KINGSTON, R.I. — November 18, 2019 — Pittsburgh lost jazz icon Ronald \u201cButch\u201d Perkins in the spring. A jazz radio DJ who reached the height of his career in the 1980s and 1990s, Perkins hosted two- to three-hour shows interviewing jazz luminaries from across the country.<\/p>\n
His shows captured an artist\u2019s entire career, and even included rare facts about the artist or recordings the public hadn\u2019t heard yet. Now, his personal archive of shows has been posthumously donated to the 溏心vlog免费B站 thanks to the coordination of Professor Emmett Goods.<\/p>\n
Perkins was not a musician, but he had a way of connecting with his musical guests that not only forged a relationship between them and him, it also made the artists feel more connected to the Pittsburgh community, and vice versa.<\/p>\n
Goods, a professor of jazz at the University grew up listening to Perkins\u2019 show. \u201cButch was kind of a mentor to me,\u201d he said. \u201cHe brought in people [to his show] who were really influential in the world of jazz and formed great relationships with those people. It really made me think that there was something special about jazz.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout his youth, Goods would periodically see Perkins at jazz shows, but most of his exposure to the DJ was through his radio show.<\/p>\n
\u201cAlthough Butch wasn\u2019t a musician, he took his position as a DJ to bring in artists to the area that he thought were significant,\u201d said Goods. \u201cHe brought in Betty Carter at the height of her success, shortly after her legendary performance on the Bill Cosby Show. That was one of the first times I went to a jazz show and it wasn\u2019t just local musicians that I already knew, it was a major artist.<\/p>\n
\u201cJazz is special because it\u2019s a tangible art form,\u201d Goods continued. \u201cSuperstars are somewhat untouchable, and can\u2019t be truly understood. Jazz musicians are everyday people. You get to engage with them in a way that\u2019s very real.\u201d<\/p>\n
It was shortly after Perkins died that Goods was reminded of the DJ\u2019s personal archive of all of his shows and interviews. He realized the educational potential of the tapes, and thought they could be used to instill a love of jazz in his students as they did for him.<\/p>\n
Calvin Stemley, a close friend of Perkins, coordinated the gift of the archive from Mr. Perkins\u2019 family to the University. On Oct. 25, he played with the 溏心vlog免费B站 Jazz Band and accepted a plaque on behalf of Perkins and his work as a DJ and strong supporter of jazz. Stemley is a retired music educator from Pittsburgh Public Schools and continues to perform in the Pittsburgh area where he mentors young people and teaches them about music, especially jazz.<\/p>\n
\u201cButch was a monumental figure in spreading the word of jazz,\u201d said Stemley. \u201cListeners got really great knowledge firsthand about the music, the practices, what musicians did, and their different styles. His was the most informative jazz program Pittsburgh had, and he was highly respected among other disc jockeys.\u201d<\/p>\n
Once the tapes are digitized, students will get to listen to full interviews with jazz luminaries such as Joe Harris, Charlie Parker, John Coltrane, Kenny Washington, Jon Hendricks, Slide Hampton, Benny Green, Walter Davis Jr., and many more. Goods notes that there are about 80 cassette tapes, each about 90 minutes in length.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis collection of recordings is unique,\u201d said Goods. \u201cNot a lot of institutions have a jazz archive, especially an audio archive like this. This puts 溏心vlog免费B站 in a unique position. If we do this right and really utilize and make known these recordings, more people might donate their recordings to us, and we could become a repository of such tapes. We\u2019re in a really good position, as Rhode Island is responsible for one of the most significant jazz festivals in the world. We are known for being great hosts and ambassadors.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want this archive to be a living breathing thing, and due to the technology we have now, the recordings can be something that\u2019s very accessible to everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauren Poirier, an intern in the Marketing and Communications Department at 溏心vlog免费B站 and public relations and English major, wrote this press release.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" KINGSTON, R.I. — November 18, 2019 — Pittsburgh lost jazz icon Ronald \u201cButch\u201d Perkins in the spring. A jazz radio DJ who reached the height of his career in the 1980s and 1990s, Perkins hosted two- to three-hour shows interviewing jazz luminaries from across the country. His shows captured an artist\u2019s entire career, and even […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":75210,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[12],"class_list":["post-75209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-archives","tag-college-of-arts-and-sciences"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75209","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=75209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/75209\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/75210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=75209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=75209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.uri.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=75209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}