Frederic Ramsey Jr.

American record producer, writer, photographer, and historian. His work made him one of the first major scholars of jazz. In the late 1930's he edited, with Charles Edward Smith, "Jazzmen: The Story of Hot Jazz Told in the Lives of the Men Who Created It." After receiving a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1953, Ramsey undertook a tour of the South in order to explore and document the African-American music environment. His field recordings were collected on "Music From The South," a 10-volume set of recordings released by Folkways Records. He also produced a series of historical recordings for Folkways, titled "Jazz (19)." In 1960 he published a book "Been Here and Gone" about black culture in the United States. Born January 29, 1915, Pittsburgh, PA Died March 18, 1995, Paterson, NJ