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Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
One of the most iconic photographs in jazz was shot on August 4, 1958 outside a brownstone at 17 East 126th Street between Fifth and Madison Avenue in Harlem. The photo was shot by Art Kane and appeared in Esquire Magazine in January of 1959. Somehow Kane managed to gather 57 important jazz musicians to …
Posted in: African American History, Jazz
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
In 2007, the Library presented back-to-back concerts with two quintessential New Orleans pianists Henry Butler and Allen Toussaint. Mr. Toussaint was in the news recently because his legacy studio recordings, long thought lost in the flood from Hurricane Katrina, turned up at a swap meet in Torrance, California. Toussaint wrote, arranged and produced many hits …
Posted in: African American History, Composers, Concerts and Events, Interviews, Jazz, Webcasts
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
He was only 36 when he died in Berlin in 1964, but the gifted, avant-garde innovator Eric Dolphy (June 20, 1928-June 29, 1964) helped change the landscape for jazz improvisers through his collaborations with John Coltrane, Gunther Schuller, Charles Mingus and his own projects. He was a multi-instrumentalist who found his distinctive voice on alto …
Posted in: African American History, Composers, Jazz, Special Collections
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
I’ve known saxophonist-composer Archie Shepp’s work for more than four decades, not only through his body of recordings but from a long interview we did in 1982. When I heard he was coming to Washington to receive his National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Award at the Kennedy Center, I wrote him and suggested …
Posted in: African American History, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
William P Gottlieb was a music journalist and photographer whose byline appeared in The Washington Post, Downbeat and Record Changer from 1938-1948. He taught himself to use a speed graphic camera and began to shoot musicians to illustrate his articles. The Library purchased his collection in 1995 and scanned all his prints and negatives, now …
Posted in: African American History, Jazz, Women in Music
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
Sunday February 3 gives us the opportunity to remember one of the first important songwriters in jazz, Lillian Hardin Armstrong. She was born on that day in 1898 in Memphis and may be best known as Louis Armstrong’s second wife and writer of some of his enduring classics, such as “Struttin’ with Some Barbecue,” which …
Posted in: African American History, Composers, Jazz, Special Collections, Webcasts
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
Today marks the 95th birthday of jazz drummer, bandleader and educator Max Roach (1924-2007). His papers are among the most heavily researched jazz archival collections in the Music Division revealing much about jazz and the intersection of modernism and the development of Black political consciousness in 20th-century music. And though the collection includes a draft …
Posted in: African American History, Birthdays, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections, Webcasts
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
In January of 2017, I traveled to a suburb outside of Phoenix, Arizona to meet Dr. Gregory Morris and family. Morris is the nephew of Billy Strayhorn and Executor of the Billy Strayhorn Estate. Dr. Morris, a retired educator originally from Pittsburgh, kept the collection in safe hands for nearly five decades. The papers, including …
Posted in: African American History, Interviews, Jazz, New Acquisitions, Special Collections
Posted by: Larry Appelbaum
Today marks the birthday of singer, songwriter, actress, and political activist Abbey Lincoln (Anna Marie Wooldridge August 6, 1930 – August 14, 2010). One of many singers influenced by Billie Holiday, she made her breakthrough in 1956 with her first recording, Abbey Lincoln’s Affair, and her appearance in the film The Girl Can’t Help It. Though she …
Posted in: African American History, Birthdays, Interviews, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections, Women in Music