Woody Guthrie - About Woody Guthrie | American Masters. He was born in Okemah, Oklahoma, on July 14, 1912, 12 days after the Democrats nominated his namesake for the presidency of the United States. Woodrow Wilson Guthrie — “Woody” almost immediately — was Charley Guthrie’s son and like his father ever the optimist. He was Nora’s son too, hers the gift of old songs, and a dreadful fear he would inherit her madness. Together they raised Woody, his two brothers and two sisters in a middle-class, foredoomed home the neighbors judged one of the finest in that farming community turned oil boom town. Life in Okemah might have been comfortable, with cotton prices up and beef down, but for the fires. Fire was to dog Woody, boy and man. A kerosene lamp shattered – the OKEMAH LEDGER reported it as an accident, while folks in town whispered otherwise – and flames consumed his beloved older sister Clara, the one who called him “Woodblock,” when the boy was just months shy of his seventh birthday.
There were other fires, unexplained. Independent Lens . STRANGE FRUIT . The Film. STRANGE FRUIT explores the history and legacy of a song unique in the annals of American music. Best-known from Billie Holiday's haunting 1939 rendition, the song "Strange Fruit" is a harrowing portrayal of the lynching of a black man in the American South. The film tells a dramatic story of America's past by using one of the most influential protest songs ever written as its epicenter. The saga brings us face-to-face with the terror of lynching as it spotlights the courage and heroism of those who fought for racial justice when to do so was to risk ostracism and livelihood if white - and death if black. It examines the history of lynching, and the interplay of race, labor, the Left and popular culture that would give rise to the civil rights movement.
While many people assume that the song "Strange Fruit" was written by Holiday herself, it actually began as a poem by Abel Meeropol, a Jewish schoolteacher and union activist from the Bronx who later set it to music. Milt Hinton: The Ultimate Timekeeper. Hide captionBassist Milt Hinton provided the rhythmic foundation for many jazz greats with his buoyant tempos and fat booming sound. Metronome/Hulton Archive / Getty Images Bassist Milt Hinton provided the rhythmic foundation for many jazz greats with his buoyant tempos and fat booming sound. For more than seventy years, Milt Hinton lit up the bandstand with his warm personality while laying down infectious, rhythmic bass lines.
Those who played with Hinton affectionately referred to him as "the Judge," because he was considered the ultimate timekeeper. As trumpeter Clark Terry once put it, "When you work with the Judge, you know you're gonna get some time. " Hinton provided the rhythmic foundation for many of jazz's greatest artists, including Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie, Count Basie and Cab Calloway. Starting in the 1950's, Hinton became the most recorded bassist in New York City. Hinton solidified his reputation during 16 years with Calloway's band. Click here to view the playlist. Billie Holiday: 'Lady Sings the Blues' Hide captionBillie Holiday, early 1950s.
Hulton Archive/Getty Images Billie Holiday, early 1950s. A musician's musician with a radiant voice, an impeccable sense of time and subtle, often ironic delivery, Billie Holiday was the premier song stylist of the 20th century. Although the tragic myth of her life often precedes her, Lady Day endures, first and foremost, in the songs that are her ultimate legacy. Born in Baltimore, Md., on April 7, 1915, Holiday had an affinity for jazz from childhood. Her father, Clarence, was a rhythm guitarist for Fletcher Henderson's Orchestra, and Holiday recalls "many a wonderful hour" spent listening and singing along to Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith on the Victrola at a local whorehouse. While still a teenager, Holiday moved to New York City and got gigs in all of Harlem's clubs, including the notoriously critical Apollo theater.
With Basie's band, Holiday was a national sensation — a "rhythm" singer who could make dancers jump. Billie Holiday - About the Singer | American Masters. Considered by many to be the greatest jazz vocalist of all time, Billie Holiday lived a tempestuous and difficult life. Her singing expressed an incredible depth of emotion that spoke of hard times and injustice as well as triumph. Though her career was relatively short and often erratic, she left behind a body of work as great as any vocalist before or since.
Born Eleanora Fagan in 1915, Billie Holiday spent much of her young life in Baltimore, Maryland. Raised primarily by her mother, Holiday had only a tenuous connection with her father, who was a jazz guitarist in Fletcher Henderson’s band. Desperate for money, Holiday looked for work as a dancer at a Harlem speakeasy. With Hammond’s support, Holiday spent much of the 1930s working with a range of great jazz musicians, including Benny Goodman, Teddy Wilson, Duke Ellington, Ben Webster, and most importantly, the saxophonist Lester Young. Duke Ellington: The Composer, Pt. 2. Hide captionDuke Ellington's compositions present a timeless contribution to American music's legacy. Victor Drees//Evening Standard/Getty Images Duke Ellington's compositions present a timeless contribution to American music's legacy.
Duke Ellington saw writing music as his primary purpose in life, and he took a complex, multi-layered and strikingly original approach to composing. His creative work consumed him around the clock, and Ellington's musical legacy became a timeless contribution to American music. Few individuals had first-hand knowledge of Ellington's methods and process, but Ellington drummer Louis Bellson and composer Gunther Schuller both witnessed Ellington in the process of composing.
They shared similar recollections of Duke's inexhaustible quest to discover new musical ideas, as he experimented at his piano through the night. Ellington's orchestra was more than a vehicle for practicing and performing new compositions. Eubie Blake, 1883-1983 [biography]:Biography Brief Display: Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress.
Portrait of Eubie Blake (n.d.). Performing Arts Reading Room, Library of Congress. Eubie Blake was one of the most important figures in early-20th-century African-American music, and one whose longevity made him a storehouse of the history of ragtime and early jazz music and culture. Born in Baltimore in 1883, Blake began playing piano professionally when he was 16; he wrote his first composition, "Sounds of Africa," (later retitled "Charleston Rag") around the same time. His career did not really take off until he met Noble Sissle in 1915. Together, Blake and Sissle wrote many hits. Blake also collaborated with Andy Razaf (on "Memories of You"), Henry Creamer, and other writers, composing more than 350 songs. Blake, Sissle, and Europe began collaborating on the musical Shuffle Along in 1916, but were interrupted by World War I and Sissle and Europe's military service overseas.
Shuffle Along was the musical sensation of 1921--guaranteeing Blake his place in music history. Duke Ellington & his Cotton Club Band - Old Man Blues (1930) Check and Double Check