RUFFIN: NOW A JAZZ MOMENT

IN 1954, IRA GITLER WAS TAPPED BY LEONARD FEATHER TO CO-WRITE AND EDIT THE FIRST JAZZ REFERENCE BOOK—THE ENCYCLOPEDIA OF JAZZ. A MONUMENTAL TASK. MUSICIAN, JASON MORAN.

Jason Moran: And I remember getting my copy of The Encyclopedia of Jazz that sits on my shelf now, because I like information, broad information and I like really specific information. I think what Ira and Leonard understood is the importance of the music to not only just to America, and not only to these musicians, but what it meant globally.

It takes a lot of nerve to make something, make anything, but to make something about something that maybe a lot of people don’t even care about. But when people really care, they care obsessively, in the most grand, beautiful ways.