This is the second in a five-part series covering the unique and very productive career of Duke Ellington. Ellington was 30 when 1930 began and
Songs are hits, today, because so many people hear them. Songs used to be hits because so many people played and sang them. But in
Few serious scholars believe that famous boast, made by the notoriously braggadocious Jelly Roll Morton, in which he claims to have single-handedly invented jazz. But
Introduction Recently written ragtime compositions, as a rule, do not attract much attention from the majority of ragtime aficionados nor the general public. However, as
Duke Ellington’s accomplishments, innovations, and sheer productivity as a bandleader, pianist, arranger and composer were so vast that one or two articles cannot do justice
It has been said that when Count Basie played full, two-handed stride with his later bands, some of his younger musicians would say “Yeah! I
Introduction Blues singer Gertrude “Ma” Rainey (née Pridgett) was born on April 26, 1886, in Columbus, Georgia, and died there on December 22, 1939.1 Advertising
The seductive musical art form from Brazil known as bossa nova took up residence in Barcelona for the first week of September, as the Sant
With a crystalline voice inspired by none other than Ella Fitzgerald, London jazz singer Cherise Adams-Burnett makes a spectacular film debut fronting a hot combo
After 52 years of playing and promoting traditional jazz around the world, the curtain finally came down on the Natural Gas Jazz Band at a
On April 30, 2022, we mourned the loss of Jim Maihack—one of the best traditional jazz performers of recent times. Jim was also one of
One morning not long ago, I’d awakened to the sound of music. It wasn’t from the neighbor’s all-rock radio station. It wasn’t my son Andrew
“Novelty Piano Music” is a sub-genre of ragtime music. It slowly started to develop in the late 1910s, but reached its zenith in the 1920s.
Working with the late Richard “Butch” Thompson was always a memorable experience. The Butch Thompson Trio—with himself on piano, bassist Bill Evans and drummer George
Great music, good conversation, delicious food plus total relaxation awaited us for our 4th year at Ascona in Southern Switzerland. After the covid-induced hiatus, the
Arnett T. Nelson was born March 3, 1892, in Ellisville, Mississippi, and grew up in Laurel, Mississippi (142 miles northeast of New Orleans, LA). According
A little-known fact in the Billie Holiday death saga is that jazz singer Adelaide Hall made a personal visit to Billie’s bedside at the Metropolitan
If there’s one thing my Sherrie Tucker-inspired scribblings—to which I collectively refer as “my forgotten ladies”—have revealed, it’s that behind many of history’s greatest jazzmen
“I submit that there is nothing that anybody in the world has ever done that is more civilized or sophisticated than to dance elegantly, which
In 1966, while visiting a friend in San Diego, our conversation turned to my obsession with traditional jazz. My friend said, “I think my dad
Whenever some new discovery of historical interest is made, it always fascinates me to think that the newly uncovered thing was really there all along.
While there’s a special place in cinematic hell reserved for characters portrayed as trumpet players (“The Trumpeter’s Cinematic Curse,” TST, August 2019), the perennial theme
While any article about music should have the music as its primary focus, the attempt herein is, in addition, to provide a background and cultural
In the music business, it is easy to focus on the negative: problematic gigs, cancellations, difficulty getting paid and of course the ever-present “Musical Politics.”
