Program notes for Tain't Nobody's Business If I Do: Songs of Gay HarlemThursday, December 12 at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center “The World’s Most Glamorous Atmosphere. Why, it is just like the Arabian Nights!”—Duke Ellington, on first seeing Harlem in 1923 The...
written by
Elliott Hurwitt
W. C. Handy & the Birth of the Blues
In 1912, when Handy published the “Memphis Blues,” the word blues was used primarily to describe an emotional state—depression, melancholy. Songs specifically about these issues did not come into being until something like 400 years after the first mentions of the...
Mose Allison: If You Live
As we prepare for W. C. Handy & the Birth of the Blues with program consultant Elliott Hurwitt, we revisit his first week hosting Song of the Day. This song was originally posted on October 30, 2015. Mose Allison was born on a farm outside Tippo, Mississippi, in...
Champion Jack Dupree: I Don’t Know
As we prepare for W. C. Handy & the Birth of the Blues with program consultant Elliott Hurwitt, we revisit his first week hosting Song of the Day. This song was originally posted on October 29, 2015. Champion Jack Dupree was born in New Orleans around 1910 and...
Count Basie: Sent for You Yesterday
As we prepare for W. C. Handy & the Birth of the Blues with program consultant Elliott Hurwitt, we revisit his first week hosting Song of the Day. This song was originally posted on October 28, 2015. They called the Count Basie Orchestra “The Band That Plays the...
Geeshie Wiley: Last Kind Words Blues
As we prepare for W. C. Handy & the Birth of the Blues with program consultant Elliott Hurwitt, we revisit his first week hosting Song of the Day. This song was originally posted on October 27, 2015. We don’t know a whole lot about Geeshie Wiley, who recorded...