Spencer Williams in New Orleans - early 20th Century

from Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, page 7:

All along this street of pleasure there were dance halls, honky-tonks, and cabarets, and each one had its music. My old friend, Tony Jackson, who composed 'Pretty Baby' and 'Some Sweet Day', used to play piano at a house run by Miss Antonia Gonzales, who sang and played cornet. The largest of the cabarets on Basin Street [New Orleans] was the Mahogany Hall, owned by my aunt, Miss Lulu White, and when my mother died, I went to live with her and became her adopted son. I'd go to sleep to the sound of the mechanical piano ragtime tunes, and when I woke up in the morning it would still be …   more >>

cite as

Nat Hentoff and Nat Shapiro, Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It (London, 1992), p. 7. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1433338596733 accessed: 29 March, 2024

location of experience: New Orleans

Listeners

Spencer Williams
Composer, Pianist
18??-1965

Listening to

hide composers
honky-tonk music performed by Antonia Gonzales, Tony Jackson
jazz tunes
ragtime tunes

Experience Information

Date/Time early 20th Century
Medium live, playback
Listening Environment in private, indoors, outdoors, in public, solitary

Originally submitted by 5011Henning on Wed, 03 Jun 2015 14:36:37 +0100
Approved on Sat, 20 Aug 2016 15:39:12 +0100