Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Southern California Fires Hit the Jazz Community
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
The “Albert Ammons Centennial Concert” will celebrate the 100th birthday anniversary of the late jazz and boogie woogie pianist Sept. 22 at Chicago’s historic First United Methodist Church. Ammons is credited with helping popularize boogie woogie music during the ‘30s, and he played with such jazz luminaries as Count Basie and Benny Goodman
The performance brings together several of the finest boogie woogie musicians in the world. Saxophonist Franz Jackson, 94, played his first professional gig with Ammons at age 16 in 1929. Five pianists include Axel Zwingenberger of Hamburg, Germany; Erwin Helfer of Chicago; Carl “Sonny” Leyland of Los Angeles; Bob Seeley of Detroit; and Butch Thompson of St. Paul, Minn. Also appearing will be his granddaughter, jazz vocalist Lila Ammons, of Minneapolis, and his son, Bishop Edsel Albert Ammons, of Evanston, Ill.
The musical program will be divided into three parts:
“The Early Years” (1907-1920s)
“The Boogie Years” (1930s-1940s)
“Beyond Albert” (1950s to Today)
Tickets are $25 at the door, online at albert-ammons.com or by check payable to the Albert Ammons Concert and mailed to the church at 77 W. Washington St., Chicago, IL, 60602. Proceeds will go to the Jazz Institute of Chicago’s Jazz Links Program, an educational program providing training and opportunities for students in public schools in Chicago.
Gerald and John Clayton at the family home in Altadena during a photo shoot for the June 2022 cover of DownBeat. The house was lost during the Los Angeles fires.
Jan 21, 2025 7:54 PM
Roy McCurdy and his wife had just finished eating dinner and were relaxing over coffee in their Altadena home, when he…
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