Frank Driggs | |
|---|---|
| Born | (1930-01-29)January 29, 1930 Manchester, Vermont, U.S. |
| Died | September 20, 2011(2011-09-20) (aged 81) New York City, U.S. |
| Occupation(s) | record producer and archivist |
Frank Driggs (January 29, 1930 – September 20, 2011) was an Americanrecord producer forColumbia Records and a jazz historian and author, known as well for his collection of over 100,000 pieces ofjazz music memorabilia including photographs,[1] 314oral history recordings[2] and other items.
Frank Driggs first became enamored with jazz and swing music listening to late-night broadcasts from hotels and ballrooms in the 1930s. A 1952Princeton University graduate with a degree in political science, Driggs moved to Manhattan where he worked first as anNBCpage.[3] Later he joined withMarshall Stearns, founder of theInstitute of Jazz Studies, and others in documenting jazz history.
In the late 1950s, the record producerJohn Hammond hired Driggs to assist him at Columbia Records. Soon Driggs was producing records, organizing recording sessions and putting out important re-issues of78 rpm recordings byFletcher Henderson,Billie Holiday,Duke Ellington andGene Krupa. His work at Columbia included producing the first two Robert Johnson albumsKing of the Delta Blues Singers volumes 1 and 2 andRobert Johnson:The Complete Recordings which earned him aGrammy Award in 1991. Driggs later produced recordings forEpic,Okeh,MCA, Stash, andTime-Life Records. In the early 1970s, Driggs andRCA Records producerEthel Gabriel reissued an acclaimed series of historic big-band, jazz and swing recordings on the RCABluebird label.
Soon after Driggs moved to Manhattan in 1952, he began gathering and saving posters, flyers and ticket stubs, recordings and amateur photographs, providing invaluable information to journalists and music fans decades later that would have otherwise been lost. While much of his collection was publicity stills of Jazz music artists, Drigg's holdings also contained a sizable collection ofblues,rock,dance andmovie artists. By 2005 his collection had included over 100,000 images. Many of the photographed are not labeled or indexed since Driggs relied on his own system of sorting and his own personal memory of the musicians in the pictures.[4]
In 1977 Driggs retired from the music industry and afterwards made most of his income from reproduction fees from his collection. Many of his images appeared in the 2001documentaryminiseriesJazz produced byKen Burns forPBS. For many years Driggs kept his collection of images in his basement of his home inFlatbush until 2005 when he moved in with the late musicologist and writerJoan Peyser in theManhattan borough ofNew York City.[1]
In 2005, Driggs collection of photographs was appraised at $1.5 million[1] and Driggs made provisions for the collection to be donated toJazz at Lincoln Center after his death.[5]
Driggs died in his Manhattan home on Tuesday, September 20, 2011, of natural causes. He is buried inWoodlawn Cemetery inThe Bronx, New York City.
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