Spring has finally sprung around us in WZUM land - and that got a catchy tune in mind - vocalist Stacey Kent has - a lovely rendition of “I’m Putting All My Eggs in One Basket,” which got us to think about when that song first came out, 1936 in Follow the Fleet with Ginger Rogers and Fred Astaire. But Fred also did a piano version, early in the film - on an upright that he lightly tunes and then plays!
There’s many more baskets and eggs in the Pittsburgh Jazz scene this spring and in the weeks ahead.
The Detroit based Paxton Spangler Band bring their tour to the Pittsburgh metro Friday night - playing at Joey’s the Edge in Export.
The Supergroup Artemis has two shows Saturday night at the Greer Cabaret Theater.
Add in adoptive Pittsburgher Ellie Martin at Con Alma later this month at Con Alma and the Westylvania Jazz Festival in - and Benny Benack Jr. and the 3rd will be amid the blooms in June at the Pittsburgh Botanical Garden - and Benny the 3rd has a new record out, too, including a tribute to Roger Humphries on it -
And Roger Humphries’ Annual River Boat Ride returns to the Burg, June 29th to the Gateway Clipper Fleet. A combination jazz party and scholarship fundraiser is an important marker to summer!
We also Celebrate the May 8th birthday of Pittsburgh’s Mary Lou Williams - born May 8, 1910 in Atlanta, moving to Pittsburgh while very young, and then on to influence the world as a pianist, arranger and composer - and the coproducer of the first Pittsburgh Jazz Festival in 1964.
Mary Lou Williams, 1947, Gottleib Collection, Library of Congress
Artemis
About Fred Astaire and the piano - these were the days of the rise of Art Tatum and the prominence of George Gershwin. A year earlier, 1935, here’s Fred at the keys in Roberta (with a very young Ginger Rogers).
Move forward 20 years to 1957 with Fred in a celebrity interview with Edward R. Murrow on the CBS program Person to Person - this time, on drums!