Bill Russell Lecture
Part concert, part lecture, this annual event blends history and music to appreciate sounds from the past and the people who made them.
Upcoming
About the Bill Russell Lecture
The Bill Russell Lecture honors the legacy of William “Bill” Russell (1905–1992), who devoted his life to the study of New Orleans jazz and related musical forms such as brass bands, ragtime, and gospel music. HNOC acquired his monumental collection in 1992, which consists of thousands of photographs, books, pieces of sheet music, piano rolls, musical instruments, recordings, correspondence, and films, ephemera, and more. Past lecture subjects have included Scott Joplin, the Boswell Sisters, George Lewis, and Louis Armstrong.
The William Russell Jazz Collection
The work of a prolific jazz collector, producer, historian, and photographer comprises one of HNOC’s largest collections related to New Orleans jazz.
Past Lectures
Syncopated Siblings: The Music of Cuba and New Orleans
Women of Preservation Hall
Lineages
The Banjo at the Crossroads of New Orleans and the Caribbean
Mahalia Jackson: The Queen of Gospel Music
2016
2016
Seva Venet and the Storyville Stringband of New Orleans
2015
2015
Barry Martyn, with performances by the Society Brass Band
2014
2014
Kyla Titus, with performances by the Pfister Sisters
2013
2013
OperaCréole, with pianists Wilfred Delphin and Samuel Liégeon, narrated by Walter Harris Jr.
2012
2012
Bruce Boyd Raeburn, with additional commentary and performances by the New Orleans Jazzman Band, featuring Jerry Embree, Frankie Lynne, Barry Martyn, and Mark Brooks
2011
2011
Tom Sancton and Lars Edegran and the New Orleans Ragtime Orchestra
2010
2010
Bruce Boyd Raeburn, Barry Martyn, and Nick Gagliano, with performances by Tom Sancton, Frankie Lynne, and Barry Martyn
2009
2009
Thomas Brothers with Clive Wilson and Butch Thompson
2008
2008
William Howland Kenney
2007
2007
Bruce Boyd Raeburn, with Tom McDermott and Evan Christopher
2006
2006
Bob Greene
2005
2005
Bruce Boyd Raeburn with William Wagner, Tom McDermott, Barry Martyn, and Don Gillespie
2004
2004
Jay Weigel, with Phillip Manuel, Ellen Frohnmayer, Leah Chase, Reverend Lois Dejean and her gospel choir, and chamber musicians
2003
2003
Butch Thompson
2002
2002
James Dapogny
2001
2001
Barry Martyn, with Bruce Boyd Raeburn
2000
2000
Michael White
Related Stories
Danny Barker’s Folk Heroes
The jazzman was also a gifted writer and storyteller who put his own spin on the archetypes of African American folklore, from badmen and blues mamas to “day people and night people.”
Economy Hall, the “Carnegie Hall of Jazz”
In an excerpt from HNOC’s Economy Hall: The Hidden History of a Free Black Brotherhood, author Fatima Shaik explains the significance of a New Orleans landmark.
Related Collection Highlights
Edward “Kid” Ory Papers
Ory and his trombone helped shape jazz from the 1920s onward. His papers include photographs, correspondence, sheet music, instruments, and more.
John E. Kuhlman Collection
For decades, studio photographer John E. Kuhlman spent his free time taking pictures of jazz musicians. HNOC is now home to that part of his archive.
The Mysterious Axman’s Jazz
At the turn of the 20th century, a music-loving serial killer proclaimed that only jazz lovers would be safe from his reign of terror.
Related Books
Unfinished Blues: Memories of a New Orleans Music Man
by Harold R. Battiste Jr. with Karen Celestan
A Life in Jazz
by Danny Barker
edited by Alyn Shipton, with an introduction by Gwen Thompkins
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