Jazz is a great invisible feeling, one that we don't describe because it doesn't have words to describe it.

Columbus is an important jazz center in that it was a go-through town.

When you traveled in the early days, you were overland traveling, so you traveled through many towns.

Some towns became places where you stopped and played, and Columbus was one of those.

Tell you it is.

We had a ball.

From the 1920s through the 60s, the neighborhoods along East Long Street and Mount Vernon Avenue on the near east side of Columbus maintained a rich jazz scene.

The black community in Columbus during the early part of the year was located on Long Street.

So you could go up Long Street and the Litchford Hotel would be the black hotel where you could get entertainment there.

You could come on out into the black community, into what we now know as the black community, Mount Vernon and Long Street, and at the corner of Long and Garfield or Long and Hamilton, any time day or night you could see 200 people on the streets.

It was the heartbeat of the black community there.

It's very lucky that both of these streets were crowded with entertainment spots because all we had to do was from one spot to another.

And you could walk all night long.

You could go up Long Street, finish what was on that street, and then walk on over here to Mount Vernon Avenue, and finish what is on this street.

Have a good time.

No problems such as we have today.

Nationally recognized singers and musicians grew up on the East Side.

Singers like Nancy Wilson, musicians Rusty Bryant, and Rashaun Roland Kirk got their start in the many clubs and theaters along the busy streets.

We had loads of fun.

We used to stay up two and three days at a time just jamming on our instruments.

We love to get together and put songs together.

The Near East Side's African-American jazz heritage has finally been documented.

Stories and photographs from 1890 through the 1960s have been collected and published in a book called Listen for the Jazz.

We all share the similar pride, like we're walking five feet off the ground, that a culture, an art form, a people who have never been really documented in book form, which is the entertainment culture, the black people of Central Ohio, now have something that we can be proud of.

The Old Town East Neighborhood Association has an event called Hot Times in Old Town every year.

And for years and years, three of the musicians that came to us were older jazz musicians and played in a trio.

We found that when we sat and talked to them, the things that they talked about were so interesting that it seemed there was a wealth of information that wasn't being documented and wasn't being saved and was going to be lost.

Throughout time, we also found that several other people had done some research in this area.

And so we pulled everyone together and built a compilative effort, which ended up being Listen for the Jazz.

Columbus had various music-oriented publications, but I'd never seen anything that would talk about Rusty Bryant or Bobby Pierce or Bobby Austin or Jeanette Williams or Hank Maher.

And so I took it upon myself to follow these artists, collect their photographs.

And in 1980, I had enough savings that I could just take a whole year and start to actively interview the people in Columbus.

It has taken three and a half years to do the research and the documentary to this point, and it is still an ongoing project.

The book is basically written by the people who told the stories.

We put it down in words, but they told the story.

I don't know what made me write it except that I was probably listening to some of these artists around here who were playing jazz and I wanted to capture what I felt and so this is how it goes.

If the beat catches you, if the beat snatches you, turns your insides round about.

Turns your one heart inside out.

That's jazz, ladies and gentlemen.

That's Jazz.

A second printing of Listen for the Jazz is scheduled for release in 1992.

We are so moved now to do more with the book and we are collecting material from various sources at this time to increase and enhance the book.

There are people now who call up and say, well, that was my uncle in that picture.

You don't have his name in there.

So now we're finding out who people are.

And also, they say, well, we have two or three other pictures here.

That you should see.

Many people collaborated to make this book a reality.

One was musician Rusty Bryant, who passed away earlier this year.

I'm gonna pretend now that I'm on stage at one of the clubs that I used to play.

And this is the theme song that we used just before we would leave the stage.

I would like to let you know once again, it's been a pleasure appearing for you here this afternoon.

And thank you, God bless you, thank you very much.

So lucky to still be with you.

This is a tribute today from me to all of our brother musicians who are no longer with us.

But wherever they are, they're waiting with a big jam session someday for us to start all over again.

So it's not in vain.

All of the musicians in here that tend to be around my age, I would like to remember something.

Our river is not at an end.

Our river just at a bend.

So here we go, I'd like for you to put your hands together and help me with this thing called freeze-dried soul, right here, like this.

Come on, I can't hear you.

There you go, mama, I see you.