Nickname #23 -- February 17, 2013

Earl Hines was a wonderful pianist who had a  wonderfully long career.  I almost went to his last show in San Francisco in 1983.  I first learned about him from a record of his early piano solos from the Anza Branch library and from the book Jazz Masters of the Twenties by Richard Hadlock, also from the Anza Branch.  I just about memorized the album.  "A Monday Date" is one of my favorites.  Then I found the Hot Sevens with Louis Armstrong, his big band work from the 1930s, his time playing traditional jazz in San Francisco, and his late revival.  By then I had enough money to buy his tributes to Gershwin and Ellington and others.  His nickname, Fatha, was perfectly appropriate.