Billy Strayhorn Would Be Only 110 Today
Happy birthday to super-composer Billy Strayhorn, who was born on this day in 1915. Billy Strayhorn is best known as the composing partner of Duke Ellington; together they created classic …..
Posts tagged: Jazz Legends
Ella Fitzgerald’s flirtation with reefer songs
It’s Ella Fitzgerald’s 100th birthday this week. Just as Fitzgerald’s career was taking off, jazz was under attack for its purported connection to drug culture. If she wanted to become a mainstream superstar, she needed to make a choice.
Remembering Marian McPartland
Saluting “the genteel Englishwoman who became a fixture of the American jazz scene.”
Anita O’Day Sings ‘Sweet Georgia Brown’ at Newport
Straight outta Newport! Anita O’Day in a feathered hat, bringing the swing in 1958.
Dave Brubeck Obituary
Jazz great Dave Brubeck has died from heart failure, a day before his 92nd birthday.