About the Authors

Bob Blumenthal

Bob Blumenthal began his career as a jazz critic in 1969 for Boston After Dark, later known as The Boston Phoenix, while in college, and continued to contribute to that paper through 1989. After serving as guest critic for The Boston Globe during its jazz festival for a decade, he became a regular Globe contributor in 1990 and a weekly columnist in 1993, and continued in both roles until 2002. Throughout these years, during which he worked as an attorney, primarily for the Massachusetts Department of Education, Blumenthal was also contributing to such publications as The Atlantic Monthly, Rolling Stone, The Village Voice, Down Beat and JazzTimes, and writing numerous album notes. He also provided radio and television commentary and served as a panelist for the National Jazz Service Organization, the New England Foundation for the Arts, and the Jazz Composers Alliance. He was one of six commissioners for the Recording Industry Association of America who selected the White House Record Library during the Carter Administration.

Among Blumenthal’s other projects have been his ongoing affiliation with the RVG reissue series of Blue Note Records and the Discover Jazz Festival in Burlington, Vermont (where he serves as critic in residence), his design of a five-part video jazz history for the Montreal Jazz Festival, contributions to the anthologies Jazz: The First Hundred Years (edited by John Edward Haase) and The Oxford Companion to Jazz (edited by Bill Kirchner), and the introductory essays for Jacques Lowe’s Jazz: Photographs of the Masters. He also received Grammy awards for best album notes in 1999 for Coltrane: The Classic Quartet/Complete Impulse! Studio Recordings and 2000 for Miles Davis & John Coltrane: The Complete Columbia Recordings 1955-61. In March 2002, Blumenthal became a permanent consultant to Marsalis Music, the record label founded by saxophonist Branford Marsalis.