written by

Elliott Hurwitt

Music Historian

Hear Them Talkin’ To Ya

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...

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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...

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Mose Allison:  If You Live

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...

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