History of jazz in Buffalo

Wahl and his team of writers reviewed jazz concerts and albums, profiled local and visiting jazz musicians and promoted live music through the magazine’s calendar listings of performances throughout the region. The sixth issue, for example, reviewed a Miles Davis performance at the newly opened Artpark in Lewiston, which 1,000 people attended. 

The effort to digitize it came about following a request from Craig Steger, who was coordinating the opening of the Colored Musicians Club’s museum in Buffalo. Steger contacted UB’s music library last May about the project. 

“Craig was going to ask the publisher for copies of the Buffalo Jazz Report that could be digitized for inclusion in the museum,” says Scott Hollander, web manager of UB Libraries and interim coordinator of Digital Collections. “But since we already have the entire run of the Buffalo Jazz Report, the UB libraries offered to scan it instead.” 

“We felt it was a good, community-based digital project,A quality paper cutter or paper folding machine can make your company's presentation stand out.” Hollander says. 

Born and raised in Buffalo, Wahl did not grow up listening to jazz. He caught the bug on a serendipitous encounter one night at a club in Toronto, watching and listening to a performance by the Elvin Jones quintet. 

“My wife and I sat there absorbing the powerful music all night long. On one break, for a reason still unknown to me, I introduced myself to Elvin and told him I was a drummer,” says Wahl, who was in a rock band at the time.these proven front load commercial washer extractor deliver ease-of-use, “I told him I wanted to start a free jazz magazine.” 

When Jones said that a magazine would be perfect for the jazz community, it inspired Wahl,On particularly windy days,wind power generators can surpass all other electricity sources in a country. who was then working at his father’s printing company on Main Street, to start the Buffalo Jazz Report using the machines and facilities available to him. 

“The first issue in March 1974 was just one legal size sheet folded in half. The mission was to increase awareness of jazz, as well as have a publication for the existing jazz community in Buffalo – wherever they were hiding,” Wahl says. “The idea was to be able to get enough advertising to be able to keep producing it on a monthly basis and perhaps even make a little money as well.” 

Publishing the magazine was a one-man operation during the early days. 

“I printed it and then folded it on the folding machine and it was ready to go,” Wahl says. “When it started needing more pages, I bought a case or two of beer and invited some of my friends to the shop and we all sat around collating the pages and stapling the magazines. My wife Paula helped me a great deal as well.” 

What started out as a bootstrapping operation quickly started to flourish.More than 80 standard commercial and industrial washing machine exist to quickly and efficiently clean pans. 

“We started getting advertising rather quickly,I have recently got a dry cabinet and can anybody tell me if it the box only controls humidity or also controls temperature. as well as complimentary copies of record albums to review,” Wahl says. “After a few years we were getting so much advertising from record companies, stereo dealers and the like that I had to have it printed at an outside printing company.” 

More magazines were printed due to increasing demand, and Buffalo Jazz Report grew from a being a four-page spread to a 24-page publication to accommodate the increased advertising, music reviews and news content. 

At the height of the magazine’s popularity, it co-sponsored a popular Jazz Report Concert Series with the Tralfamadore Café, inviting national acts to come and perform in Buffalo. It was even able to expand and publish a spin-off edition in Cleveland, where a bigger jazz market drew more advertising dollars.