Len Kunstadt

Background

Len Kunstadt was born and raised in Brownsville, Brooklyn, New York City. He was the son of Morris Kunstadt, a violinist and chess master, and Sophie Sherry Kunstadt, a writer and assistant to band leader Edwin Franko Goldman.

Education

After serving in the United States. Air Force in World World War II, Lenny graduated from New York University and began his prolific study of jazz and blues music

Career

Also known as “Kazoo Papa," Len Kunstadt was the editor and publisher of Record Research magazine, which he founded in the late 1950s, devoted to documenting the recording sessions of historic jazz and blues recordings. Kunstadt continued as editor and publisher of the magazine until the year of his death. He also co-authored, with Sam Charters, Jazz - A History of the New York Scene.

He managed the label after her death in 1976.

He died in 1996, aged 70. Kunstadt"s papers and archival research were donated to the Institute of Jazz Studies at Rutgers University.

Achievements

• In 2001 he was posthumously awarded a Lifetime Achievement Award from the ARSC (Association for Recorded Sound Collections).

Membership

Kunstadt was also a charter member of Record Research Associates, a jazz collector and research organization which started in the 1940s in New York City and survived until the 1990s.