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Posted by: Pat Padua
Otto. Cutey. Stinkpot. Wucker. Dumplin’. Maestro. Big Red. Head Knocker. Puddin’. These are some of the many nicknames given the man born Edward Kennedy, whom we all know as “Duke” Ellington. Born April 29, 1899 in Washington, D.C., Ellington was one of the great jazz bandleaders, pianists, and composers. The Music Division is home to …
Posted in: African American History, Birthdays, Composers, Jazz, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Music and poetry are two sides of artistic expression that are often inseparable – in the nomenclature of today’s youth, they are indeed Best Friends Forever. April is National Poetry Month, a designation first made in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets in New York. As the month winds down, In the Muse sets anchor …
Posted in: Composers, Sheet Music, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Starting this saturday, Concerts from the Library of Congress goes On LOCation at the new Atlas Performing Arts Center in the heart of the H Street Corridor, which runs from 12th to 15th Streets, NE. A once-vibrant section of the city before it was devastated by riots in 1968, it is now known as the …
Posted in: Concerts and Events, Jazz, Musicians
Posted by: Pat Padua
In the Muse has regularly featured photographs from the William P. Gottlieb Collection when commemorating the birthdays of jazz greats like Billie Holiday, Django Reinhardt, and Ben Webster. But that’s not all that’s in the collection. Today, the observed birthday of William Shakespeare, enjoy this photograph, which originally appeared in Down Beat magazine in 1947 …
Posted in: Birthdays, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Charles Mingus was born in Nogales, Arizona on April 22, 1922. The first instrument he played was the trombone, a sound he always liked – trombonist Jimmy Knepper was one of the defining voices of many a Mingus ensemble. But it was with the bass that Mingus found his voice. Inspired by Ellington bassist Jimmy …
Posted in: Birthdays, Composers, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Next Monday, April 26th, the Mary Pickford Theater will screen Jellie Dekker’s Han Bennink: Hazentijd (2009), the last in the film series Jazz in the Spring curated by Larry Appelbaum. Dutch Drummer and visual artist Han Bennink, who celebrated his 68th birthday on April 17th, is the subject of this stylized documentary, which follows Bennink’s …
Posted in: Film Music, Jazz, Musicians
Posted by: Pat Padua
If you missed the news over on the Library of Congress Blog, the Library announced that they will digitally archive the public record of the latest iteration of the tin-can and wire: Twitter. While we in the Music Division are still holding on to our telephone machines and pedalling to work on our velocipedes, this …
Posted in: Composers, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
“Jazz to me is a living music. It’s a music that since its beginning has expressed the feelings, the dreams, hopes, of the people.” Those are the words of tenor saxophone great Dexter Gordon, born in Los Angeles on Feb. 27, 1923. Gordon performed with Lionel Hampton’s and Louis Armstrong’s bands in the 1940s, and …
Posted in: Film Music, Jazz, Musicians, New Acquisitions, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
Thanks to Tomas Hernandez, Senior Music Producer in the Music Division, for assistance with this post. Next Friday, April 16th, the Coolidge Auditorium hosts the Alexander String Quartet and the Afiara String Quartet in a program that practically defines eclecticism. Free tickets for this must-see event are still available, with a nominal service charge, from Ticketmaster. …
Posted in: Composers, Concerts and Events, Musicians