Trumpeter, impresario, writer, and jazz advocate and historian, Jack McCray, was a native of Charleston, SC.
McCray was born in 1955 in the Ansonborough neighborhood of Charleston during the Jim Crow era. His parents bought an old upright piano to nurture his love of music, but he soon traded the keys for a horn.
After attending Claflin College, and Shaw and Central Michigan universities, McCray returned to the lowcountry during the height of the Civil Rights movement to help create jazz scene.
In 2003, he played a key role in establishing the Charleston Jazz Initiative to promote and document jazz history unique to South Carolina. The Initiative has archived thousands of images, documents, and recordings to preserve and support the future of this music.
Jack McCray left the jazz world too soon at age 64 in 2019.
This has been Rapp on Jazz, a co-production of the ColaJazz Foundation and SC Public Radio. Support for this program is made possible in part by Fox Music House of Columbia and Charleston.