Popularity: 0
Vote:   | Baby is still working, I believe, for I saw her in Jersey City in 1952: but she never received the recognition she merits. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | He explained how ridiculous the clowning was, and there and then I decided to settle down and play seriously. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I have been tied up with music for about as long as I can remember. By the time I was four I was picking out little tunes my mother played on the reed organ in the living-room. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I played in the pit with this band, doubling on stage in the second half with a speciality that was slightly sensational. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I stayed in New York, eyes and ears open to all the attractions Harlem had to offer. Like most other pianists I revered the amazing Fats Waller, who had lately made a splash wailing on organ at the Lincoln. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | I was at high school when my first big chance came along. Hits And Bits, a traveling TOBA show, had just hit town, and the pianist had failed to show up. 'Buzzin'' Harris, the owner, was frantic for a replacement. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | I was playing quite a bit of jazz now, and beginning to give it my own interpretation. Of course, my playing was influenced by favourite pianists: principally by Jack Howard, Earl Hines and Jelly Roll Morton. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | I've known musicians so enthused about playing that they would walk all the way from the Kansas side to attend a jam session. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | John was anxious to show me off musically, for he was proud of my ability. Though out of my mind from the journey, I went without sleep to make rehearsal the next morning. Holder's boys rehearsed two days a week, beginning 11 a.m.; and I was in the hall by nine. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Kaycee was really jumping now - so many great bands having sprung up there or moved in from over the river. I should explain that Kansas City, Missouri, wasn't too prejudiced for a Mid-western town. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | My travels had not taken me to New York until now, when we played the 81st Theatre on Broadway and a few weekend gigs. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Next stop, St Louis: and there I met Charlie Creath, the river-boat king, who was known all over the Middle West for his crazy growl trumpet playing. Besides being a top jazz performer, Charlie was a most handsome cat. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Now at this time, which was still Prohibition, Kansas City was under Tom Pendergast's control. Most of the night spots were run by politicians and hoodlums, and the town was wide open for drinking, gambling and pretty much every form of vice. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | Now it happened he was known as a professional gambler, and he sometimes took me with him at nights - to bring him luck, he said. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Offers for me to play dances, society parties, even churches, were now coming in regularly. For most dates I was paid the sum of one dollar per hour, and they always tipped me at the end of the night. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | One Saturday night I went to a theatre on Frankstown Avenue where all the Negro shows were booked. But I hardly noticed any part of the show, for my attention was focused on the lady pianist who worked there. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | One way and another I was having a ball - playing gigs, jamming and listening to fine musicians. Then came a crisis at home. My stepfather fell sick, and it meant I had to support the family. |
Popularity: 2
Vote: | Quite a few musicians came to our house. And my ma took me to hear many more, hoping to encourage in me a love of music. But she wouldn't consent to my having music lessons, for she feared I might end up as she had done - unable to play except from paper. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | There were two children, me and my older sister Mamie. My father I had never seen. A year or two later, the family moved to a neighbourhood in Pittsburgh which brought me my first experience of inter-racial feeling. |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | These functions were known as house-rent parties or chitterlin' struts. The windows were kept shut and the atmosphere was stagnant, but I was always fascinated by the boogie pianists and shuffling couples dancing on a spot. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | Through the neighbourhood grapevine we heard one day that a young man was in town looking for work as a teacher. |
Popularity: 0
Vote: | When Seymour saw me seated at the piano at that first rehearsal, he shouted: 'What's that kid doing here? Call your piano player and let's get started.' |
Popularity: -1
Vote: | With two sisters, Lucille and Louise, who knew every speak-easy in town, I began to make the rounds from 'Hell's Kitchen' on 5th Avenue to a club on 18th where I met Sam Price. |
Popularity: 1
Vote: | Within a few hours I had them off, was about ready to play the shows. That night I opened, and during the week Harris was over to the house to talk my mother into letting me leave home. |