Randallopry

Here’s a short video I found from when I saw the opera Pagliacci in Verona in 2006.  In the summer, the city hosts operas in the Roman Arena built in AD 30.  The acoustics are amazing in the arena and it’s really a unique experience to see something like this.  I have another video from the intermezzo of La Cavalleria Rusticana that I’ll post at some point.  

Earl “Fatha” Hines describes the evolution of his piano technique.  

Two ads I came across while browsing the old papers. There were tons of ads for pianos in the 20s, different times.

Using google’s newspaper archive search and the UGA library’s historical catalog of the AJC, I was able to find these documents about my great grandfather Fred Leon Rand.  He was an architect in Atlanta, and this advertisement from 1927 marked the opening of his own architecture office.  He was also a filmmaker and we still have some of his 16mm footage from the 20s and 30s.  In the photo above, he’s pictured in the middle. Amazing guy, proud to carry his name.  

Just happened to be browsing the February 25th, 1959 edition of the Eugene Register-Guard from Eugene, Oregon when I stumbled upon this article about Athens, Ga.  Dave Brubeck was set to perform on the UGA campus in 1959 but the show was cancelled by the University because the bass player was “a negro”. It’s also ironic that the article names the bassist “Eugene White” while his real name is Eugene Wright. I don’t remember hearing anything about this when Brubeck was in town a year or two ago, but I could have missed it. Here’s the article:

Jazz Show Called Off

ATHENS, Ga. - A March 4 jazz concert featuring Dave Brubeck has been canceled because the bass player is a Negro.

President Stuart Woods of the sponsoring University of Georgia Jazz Societ, a senior from Manchester, Ga., said the society learned Monday that one of the performers was a Negro. 

When notified of this, university officials decreed that the group, on of the top jazz bands in the country, could not perform on the university campus, Woods said.

Brubeck reached by Woods in New York, termed the decree “unconstitutional and ridiculous.”  Asked if he would play without the Negro, Eugene White, Brubeck was quoted by Woods as saying, “not for a million dollars.”