Jane Jarvis was born Luella Jane Nossette in Vincennes, Indiana on October 31, 1915. She was a jazz pianist, who also performed as an organist for the New York Mets and worked as a programmer for Muzak. She played the organ for the Milwaukee Braves Baseball Team at County Stadium for eight years, before being hired by the New York Mets Baseball Team as organist at Shea Stadium in 1964. A year previous she gained employment with Muzak, where she rose to vice-president responsible for programming and recording. In that position, she hired and composed with Lionel Hampton, Clark Terry and other jazz musicians. Jane Jarvis ended her employment at Muzak in 1978 and the Mets organization a year later to focus on her career as a jazz pianist. In the 1980s she performed regularly at the West Village jazz club Zinno, where she often played alongside bassist Milt Hinton. She was a founding member of the Statesmen of Jazz, with whom she traveled abroad and recorded. Ms. Jarvis died at the Lillian Booth Actors Home in Englewood, New Jersey on January 25, 2010.
The bulk of the materials in the Jane Jarvis Papers, comprised of newspaper clippings, concert fliers and programs, arrangements for the play "Take Two" and other songs, are from the 1980s and 1990s. The oldest materials are scores from circa 1920 (box 2). The papers also include a 16 x 22 inch poster cardboard holding autographs of several musicians (Biltmore Hotel, November 18, 1975), a framed 28 x 20 inch poster of the First Biennial American Jazz Piano Competition, (Indianapolis, Indiana, 1992, autographed), a cassette tape entitled "The Piano of Jane Jarvis, To Hoagy With Love" (box 2), and a Thomas electronic organ, model Celebrity Royale A7181 (offsite), with accompanying manual (box 1).
This manuscript group is part of the International Jazz Collections-IJC.
Container list.
The collection is open to the public. Researchers must use the collection in accordance with the policies of the University of Idaho Special Collections and Archives.
Consult Head of Special Collections and Archives on permissions for use.
Jane Jarvis Papers, IJC MG 21, Special Collections and Archives, University of Idaho Library, Moscow, Idaho.
Gift, Jane Jarvis, November 2001 and January 2002.
Processed by student worker Aspen Groves in February 2013.
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