Thomas
A. Dorsey, writer of Precious Lord and Peace
In The Valley was born July 1, 1899.
Scott
Joplin's Maple Leaf Rag was the first Ragtime tune to
become a sheet music best-seller. Ragtime music influenced the
likes of Irving Berlin who said,
"Syncopation is the soul of every true
American. Ragtime is the best heart-raiser
and worry-banisher I know."
At the turn of the century, the
average worker earned twenty-two cents an hour.
Sound
recordings were made by the acoustic
process, without amplification or
electricity.
Jazz
flourished in Storyville,
the red light district in New Orleans. Buddy
Bolden is often credited for being the
first of the great Jazz figures. Jelly
Roll
Morton said he was "the blowingest man
since Gabriel."
George
Lewis (clarinetist) was born July 13, 1900
in New Orleans, Louisiana,
Pink Anderson, American
blues singer and guitarist (d. 1974)
Medicine
shows in the late 19th and early 20th
centuries provided exposure for mountain
music. The good doctor sold sure-fire
cures for ailments to the sound of southern
rural musicians turning Anglo-Irish ballads into
a uniquely American music.
Sammy Davis, the father of
entertainer Sammy
Davis Jr. was born in Wilmington, North
Carolina.
August 4, 1901, a king was born
in New Orleans, Louisiana. "James Alley is
located in the crowded section of New
Orleans known as Back o' Town. James Alley
not Jane Alley as some people call it lies
in the very heart of what is called The
Battlefield because the toughest characters
in town used to live there, and would shoot
and fight so much. In that one block between
Gravier and Perdido Streets more people were
crowded than you ever saw in your life.
There were church people, gamblers,
hustlers, cheap pimps, thieves, prostitutes
and lots of children." - Louis
Armstrong, Satchmo My Life In New Orleans.
Skip
James was born June 9, 1902 in Bentonia,
Mississippi.
1903 - Big
Bill Broonzy was born.
Clyde
McCoy from Ashland, Kentucky was born in
1903.
The first Victor
Victrola record player is manufactured on
August 22. 1906
St. Louis, Missouri: Josephine
Baker was born on June 3, 1906.
The first Ford Model T
automobile leaves the plant in Detroit, Michigan
on September 27, 1908, offering new vistas for
traveling musicians and traveling fans.
Polyoxybenzylmethylenglycolanhydride,
the hard thermosetting plastic better known as Bakelite
was introduced.
Maybelle
Carter, The
Queen Mother of Country Music was born in
Nickelsville, Virginia.
Shelby, Mississippi: Henry
Townsend was born October 27, 1909.
On November 18, 1909, Johnny
Mercer, one of the World's greatest
songwriters was born in Savannah, Georgia.
