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Louis Armstrong, Gene H. Anderson
Louis Armstrong, Gene H. Anderson
Music Faculty Publications
Despite his lifelong claim of 4 July 1900 as his birthday, Armstrong was actually born on 4 August 1901 as recorded on a baptismal certificate discovered after his death. Although calling himself “Louis Daniel Armstrong” in his 1954 autobiography, he denied knowledge of his middle name or its origin. Nevertheless, evidence of “Daniel” being a family name is strong: Armstrong's paternal great-great-grandfather, a third generation slave brought from Tidewater Virginia for sale in New Orleans in 1818, was named Daniel Walker, as was his son, Armstrong's great-grandfather. The latter's wife, Catherine Walker, sponsored her great-grandson's baptism at the family's home …
David Esleck Trio, Department Of Music, University Of Richmond
David Esleck Trio, Department Of Music, University Of Richmond
Music Department Concert Programs
No abstract provided.
The Origin Of Armstrong's Hot Fives And Hot Sevens, Gene H. Anderson
The Origin Of Armstrong's Hot Fives And Hot Sevens, Gene H. Anderson
Music Faculty Publications
It has been almost fifty years since Louis Armstrong's Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings of 1925-1928 were first recognized in print as a watershed of jazz history and the means by which the trumpeter emerged as the style's first transcendent figure. Since then these views have only intensified. The Hot Fives and Hot Sevens have come to be regarded as harbingers of all jazz since, with Armstrong's status as the “single most creative and innovative force in jazz history” and an “American genius” now well beyond dispute. This study does not question these claims but seeks, rather, to determine …
Stride! Fats, Jimmy, Lion, Lamb, And All The Other Ticklers By John L. Fell And Terkild Vinding, Giant Strides: The Legacy Of Dick Wellstood By Edward Meyer (Book Reviews), Gene H. Anderson
Music Faculty Publications
As their titles suggest, these books focus on stride pianists rather than on the style itself. Well researched and written by experienced jazz enthusiasts, the books approach their subject from opposite points of view. Stride! provides a brief survey of the idiom followed by biographical sketches of players identified or associated with stride; Giant Strides recounts the life of a player who concluded the stride legacy.
On The Jazz Musician's Love/Hate Relationship With The Audience, Bertram D. Ashe
On The Jazz Musician's Love/Hate Relationship With The Audience, Bertram D. Ashe
English Faculty Publications
An assistant professor of English at the College of the Holy Cross, Bertram D. Ashe discusses how the intersection of an African American cool style with a black vernacular tradition and multi-racial audiences complicates audience-performer relations. In the vernacular tradition, performers play not "to" but "with" an audience, drawing on the call-response patterns that characterize the black aesthetic. Ashe notes that the vernacular tradition is not racial but cultural, and class can be as important a marker as race in determining audience expectations. Differing cultural backgrounds create, in Ashe's words, "competing realities," distinct sets of expectations that can shape a …
From Jazz To Swing: African-American Jazz Musicians And Their Music, 1890-1935 By Thomas Hennessey (Book Review), Gene H. Anderson
From Jazz To Swing: African-American Jazz Musicians And Their Music, 1890-1935 By Thomas Hennessey (Book Review), Gene H. Anderson
Music Faculty Publications
According to Hennessey, the purpose of the present text, an extension of his dissertation, "From Jazz Age to Swing: Black Musicians and Their Music, 1917-1935" (Ph.D. diss., Northwestern University, 1973), is to trace the interaction between the enormous sociological changes in America and the music of African American musicians from the origin of jazz to the beginning of the swing era. He claims that "the transformation of jazz from a primarily local music rooted in black folk traditions to the tightly managed product of a national industry controlled by white businessmen and aimed at a predominantly white mass market paralleled …
Blues For You Johnny: Johnny Dodds And His "Wild Man Blues" Recordings Of 1927 And 1938, Gene H. Anderson
Blues For You Johnny: Johnny Dodds And His "Wild Man Blues" Recordings Of 1927 And 1938, Gene H. Anderson
Music Faculty Publications
Shortly after Johnny Dodd's death Sidney Bechet invited Johnny's brother to join his New Orleans Feetwarmers in a recording honoring Bechet's hometown musical colleague and lifelong friend. Although Baby Dodds pronounced "Blues for You, Johnny," recorded in Chicago on September 6, 1940, a "fine tribute," Down Beat found vocalist Herb Jeffries "from hunger on blues." A more fitting memorial would have been "Wild Man Blues" cut by Bechet a few months previously. Said to be his favorite number, "Wild Man Blues" was recorded by Dodds three times in 1927 and once again in 1938. This study examines Johnny Dodds's style …
The Genesis Of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Gene H. Anderson
The Genesis Of King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band, Gene H. Anderson
Music Faculty Publications
Although far from overlooked by jazz writers, the origins of Oliver's Creole Band remain confused and obscure. This article attempts to clarify the Creole Band's lineage by collating and interpreting relevant material from oral histories, newspapers, census records, photographs, and other primary sources. To the extent that there may exist undiscovered and unexamined documents, these findings must remain incomplete and should be considered a report in progress.