The Jazz Museum in Harlem

104 E. 126th Street • Suite 2D • New York, NY 10035

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Jazz for Curious Listeners
The Musical World of Ralph Ellison - Jimmy Rushing and The Blue Devils -- Hosts: Loren Schoenberg and Greg Thomas
June 5, 2012

Ralph Ellison loved music deeply, and even considered a career as a trumpeter/composer before deciding on literature. His thoughts about jazz and its place in American culture were innovative and remain essential ingredients in any serious understanding of where we are as a country and how we got here. We will list to music that amplifies Ellison's prose about these formative influences.

During his teen years in Oklahoma City, the best jazz band by far was Walter Page's Blue Devils, a legendary unit that served as the root of the style eventually made famous by Page's pianist, Count Basie. Ellison would listen to them whenever he got the chance.

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