Jim Godbolt (5 October 1922 – 9 January 2013) was a British jazz writer and historian. He was born in

Sidcup Sidcup is an area of south-east London, England, primarily in the London Borough of Bexley. It is south-east of Charing Cross, bordering the London Boroughs of London Borough of Bromley, Bromley and Royal Borough of Greenwich, Greenwich. Before ...

Kent Kent is a county in South East England and one of the home counties. It borders Greater London to the north-west, Surrey to the west and East Sussex to the south-west, and Essex to the north across the estuary of the River Thames; it faces ...

. During a varied career in the music business, Godbolt worked as concert-promoter, manager to British jazz musicians, film consultant, broadcaster and compiler of album

liner notes Liner notes (also sleeve notes or album notes) are the writings found on the sleeves of LP record albums and in booklets that come inserted into the compact disc jewel case or the equivalent packaging for cassettes. Origin Liner notes are desce ...

. He edited several jazz publications, including '' Jazz Illustrated'', from 1950–51, '' 100 Club News'', from 1979–84 and from 1980-2006 he was founding editor of ''

Jazz at Ronnie Scott's ''Jazz at Ronnie Scott's'' was the house magazine of Ronnie Scott's Club in London's Soho, England. Available as a freesheet, it was published from 1979 to 2006 (159 issues) and was distributed throughout London to record shops and other locations. ...

'', the house magazine of the jazz club in London. Jim Godbolt also wrote for newspapers and periodicals, including ''

Harpers & Queen ''Harper's Bazaar'' is an American monthly women's fashion magazine. It was first published in New York City on November 2, 1867, as the weekly ''Harper's Bazar''. ''Harper's Bazaar'' is published by Hearst and considers itself to be the st ...

'' and ''

Melody Maker ''Melody Maker'' was a British weekly music magazine, one of the world's earliest music weeklies; according to its publisher, IPC Media, the earliest. It was founded in 1926, largely as a magazine for dance band musicians, by Leicester-born ...

''. He also headed the Jim Godbolt Entertainment Agency with Don Kingswell and looked after several groups including Swinging Blue Jeans.

Selected bibliography

*''

Ronnie Scott's Jazz Farrago ''Ronnie Scott's Jazz Farrago'' is a book of articles collected from ''Jazz at Ronnie Scott's'', the house magazine of Ronnie Scott's jazz club in London, England. The magazine was published for over twenty-five years from 1979–2006, producing ...

'' (2008), Foreword by

George Melly Alan George Heywood Melly (17 August 1926 – 5 July 2007) was an English jazz and blues singer, critic, writer, and lecturer. From 1965 to 1973 he was a film and television critic for ''The Observer''; he also lectured on art history, with an e ...

, Hampstead Press, *''A History of Jazz in Britain 1919-1950'', (2010) (4th edn.), London:

Northway Publications Northway Books ( Northway Publications) is a publishing company based in London, UK. Northway specialises in biographies of musicians, and British social and cultural history. Its focus has been particularly on documenting jazz history in Britain b ...

*''A History of Jazz in Britain 1950-1970'' (1989), Quartet Books, *''All This and Many a Dog: Memoirs of a Loser/Pessimist'' (1986), Quartet Books, *''The World of Jazz in Printed Ephemera and Collectibles'' (1991), Wellfleet,

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Godbolt, Jim 1922 births 2013 deaths English historians English writers about music Jazz writers People from Sidcup English male non-fiction writers