Request Line: (870) 277-1080 [email protected]

    Your Community Radio Station is possible thanks to this supporter!  Become an underwriter.

    #WomensHistoryMonth: Cora “Lovie” Austin – 1920s Jazz and Blues Pianist, Composer and Bandleader (LISTEN)

    Written by Good Black News

    March 30, 2022

    Your Community Radio Station is possible thanks to this supporter!  Become an underwriter.

    by Lori Lakin Hutcherson (@lakinhutcherson)

    As #WomensHistoryMonth comes to a close, today in our Daily Drop podcast, we spotlight Chicago-based blues and jazz pianist Cora “Lovie” Austin.

    Austin isn’t well known now, but in her day she was a well-regarded bandleader and composer and one of the best accompanists around.

    Austin played with singers such as Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter, Bessie Smith, and Ethel Waters and musicians such as Louis Armstrong, lead her band the Blues Serenaders, and held down her spot as musical director at Chicago’s Monogram Theater for over 20 years:


    You can follow or subscribe to the Good Black News Daily Drop Podcast through Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Podcasts, rss.com or create your own RSS Feed. Or just check it out every day here on the main website (transcript below):

    SHOW TRANSCRIPT:

    Hey, this Lori Lakin Hutcherson, founder and editor in chief of goodblacknews.org, a little stuffed up, but here to share with you a daily drop of Good Black News for Wednesday, March 30th, 2022, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar” published by Workman Publishing.

    Cora “Lovie” Austin did two incredibly rare things for a Black woman born in 1887: she studied formal music theory in college, then used that knowledge to gig the vaudeville circuit as a blues and jazz pianist!

    Austin played with singers such as Ma Rainey, Alberta Hunter and Ethel Waters and was known as one of the best accompanists of her time.

    She also led her own band, the Blues Serenaders, which played with top musicians like Louis Armstrong, and co-wrote the blues standard “Down Hearted Blues.”

    [Excerpt from “Down Hearted Blues”]

    Austin also composed and performed lively early jazz songs such as “Charleston Mad” and “Traveling Blues”:

    [Excerpt of “Traveling Blues”]

    Early in her career, Austin settled in Chicago, ultimately serving as musical director for Chicago’s Monogram Theater for over 20 years. In 1961, Austin  reunited with Alberta Hunter and the Blues Serenaders to record an album as part of Riverside Records Living Legends series entitled Chicago: The Living Legends (Live).

    To learn more about Lovie Austin, stream or purchase her music on Apple Music or Amazon Music, or stream on Spotify, and check out the links to sources provided in today’s show notes or in the episode’s full transcript posted on goodblacknews.org. 

    This has been a daily drop of Good Black News, based on the “A Year of Good Black News Page-A-Day Calendar for 2022,” published by Workman Publishing.

    Beats provided by freebeats.io and produced by White Hot. Excerpts of music by Lovie Austin are included under fair use.

    If you like these Daily Drops, please consider following us on Apple, Google Podcasts, RSS.com,Amazon, Spotify or wherever you get your podcasts. Leave a rating or review, share links to your favorite episodes, or go old school and tell a friend.

    For more Good Black News, you can check out goodblacknews.org or search and follow @goodblacknews anywhere on social.

    Sources:

    (paid links)

    Original article source: https://goodblacknews.org/2022/03/30/womenshistorymonth-cora-lovie-austin-1920s-jazz-and-blues-pianist-composer-and-bandleader-listen/ | Article may or may not reflect the views of KLEK 102.5 FM or The Voice of Arkansas Minority Advocacy Council

    0 0 votes
    Article Rating

    Your Community Radio Station is possible thanks to this supporter!  Become an underwriter.

    Your Community Radio Station is possible thanks to this supporter!  Become an underwriter.

    Related Articles

    Artist Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola’s “Magic City” Installation at John Michael Kohler Arts Center Opens Online Feb. 19

    [Image: Anthony Olubunmi Akinbola: Magic City installation (detail) at the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 2021.] A Cadillac Escalade that morphs into a pulsating sound sculpture. Murray’s Pomade cans as minimalist totems. Read more

    Artist Sonya Clark’s “Tatter, Bristle, and Mend” Exhibition on View at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in D.C. from March 3 to May 31
    Artist Sonya Clark’s “Tatter, Bristle, and Mend” Exhibition on View at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in D.C. from March 3 to May 31

    [Above image: Sonya Clark, Nap, 2012; Glass beads and board, 16 x 20 x 5 in.; On loan from the artist; © Sonya Clark; Photo by Taylor Dabney] Sonya Clark: Read more

    Office of Historic Resources and Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles Announce Project to Identify and Protect African American Historic Places in City
    Office of Historic Resources and Getty Conservation Institute in Los Angeles Announce Project to Identify and Protect African American Historic Places in City

    [St. Elmo Village, est. 1969. Photo: Elizabeth Daniels, © J. Paul Getty Trust. St. Elmo Village, an artists’ enclave of ten Craftsman bungalows in a colorful garden setting, was founded Read more

    Scholar, Author and Educator Dr. Kymberly Pinder to Become Dean at Yale School of Art
    Scholar, Author and Educator Dr. Kymberly Pinder to Become Dean at Yale School of Art

    [Dr. Kymberly Pinder, seen with a black and white drawing by Jami Porter Lara. Photo by Eve Caughey via news.yale.edu] Starting July 1, Dr. Kymberly Pinder, renowned scholar of race, representation, Read more

    Comments

    Subscribe
    Notify of
    0 Comments
    Oldest
    Newest Most Voted
    Inline Feedbacks
    View all comments

    Your Community Radio Station is possible thanks to this supporter!  Become an underwriter.