Pittsburgh's Own Regional Notables of Jazz
AFRO-AMERICAN MUSIC INSTITUTE CELEBRATES 36 YEARS
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PITTSBURGH JAZZ
From Blakey to Brown, Como to Costa, Eckstine to Eldridge, Galbraith to Garner, Harris to Hines, Horne to Hyman, Jamal to Jefferson, Kelly to Klook; Mancini to Marmarosa, May to Mitchell, Negri to Nestico, Parlan to Ponder, Reed to Ruther, Strayhorn to Sullivan, Turk to Turrentine, Wade to Williams… the forthcoming publication Treasury of Pittsburgh Jazz Connections by Dr. Nelson Harrison and Dr. Ralph Proctor, Jr. will document the legacy of one of the world’s greatest jazz capitals.
Do you want to know who Dizzy Gillespie idolized? Did you ever wonder who inspired Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey? Who was the pianist that mentored Monk, Bud Powell, Tad Dameron, Elmo Hope, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme? Who was Art Tatum’s idol and Nat Cole’s mentor? What musical quartet pioneered the concept adopted later by the Modern Jazz Quartet? Were you ever curious to know who taught saxophone to Stanley Turrentine or who taught piano to Ahmad Jamal? What community music school trained Robert McFerrin, Sr. for his history-making debut with the Metropolitan Opera? What virtually unknown pianist was a significant influence on young John Coltrane, Shirley Scott, McCoy Tyner, Bobby Timmons and Ray Bryant when he moved to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh in the 1940s? Would you be surprised to know that Erroll Garner attended classes at the Julliard School of Music in New York and was at the top of his class in writing and arranging proficiency?
Some answers can be gleaned from the postings on the Pittsburgh Jazz Network.
For almost 100 years the Pittsburgh region has been a metacenter of jazz originality that is second to no other in the history of jazz. One of the best kept secrets in jazz folklore, the Pittsburgh Jazz Legacy has heretofore remained mythical. We have dubbed it “the greatest story never told” since it has not been represented in writing before now in such a way as to be accessible to anyone seeking to know more about it. When it was happening, little did we know how priceless the memories would become when the times were gone.
Today jazz is still king in Pittsburgh, with events, performances and activities happening all the time. The Pittsburgh Jazz Network is dedicated to celebrating and showcasing the places, artists and fans that carry on the legacy of Pittsburgh's jazz heritage.
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Duke Ellington is first African-American and the first musician to solo on U.S. circulating coin
MARY LOU WILLIAMS
INTERVIEW
The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America
The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America
Larry Tye (Author)
From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel and Bobby Kennedy, a sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz--Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie--who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist exclusion and violence to become the most popular entertainers on the planet.
This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America.
What is far less known about these groundbreakers is that they were bound not just by their music or even the discrimination that they, like nearly all Black performers of their day, routinely encountered. Each defied and ultimately overcame racial boundaries by opening America's eyes and souls to the magnificence of their music. In the process they wrote the soundtrack for the civil rights movement.
Based on more than 250 interviews, this exhaustively researched book brings alive the history of Black America in the early-to-mid 1900s through the singular lens of the country's most gifted, engaging, and enduring African-American musicians.
PublisherMariner Books
Publish DateMay 07, 2024
LanguageEnglish
EAN/UPC9780358380436
Available
21,000+ Reviews
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Description
From the New York Times bestselling author of Satchel and Bobby Kennedy, a sweeping and spellbinding portrait of the longtime kings of jazz--Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie--who, born within a few years of one another, overcame racist exclusion and violence to become the most popular entertainers on the planet.
This is the story of three revolutionary American musicians, the maestro jazzmen who orchestrated the chords that throb at the soul of twentieth-century America.
Duke Ellington- , the grandson of slaves who was christened Edward Kennedy Ellington, was a man whose story is as layered and nuanced as his name suggests and whose music transcended category.
- was born in a New Orleans slum so tough it was called The Battlefield and, at age seven, got his first musical instrument, a ten-cent tin horn that drew buyers to his rag-peddling wagon and set him on the road to elevating jazz into a pulsating force for spontaneity and freedom.
He, too, grew up in a world unfamiliar to white fans--the son of a coachman and laundress who dreamed of escaping every time the traveling carnival swept into town, and who finally engineered his getaway with help from Fats Waller.
What is far less known about these groundbreakers is that they were bound not just by their music or even the discrimination that they, like nearly all Black performers of their day, routinely encountered. Each defied and ultimately overcame racial boundaries by opening America's eyes and souls to the magnificence of their music. In the process they wrote the soundtrack for the civil rights movement.
Based on more than 250 interviews, this exhaustively researched book brings alive the history of Black America in the early-to-mid 1900s through the singular lens of the country's most gifted, engaging, and enduring African-American musicians.
Publisher
Mariner Books
Publish Date
May 07, 2024
Pages
416
Dimensions
5.98 X 9.06 X 1.57 inches | 1.25 pounds
Language
English
Type
Hardcover
EAN/UPC
9780358380436
BISAC Categories:
About the Author
Larry Tye is the New York Times bestselling author of Bobby Kennedy and Satchel, as well as Demagogue, Superman, The Father of Spin, Home Lands, and Rising from the Rails, and coauthor, with Kitty Dukakis, of Shock. Previously an award-winning reporter at the Boston Globe and a Nieman fellow at Harvard University, he now runs the Boston-based Health Coverage Fellowship. He lives on Cape Cod.
Reviews
"Tye brings his subjects to life as both forces of social change and three-dimensional human beings who lived and breathed their art, from Ellington's soulful, 'Shakespearian' arrangements to Armstrong's 'heart as big as Earth' and Basie's 'Buddha-like' temperament. It's a vibrant ode to a legendary trio and the 'rip-roaring harmonies' that made them great." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Like the best music created by Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Count Basie, The Jazzmen SWINGS. As Tye makes clear, their story is the story of America in the twentieth century." -- RICKY RICCARDI, Grammy Award-winning author of What a Wonderful World and Heart Full of Rhythm
"The Jazzmen begins with colorful people and flows to rich history so beautifully it is musical." -- JUAN WILLIAMS, author of Eyes on the Prize
"Proud and important history, beautifully told." -- DEVAL PATRICK, former governor of Massachusetts, assistant attorney general for civil rights under Bill Clinton
"The Jazzmen reveals how these three musicians, when they express themselves through their instruments, become magical." -- MERCEDES ELLINGTON, dancer, choreographer, and Duke's granddaughter
"Larry Tye has written a masterpiece. These three are not only the most important people in American music, but they changed the whole world in their individual ways." -- WENDELL BRUNIOUS, New Orleans bandleader and trumpeter
"The Jazzmen tells an uplifting and unifying story that is especially important now, when times are so fractured." -- SONNY ROLLINS, Grammy Award-winning tenor saxophonist
"Entertaining and engrossing, and a warm invitation to an essential part of American history." -- TRACY KIDDER, Pulitzer Prize-winning author
"I thought I was already well-informed about these jazz heroes, but Larry Tye reveals so much more about their musical journeys and personal experiences. It's like meeting them all over again. I couldn't put it down." -- GARY BURTON, Grammy Award-winning jazz vibraphonist
"Tye has found that there are new things to say about The Three Musketeers of Jazz. Read, learn, and enjoy." -- DAN MORGENSTERN, jazz author, historian, editor, educator, and former director of the Rutgers Institute of Jazz Studies
Comment
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Comment by Dr. Nelson Harrison on December 30, 2024 at 5:27pm
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I am cited in this book on page 162.
© 2025 Created by Dr. Nelson Harrison.
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