ALL THAT JAZZ Menlo Park’s Dr. Herb Wong is a legend in jazz circles. The music lover has been friends with some of the greatest musicians of the 20th century. When many might retire, this hep octogenarian is still going strong as a powerful force in the music industry. text by EVAN PRICCO • photography by JACK HUTCHESON fter meeting studying the great albums and musicians. and I immediately began to play these with Menlo And Wong became my mentor during albums. Not just playing them but study- Park resident our few meetings, and now I’m going ing them in their entirety. Notes, styles, Dr. Herb to ask him my pertinent question: “What instruments, everything,” Wong says. As Wong several is your all-time favorite jazz album?” children often do, Wong and his brother A times over a Without hesitation, and before the final played games to keep each other compa- period of a few word left my throat, Wong replies, “Kind ny. Whereas most would play hide and months in late 2006, I finally worked up of Blue,” Miles Davis, 1959. Miles was seek, they would play “name that jazz the nerve to ask the ultimate question. the visionary looking to the future, and tune.” Actually, he would play name that To me, Wong is jazz. His words are the that is the perfect album, jazz or other- note, musician, song, album, and instru- notes, history, venues, and the personali- wise.” I believe jazz has spoken. ment as fast as he could. His brother ties. His stories include personal conver- Wong was born in Oakland, Cali- would start a record, and immediately sations with Duke Ellington, Miles fornia, in 1926. Soon after, his family Herb would run off the first instrument Davis, Dave Brubeck, and being the moved to Stockton. To most, a move to heard, the note, musician, and song. He long-time deejay on Bay Area’s KJAZZ. Stockton might appear a distance away was almost always right. “I remember He embodies the culture and its en- from the epicenters of jazz that were Count Basie and Duke Ellington being trenchment in American history. The popping up on the West Coast, yet the in that box, and I really wanted to see week before one of our meetings, he had move proved to be a pivotal moment in those people in person,” Wong says. an interview on CNN as the authorita- Wong’s life. One day, a box addressed to In the late 1930s and early 40s, tive voice on the history of the Monterey the previous homeowner of the Wong Oakland was a regular tour stop for Jazz Festival, celebrating its 50th year in family’s new residence showed up at their traveling jazz bands and musicians. This 2007. I myself am a jazz fan—too young doorstep. Inside was a treasure chest of meant Wong could see the objects of his to understand its impact, but devoted to jazz albums. “I remember my brother new passion in person. In fact, he took Dr. Herb Wong at home in Menlo Park. 165 I always liked to assemble the train from Stockton to Oakland, “And then Hans calls me out of nowhere a fresh act, or garner and went to jazz clubs. “Oakland had and asks me if I want to do a radio show all these theaters with live performances in Tokyo playing jazz records. And, of up a new combination from bands, with movies before the course, I said yes!” Wong got access to a “ of artists together that performance. So you would get a cowboy Jeep, took the drive a few times a week, movie, a cartoon, then a Tarzan or Flash and began his career as a jazz deejay. made a new sound. Gordon feature, then a live swing band. “When I did the show, the Army Unbelievable. And a lot of theaters had would send me these V-Discs; Victory this. Nicolas Brothers, the Orpheum, Discs,” Wong recalls. “They came out and the Rio Theatre were all so great.” of the War Office in Washington, D.C., minute interview on the station. Wong had made over the years who were major Wong says with his 40-cent train ticket, and each month, I would get 25 new thought sending a postcard was too easy. musicians would come out. It’s always the whole evening would cost him albums to entertain the troops. And these Instead, he wrote a letter. That letter was about chemistry.” ” around $1, entertainment and all. This, albums were one-of-a-kind, rare albums. so impressive, that deejay Jerry Dean Now for the past 15 years on the after I told him I spent $50 on my recent So, I had it all set up that I would get proclaimed Wong the winner and invited campus of Palo Alto High School, Wong concert ticket. And, I didn’t see Duke 25 albums sent to me in Tokyo and 25 him in for the interview. The interview has taught jazz courses for the Palo Alto Ellington, either. albums sent to my address in California. lasted over 30 minutes, with Wong and Jazz Alliance. For two-and-a-half hours, As World War II became the reality Boy, that was great!” Wong says, laughing. Dean’s banter on Jazz records and musi- he gives a history lesson of America’s for most young men in the early 1940s, Spending extended time in Tokyo allowed cians impressing everyone at the station. musical heritage, teaching adult students Wong decided he wanted to join and him to explore Japanese swing bands, and Twenty minutes into their talk, the presi- and teenagers alike about artists and jazz he soon realized the popularity of Glenn dent of KJAZZ called in and gave Wong styles. Wong will sometimes bring in Miller. An example of Wong’s knowledge a radio show on the station. A week artists for demonstrations and Q &A of the inner languages of jazz, with atten- later, he did a six-hour show on the his- sessions. But here’s the catch: he has Wong is jazz. His words are tion to notes creating moods and unique tory of Bay Area jazz. Shortly after, he never taught the same course twice.“I’ve the notes, history, venues, expressions, is apparent when he describes did a jazz perspective show on Sundays. taught over 50 courses, and I have so and the personalities. the appeal of Glenn Miller. “Miller had Eventually, he did other shows, and was much material, I want to do it all.” For this sound that made fans out of a lot of a staple, if not the voice, at the station example, Wong’s three-semester course people who were not swing heads. He until 1996. on Bill Evans was quite the hit. would hit chords, this high note that While still a deejay at KJAZZ, Wong Then there is the Monterey Jazz sounded more like a clarinet than a saxo- and his wife moved to Menlo Park in Festival, the world’s longest running jazz become a navigator in the Air Force. phone, and it was very nice. And I saw 1985. He had met with a jazz band festival. Wong has been to all 49. This Things didn’t work out as planned. “I how people loved it.” called Full Faith and Credit, comprised year, Wong’s 50th, will see him on a figured that being in the Air Force would After his service was up, Wong of stock exchange types in the Bay Area, panel for an international conference on be something pretty neat, but I passed returned home just in time to enroll at and they wanted Wong to start a record the festival that will occur prior to the audio portions of my recruitment test so the University of California at Berkeley. label to promote their album. He started September event. “CNN has called, I’m strongly that they put me in radio and Continuing to expand upon his immense Palo Alto Records, and became the pres- on a panel to speak, and I’ll emcee a bit,” communications.” While stationed on an background of music, Wong was on his ident/A&R/producer of the label. After Wong says. “It’s all pretty good stuff.” aircraft carrier off the coast of Japan, was to a graduate degree in Education five years of Palo Alto Records (a label Asking Wong about his favorite jazz Wong made a friend who helped alter and Jazz Ecology. “I had a final to take that was dissolved after six albums were album, stimulated me to other “what’s the course of his life. “One of the good the same night as a Woody Herman on the Billboard Top 15 for jazz record- your favorite?” questions. Who is his friends I made was Hans Connery, who show at Sweet’s Ballroom in Oakland,” ings), Wong started Black Hawk favorite jazz musician? “That’s a hard would eventually become a Hollywood Wong remembers. “I had to convince the Records. After another successful run one, but Lester Young, Bill Evans, and actor,” Wong says. “This guy was so professor to let me take the test orally at with that label (“People still talk about Woody Herman are ones I love.” What resourceful at getting away from combat a later date. So I told him, ‘I got to go Black Hawk. Good graphics, good about instrument? “Piano and tenor duty, always bribing his superiors. Some- see this Woody Herman show,’ and the artists, really good stuff,” Wong says), he sax,” he says.