Articles » "Leonard Feather" is regarded as a legend in the realm of jazz....

Feather had a hand in almost every other aspect of jazz music: journalist and critic, arranger and producer, musician and author, teacher and historian. His talent and extensive contributions went into records, concerts, radio, television, movies, books, and periodicals. Leonard Feather actively produced radio and television shows, and movies.....

For most of his career he was almost continually on the air in one form or another. He was featured as a jazz expert on radio shows such as ‘RCA Victor Show’ and the ‘Lower Basin Street Chamber Music and Jazz Society’ program. In 1940 Feather and Bob Bach created the show ‘Platterbrains’ that aired on WNEW and WMCA in New York. ‘Platterbrains’, a variation on the program he had earlier initiated on Radio Normandy, was an audience oriented radio program where listeners would send in questions about jazz music and recordings. A panel of experts was assembled and would try to answer the questions; segments of the records were played until they attempted an answer. It was an excellent way to expose the public to jazz, not only to the recorded music but also to the panelists who were often artists themselves. In the second year Count Basie recorded ‘Platterbrains’, based on a Tab Smith original, to be used as the theme song for the show. The show ran for several years and was later revived in 1953. This time ‘Platterbrains’ was broadcast to a much wider audience on the ABC radio network and ran every week until 1958. Another of Leonard Feather’s early radio projects was ‘Jazz Club USA’ that was broadcast on the U.S. State Department’s ‘Voice of America’. Jazz music and news of events were being broadcast around the world. It exposed many people to jazz for the first time and established a large base of listeners, particularly in Eastern Europe and the USSR.

Feather continued to work on the air as host, guest, or producer for the rest of his career. He was presented with the Corporation for Public Broadcasting award for excellence in local programming in 1978 for ‘The Leonard Feather Show’ broadcast on KUSC in Los Angeles.

Awards:

• 1964—First Grammy award given by National Academy of Recording Arts & Sciences for album notes (The Ellington Era) 
• 1971—Nominated for an Emmy for producing ‘The Jazz Show’, a series seen on KNBC, Los Angeles 
• 1978—Corporation for Public Broadcasting award for excellence in local programming on ‘The Leonard Feather Show’, KUSC, Los Angeles 
• 1981—Citation from Mayor Tom Bradley and L.A. City Council at a banquet organized by Harold R. Udkoff to establish Leonard Feather scholarships at the Duke Ellington School of Arts in Washington, DC 
• 1983—International Critics’ Poll, Down Beat magazine: Lifetime Achievement award 
• 1984—Awarded honorary doctorate of music at Berklee College of Music in Boston 
• 1985—Greater Los Angeles Press Club Journalism award: Certificate of excellence in entertainment reporting, Los Angeles Times 
• 1986—National Association of Jazz Educators award for fifty years of contribution to jazz education and journalism

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