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The Swing Jazz of Eddie Durham
A new documentary about San Marcos’ own jazz legend Eddie Durham will make its debut Feb. 9 at 9 p.m. on Austin PBS HDTV.
“Wham Re-Bop-Boom-Bam: The Swing Jazz of Eddie Durham” chronicles Durham’s life and work as he brought southern rural blues to the Kansas City swing jazz scene of the 1920s and ’30s. Born in San Marcos, Durham was a trombonist, guitarist, writer and arranger who helped create the signature sounds of Count Basie, Benny Moten, Jimmie Lunceford and Glenn Miller. Credited as the one of the first people to experiment and record with amplified and electric guitars, Durham pioneered the sound of today’s rock ’n roll.
Produced and directed by WVIA-TV out of Scranton, Penn., the documentary team visited San Marcos twice during the course of filming.
“They came two years ago for the Eddie Durham Jazz Festival,” Linda Kelsey Jones, curator of the Calaboose Museum, said. “They interviewed Marcia Durham, two of the Durham uncles and people from Texas State — me and Dr. Holt — to get the story on Eddie.”
“Wham Re-Bop-Boom-Bam” will be presented by American Public Television, with distribution to 250 APT member stations nationwide. Check local PBS station listings for the air times of subsequent episodes.
San Marcos holds an annual jazz festival in Eddie Durham’s honor every October. Local and national musicians gather with fellow San Marcans in Eddie Durham Park, located at 205 Martin Luther King Dr, to commemorate the life and contributions of this often overlooked but entirely unique musical genius.
