CO-HOST JIM CULLUM, JR., Bandleader, cornet
In the 1950s when everyone else his age was listening to Elvis Presley and Connie Francis, Jim Cullum locked onto the sounds of early jazz greats Louis Armstrong, Bix Beiderbecke, King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton.  At first he thought he might want to play trombone, but one day while helping his dad in the grocery business, Jim caught sight of an antique cornet in a store window and fell in love.

While attending Trinity University in San Antonio, Jim formed a seven-piece traditional jazz group, the Happy Jazz Band, with his father the late Jim Cullum, Sr., who had played professionally with Jack Teagarden and others in the 1940s.  In 1963, a group of San Antonio business leaders established The Landing, a jazz club on the San Antonio River Walk, as a showcase for the Happy Jazz Band. Under Jim Jr.'s direction the band evolved into a nationally-acclaimed professional company known as The Jim Cullum Jazz Band. Jim Cullum's lifelong passion has been researching, preserving and presenting jazz and popular song from the turn of the 20th century to the mid-1940s.

CO-HOST DAVID HOLT
David Holt is a four-time Grammy Award-winning musician and storyteller, the host of shows on public radio and television, and an historian devoted to traditional American music and storytelling. A native of Garland, Texas, Holt recalls growing up in a family of informal storytellers for whom storytelling was a natural part of family life. As co-host of Riverwalk Jazz, David tells the story of jazz in America, interviews jazz pioneers and today's leading figures of classic jazz. He is also host of public television's Folkways and can also be seen in the popular film, O Brother Where Art Thou.

RON HOCKETT, clarinet
Growing up in Evanston, Illinois, Ron Hockett began playing professionally with George Brunies, the Salty Dogs, Bobby Gordon and Eddie Davis while still in high school.  Also a member of the popular youth group, the Windjammers, Hockett took part in rehearsals that turned into jam sessions with visiting greats Bobby Hackett, Bud Freeman, and Jimmy McPartland.  While attending Princeton, Ron toured the Orient with the Dukes of Dixieland. From 1970 to 1999, he was the lead saxophonist and clarinet soloist in the "President's Own" U.S. Marine Band in Washington, D.C., performing throughout the U.S. and Europe, and making regular appearances at the White House. Ron Hockett took over clarinet duties in The Jim Cullum Jazz Band in May, 1999.

KENNY RUPP, trombone
Kenny Rupp's trombone style is reminiscent of Jack Teagarden, whom he acknowledges as a major influence. Rupp holds Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees from the Manhattan School of Music in New York. He had a long career in New York playing in symphony orchestras, chamber ensembles, Broadway pit bands and behind vocalists Frank Sinatra, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald, Lena Horne, Sarah Vaughn, and others. He also worked in the bands of Maynard Ferguson, Woody Herman, Thad Jones/Mel Lewis, Clark Terry and Vince Giordano's Nighthawks. Kenny Rupp took over trombone duties with The Jim Cullum Jazz Band in 2000.

JIM TURNER, piano
Born and raised in Los Angeles where he studied music with his father, the noted classical pianist and teacher Robert E. Turner, Jim Turner later studied jazz piano with Johnny Guarnieri and Dick Cary. Turner has also enjoyed a career as an award-winning producer of piano recordings. His producing credits include Teddy Wilson, George Shearing, Chick Corea, Oscar Peterson, Dick Hyman, Floyd Cramer and Steve Allen.

HOWARD ELKINS, banjo, guitar and vocals.
Jim Cullum first heard Howard Elkins playing in El Paso, Texas in 1978. Howard joined the band the next day and he has been holding down the guitar/banjo chair in the group ever since. Howard proved to be a rhythm guitarist par excellence and provides rock-solid time to the band's rhythm section. He is the composer of the Riverwalk Jazz theme, "Nightspell." Elkins plays a 1920s-vintage Epiphone archtop, four-string tenor guitar and a 1930s Gibson tenor banjo. When he's not working with the band, Howard enjoys tending his ten-acre pecan grove southwest of San Antonio.

RIC RAMIREZ, bass
Ric joined the band in March, 2010. He is a San Antonio native that has played professionally for 20 years. He is influenced by traditional bass players such as Milt Hinton, Pops Foster, Ray Brown and Bob Moore. Previously, Ric played bass for Texas "roots music" singer-songwriters such as Dale Watson, Jimmy Vaughn, Miss Leslie and Her Juke Jointers, Brennen Leigh, Tony Booth, Heather Myles and the Django Reinhardt-inspired band, Paris 49. Ric recorded a Grammy-award-winning CD with Los Super Seven, numerous CDs with Wayne Hancock and multiple CDs with Two Tons of Steel. He has appeared on the Grand Ole Opry, public radio's A Prairie Home Companion and public television's Austin City Limits. Ric says, "I have always admired and have been inspired by 'roots' jazz musicians like the Jim Cullum jazz band that have kept the traditional style and sound alive."

HAL SMITH drums
Hal took over the drum duties in The Jim Cullum Jazz Band on July 10, 2010. He is well-known internationally as a drummer, bandleader, writer, record producer and jazz historian. He serves on the board of governors of the George H. Buck, Jr. Jazz Foundation, and is the Special Projects Coordinator for the San Francisco Traditional Jazz Foundation. Hal has appeared with, among many others, Doc Cheatham, Wild Bill Davison, Billy Butterfield, Dick Wellstood, Turk Murphy, The Dukes of Dixieland, Ralph Sutton, Bud Freeman, Art Hodes, Marty Grosz, Ed Polcer, Vernel Bagneris, Orange Kellin, Tim Laughlin and Rebecca Kilgore. 

Hal's favorite drummers include Sid Catlett, Jo Jones, Dave Tough, Ben Pollack, Nick Fatool, Zutty Singleton, Vic Berton, Ray Bauduc, Gene Krupa, George Wettling and many others.

im Cullum says, "Hal Smith has the deepest understanding of the critical role drums play in a swinging jazz rhythm section and knows how to make it all come together for the best possible result."

Hal says: "For years I have hoped for an opportunity to play regularly with this great hot ensemble. And, I am delighted to be returning to live in my favorite state."

Michael Steinman says about Hal's playing: "I don't know what religion Hal Smith practices, and it would be rude of me to ask, but he works miracles when he plays. His rollicking beat makes any band sit up straight and play a thousand times better."