0 Inductee Bob Bednar has been loving and listening to jazz his entire life, both as performer and as radio host. He hosted his first jazz program at Philadelphia’s WRTI while a journalism and broadcast major at Temple University, and served as a first call drummer in Philadelphia during the late 1950s and early 1960s. He joined Du Pont in 1963, producing and directing more than 80 industrial shows and films worldwide as special events...
2010 Inductee Na’im Rashid is a retired Navy Broadcast Journalist whose radio career began in Philadelphia in 1968 and he has been dedicated to the preservation of jazz since that time. During his radio career, he programmed the highly-rated Progressive 98 show on WYLD-FM New Orleans. He also worked for commercial radio stations and the American Forces Radio and Television service. After relocating to Jacksonville, he established the Jazz Vibrations radio show on V101.5 FM,...
2009 Inductee Joyce Hellmann Bizot, a life-long jazz fan and supporter, conceived and created the Great American Jazz Piano Competition in 1981 and chaired it until 2000. Since 1983, the competition has been a part of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. For ten years, she was an associate producer with jazz competitions sponsored by the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz Studies. At the University of North Florida, Joyce served as a charter member and chair of...
2008 Inductee Dr. Bill Prince is a professor emeritus of music at the University of North Florida and holds a Doctor of Musical Arts degree with a major in Theory and Composition from the University of Miami. His compositions and arrangements have been performed and/or recorded by jazz ensembles throughout the United States and Canada. Music has taken him to all 50 states and approximately 75 countries in Europe, the Americas, Africa, Australia and Asia. One...
2007 Inductee Von Barlow is inducted into the Jacksonville Jazz Festival Hall of Fame for his commitment to sustaining the sounds of jazz in Jacksonville and his dedication to the annual Jacksonville Jazz Festival and The Great American Jazz Piano competition. Barlow has performed at the Jacksonville Jazz Festival several times and played in The Great American Jazz Piano Competition rhythm section four times, including the first year when Marcus Roberts and Harry Connick, Jr....
2006 Inductee Teddy Washington was well known not only as a highly-talented trumpet player, vocalist and band leader but also as the author of his autobiography “LIFE THE PUZZLE.” In 1999, Teddy participated in the re-opening of the Ritz Theatre & LaVilla Museum. That same year, he also produced and hosted the first Follies Awards at the Florida Theatre, an awards show where he recognized 23 Jacksonville unsung heroes of jazz and entertainment. Teddy played...
2006 Inductee Longineu Parsons is a musician and composer who is hailed internationally by critics as one of the world’s finest trumpet players. Parsons is a master of trumpet, a composer, a multi-instrumentalist, a singer and a stage performer. Over his career, he has performed in over 30 countries in the Americas, Europe, Asia, the Middle East and Africa, and has shared the stage with the likes of Branford Marsalis and Cab Calloway. Longineu is...
2005 Inductee During his 27-year career in orchestra management, Cecil S. Cole Jr. earned the respect and admiration of countless people in the music industry. As Artistic Administrator of the Jacksonville Symphony Orchestra, he played a key role in determining programming and guest artists. He was instrumental in the success of many symphony endeavors, including three grand opera productions, the creation of the Fresh Ink Florida Composers’ Competition, the Jacksonville International Piano Competition, the installation...
2004 Inductee Dick Brown was first hired by WJCT in 1968 as executive producer for an innovative public affairs TV series. His involvement with the Jacksonville Jazz Festival began in 1981 with a TV program made during the festival. The program was broadcast nationally by PBS, and received a major award from the New York Film and Television Festival. Brown continued as executive producer for the program, which became an annual PBS staple and was...
2004 Inductee In his 36 years with WJCT, Vic DiGenti was responsible for all special events including the Great American Jazz Piano Competition, the Jacksonville Wine Experience, the Jacksonville Spring Music Festival and was the executive producer of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival. During his eight years as producer of the festival, he worked with a staff and nearly 1,200 volunteers and added several key elements, such as the Jazz on the Run 5k and the...
