Happy Hipster Holidays

A Hi-De-Ho Happy Holidays greeting from Mr. Calloway from a full-page ad in the December 15, 1942 edition of Down Beat magazine (then a quarter-fold tabloid). 

Best wishes to all of Gems' web friends for a swinging holiday season and a syncopated New Year. Let's hope 2017 will be an improvement over 2016. But whatever the future holds, you can depend on Gems of Jazz to post more obscure treasures, curious rarities and other jazzy oddities over the next twelve months. Here's a favorite of mine from Babs Gonzales that, if you've never heard it before, I think you'll dig. Best wishes to all!

Greetings of the Season

Happy holidays to one and all of Gems' visitors. Here's a souvenir from the heyday of swing, given to me by a jazz friend a few decades back. I don't know where he got it, but he knew lots of musicians so I suspect it may have come from one of them. I know most of the 28 signatories (I think there's 28), but I don't know all of them. Who's Sonny Kendis? Or Basil F-something? If you know, fill me in. In the meantime, best wishes for the season, and prosperous New Year to all of you from all of us here at Gems!