The Vermont Jazz Center has preserved a treasure trove of world-class jazz videos over its almost five decades of offering performances and workshops. Today, we are releasing these gems to the public on our newly launched archive portal: archive.vtjazz.org.
Jazz historian and VJC Faculty member Ben Young of the Jazz History Database will introduce the program by showing audience members how to use this valuable resource. He will show us the depth and breadth of the VJC’s archive by airing concert clips from recent shows with artists like Brandee Younger. He will demonstrate how piano masterclasses can be inspiring and applicable to all. Young will show footage of famous musicians on the Jazz Center’s stage prior to its current, 5-camera installation, and he will play rare audio recordings created by Jazz Center founder Attila Zoller.
The VJC has collected an almost overwhelming amount of high-level jazz materials over the years. It is thanks to the foresight of a dedicated team who have strategized and built a unique archive system that bundles video, audio, photos, interviews and writings in an easily navigable archive website. The core team includes John Levin (archivist), Michael Hanish (videographer), Julian McBrowne (sound engineer), Julian Gerstin (academic liaison), John DiGeorge (web designer), and VJC co-directors Eugene Uman and Elsa Borrero.
The archive materials are accessible, free, and easily available to the public. This launch accomplishes VJC’s mission to make treasures available for the next generation of musicians, for jazz lovers, and for academics. In preparation for the launch, VJC has been reaching out to schools, jazz clubs, jazz societies, and non-profit jazz education institutions around the world.
New materials will be added every 4 months, including highlights from recent concerts, masterclasses from the Solo Piano Festival, a blast from the past, and three rare recordings from the Zoller collection.
Series I includes:
– Concert Highlights: Brandee Younger, Joel Ross, Etienne Charles
– Masterclass Features: Elio Villafranca, Kris Davis
– Blast from the Past: Gary Smulyan
– The Zoller Collection: recordings with Hal Galper, Jimmy Heath, Howard Brofsky, others
We hope the VJC Archive becomes a resource you’ll return to repeatedly throughout the year. Join us again on December 11, 2026 for our Series Two launch. Explore the archive by going to archive.vtjazz.org or clicking the button below:
