Chip Deffaa

Chip Deffaa is the author of fifteen published plays and eight published books. An expert on old-time show business, he has been “following his bliss” since he wrote his first report for school, at 10-page essay on George M. Cohan, at the age of nine. His other plays for Eldridge include Presenting Fanny Brice: The Original Funny Girl and George M. Cohan & Co. Deffaa has written eight books, including Swing Legacy, Voices of the Jazz Age, In the Mainstream, Traditionalists and Revivalists in Jazz, Jazz Veterans, F. Scott Fitzgerald: The Princeton Years (ed.), Blue Rhythms, and (with David Cassidy) C'Mon Get Happy. He has contributed chapters to the books Harlem Speaks and Roaring at One Hundred. For 18 years, Deffaa wrote for The New York Post, writing news, feature stories, and reviews dealing with jazz, cabaret, and theater. He was also a longtime writer for Entertainment Weekly magazine. Deffaa has written liner notes for many CD's, including those of such artists as Miles Davis, Benny Goodman, Ray Brown, Diane Schuur, Ruth Brown, Tito Puente, Dick Hyman, Randy Sandke, Scott Hamilton, and the Count Basie Orchestra. Deffaa has won an ASCAP/Deems Taylor Award, a New Jersey Press Association Award, and an IRNE Award (Independent Reviewers of New England). Deffaa is a member of the Stage Directors & Choreographers Society, the Dramatists Guild, ASCAP, NARAS, the F. Scott Fitzgerald Society, and the Drama Desk. Deffaa is a trustee of the Princeton Tiger magazine.