#jazzhistory

[projazznet]

[nicks-lunchbox-service]

2.10.23 Lunchtime drawing: I’ve been listening to a lot of jazz recently, especially recordings by Rudy van Gelder who had a studio in New Jersey just over the GW Bridge, so here’s a super quick sketch of the Village Vanguard in it’s environment on 7th Ave. A while back I made a painting of its neon sign.

[echoneybee]

Fusion Factor

#MilesDavis' "Kind of Blue" revolutionized improvisational jazz and forever transformed #jazzmusic listening.

[1001penguinjazz]

1001: The Original Dixieland Jazz Band

Apparently the first recorded jazz that became popular. This album is a series of recordings made through the years 1917-1921 and that couldn't be a truer reflection of the sound. This album is time travel at it's finest. You get a real sense of how it must have felt in that time to hear this music for the first time through one of these recordings.

I have appreciation for this in the grand scope of jazz history, but after two songs I wanted to poke my finger through my eye to my brain and swish it around a little so that I could feel a different kind of pain. My personal tastes reflect a very small window for listening to this specific album and this specific sound.

noteworthy tracks: Livery Stable Blues, Tiger Rag, Bow Wow Blues (My Mama Treats Me Like A Dog)

[f0restpunk]

"Given that its notability rides on the presence of these two titans, both are in short supply. You don’t hear a lot from either Baker or Davis, who seems to be unsure of how to fit together, circling one another like two prize fighters looking for their jabs." i do my best Downbeat 1962 impersonation on my review of Chet Baker's Live In Bologna, 1962 featuring Miles Davis. Click the Link In Bio to read the full review. . . . . . #ChetBaker #LiveInBologna1962 #Jazz #CoolJazz #WestCoastJazz #MilesDavis #ReneThomas #KarlTheodorGeier #GeorgeGruntz #JazzMusic #JazzHistory #MusicHistory #60sMusic #1962 #LiveJazz #Bologna #Italy #ItalianMusic #BolognaItaly #LiveRecordings #albumreview #JSimpson #musicjournalism #SpectrumCulture  https://www.instagram.com/p/CovZoYaPg2o/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[jazzanews]

John Coltrane, Paul Chambers, Red Garland, Miles Davis, Philly Joe Jones, and Jimmy Witherspoon (Looks like a first-rate Christmas party, little information about this photo) #JohnColtrane #PaulChambers #RedGarland #MilesDavis #PhillyJoeJones #JimmyWitherspoon #Christmasparty #jazz #jazzphoto #jazzhistory #musicphoto

[homegrown-kc]

Happy Birthday Charlie "Yardbird" Parker.

To learn about The Bird, listen to Jazz from Series 1 available wherever you listen to Podcasts.

New series focused on Jazz musicians, including Parker, Moten, and Basie, coming soon.

Homegrown KC is a podcast dedicated to exploring Kansas City's fascinating history and sharing stories from its rich past. It is available wherever podcasts can be found including but not limited to Audible, Amazon Music, Google Music, Pandora, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

To become a patron supporter subscribe to redcircle.com/homegrownkc or patreon.com/homegrownkc. Subscribers get access to exclusive bonus episodes featuring other local historians, archivits, and museum professionals. They also receive an item from the merchandise store valued at 5$ or less, and a shout out on every episode and social media post. Or you can give a one time donation at redcircle.com/homegrownkc or Ko-fi.com/homegrownkc. All donors will receive a shout out. And 1% of all Ko-Fi donations will go to fight climate change.

To see what merchandise is available, go to zazzle.com/store/homegrown_kc_store.

For more information on each topic, visit my website: homegrownkc.wordpress.com. and sign up for my monthly newsletter on my website as well.

Like, follow, and subscribe to the show on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Tumblr, and Youtube.

Rate and Review the show where you listen, especially on Apple Podcasts.

Thank you Bjorn, Joan, and Thomas for your support. Thanks also goes to Sarah McCombs for the creation of my logo; the Dear Misses for use of their song Kansas City, as the intro and outer music of the show; to local libraries; and to all my wonderful listeners.

Cheers!

#homegrownkc #communityhistory #stateandlocalhistory #kchistory #kcproud #historypodcast #podcastersofinstagram #jazz #kcjazz #jazzhistory #musichistory #benniemoten #countbasie #charlieparker #yardbird

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[trascapades]

🎼🖤#ArtIsAWeapon

In celebration of #BlackHistoryMonth, #BlackMusic and the 60th Anniversary of Amiri Baraka's revolutionary book "Blues People," the @apollotheater presents "The Blues and Its People" Saturday, February 18!Tickets and info:

Reposted from @apollotheater “Where the music goes, that’s where the people go. The music reflects the people.” – #AmiriBaraka

From field hollers to gospel to the blues and jazz, the evolution of the Black experience in America can be traced through the evolution of Black music.

Amiri Baraka explored these parallels in his book “Blues People”. In honor of the work’s 60th anniversary, we’re thrilled to present an immersive evening of original music featuring composer/trumpeter #RussellGunn @russellgunn and his Royal Krunk Jazz Orkestra, vocalist #JazzmeiaHorn @artistryofjazzhorn, drummer #WeedieBraimah @weediebraimah, poet #jessicaCaremoore @jessicacaremoor, and more in a 24-piece ensemble!

Celebrate the expanse of Black creativity at “The Blues and Its People” for one night only on The Apollo stage. bit.ly/Apollo_BluesPeople

#Harlem #apollotheater #jazzhistory #amiribaraka #blueshistory #jazz #BluesPeople #blackartsmovement

#RoyalKrunkJazzOrkestra

[violavermillion1919]

The second book in my Viola Vermillion Vaudeville trilogy is set in NOLA in April 1919.

JAZZOLA SIX!

#jazz #nolajazz #jazzhistory #jass #letsdance

The former Knights of Columbus Hall was a neo-classical building at 836 Carondelet Street. Images: 1) 1911 postcard exterior view. 2) 1918 interior when it was used as a temporary hospital during the Great Influenza Pandemic. 3) 1922 flyer for dance held there by Loyola Law School students. The "Jazzola" band was led by trumpeter Johnny Bayersdorffer.

[thecoparoom]

Jazz LEGENDS on NYE in NYC, 1961

The Village Voice - Dec 28, 1961

[spiritualjazzz]

Sounds Of Blackness

[projazznet]

John Frigo (bass), Lurlean Hunter and Johnny Griffin (sax) on the corner of Michigan and Chicago Avenues. (Photo by Ted Williams) @3rd Street Jazz

[jazzmusicbox]

In 1950, pianist Hazel Scott hosted her own network show, The Hazel Scott Show. For 45 minutes every week, she played piano and interacted with her audience. It was the first TV show ever to be hosted by an African American, and it received outstanding ratings. Later that year, right-wing journal Red Channels put out a list of actors, musicians and others in entertainment industry suspected of being Communist sympathisers. The list included Leonard Bernstein, Orson Welles and Hazel Scott. She volunteered to testify before the House Un-American Activities and strongly criticised the blacklisting process. A week later, her talk show was cancelled and she moved to Paris. Here, she is performing "Takin' A Chance" in 1943. #jazz #jazzmusicbox #hazelscott #piano #jazzpiano #jazzarchives #jazzhistory #jazzvideo #jazzstandard #show #live #chance #leonardbernstein #orsonwelles #blacklivesmatter #music #musicvideo #legend #jazzlover #instagram #instamood #saturday #instagood #instamoment #paris #talkshow #performance #takinachance https://www.instagram.com/p/CUP09dQsSwW/?utm_medium=tumblr

[labellenouvelle]

NEW ORLEANS FATHERS OF JAZZ

A rare and original WWI New Orleans invitation card for the Grand Ball given by the Original Pullman Pleasure Club at the G0-Operative Hall.   Now look at the Music Band for the event !!  

The Famous Pettit & Duson Jazz Band , no other than  Buddie Petit and Frankie Duson ! If you are a Jazz collector you should recognize this names . The band in the picture is the Eagle Band .

The Eagle Band was a very important band in the history of Jazz. When Buddy Bolden went insane in 1907, Frankie Duson took over Buddy Bolden’s Band and renamed it the Eagle Band after the Eagle Saloon at Perdido and South Rampart Street in the Storyville district of New Orleans.

Band Picture:  The Eagle Band 1916. Left to Right: Big Eye Nelson, Chinee Foster, Frankie Dusen, Buddy Petit, Lorenzo Staulz, Dandy Lewis.

In 1917 Dusen, Buddy Petit and Wade Whaley went to Los Angeles to join Jelly Roll Morton at Baron Long’s night club in Watts. When they arrived Morton ridiculed them so much for their down home clothes and ways, that Dusen and Petit soon returned to New Orleans, angry and swearing to kill Morton if he ever returned to the city.

Wadley stayed on and went on to play with Kid Ory. Ironically, Morton’s verse about Dusen in his 1939 recording of Buddy Bolden’s Blues has given Dusen a touch of immortality, but it doesn’t paint a very flattering picture of him. The lyrics are as follows:

Thought I heard Frankie Dusen shout Gal give me the money or I’m gonna beat it out I mean the money like I explain you, I’m gonna beat it out Cause I heard Frankie Dusen say

Dusen started another band when he returned to the city. In 1918 he played with the band on the riverboat S.S. Capitol. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he played occasionally with Louis Dumaine’s Orchestra and he received money from the WPA during the Depression. Dusen never recorded and he died in poverty sometime around 1940.

Item No. E4983-65

Contact us for more details

504.581.3733 / t

info@labellenouvelle.com 

[f0restpunk]

of 2022. LOTS of jazz, LOTS of classical, old favourites and new releases. Continuing to try and hear as much of the best music ever recorded, towards the goal of being the best music journalist, critic, musicologist and music historian i can be. Worth noting, a big chunk of these are the albums i reviewed in 2022, as evidence of "why music journalism/criticism matters", as i listen to the albums i review over and over and over again. Happy New Years to you all! See anything you like on this list? What were some albums you particularly dug in 2022? And any special requests for albums i should write about in 2023? . . . . . #charts #top100 #2022music #jazz #jazzhistory #musichistory #musicology #classicalmusic #indie #indierock #hauntology #hauntologist #cooljazz #westcoastjazz #benwebster #broadcast #blackoxorkestar #davidbowie #divinesymmetry #low #charlieparker #johncoltrane #johnfahey #bebop #ambientmusic #cranes #jsimpson #albumreviews #musicjournalism #musiccriticism https://www.instagram.com/p/Cm41hqKvw43/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[laconservancy]

The People and Places Behind L.A.’s Jazz Story

(“Hollywood Jazz — 1945-1972" by Richard Wyatt Jr.)

By Carley Michelle Hildebrand

Charles Mingus, Nat “King” Cole, Frank Sinatra, and Ornette Coleman lived here. Billie Holiday, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, and Dave Brubeck recorded here. Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Charlie Parker jammed here. But most importantly, a crucial chapter in jazz history played out here.  

While cities like New Orleans and New York City are where jazz music was born and bred, Los Angeles was the beating heart of the West Coast Jazz scene. From the late 1920s to the 1950s not only was L.A.’s jazz scene influential to the art of jazz itself, it brought pride and power to L.A.’s Black community.

The epicenter of it all was the historic Central Avenue corridor, from Little Tokyo to Watts, with some jazz joints springing up as far away as Hollywood. Central Avenue was the economic and social center of a segregated Black community. A cultural mecca, the scene was constant and electric. As the only integrated section of L.A., people of all races and classes—from blue-collar workers to Hollywood stars—mingled together to watch, to dance, to drink, and...to listen.

For #InternationalJazzDay, get ready to cut a rug while we take you on a tour of some key killer diller locations that played an important role in jazz history, from swinging Central Avenue to swanky Old Hollywood. You dig?

The Dunbar Hotel

4225 S Central Avenue Los Angeles

Any trip through L.A.’s jazz history must start at the Dunbar Hotel. Originally built as the Hotel Somerville, the Dunbar played a key role in L.A.’s Black community for decades. Doctor John Somerville built the hotel for the first West Coast convention of the NAACP in 1928 and it provided first-class accommodations for African Americans in a segregated Los Angeles. At the heart of the Central Avenue jazz scene, many prominent jazz musicians stayed or performed there, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and Bessie Smith. Other notable guests included Bill “Bojangles” Robinson, Hern Jefferies, Langston Hughes, Joe Louis, Arthur B. Spingarn, and W. E. B. Du Bois. As the epicenter of Black L.A.’s social and cultural life, a number of jazz clubs and theaters sprang up along Central Avenue and the district began to flourish as a popular nightlife destination.  

After a herculean restoration, today the Dunbar Hotel provides affordable housing for seniors and offers a beautiful gathering space for the community. (More recently, the Dunbar also made a cameo appearance in 2019’s My Name is Dolemite.)

Club Alabam

4215 Central Avenue

Perhaps the most famous club along Central Avenue was Club Alabam, known as the “Finest Harlem Cafe in America.” Hints of the Ambassador Hotel’s Cocoanut Grove (which was segregated at the time) could be seen with its rich furnishings and interior palm trees. Saxophonist Art Pepper recalled that “the bandstand was plush and gorgeous with curtains that glistened.” Club Alabam, which had an integrated audience like all of the clubs along the corridor, became the center of L.A.’s jazz scene boasting some of the finest jazz artists in the country. At its most glorious, wrote jazz historian Steven Isoardi, it was kind of a shining star, the premier spot on the Avenue.

Club Alabam may have been the star, but its neighbors were also just as popular: the Downbeat at 4201 S Central Avenue was a major hot spot and, at one point, was home to an all-star jazz band that included L.A. native, the legendary Charles Mingus. Further along, the Elks Hall at 4016 S Central Avenue was said to have been the biggest Black-owned building in Los Angeles. Able to fit from five to six hundred people, it had three floors, which offered flexibility for a wide variety of acts and events.  

The Lincoln Theatre

2300 Central Avenue

Opened in 1927, the Lincoln Theater was the largest of five theaters along the Central Avenue corridor that provided entertainment to the Black community. While the 1920s boasted the era of the grand movie palaces on Broadway, African Americans were segregated if allowed at all. The Lincoln, built between 1926 and 1927, was the first theatre built by African Americans for African Americans and was easily the most important. A beautiful example of Moorish Revival Architecture, the California Eagle called it, “the finest and most beautiful theater in the country built exclusively for race patronage.” 

The Lincoln was a key venue in jazz history, and its stage welcomed icons like Lionel Hampton and Duke Ellington, Sammy Davis Jr. and so many more. It’s listed in the National and California Registers.

Ivie Anderson Residence

724 E. 52nd Place, South Los Angeles

“It Don’t Mean a Thing (if it ain’t got that swing)” was the battle cry of the swing era, and Ivie Anderson’s vocals on the 1932 Duke Ellington recording is nothing less than iconic. Anderson hailed from Gilroy, but called Los Angeles home for much of her life and lived at 724 E. 52nd Place from 1930 to 1945. During this time Anderson toured heavily with Ellington’s band, whom she sang with for a decade. 

(You can even watch her with Duke’s band in the classic Marx Brothers film A Day at the Races, where she performs “All God's Chillun Got Rhythm.”) Anderson’s former home is listed in both the national and state historic registers as a contributor to the 52nd Place Historic District, which is also an HPOZ.

The Tiffany Club

3260 West 8th Street, Los Angeles

You’d never guess as you speed past the low-rise market at West 8th Street and Normandie Avenue that a litany of jazz greats once played there in the 1950s. Dave Brubeck, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Helen Forrest, Nat King Cole—the list goes on and on. (Chet Baker and Stan Getz’s set was recorded and definitely worth a listen.)  

In 1952, the great Louis Armstrong headlined the club with an all-star band that included Earl “Fatha” Hines and Jack Teagarden. It was an integrated audience, as you can see in this famous photo taken in 1954 of Ella Fitzgerald and Marilyn Monroe at the Tiffany. Monroe was a huge fan of Fitzgerald and the two women became friends. Monroe actively promoted Ella by attending her performances, which guaranteed press coverage.

Thomas Jefferson High School

1319 E 41st Street, Los Angeles

Not all jazz greats hailed from the East Coast. Many were born right here in Los Angeles. Most notable, Charles Mingus and Buddy Collette, who both attended Jordan High School in Watts. (Mingus, in fact, grew up steps from the Watts Towers and often saw Simon Rodia as he worked on building his menagerie of glass and scraps.) But it is Thomas Jefferson High School in South Los Angeles that nurtured the talent for the largest number of future jazz artists.

Dexter Gordon and Don Cherry are perhaps its most famous graduates, but for many the real star was teacher Samuel R. Browne: the first Black music teacher in the Los Angeles public school system. After receiving advanced degrees from USC in music and education, he eventually took a job at Jefferson High School where, in 1936, he became the first Black teacher to integrate the school. He often accompanied his students to Central Avenue jazz clubs and, as part of their music education, took them to rehearsals where at any given time they’d see Lionel Hampton, Stan Kenton, or Duke Ellington at work. He’d also bring talent to the classroom—stars like Nat “King” Cole and Jimmie Lunceford—for recitals and master class seminars.

The Hollywood Bowl

2301 N Highland Ave, Los Angeles

The enduring, much beloved L.A. icon has long been a friend to jazz musicians...even when the critics weren’t. (When Frank Sinatra made his Bowl debut in 1943 to sellout crowd of Bobby Soxers, the Times sneered about swing: “is it possible that there is no alternative in this country?”) In 1954, Louis Armstrong performed "The Whippenproof Song" on The Colgate Comedy Hour which became the first ever live telecast from the Bowl. Two years later, the Bowl hosted the jazz event of the decade: an all-star concert Jazz at the Hollywood Bowl. With Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald headlining, the concert was an extraordinary who’s-who of jazz greats, among them Oscar Peterson, Roy Eldridge, Buddy Rich, and Art Tatum.

It’s hardly surprising that the Playboy Jazz Festival has called the Bowl home since 1979, making it one of the longest-running jazz festivals around.

The It Club

4731 W. Washington Boulevard

The It Club (which was across the street from today’s Nate Holden Performing Arts Center) was owned by John T. McClain, a man who would go on to become an executive and huge force in the L.A. as one of the most powerful figures in the world of Black music. McClain’s father rubbed shoulders with ganger “Bugsy” Siegel and his mother, an accomplished pianist, appeared with Lena Horne in Hollywood during the ‘40s.

During the 1950s and ‘60s, it was common to see huge jazz stars play the It Club. Miles Davis and John Coltrane were returning guests, and jazz legend Thelonious Monk recorded here in 1964, resulting in the album “Live at the It Club.”  

The Parker Room and Billy Berg’s

1358 Vine Street, Hollywood

The Parker Room, which recently closed, opened in 2017 to pay homage to its famous history. During its heyday in the 1940s, Billy Berg’s was one of the hottest jazz joints in L.A. and the country. Its claim to fame was being the site of Charlie Parker’s first West Coast engagement. (Hence the name “The Parker Room.”) In 1949, Billie Holiday threw an extravagant New Year's Party in the club.

But Billy Berg’s is also emblematic of a change in the L.A. jazz scene. In postwar L.A., Black musicians were making inroads at previously all-white clubs and theaters in places like Hollywood and downtown L.A. Jewish impresario Billy Berg became a prominent player in running integrated jazz joints. As KCET reports, in “less than twenty-five years, Berg came to own at least six different clubs in the Los Angeles area: Trouville, The Swing Club, Waldorf's Cellar, Club Capri, The 5-4 Ballroom and the most famous, Billy Berg's.”

Integrated Hollywood clubs also signaled a change in the tide. The scene on Central Avenue began to fade as white audiences no longer needed to head south to Central Avenue. Likewise, the desegregation of some jazz clubs in L.A. opened up more opportunities for Black musicians outside of Central Avenue.

Nat “King” Cole Residence

423 S. Muirfield Road, Hancock Park

Nat “King” Cole was among the many jazz musicians who “jumped ship” in L.A. while on tour, choosing the city as home. Despite being one of the most successful and popular entertainers of the 20th century, Cole and his family still faced racism. Discriminatory housing covenants enforced by homeowners’ associations across L.A. made his celebrity status irrelevant. In 1948, when Cole and his family purchased this $85,000 property, they were the first Black family to move into exclusively white Hancock Park.

The Cole’s were met with an affidavit by an angry group of white homeowners claiming that 50-year-old covenants restricted homeownership to non-Caucasians. After they refused to move, an ambitious plan to oust them was launched, including threats to his family and their real estate agent. But the law was against the homeowners’ association: that very year, the Supreme Court Decision of Shelley v. Kraemer had deemed restrictive covenants unconstitutional.

The Cole family would continue to endure intimidating acts of overt racism from the neighborhood over the years, but they loved their home and weathered the storms. Cole would live here until his untimely passing in 1965 and in 2003, Hancock Park —an HPOZ—dedicated the post office at 265 South Western Avenue in his honor.

Capitol Records

1750 Vine Street, Hollywood

And any tour of L.A. jazz history wouldn’t be complete without a stop at the iconic Capitol Records building in Hollywood. The Capitol Records label was home to such legends like Frank Sinatra and Nat King Cole, which is why the label's headquarters in Hollywood—a cherished Historic-Cultural Monument—proudly celebrates its connections to jazz history with its gorgeous mural “Hollywood Jazz — 1945-1972" on the south wall of the tower.

Created by legendary L.A.-based muralist Richard Wyatt, Jr. in 1990, the mural was commissioned at the request of the Los Angeles Jazz Society, and in 2013, it received a loving restoration from Capitol Records. An ode to titans of jazz music, the mural is also as beautiful as it is personal. “Nat King Cole’s widow [Maria] asked me if I would show him wearing his favorite tie,” Wyatt recalled in 2013.

** BONUS **

The Lighthouse Café 

30 Pier Avenue, Hermosa Beach

Because we probably wouldn’t hear the end of it otherwise ...

The last stop on our trek through Jazz Land is Hermosa Beach’s Lighthouse Cafe which figures prominently in Damien Chazelle’s La La Land (2016). Like it or loathe it, the film La La Land certainly did much to trigger interest not simply in L.A. locations, but the L.A. jazz scene. To its credit, the jazz club at the center of the film is an actual historic jazz club. The Lighthouse Café in Hermosa Beach has been in business since 1949, when an experimental Sunday jam session turned into a success. Over the decades, it welcomed greats like Miles Davis and Dizzy Gillespie, but dozens of West Coast jazz artists from Art Pepper to the Jazz Crusaders recorded here.

Thanks to the popularity of the film La La Land, The Light House Café remains a popular destination and is one of a handful of historic, legacy businesses still operating in L.A. that serve up jazz. Others include the Catalina Club, the Baked Potato, Herb Alpert’s Vibrato, and LACMA’s popular Friday night jazz series.