Grover Sales Collection 1940-2004

Weston, Randy, 1926-2018

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rw1fqs (person)

Randy Weston was born on April 6, 1926 to Vivian and Frank Weston in Brooklyn, New York. He studied classical piano as a child and was raised in an atmosphere thick with sounds and ideas of modern jazz. Among his childhood friends and neighbors were bassist Ahmed Abdul-Malik and drummers Al Harewood and Max Roach; it was at Max Roach's house that Weston would encounter George Russell, Miles Davis, and Charlie Parker. His father owned a small restaurant in Brooklyn, which was a hangout for many l...

Hawkins, Coleman

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61d2pc7 (person)

Jazz saxophonist. From the description of Autograph card signed : [n.p.], [1934?]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270904396 ...

Mingus, Charles, 1922-1979

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w62g8dwx (person)

Charles Mingus, African-American jazz bassist, was born April 22, 1922, in Nogales, Arizona. He began to study the cello in 1934, switching to the bass in 1937. In 1939 he began studying composition with Lloyd Reese and composed What love and Half mast inhibitions. He began his professional career in 1940, playing bass with Lee Young, and he toured with Louis Armstromg's big band the following year. In 1942 he played bass with Barney Bigard's ensemble which featured retired trombonist Kid Ory. T...

Bruce, Lenny, 1925-1966

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Leonard Alfred Schneider (October 13, 1925 – August 3, 1966), known professionally as Lenny Bruce, was an American stand-up comedian, social critic, and satirist. He was renowned for his open, freestyle and critical form of comedy which contained satire, politics, religion, sex, and vulgarity. His 1964 conviction in an obscenity trial was followed by a posthumous pardon, the first in the history of New York State, by Governor George Pataki in 2003. Bruce paved the way for counterculture era c...

Gershwin, George, 1898-1937

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6204wfj (person)

George Gershwin was a composer and pianist; his best-known works are Rhapsody in Blue (1924), An American in Paris (1928), "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime". Gershwin moved to Hollywood and composed numerous film scores. He died in 1937 of a malignant brain tumor....

Holiday, Billie, 1915-1959

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Billie Holiday (1915-1959), an African American blues and jazz singer, was born Eleanora Holiday in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on April 7, 1915. The daughter of Clarence Holiday and Sadie Fagan, Holiday began singing in the early 1930s and was discovered by John Hammond in 1933 at a Harlem jazz club. Her career included performances with Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Artie Shaw. Holiday recorded on the Commodore, Columbia, and Decca record labels; her most famous recordings include "Strange Fr...

Monk, Thelonious Sphere, 1917-1982

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64v78z6 (person)

Thelonious Sphere Monk (/θəˈloʊniəs/, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including "'Round Midnight", "Blue Monk", "Straight, No Chaser", "Ruby, My Dear", "In Walked Bud", and "Well, You Needn't". Monk is the second-most-recorded jazz composer after Duke Ellington. Monk's compositions and improvisations feature dissonances and angular melodic twi...

Marsalis, Wynton, 1961-....

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nt1kf7 (person)

Waller, Fats, 1904-1943

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65v4b13 (person)

Tatum, Art, 1909-1956

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k17vr9 (person)

Hines, Earl, 1903-1983

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vn53ns (person)

Musician; interviewee d. 1983. From the description of Reminiscences of Earl Kenneth (Fatha) Hines : oral history, 1971. (Columbia University In the City of New York). WorldCat record id: 122419716 Jazz musician. From the description of Clipping with autograph signed : [1963]. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 270904707 Biographical Information (b Duquesne, PA, 28 Dec 1903; d Oakland, CA, 22 April 1983)....

Ellington, Duke, 1899-1974

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m43ks8 (person)

Duke Ellington (b. Edward Kennedy Ellington, April 29, 1899, Washington, DC–d. May 24, 1974, New York, NY) was a composer, pianist, and jazz orchestra leader. He began piano lessons at 7 and wrote his first composition, "Soda Fountain Rag", in 1914. Ellington became a more serious piano student as a teenager after hearing poolroom pianists in Washington, DC. Ellington moved to Harlem, ultimately becoming part of the Harlem Renaissance in the early 1920s. He began a regular booking at the Cott...

Wilson, Teddy, 1912-1986

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6456bgg (person)

Vaughan, Sarah, 1924-1990

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gr7nsk (person)

Armstrong, Louis, 1901-1971

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cd1qpd (person)

Louis Armstrong, a jazz musician and entertainer, was born on August 4, 1901 in New Orleans, Louisiana. He claimed to have been born on July 4, 1900, which is the date given on his World War I draft card. However, recent research gives good documentation to the August 4, 1901 date, including his baptismal certificate. Some sources also cite 1898 as his birth date. He died on July 6, 1971. Armstrong was born and raised in New Orleans. Coming to prominence in the 1920s as an inventive trumpet a...

Goodman, Benny, 1909-1986

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6m43krt (person)

Benny Goodman was born in Chicago, May 30, 1909. He received his first musical training at a local synagogue, and later studied clarinet with Franz Schoepp. Goodman made his debut at the age of twelve, and left home to become a full-time professional clarinetist when he was sixteen. After a decade of performing as a free-lancer and as a member of Ben Pollak's band, Goodman established his first big band in 1934, and soon it achieved unprecedented success. He won great ac...

Krupa, Gene, 1909-1973

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6cw57rv (person)

O'Day, Anita, 1919-2006

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6k46jmf (person)

Biographical Note Anita Belle Colton was born on October 18, 1919 in Kansas City, Missouri. Colton left home at age 12 and assumed the stage surname "O'Day" while employed as a walkathon and dance marathon contestant. She began singing professionally at age 19 in taverns around Chicago and earned a reputation for her improvisatory skills and unique vocal qualities. In 1941, O'Day joined the Gene Krupa Orchestra and became an overnight sensati...

Dylan, Bob, 1941-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6n11wsh (person)

Bob Dylan was born on May 24, 1941 in Duluth, Minnesota. He grew up in the city of Hibbing. As a teenager, he played in various bands and with time his interest in music deepened, with a particular passion for American folk music and blues. One of his idols was the folk singer Woody Guthrie. He was also influenced by the early authors of the Beat Generation, as well as by modernist poets. Dylan moved to New York City in 1961 and began to perform in clubs and cafés in Greenwich Village. He met...

Gillespie, Dizzy, 1917-1993

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Dizzy Gillespie (born John Birks Gillespie, October 21, 1917, Cheraw, South Carolina - January 6, 1993 Englewood, New Jersey) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and singer. He joined his first professional band in 1935. In the 1940s Gillespie became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz....

Cash, Dick

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Johnson, Pete, 1904-1967

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66b9fhn (person)

Bauzá, Mario 1911-1993

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Brown, Ray, 1946-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w66r485b (person)

Abbott, Bud, 1895-1974

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Merrill, Joan

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6fg647r (person)

Kral, Irene

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64g42kv (person)

Smith, Jabbo, 1908-1991

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6rj4t12 (person)

Cladys "Jabbo" Smith was born in Claxton, Ga.; Smith received his musical education at the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, S.C.; a brass player, singer and composer, Smith has been called "The Trumpet Ace of the '20's"--Thought by some jazz historians to have been Louis Armstrong's only serious competition in the late-1920s and early-1930s; Smith died 16 Jan. 1991, in Manhattan at age 82. From the description of Jabbo Smith papers, 1903-1991; (bulk, 1954-1991). (University of South ...

Terry, Brad

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qp8jmz (person)

Sinatra, Frank

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6nm444w (person)

The son of italian immigrants, Frank Sinatra began singing and doing impersonations in school which led to his future career as singer with the Hoboken Four in 1935. The quartet broke up in 1936 and Frank started working his way through the music industry until he finally got his big break in 1940. He would become one of Hollywood's leading men for the next two decades and a constant music hall draw after that until very close to the day he died in 1998. (Adapted from the Official Sinatra Family...

Jordan, Stanley

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6vm4n5d (person)

Blesh, Rudi, 1899-1985

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6mw38j0 (person)

Writer, critic, and architectural designer; New York, N.Y. From the description of Rudi Blesh papers, 1909-1983. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 122515582 ...

Gross, Terry

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d05k3t (person)

Terkel, Studs, 1912-2008

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6x74b08 (person)

Studs Terkel was born May 16, 1912, and died in Chicago on Oct. 31, 2008. Pulitzer Prize-winning author whose searching interviews with ordinary Americans helped establish oral history as a serious genre. From the description of It's a living, [videorecording], 1975. (Unknown). WorldCat record id: 612307109 and the description of Studs Terkel papers and book interviews, ca. 1950-1999. (Chicago History Museum). WorldCat record id: 713907330 ...

Costello, Lou

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6865qcw (person)

Teagarden, Jack, 1905-1964

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6d79xz3 (person)

Jazz musician Weldon Leo (Jack) Teagarden (1905-1964) was born in Vernon, Texas, to Charles and Helen Teagarden. Beginning piano lessons at the age of five, Teagarden switched to trombone two years later. After his first professional performance in 1921, Teagarden played with several Texas bands and made his first trip to New York in 1926. A year later he moved to the city and defeated Glenn Miller for the position of first trombone in Ben Pollack’s band. Teagarden made his first re...

McPartland, Marian

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w64f1vp7 (person)

Ulanov, Barry

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6tc3jv1 (person)

BIOGHIST REQUIRED Barry Ulanov (1918-2000) was a jazz critic, professor of English at Barnard College, and prolific writer. He wrote, edited, or translated nearly fifty books and over a thousand articles on a wide range of subjects. His interests included music, modern art, psychology, history, religion, and literature. BIOGHIST REQUIRED Ulanov was born in Manhattan on April 10, 1918 and attended Columbia University, where he took advantage of his proximity to Harlem to ...

Dobson, Smith

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w61h2z4f (person)

Elliott, Bruce, 1938-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b11gxj (person)

Lewis, Lux, 1901-1964

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6qs7841 (person)

Bud Freeman, 1906-1991

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6b4067x (person)

Williams, Mary Lou, 1910-1981

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6zq4w75 (person)

Jazz pianist, arranger, and composer in Durham (Durham Co.), N.C. Died May 28, 1981. From the description of Terry Sanford [music manuscript] 1979. (Duke University Library). WorldCat record id: 53905922 ...

Detro, John

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w63g71hc (person)

Williams, Jessica, pianist

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6gz6pdr (person)

Muscarella, Susan

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Rosner, Eddie, 1910-1976

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w65n8hnp (person)

Evans, Bill, 1929-1980

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6v411q5 (person)

Houlihan, Bob

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6hc1h6j (person)

Maher, John, 1940-

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6q93r0p (person)

McRae, Carmen

http://n2t.net/ark:/99166/w6542txj (person)

Biographical Note Carmen Mercedes McRae was born in Harlem, on April 8, 1920. She studied piano as a child and her parents encouraged her towards classical music. As a teenager, McRae wrote songs and pursued the jazz scene in New York City leading to a friendship with jazz pianist Teddy Wilson and composer Irene Kitchings Wilson. Through their influence, one of McRae’s early songs, "Dream of Life," was recorded by Teddy Wilson’s longtime coll...

Sales, Grover, Mr.

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Biographical/Historical note Grover Sales was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1920. After serving in the Army Air Corps in Southeast Asia during World War II he studied at Reed College, Portland, Oregon and later at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his BA in history. In his fifty-year career as a jazz critic he was known for his strongly opinionated and literate writing. Sales also wrote about film and cultural politi...