Ira Gitler (December 18, 1928 – February 23, 2019) was an American

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 ...

historian and journalist. The co-author of ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' with

Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...

—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of liner notes for jazz recordings beginning in the early 1950s and wrote several books about jazz and

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...

, two of his passions.Manhattan School of Music
Faculty: Mr. Ira Gitler.
Retrieved Oct. 16, 2008.

Jazz

Gitler was born at

Brooklyn Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

, New York into a Jewish family and grew up listening to swing bands in the late 1930s and 1940s, before discovering the new music of

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

and Dizzy Gillespie. In the early 1950s, he worked as a producer of recording sessions for the

Prestige Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.) Prestige may also refer to: Arts, entertainment and media Films * ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnet ...

label. He is credited with coining the term "

sheets of sound Sheets of sound was a term coined in 1958 by ''DownBeat'' magazine jazz critic Ira Gitler to describe the new, unique improvisational style of John Coltrane. Gitler first used the term on the liner notes for ''Soultrane'' (1958).Porter 1999, p. 31 ...

" in the late 1950s, to describe the playing of

John Coltrane John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of br ...

. Gitler was the New York editor of ''

Down Beat ' (styled in all caps) is an American music magazine devoted to "jazz, blues and beyond", the last word indicating its expansion beyond the jazz realm which it covered exclusively in previous years. The publication was established in 1934 in Chi ...

'' magazine during the 1960s and wrote for ''

Metronome Magazine ''Metronome'' was a music magazine published from January 1885 to December 1961. History Founding (1885) Bandmaster Arthur Albert Clappé (1850–1920) first published ''The Metronome'' in January 1885 for band leaders. In 1891, Harry Colema ...

'', ''

JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' is an American magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C. in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade of growth ...

'', ''Jazz Improv'', ''

Modern Drummer ''Modern Drummer'' is a monthly publication targeting the interests of drummers and percussionists. The magazine features interviews, equipment reviews, and columns offering advice on technique, as well as information for the general public. ''Mo ...

'', ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', the ''

San Francisco Chronicle The ''San Francisco Chronicle'' is a newspaper serving primarily the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California. It was founded in 1865 as ''The Daily Dramatic Chronicle'' by teenage brothers Charles de Young and Michael H. de Young. The ...

'', the ''

Village Voice ''The Village Voice'' is an American news and culture paper, known for being the country's first alternative newsweekly. Founded in 1955 by Dan Wolf, Ed Fancher, John Wilcock, and Norman Mailer, the ''Voice'' began as a platform for the cr ...

'', ''

Vibe ''Vibe'' is an American music and entertainment magazine founded by producers David Salzman and Quincy Jones. The publication predominantly features R&B and hip hop music artists, actors and other entertainers. After shutting down producti ...

'', ''

Playboy ''Playboy'' is an American men's lifestyle and entertainment magazine, formerly in print and currently online. It was founded in Chicago in 1953, by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. K ...

'', ''World Monitor'', and '' New York'' magazine. Internationally, he contributed to ''Swing Journal'' (Japan), ''Musica Jazz'' (Italy) and ''Jazz Magazine'' (France). He was awarded a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the ar ...

in 1974. Gitler was given Lifetime Achievement Awards by the New Jersey Jazz Society (in 2001) and by the

Jazz Journalists Association The Jazz Journalists Association (JJA) is an international organization of all types of media professionals who document, promulgate, or appreciate jazz. As of 2016, it has approximately 250 members, including professional journalists, students, ind ...

(in 2002). In 2017, Gitler was awarded an NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship.

Ice hockey

Gitler's passion for ice hockey prompted him to write several books on the subject. He also wrote for the

New York Rangers The New York Rangers are a professional ice hockey team based in the New York City borough of Manhattan. They compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Metropolitan Division in the Eastern Conference. The team plays its home ...

as well as the

National Hockey League The National Hockey League (NHL; french: Ligue nationale de hockey—LNH, ) is a professional ice hockey league in North America comprising 32 teams—25 in the United States and 7 in Canada. It is considered to be the top ranked professional ...

in their former magazine, ''Goal''. He died in New York at the age of 90 on February 23, 2019.

Books

* ''Jazz Masters of the Forties''; New York: Macmillan, 1966. * ''Make the Team in Ice Hockey''; New York: Macmillan, 1968. * ''Hockey! The Story of the World's Fastest Sport'', with Richard Beddoes and Stan Fischler; New York: Macmillan, 1969. * ''Blood on the Ice: Hockey's Most Violent Moments''; Chicago: H. Regnery Co., 1974. * ''The Encyclopedia of Jazz in the Seventies'', with

; New York: Horizon Press, 1976. . * ''Ice Hockey A to Z''; New York: Lothrop, Lee & Shepard, 1978. . * ''Swing to Bop: An Oral History of the Transition in Jazz in the 1940s''; New York: Oxford University Press, 1985. . * ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'', with Leonard Feather and the assistance of ''Swing'' journal (Tokyo); New York: Oxford University Press, 1999. . * ''The Masters of Bebop: A Listener's Guide''; New York: Da Capo Press, 2001. .

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gitler, Ira 1928 births 2019 deaths Jewish American journalists American music critics American music journalists Jazz writers Writers from Brooklyn American sports journalists Writers from New York (state) Journalists from New York City Sportswriters from New York (state) 21st-century American Jews