographed jazz clubs, brass bands, his favorite artists, and the burgeoning New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. These photographs provide a fascinating portrait of jazz in New Orleans during a revival of interest in traditional jazz and the rise of cultural tourism in the city.

Chris Strachwitz began documenting jazz in the San Francisco Bay Area in the 1950s. His collection includes concert photographs from shows in Oakland and Berkeley, photographs he made for Arhoolie Records LPs, and flyers from local jazz happenings in and around San Francisco. The Strachwitz Collection also includes audio interviews and video recordings of Bay Area jazz performances, including a video of Sonny Simmons and Michael White at Berkeley’s Freight and Salvage in 2000.

Smiley Winters and Family

Photographs of Oakland drummer Smiley Winters with family, 1969. 

Jazz Symposium at Newman Hall, Berkeley

Photographs of various ensembles playing at a jazz symposium at Newman Hall in Berkeley, 1969. 

Flyers and Ephemera

Concert and event flyers, posters, and ephemera related to Bay Area jazz. 

Dick Oxtot's Golden Age Jazz Band

Photographs of bandleader Dick Oxtot, a pillar of the Bay Area traditional jazz scene from the 1950s-1990s. Strachwitz photographed Oxtot often over the years, first with Bob Mielke and the Bearcats and later as the leader of the Golden Age Jazz Band.

Monterey Jazz Festival, 1974

Photographs of the 1974 Monterey Jazz Festival.

The Chris Strachwitz Collection features several videos of jazz performances by artists such as Claude Williams, Sonny Simmons, and the Treme Brass Band. These videos showcase jazz in a variety of settings, including small clubs, workshops, and city streets. 

Concert Videos

Claude Williams at the Festival of American Fiddle Tunes, 1996

Some hidden text

Sonny Simmons and Michael White at Freight & Salvage, 2000

Subject guide developed by archive intern Joshua Speer, 2025.