Jazz Appreciation Month
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Memphis Slim, blues singer, guitarist, and pianist
Memphis Slim was a blues pianist, singer, and composer and led a series of bands making over 500 recordings.
Jazz clubs in NYC
Jazz clubs are secular houses of worship, where audiences gather to witness musicians openly exhibit their emotions, skill, and life experiences.
Betty Roche, a blues and bebop stylist in the ’40s and ’50s
If by chance and good fortune you have heard one of the most popular versions of Duke Ellington’s “Take the A Train,” then you undoubtedly were enthralled by the voice of Betty Roche, and her marvelous interpretation of this classic.
Fats Navarro, a trumpet master and bebop pioneer
When your life, like that of the famed musician Fats Navarro, is over at 26 there’s hardly enough time to truly establish your promising genius. Reading Maxine Gordon’s deeply engrossing biography of her late husband, Dexter Gordon, Navarro is mentioned…
Savannah Churchill, a vocalist who merged R&B and jazz
While doing research on the life and legacy of percussionist Max Roach, I stumbled on the name of Savannah Churchill, a singer I first heard when I was about 10 years of age from my mother’s collection of shellac records.