The award-winning Blair Big Band will open its 2026–27 season with a musical journey into Vanderbilt’s jazz archives as it celebrates the musical legacy of pianist, composer and arranger Mike Longo. Archive Grooves: The Music of Mike Longo will be presented Monday, September 28, at 7:30 p.m. in Ingram Hall and the performance is paired with a new Vanderbilt Libraries exhibition, Mike Longo and a Legacy in Jazz, featuring photographs, handwritten scores, recordings, posters and other materials from The Mike Longo Papers.
Longo was best known for his enduring musical partnership with legendary trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. The two first crossed paths at New York’s Metropole Cafe, where Longo was performing downstairs while Gillespie played in the room above. Their more consequential meeting came in 1966, when Gillespie heard Longo perform a full set at the Embers West and invited him to become his pianist.
Within three years, Longo had become music director and chief arranger for Gillespie’s band. Although he eventually left to pursue his own career, he continued working periodically with Gillespie until the trumpeter’s death in 1993.
Longo also shared close ties with saxophonist James Moody, another longtime Gillespie collaborator. After Gillespie’s death, Longo and Moody helped carry his legacy forward through performances of Dizzy: The Man and His Music.
“Mike viewed James as his brother and Dizzy as his teacher, so there was a strong relationship there,” said Kate Linton, a librarian at the Wilson Music Library.
The Blair Big Band concert will bring selections preserved in the Longo archive back to life.
“Much of what you’re going to hear at the concert comes directly from manuscripts we have in the collection,” said Vanderbilt Music Librarian Jacob Schaub, who helped process the collection alongside Julia Khait, archivist for media, music, and art. “It is music Longo wrote or arranged for the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble or his various other ensembles.”
Longo’s band made its debut at Birdland in 1999 and recorded several albums, including Oasis (2004), which provides much of the source material for the Blair program.
“One of the most exciting aspects of this project is seeing our students engage directly with archival materials and transform them into living music,” said Ryan Middagh, director of the Blair Big Band and jazz studies program. “Our special collections are meant to be explored, not simply preserved. The Mike Longo Papers provides a unique opportunity for undergraduate research, allowing students to work with primary source materials while also inspiring artistic expression through performance. By bringing these manuscripts from the archive to the stage, students gain a deeper understanding of jazz history and contribute to its ongoing legacy.”
Vanderbilt acquired the collection from Longo’s widow, Dorothy Longo, in February 2025. She and Linda Moody, widow of James Moody, will attend the Sept. 28 concert and post-concert reception.
“The Mike Longo Papers is an extraordinary addition to Vanderbilt’s jazz holdings, and we are deeply grateful to Dorothy Longo for entrusting these materials to our care,” said Holling Smith-Borne, director of the Ann Potter Wilson Music Library. “The collection documents not only Longo’s achievements as a pianist, composer, and educator, but also his relationships with artists such as Dizzy Gillespie, Beegie Adair, and James Moody. We are thrilled to share these materials through both the exhibition and the Blair Big Band performance.”
Since receiving the collection, archivists have processed an extensive body of scores, photographs, recordings, educational materials and personal memorabilia. The exhibition will offer glimpses of other chapters in his career, including his studies with pianist Oscar Peterson in Toronto and his friendship with Nashville jazz pianist Beegie Adair, whom he met while attending Western Kentucky University. Among the displayed materials is a manuscript Longo left on Adair’s piano; she later added lyrics to the composition.
The Longo materials complement Vanderbilt’s holdings in the John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie Collection, which includes photographs, posters, recordings and scrapbooks documenting Gillespie’s international travels. Together, the collections illuminate not only the work of two major jazz artists but also the close creative partnership they sustained for nearly three decades.
Mike Longo and a Legacy in Jazz will be on display September 1–November 30, with materials presented in the Ingram Hall lobby and in the second-floor gallery of Vanderbilt’s Central Library. A reception marking the exhibition and concert will follow the September 28 performance.
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The Blair Big Band | Archive Grooves: The Music of Mike Longo
Monday, Sept. 28, 2026, Ingram Hall, 7:30 p.m.
Tickets: $13.50 | Purchase Tickets