George Wein, the founder of the
Newport Jazz Festival and
Newport Folk Festival, asked the
Tulane University
Tulane University, officially the Tulane University of Louisiana, is a private university, private research university in New Orleans, Louisiana. Founded as the Medical College of Louisiana in 1834 by seven young medical doctors, it turned into ...
Jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
archive's then director Richard Allen to recommend people who could help him launch a New Orleans music festival in
Congo Square, he suggested his employee Miner. Miner and
Quint Davis
Quint Davis (born November 5, 1947) is an American festival producer and director based in New Orleans. He is best known as the producer of the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (Jazz Fest) founded by George Wein. Davis has been involved in the ...
began rounding up interested musicians. The first festival had so few attendees that the staff ended up giving tickets away at a nearby school. The festival grew into what is today the
New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival.
Miner helped run the festival for its first five years. She is largely credited with the founding the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Foundation Archive, which contains recordings from musicians interviewed at the festival as well as other documents, photographs and ephemera related to the Festival and the Foundation's holdings including early
WWOZ 90.7-FM recordings.
Music manager and producer
She also went on to guide the career of
Professor Longhair, aka Henry Roeland Byrd, from the mid-1970s until his death in 1980. During those years, he toured overseas, produced popular recordings and gained critical acclaim. Her husband at the time,
Andrew Kaslow,
led Professor Longhair's back-up band. "Her devotion to Professor Longhair gave him the best years of his life," Wein was quoted as saying in Miner's obituary that ran in ''
The Times-Picayune''.
Miner and Kaslow moved to
Cleveland
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
in the mid-1980s, where she produced a Cajun and zydeco radio show at
Case Western Reserve University
Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a private research university in Cleveland, Ohio. Case Western Reserve was established in 1967, when Western Reserve University, founded in 1826 and named for its location in the Connecticut Western Reser ...
on
WRUW 91.1, led the
National Folk Festival at the
Cuyahoga Valley National Park and was development director at the Cleveland Music School Settlement.
Return to Jazz Fest
Miner returned to
in 1988, creating the Jazz Fest's Music Heritage Stage, which features interviews with performers. "...'This is my way of bringing the
Jazz Fest
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of vi ...
back to the way it was in the old days, like sitting around the living room floor and getting to know these people,' she said in a 1990 interview. 'It was our way of having a more intimate involvement with the musicians.... We talk and they perform and answer questions from the audience. People say it's like the
Oprah Winfrey
Oprah Gail Winfrey (; born Orpah Gail Winfrey; January 29, 1954), or simply Oprah, is an American talk show host, television producer, actress, author, and philanthropist. She is best known for her talk show, ''The Oprah Winfrey Show'', br ...
part of the festival.' Miner, who also became the festival's archivist, said that
Jazz Fest
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of vi ...
'is a reflection of what the world needs to know about New Orleans music.'...".
The Music Heritage stage was later renamed as The Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage, in her honor.
Death and legacy
In December 1995, Miner succumbed to complications from
Multiple myeloma
Multiple myeloma (MM), also known as plasma cell myeloma and simply myeloma, is a cancer of plasma cells, a type of white blood cell that normally produces antibodies. Often, no symptoms are noticed initially. As it progresses, bone pain, an ...
, at age 46.
Her memorial service and traditional New Orleans
jazz funeral
A jazz funeral is a funeral procession accompanied by a brass band, in the tradition of New Orleans, Louisiana.
History
The term "jazz funeral" was long in use by observers from elsewhere, but was generally disdained as inappropriate by most New ...
were held at City Park and attended by hundreds of people, including many notable musicians from the city such as
Kermit Ruffins
Kermit Ruffins (born December 19, 1964) is an American jazz trumpeter, singer, composer, and actor from New Orleans. He has been influenced by Louis Armstrong and Louis Jordan and says that the highest note he can hit on trumpet is a high C. He ...
, the
Rebirth Brass Band
The Rebirth Brass Band is a New Orleans brass band. The group was founded in 1983 by Phillip "Tuba Phil" Frazier, his brother Keith Frazier, Kermit Ruffins,Skelly, RichardAllMusic Profile Retrieved 2013-02-9 and classmates from Joseph S. Clark ...
and the Zion Harmonizers.
Amy Nesbitt created a documentary about Allison based on interviews during the final two years of her life
''Reverence: A Tribute To Allison Miner'' The project won the New Orleans Film and Video Society Award for Best Short and was produced through the nonprofit Video Veracity which has facilitated dozens of other New Orleans-focused documentaries. Dozens of interviews of crew members who built the festival and local luminaries as well as footage of Allison's memorial ceremony have been gifted by the filmmaker for educational purposes to th
New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival Foundation Archive which Miner created for the foundation.
The Heritage Stage at The New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival grounds was renamed in her memory as the Allison Miner Music Heritage Stage.
After
Hurricane Katrina
Hurricane Katrina was a destructive Category 5 Atlantic hurricane that caused over 1,800 fatalities and $125 billion in damage in late August 2005, especially in the city of New Orleans and the surrounding areas. It was at the time the cost ...
, the stage was temporarily merged with the Lagniappe Stage which is housed in the Grandstand, and in 2009 it was reinstated as a full stage.
In 1997 her book ''Jazz Fest Memories'' was published posthumously by
Pelican Publishing Company
Pelican Publishing Company is a book publisher based in Gretna, a suburb of New Orleans. Formed in 1926, Pelican is the largest independent trade book publisher located in the U.S. South. Pelican publishes approximately 60 titles per year and ...
. The book contains photographs by her long time friend Michael P. Smith and descriptions and stories of the early days of the festival by Miner.
Personal life
Miner is the first cousin five times removed to
Sir Moses Montefiore
Sir Moses Haim Montefiore, 1st Baronet, (24 October 1784 – 28 July 1885) was a British financier and banker, activist, philanthropist and Sheriff of London. Born to an Italian Sephardic Jewish family based in London, afte ...
on her father's side. Her uncle Frank Crowther was a speechwriter for
Robert F. Kennedy
Robert Francis Kennedy (November 20, 1925June 6, 1968), also known by his initials RFK and by the nickname Bobby, was an American lawyer and politician who served as the 64th United States Attorney General from January 1961 to September 1964, a ...
in the 1960s and close personal friend to
Norman Mailer
Nachem Malech Mailer (January 31, 1923 – November 10, 2007), known by his pen name Norman Kingsley Mailer, was an American novelist, journalist, essayist, playwright, activist, filmmaker and actor. In a career spanning over six decades, Mailer ...
.
[ ] Her paternal grandfather Rodney Crowther was the chief war correspondent in Europe during
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...
for ''
The Baltimore Sun
''The Baltimore Sun'' is the largest general-circulation daily newspaper based in the U.S. state of Maryland and provides coverage of local and regional news, events, issues, people, and industries.
Founded in 1837, it is currently owned by Tr ...
''. She is survived by her two sons, Jonathan and Rashi Kaslow.
References
External links
Reverence: A Tribute to Allison Miner a short documentary offering a look at the life and work of Allison Miner through her own words (Produced and directed by Amy Nesbitt)
Obituary: Allison Miner a personal obituary by Jerry Brock, published on February 1, 1996, at the
OffBeat Magazine
''OffBeat'' is a New Orleans, Louisiana monthly local music magazine founded by Jan V. Ramsey in 1987. The magazine, published by OffBeat, Inc., focuses on the popular music of New Orleans and Louisiana, which is generally R&B, blues, jazz, roc ...
(retrieved September 10, 2018)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Miner, Allison
1949 births
1995 deaths
Deaths from multiple myeloma
Businesspeople from Baltimore
American music managers
Seabreeze High School alumni
20th-century American businesspeople