by Britt Ryan | Oct 22, 2020 | Today in Music History
A boy who dreamed of becoming a jazz musician, and did it — with a bent horn, an infectious smile and a virtuosity that secured his place as one of history’s top jazz artists. That’s John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, born in Cheraw, South Carolina, on this day in 1917....
by Britt Ryan | Oct 20, 2020 | Today in Music History
Early jazz and ragtime legend Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe, better known to the music world as Jelly Roll Morton, was reportedly born in New Orleans on this day in 1890 (but with no birth certificate, his birth date and year are uncertain). And while he did not invent...
by Britt Ryan | Oct 19, 2020 | Today in Music History
Born in New Orleans on this day in 1878, Alphonse Picou was there for the birth of jazz. Picou, whose death in 1961 reportedly mourned with a massive funeral procession, is perhaps best known for originating the clarinet part on the jazz standard “High Society,” an...
by Britt Ryan | Oct 16, 2020 | Today in Music History
Joseph Lee “Big Joe” Williams, born in Oktibbeha County, Mississippi, on this day in 1903 (or maybe 1899), is famous for his nine-string guitar, for mentoring a young Muddy Waters and for being the guy who popularized the song “Baby Please Don’t Go” (1935)...
by Britt Ryan | Oct 15, 2020 | Today in Music History
“A belle of the blues with a head for business and a visceral gift as a songwriter, Victoria Spivey enjoyed a long career that took her from the role of ingenue to that of queen mother” — performing with such legendary artists as Blind Lemon Jefferson, Louis Armstrong...
by Britt Ryan | Oct 14, 2020 | Today in Music History
Gravedigger, sculptor and American Delta blues musician James “Son” Thomas was “a Mississippi bluesman to the core,” according to his writeup at AllAboutBluesMusic.com. “His guitar playing, with its vigorous boogies and delicate fingerpicking passages, and his...
