Q: Are there any names of memorable fans who possibly traveled to jazz clubs across the nation?
JG: Unfortunately we don’t know anything specific about the people in the souvenir photos, but we do have pictures in the book of fans posing with Charlie Parker, Louis Armstrong, Oscar Peterson, Art Blakey, Duke Ellington, and others. Sonny Rollins told me it was a regular thing to ask performers to pose with them for a souvenir photo. It struck me this is the primordial version of today’s celebrity selfie, and I can’t think of any situation before that where people would be asking celebrities to pose for a photo.
Q: Has there been any follow-up as to what happened to the jazz establishments are they still standing? If so, are they used for different purposes?
JG: Virtually all of the clubs I write about are long gone; the big exceptions being the Village Vanguard and the Apollo, both of which opened in New York during the mid-1930s. Some of the concert halls still exist, but for the most part these clubs are long gone. In some cases they’ve been torn down, in others the buildings still exist. But these photos do bring alive a long gone scene.
Q: Why kinds of ancillary businesses were given rise in the 40s and 50s from the jazz clubs?
JG: As I talk about in the book, one really important thing that spread the word from the clubs was live radio broadcasts. Radio was just starting to become widespread in the 1920s, and live broadcasts on national networks from the Cotton Club helped NY based musicians including Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong gain national profiles, which allowed them to get more lucrative record contracts (and sell records nationally) and tour the country. These broadcasts also sold tickets and records locally.
Q: Did all the jazz players do the total tour from east to west or did certain jazz players opt to stay on the West Coast or East Coast?
JG: The musicians I spoke to told me they were happy to play anywhere people would book them. Sometimes musicians would tour with their groups, sometimes they would tour as a ‘feature’, which meant people like Billie Holiday might travel with her pianist, but each club would book backup musicians. That’s the way Quincy Jones started playing with bigger artists, while only a teen in Seattle—his band could read music, so they were hired to back up major artists including Billie.
Q: Who are your favorite jazz artists today?
JG: My current favorite is Jason Moran, who I interviewed for the book; his music is contemporary, but he’s greatly informed by the music of the past, and it works its way into his music in very creative ways.
No comments:
Post a Comment