Leigh Kammen with his instrument©Andrea Canter

A long and celebrated era in jazz journalism will end on September 29^th with Leigh Kamman’s final broadcast of The Jazz Image on MPR. After a six-decade career including a 34-year run on MPR, Kamman, 85, has announced his retirement: "I will take time for a long overdue vacation. Then I plan to fulfill a book proposal on the history of jazz broadcasting. Further I hope to continue my association with MPR, along with speaking engagements for students and the dinner circuit, focusing on the significance of this most important cultural art form—jazz."

From his interview of Duke Ellington as a teen reporter to his shows for Armed Forces radio during World War Two, through broadcasts from Harlem to his long stint at MPR and induction into the Pavek Museum Broacasters Hall of Fame, Leigh Kamman has been the voice of jazz, not only in Minnesota, but throughout the world through national public radio.

The journey into jazz began early, when 12-year-old Leigh spent his summer as a “gofer” at a Lake Minnewaska resort in central Minnesota. "The people who owned the resort were friends of my parents. At night, as everyone was getting ready for bed, they played these old 78s - blues, jazz and early country music. This was in the early 1930s, so you had Ivy Anderson singing ‘Stormy Weather' with Duke Ellington. You had Andy Kirk and his Clouds of Joy Band. We'd go to sleep to it, and my appreciation for the voicing of bands and the solo vocals, I got by osmosis." Five years later as a junior at St. Paul Central High School (where he published an interview with Duke Ellington in the school paper), Leigh landed another gofer job at radio station WMIN, and soon was hosting his first jazz radio show with pal Sev Widman in a weekly, one-hour slot (midnight to 1 am), called “Studio Party Wham.” Leigh recalls that “The first 25 minutes showcased big bands. Then we had 15 minutes for guest collectors to play their music and talk about it. The last 15 minutes, we played the most popular jazz pieces of the day."

Leigh and Lowell Pickett at the Dokota Foundation Benefit(2007)©Andrea Canter

In 1950, Leigh moved to New York to work at WOV radio in Harlem, broadcasting live from the Palm Café near the Apollo Theater. In addition to the broadcasting experience, he notes that his off-the-air time was his “street academy,” meeting and mingling with the top artists of the day. He moved back to the Twin Cities in 1956, working for KSTP with live broadcasts from Freddy’s and sharing live remotes with other NBC affiliates. Through KSTP, he also taped six months of programming for "International Band Stand" via KJAZ in San Francisco.

In the early 60s, Leigh premiered Ella Fitzgerald’s rendition of “Mack the Knife” on his program “Image: The ‘60s,” an early version of what became The Jazz Image on Minnesota Public Radio. “She didn't want to sing it,” Kamman recalls, “she didn't think it would work for her. But she performed it here, improvising and getting a feel for it. Three weeks later she did it in Berlin, and it became part of her repertoire.”

When the first MPR production of The Jazz Image was broadcast in 1973, the show ran through the night, from 10:30 pm Friday until 7 am Saturday morning. Later it became a three-hour show every Saturday night. And until recently, Leigh broadcast every show live. Aside from his exhaustive knowledge of jazz and his rapport with the artists, Leigh Kamman’s inimitable style has endeared him to audiences worldwide. If his voice did not immediately cue the listener to his identity, then his turns of phrases and ability to put the listener into the music’s context would give it away. "The technique is to take people on a journey, to use imagery and pace with the music to suggest a time and place so that they can picture it, or remember it," he said. And Leslie Johnson of the Mississippi Rag notes, "It is distinctive. His greatest fear is dead air, and he'll come up with some flowery phrases. God only knows where he gets them…It can sound highfalutin, as if he's trying to be kind of ethereal. But it's an impressionistic quality that can be quite lovely. And once you know Leigh, you know there is no artifice to him."

Yolanda Bruce congratulates Leigh©Andrea Canter

Charlie Parker was Kamman’s most memorable subject. "I interviewed him ineptly. But the material is there… He was articulate, intelligent, very clear; I caught him at a time when he was not involved in drugs…I asked him what music he'd recommend to listeners who wanted to understand jazz, and he began by listing classical composers. He had studied classical music and he knew how an appreciation for it could help as a foundation for appreciating jazz… He was especially intrigued by Bartok and Stravinsky.”

Leigh 'interviews' Frank Morgan at the MPR Tribute on September 23rd©Andrea Canter

When Leigh’s last Jazz Image broadcasts on September 29^th (and again on The Current on September 30^th), it will not mark the end of the show, says MPR, as the station seeks a new host. But it will mark the end of a long era that saw jazz evolve as an art form, as a cultural phenomenon, an era that brought credibility as well as popularity to jazz broadcasting. As Leigh points out, with the many school jazz programs and organizations such as the International Association for Jazz Education, “There are many opportunities today to learn about jazz.” But none has reached as wide an audience as The Jazz Image. And we have Leigh Kamman to thank for that.

Leigh was honored by MPR at a celebration at the Dakota Jazz Club and Restaurant in late September. Quotes in this article primarily from interviews in the Star Tribune and MPR Archives.