Mary Lou Williams in City of Kansas City - the 1930's
from Hear Me Talkin' To Ya: The Classic Story of Jazz as Told by the Men Who Made It, page 302:
I remember the loveable Jimmy Rushing, "Mr. Five by Five", from when we was singing with Bennie Moten and later with Basie. Unlike the run of blues shouters, Jimmy could read music, and he could be heard ten blocks away without a microphone (they used megaphones then, anyway).
Jimmy was big brother to me and some of the other band wives. I remember him playing piano and singing wonderful ballads to us; other times he would keep us laughing with his risqué stories, getting a kick out of seeing us blush.
Basie drew Jimmy and several other of Moten's men into his outfit … more >>
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. 302. https://led.kmi.open.ac.uk/entity/lexp/1435764357945 accessed: 30 October, 2024
Listeners
Listening to
hide composers| Blues | performed by Jimmy Rushing |
Experience Information
| Date/Time | the 1930's |
| Medium | live |
| Listening Environment | in the company of others, in private, indoors, in public |