Scott Yanow

Scott Yanow (born 4 October 1954) is an American jazz commentator, known for many contributions to the Allmusic website, for writing ten books on jazz and for reviewing jazz recordings for over 30 years.

Biography

Born in New York, Yanow grew up near Los Angeles wanting to be a jazz journalist, discovering Dixieland in the Danny Kaye movie The Five Pennies and on a daily radio show while in high school. He soon broadened his tastes to the swing idiom and in college, after purchasing a Charlie Parker album that included White Christmas (which made it easier for him to appreciate bebop), he soon developed a strong taste and musical curiosity for all eras of jazz, from dixieland to the avant-garde, Fusion to modern jazz.

Shortly after graduating from college, Yanow became the jazz editor for Record Review, being a major participant in all 33 of its issues. Since Record Review closed up shop in June 1984, Yanow has written for many jazz magazines and arts magazines including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Downbeat, Cadence, Coda and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene. In recent times, Yanow was interviewed on-camera by CNN about the Monterey Jazz Festival and by Arts & Entertainment for their televised American Masters biography on Dizzy Gillespie.

Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He contributed thousands of additional CD reviews to the third edition,...
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