Abstract Elizabeth Day (1920-2012) was a pianist, organist, and music educator. She played with the United Service Organization (USO) entertaining military personnel during World War II. Day studied at the Juilliard School of Music and earned a degree in music theory at what is now Morgan State University. She taught in Baltimore County Public Schools, including Bear Creek Elementary and Sollers Point Senior High. She founded and ran the Betty Day Trio, a musical ensemble that performed at social...

Abstract Isaiah Dixon Jr. (1922-2013) was a jazz fan, world traveler, and four-term state delegate from Baltimore City whose accomplishments included introducing a bill that made cross burnings a felony in Maryland. In 1976, he introduced a bill giving the mayor of Baltimore the power to appoint the city police commissioner. He was the son of Isaiah (Ike) Dixon Sr., a jazz bandleader and owner of the Comedy Club on Pennsylvania Avenue.In this interview, Dixon Jr. recounts his memories of...

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James T. Dorsey (1908-2010) is interviewed about his friendship and work with Isaiah (Ike) Dixon Sr., owner of the Comedy Club on Pennsylvania Avenue, and about other music clubs on the Avenue and his encounters with touring musicians such as Lionel Hampton and Dusty Fletcher. Dorsey owned a gas station on Pennsylvania Avenue for 31 years and was well known in the community.

Abstract Myrtle Mack Dutton (1940-2008) was a singer, pianist, and organist. As a child she played for her father's church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Dutton performed with the Treblettes and the Concert Choir at Western High School. In 1957 she entered Peabody Conservatory on a Senatorial Scholarship, where she studied voice with Elsa Baklor and received her Bachelor of Music (1961) and Master of Music degrees. She was twice a finalist in the Met Regional Auditions. She taught for the Anne Arundel...

Abstract Interview with Ethel Ennis (1932-2019), a Baltimore-based jazz singer. Ennis describes her family's musical influences on her as a young girl and her training in piano with Lovey Husketh. Ennis began performing as a pianist and singer at the age of 15 with a group called Abe Riley's Octet, which performed around Baltimore in the 1940s and early 1950s. She began touring and recording as a singer in the 1950s, working with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Stephane...

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Joseph S. Eubanks (1925-2013) was a bass-baritone who performed in the 1950s with the first American company of Porgy and Bess to tour the world. He studied with Lotte Lehmann, Herta Glatz, John Brownlee, Todd Duncan, William Ray. Eubanks taught at Morgan State University from 1962 to 1985. He performed regularly as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and with many local musical groups.

Abstract Langston Fitzgerald is a trumpeter who played for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1970 to 2003 and served on the Peabody Conservatory faculty. A past winner of the John F. Kennedy Center Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, he has also played with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and served as assistant principal trumpet with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has been principal trumpet and musical contractor of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society Orchestra...

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Muriel Fulton (1912-2012) studied dance with Ellsworth Toomey as a child. She graduated from Douglass High School in 1928 (Anne Wiggins Brown, Eugene Prettyman and Avon Long were classmates) and continued dance studies in Boston. She appeared on Broadway in "Memphis Bound," with Bill Robinson and Avon Long.

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Charles Funn is a trombonist and music educator. He moved to Baltimore in 1970 and earned a degree from Morgan State University in 1975. As a performer, he has played with the Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Hank Jones, Billy Eckstine, and Gene Walker. Funn discusses the Baltimore jazz scene and his association with several notable local musicians. He also describes his experience teaching jazz at Dunbar High School and Baltimore Polytechnic High School.

Abstract Arthur "Pigmeat" Garner (1920-2011) was a saxophonist and member of the Royal Theater Orchestra. He played in the band at Douglass High School under the direction of W. Llewellyn Wilson. After graduating in 1939, he began playing with Tracy McCleary's Kentuckians at the Ritz and the Strand. During World War II, Garner performed with the 325th Army Band at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. In 1946, after his discharge from the Army, he returned to the band at the Royal Theater. He played with bands...

Abstract Ruby Glover (1929-2007) was a singer. As a student at Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Glover was already singing professionally. She performed regularly at jazz clubs on Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1940s and 1950s, with groups such as the Parrish Sextet, Doug's Blue Notes, and King Draper. Glover taught jazz history at Sojourner-Douglass College. She was one of the organizers of the Billie Holiday Vocal Competition and regularly participated in Baltimore's major annual arts festival,...

Abstract Louisa Lara Gross was born in Baltimore in 1926 to Cuban parents. While a student at Douglass High School, she won a talent search contest at the Royal Theater and began touring with Lionel Hampton shortly after her sixteenth birthday. After leaving the Hampton band, she performed as a soloist throughout the mid-Atlantic states and in Miami and Jamaica. She toured as a soloist and with vocal groups including the Cats and Fiddles, and Three B's and a Honey. After returning to Baltimore in the...

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Spencer Hammond (1931-2019) was a minister of music, organist, and choir director at Douglas Memorial Community Church. Hammond taught music in Baltimore City Public Schools for 31 years until retiring in the early 1990s, taught a course on African-American music at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and taught piano.

Abstract Charles P. Harris (1916-2003) studied bass and violin with W. Llewellyn Wilson and Lucien Odend'hal. He began his career playing bass in Baltimore clubs and at the Royal Theatre on Pennsylvania Avenue. He toured and recorded with Lionel Hampton during the 1940s and with the Nat King Cole Trio for fifteen years, beginning in 1951. He also recorded with Wynonie Harris, Herbie Fields, Milt Buckner, and Arnett Cobb. In this interview with Elizabeth Schaaf, Harris recounts his career as a local...

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Elaine Hassell was a teacher and chorister. Her husband, William J. Hassell, was an organist at the Ames Methodist Church. In this interview with Elizabeth Schaaf, Elaine Hassell discusses William's musical career and the musicians they associated with, including T. Henderson Kerr, W. Llewellyn Wilson, and Alfred Prettyman.

Abstract Langston Fitzgerald is a trumpeter who played for the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra from 1970 to 2003 and served on the Peabody Conservatory faculty. A past winner of the John F. Kennedy Center Stephen Sondheim Inspirational Teacher Award, he has also played with the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, D.C., and served as assistant principal trumpet with the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He has been principal trumpet and musical contractor of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society Orchestra...