DOROTHY DONEGAN (The greatest pianist you never heard) Jazz History #27

welcome to jazz history your host and narrator is chase sanborn art tatum said of his student dorothy donegan she's the only one who can make me practice donegan said of her teacher he's supposed to be blind i know he can see women despite being a virtuoso pianist who had a long career there's a good chance you've never heard of dorothy donegan she's definitely in the category of unsung hero or talent deserving wider recognition dunagan was born in 1923 and she grew up in chicago she had early piano training and she studied at the chicago music college and the university of southern california she was the first black instrumentalist to play a concert at orchestra hall in chicago which brought her national attention ultimately though a career as a classical pianist would have been impeded by both her race and her gender and she wound up blending her substantial classical technique with jazz styles especially stride and boogie woogie sometimes moving from one to the other within the same song this clip is an example of that it's from a film called sensations of 1945. performing with cab calloway's band in duet with fellow pianist gene rogers dorothy begins with a piece by franz liszt which soon morphs into jazz with a bit of comedy shtick on the side [Music] do [Music] so [Music] [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] do [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] i should say a quick word about cab calloway who you saw in that clip callaway was a banned leader and a vocalist who also understood the value of showmanship as you might have gathered from his conducting style in 1931 callaway took over from duke ellington as leader of the band at the cotton club and he recorded a number of hit songs the best known being minnie the moocher which was the first song by a black artist to sell a million copies that tune made it back onto the charts in 1978 when callaway released a disco version and in 1980 he attracted a whole new set of fans with his appearance in the blues brothers movie in the way that donegan combined virtuoso musical ability with comedy you could compare it a fat swallower and maybe victor borga it worked to her advantage in some regards but to her detriment in others as a woman may be criticized for character traits that would be admired in a man quoting ben ratcliffe in the new york times her flamboyance helped her find work in a field that was largely hostile to women to a certain extent it was also her downfall her concerts were often criticized for having an excess of personality donegan performed well into her 70s but she didn't start to receive attention commensurate with her talent until late in her career in her last decade she received an american jazz master fellowship from the national endowment for the arts and an honorary doctorate from roosevelt university in her hometown of chicago donegan felt and she expressed that sexism had been an impediment to her career for example getting pushback when she expected the same rate of pay as a man in this photo we see her at the start of her career in 1944 sitting with billie holliday irene kitchins and drummer kenny clark kitchens was a pianist and a composer who worked with billy holliday and also composed with arthur herzog this is a 1946 cover shot from ebony magazine which was founded the year before the goal for the magazine was stated in the first issue we like to look at the zesty side of life sure you can get all hot and bothered about the race question and don't think we don't but not enough is said about all the swell things we negroes can do and will accomplish ebony will try to mirror the happier side of negro life the positive everyday achievements from harlem to hollywood but when we talk about race as the number one problem of america we'll talk turkey here's dorothy donegan in 1996 near the end of her life performing in front of the count basie band basie was gone by that time so it was being led by trombonist grover mitchell the mc on this show is steve allen allen was a tv personality the original host of the tonight show before johnny carson he was also a prolific composer and a pianist who would likewise blend sharp wit with musical performance donegan shows that even in her final years she had lost little in the way of chops or personality [Applause] uh so [Music] my so do [Music] so [Music] thank you so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] okay [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Music] so [Applause] you

Channel: Chase Sanborn

Views: 312,393

Keywords: jazz history, jazz history course, jazz history documentary, jazz history lecture, jazz history lessons, jazz history podcast, jazz history tutorial, the history of jazz, great jazz piano players, canadian jazz musicians, jazz piano players, dorothy donegan, lesser known jazz piano players, women in jazz, female jazz piano players, woman jazz piano player, women jazz piano players

Id: KJ7OLTl-HRE

Length: 15min 26sec (926 seconds)

Published: Mon May 16 2022