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Posted by: Pat Padua
Above the desk where I sign in to work hangs a pin-up calendar whose pet of the month of May is a Shih Tzu in a shiny red wagon. Below the happy pup is the notation that May 2nd-8th, 2010 is Be Kind to Animals Week. According to the American Humane Association , this week …
Posted in: Composers, Jazz, Musicians, Sheet Music, Special Collections
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
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
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
“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
Afro-Cuban singer Graciela Perez-Grillo passed away in New York on April 7th. She was 94. Born in Havana, Perez-Grillo moved to New York in 1942, where she played bass and sang with an all-female band before fronting the Afro-Cuban orchestra with her stepbrother Machito. See photos of the woman known as the First Lady of …
Posted in: In Memoriam, Jazz, Musicians, Special Collections
Posted by: Pat Padua
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 …
Posted in: African American History, Birthdays, Jazz, Musicians, Women in Music
Posted by: Pat Padua
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 …
Posted in: Composers, Film Music, Jazz