About Tom Reney

Tom Reney was a 13-year-old in 1966 when he first saw Duke Ellington in concert, an experience that resonated with his love for r&b and ignited his passion for jazz. He says that intensive listening to Ellington’s music not only gave him a deep appreciation for Ellingtonia, but for jazz from the ‘20’s to the present. Reney, whose radio career began in 1977, has been the producer and host of Jazz à la Mode on WFCR/New England Public Radio in Amherst, Massachusetts since 1984. The program broadcasts and audio streams on weeknights between 8 and 11 p.m.

Reney has written on jazz for Down Beat, The Boston Globe Magazine, the Daily Hampshire Gazette and various record labels. He served as the jazz and popular music editor for several publications of the Cambridge University Press, including The Cambridge Dictionary of American Biography. He lectures on jazz history at Amherst, Hampshire, Mt. Holyoke and Smith Colleges, and the University of Massachusetts.

Tom Reney joined the JazzTimes community on Jan 27, 2012