Video recording of interview with John Murphy, UNT professor of jazz studies. Murphy discusses his youth in Baltimore, Maryland, during the 1960s and 1970s including his music education at Baltimore County Public Schools, and the musical influence of the Left Bank Jazz Society; His experience as a UNT student in the jazz studies and music theory programs (1981-1986); playing saxophone in the One O’clock Lab Band and at venues around Denton; His research as an ethnomusicologist studying Cuban and Brazilian music and work as a professor at Western Illinois University (1992-2001) then the University of North Texas (2001-2020) where he served in faculty and administrative roles to further develop the jazz studies program and help preserve the program’s history.

The National Museum of the Pacific War presents an oral interview with Alan Pilot. Pilot joined the Army in January 1943 and received basic training at Camp Howze. He received further training in Louisiana for the European Theater and then in California for the Pacific Theater. In January he left for Camp Old Gold at La Havre, where he served as a combat medic, supporting Companies E, G, and H of the 343rd Infantry, 86th Division. His unit relieved the 8th Division and fought in Cologne, where he was stationed at the top of the cathedral while it was being shelled. In the Ruhr Pocket a defective shell landed 10 feet away from him. He recalls seeing 100,000 Germans surrender there. He describes the Bavarian people as friendly as he passed through Austria on VE Day. He was then sent to the Pacific as part of Operation Coronet. VJ Day came while he was still crossing the Pacific. He spent the last five months of his service in the Philippines at a quiet outpost while the rest of his unit prepared the Philippines for independence. Pilot returned home and was discharged in January 1946.