Biographical Information

 

Philip "Phil" Elwood was born on March 19, 1926, in Berkeley, California. His father was a professor of agriculture at the University of California, Berkeley (UCB). As a teenager, he was introduced to jazz music by photographer Dorothea Lange which prompted his lifelong love of the genre and the building of his large jazz record collection.

 

Elwood's love of jazz became a part of his career. From 1952-1996, Elwood had a weekly jazz program on Berkeley's KPFA radio station called Jazz Archives, making him among the first to broadcast jazz on FM radio. Alongside this program, in 1965, Elwood joined The San Francisco Examiner as a critic. He covered jazz, rock, blues, comedy, and cabaret shows, among others. He continued his career at the San Francisco Chronicle after the two papers merged in 2000 and retired in 2002. Following his retirement, he continued to write for the web site JazzWest.com. Over the course of his career, Elwood also wrote liner notes for several albums. Educated at UCB and at Stanford University, Elwood also shared his love of jazz with students as a teacher at Albany High School, Laney College and as part of the UCB Extension. Elwood was also actively involved in the jazz community, serving as Director of the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation and on the advisory board for the first Monterey Jazz Festival in 1958, an annual event still active as of the publication of this finding aid.

 

In 2002, he received the Beacon Award from the San Francisco Jazz Festival and was the subject of a tribute concert, A Salute to Phil Elwood.

 

A lifelong Berkeley resident, Elwood passed away from heart failure on January 10, 2006.