Barry Dean Kernfeld (born August 11, 1950) is an American musicologist and jazz saxophonist who has researched and published extensively about the history of jazz and the biographies of its musicians.
[1] In 1968, Kernfeld enrolled at University of California, Berkeley; then, from April 1970 to September 1972, he focused on being a professional saxophonist.
In October 1972, Kernfeld enrolled at the University of California, Davis, where, in 1975, he earned a Bachelor of Arts in musicology.
[2][3] In 2005, Kernfeld initiated a long-term project, transcribing and editing the contents of the Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program.
In 2012, he taught a writing course at Penn State, "American Jazz Masters in their Own Words."