Pittsburgh's illustrious musical history (Penn, Dawson: construction, nightclubs, rich)

[gg]

Originally Posted by guy2073

They just played at the music fest in the north side last month

Damn really? I wish I could see the Buzz Poets as well. Loved that band.

[anthony_c55]

Originally Posted by RetireinPA

Donnie Iris (we actually know him), the Granati brothers, B E Taylor (his christmas shows at the scottish rites were stellar), Grushecky(with and without the houserockers), Norm Nardini (with and without Tigers), Rick witkowski...and of course...the clarks.

Springsteen joined Grushecky at Nick's at least once. I know they collaborated etc as well.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by cfalie

They appeared at the Warhol - either at it's opening or soon after, in the 90s.

Wow! I just painted a Mt. Washington Air BNB with that same replica banana Warhol painting!!

[BUILD PENN SQUARE]

Betty Davis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Davis

"Betty Gray Mabry was born in Durham, North Carolina, on July 26, 1944. She developed an interest in music when she was about ten, and was introduced to various blues musicians by her grandmother, Beulah Blackwell, while staying at her farm in Reidsville. At 12, she wrote one of her first songs, "I'm Going to Bake That Cake of Love". The family relocated to Homestead, Pennsylvania, so her father, Henry Mabry, could work at a Pennsylvania steel mill. Davis attended and graduated Homestead High School She decided to pursue a career in show business after watching her father dance like Elvis Presley.

In 1980, Davis' father died which prompted her return to the US to live with her mother in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Davis struggled to overcome her father's death, and subsequent mental illness. She acknowledged that she suffered a setback at the time, but stayed in Homestead, accepted the end of her career, and lived a quiet life."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq85m8gLc1A


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpuDoR_L0M0

[svband76]

Thanks. So much great old music yet to discover. This is great stuff.

[anthony_c55]

Originally Posted by BUILD PENN SQUARE

Betty Davis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Davis

"Betty Gray Mabry was born in Durham, North Carolina, on July 26, 1944. She developed an interest in music when she was about ten, and was introduced to various blues musicians by her grandmother, Beulah Blackwell, while staying at her farm in Reidsville. At 12, she wrote one of her first songs, "I'm Going to Bake That Cake of Love". The family relocated to Homestead, Pennsylvania, so her father, Henry Mabry, could work at a Pennsylvania steel mill. Davis attended and graduated Homestead High School She decided to pursue a career in show business after watching her father dance like Elvis Presley.

In 1980, Davis' father died which prompted her return to the US to live with her mother in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Davis struggled to overcome her father's death, and subsequent mental illness. She acknowledged that she suffered a setback at the time, but stayed in Homestead, accepted the end of her career, and lived a quiet life."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq85m8gLc1A


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpuDoR_L0M0

I wasn't familiar with her. That's some funky 70s stuff.

[wpipkins2]

Originally Posted by BUILD PENN SQUARE

Betty Davis

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_Davis

"Betty Gray Mabry was born in Durham, North Carolina, on July 26, 1944. She developed an interest in music when she was about ten, and was introduced to various blues musicians by her grandmother, Beulah Blackwell, while staying at her farm in Reidsville. At 12, she wrote one of her first songs, "I'm Going to Bake That Cake of Love". The family relocated to Homestead, Pennsylvania, so her father, Henry Mabry, could work at a Pennsylvania steel mill. Davis attended and graduated Homestead High School She decided to pursue a career in show business after watching her father dance like Elvis Presley.

In 1980, Davis' father died which prompted her return to the US to live with her mother in Homestead, Pennsylvania. Davis struggled to overcome her father's death, and subsequent mental illness. She acknowledged that she suffered a setback at the time, but stayed in Homestead, accepted the end of her career, and lived a quiet life."


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq85m8gLc1A


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpuDoR_L0M0

Homestead was a black powerhouse not to long ago. The first female radio disc jockey (who happens to be black) was a homestead native. All of the older black people that I know from Homestead were well off and connected. I am fascinated by the borough.

[BUILD PENN SQUARE]

i know craig davis - good dude

Pittsburgh jazz pianist revives Dodo Marmarosa's music with a new album

https://www.post-gazette.com/ae/musi...s/202212140078

"The album is an exploration of the music of jazz pianist Michael “Dodo” Marmarosa, a Pittsburgh talent who played with Charlie Parker, Lester Young and many others before his career was cut short due to mental illness.

Davis says his music as deserving of wider recognition."

[svband76]

For what it's worth, B.E. Taylor, a moderately successful tri-state area musician and singer, sure created a nice little cottage industry with his very popular Christmas Show the last years of his short life. A super genuinely nice guy who I miss.

[BUILD PENN SQUARE]

How Mary Cardwell Dawson and her opera company influenced Pittsburgh’s music scene

https://www.wesa.fm/arts-sports-cult...hs-music-scene

"A vine-covered, boarded-up Queen Anne-style mansion sits on Apple Street in Pittsburgh’s Homewood neighborhood. While the building might not look like much now, it was once home to the National Negro Opera Company, the first and the longest-running Black opera company in the U.S. And its creator, Mary Cardwell Dawson, was the leader of a movement to make classical music more accessible to Black audiences in Pittsburgh and around the country.

Although her life was defined by multiple cities, Pittsburgh community members are trying to give her musical legacy and activism a permanent home in Pittsburgh."

“She [was] adopted by Pittsburghers, very well-respected,” Black said. “Her music school, as far as I know, had one famous pupil. And that was the jazz pianist Ahmad Jamal, and he remained close to her throughout his life.” Jamal, a graduate of Westinghouse High School, began lessons with Dawson at age 7 and has been a jazz band leader for six decades."