By Paul Goldfinger Editor Blogfinger.net
Symphony Sid (Sid Torin; 1909-1984) was a New Jersey/New York jazz disc jockey. He was the first to bring black jazz musicians onto the airwaves in this part of the country. His shows were late night and all night. I would hear him on my car radio when coming home from some college party, driving Eileen home, or playing a gig with my 4-5 person band.
He would talk to the audience and discuss the music. His voice was low and gravelly and, at that late hour, it was emotional and suggestive. I thought he was a black guy because he spoke like a jazz musician, but he wasn’t.
Later he introduced Latin jazz to the NY Metro. area via his station WEVD which was a politically liberal station that broadcast ethnic language shows (Spanish, Yiddish) and was very pro-union. Between Sid and Gene Shepherd, my friends and I were huge fans of late night radio.
Symphony Sid on the left with colleagues in NYC c. 1946
Sid had a theme song written about him which George Shearing turned into a hit (“Jumpin’ with Symphony Sid”) —“Make everything go real crazy over Jersey.”
Here is Annie Siegal from her Back in Blue album (2008) singing Sid’s song.