Billie Holiday, one of the great jazz singers, was born April 7, 1915. She recounted her hard life in the autobiography Lady sings the blues, but despite her suffering at the hands of family, a racist society, and her own addictions, despite the smoky, world-weary voice of her later years, the joy her music brought to […]
You may not know the name Raymond Scott (1908-1994), but if you spent any of your formative years, and perhaps some of your adult years, watching Warner Brothers cartoons, you’ve heard his music. Scott’s “Powerhouse” is among the iconic cartoon music compositions, featured in any number of assembly line scenes – not just in Warner […]
During the month of April, the Pickford Theater will host Jazz in the Spring at the Nation’s Library, curated by Larry Appelbaum, Reference Specialist in the Music Division. The series begins Monday April 5th with the Washington Premiere of My Name is Albert Ayler. The prophetic free jazz saxophonist Albert Ayler, who today is seen as one of […]
I was recently invited by the Palace of Arts in Budapest to moderate a panel discussion during their Hungarian Jazz Showcase. The audience was a mix of music students and faculty from the Liszt Academy, as well as professional musicians and enthusiasts who wanted to participate. My fellow panelists included a record producer, music journalist […]
Reference Specialist Larry Appelbaum has helped welcome a diverse array of musical luminaries to the Music Division. Here are just a few. Herbie Hancock, upon receiving his Living Legends award. Dave Brubeck’s 2003 performance in the Library’s Coolidge Auditorium can be heard here. Larry recently interviewed Mr. Brubeck and his wife and lyricist Iola Brubeck. […]
The photographs of William P. Gottlieb (1917-2006 ) are a priceless document of the jazz era in the ’30’s and ’40’s. In the Muse will occasionally highlight selections from this collection. Today we celebrate the birthdays of two legendary jazz drummers. When the Music Division prepared the Gottlieb collection for digitization in the ’90’s, Gottlieb worked […]
The Music Division was saddened to learn that legendary jazz broadcaster Edward Beach passed awayon Christmas Day. Beach was the host of “Just Jazz,” a radio program which ran in New York City from the early 1960s to the mid-1970s. The Library of Congress is home to the Edward Beach Collection, which consists of his broadcast […]
The discovery five years ago of the Thelonious Monk-John Coltrane 1957 Carnegie Hall concert tapes focused attention on the deep jazz collections here at the Library of Congress (//www.loc.gov/today/pr/2005/05-090.html). The tapes, found while preserving the Voice of America Collection, were subsequently issued by Blue Note Records and became a sensation in the jazz world. Since […]