Word: piano
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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They were all there-Cab Calloway, Earl ("Fatha") Hines, Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, J. J. Johnson, Gerry Mulligan and scores of others. It was not a Bourbon Street reunion of the jazz giants, nor were they stompin' at the Savoy. The man tinkling out Happy Birthday on the piano-with authority-was none other than a fellow named Dick Nixon, President of the U.S. "I've never seen the place like this," exclaimed a venerable White House butler as he distributed glasses of champagne from a silver tray. "It sure has lots of soul tonight...
...part-time butler in Harding's day, and in the past the Duke himself has been honored with membership on the National Arts Council. But it was by far his most pleasant experience with a President. Besides Nixon's Happy Birthday, played on the eagle-legged piano of the East Room stage, Vice President Spiro T. Agnew sat down to play two of Ellington's own compositions, Sophisticated Lady and In a Sentimental Mood, in a surprisingly light, sophisticated style...
...black support in just such a manner. The chances are that they would be wrong in this case. The idea for the party was suggested by Nixon's old New York associate Charles McWhorter, a jazz buff, and Nixon, no jazz fan but the first piano-playing President since Harry Truman, enthusiastically endorsed it. Ellington did not participate in anyone's campaign and, in fact, had not even met Nixon until the day of the party. The traditional political types were not invited, and the guest list was limited almost entirely to the Duke's old friends...
...evening began with an attractive if unremarkable sonata for violin and piano by Michael Friedman. The violin writing was awkward rather than intelligently varied, suffering from repetitious phrase-length and dynamic graduations. The two instruments were carelessly counterpoised in a discontinuously rhapsodic style...
Died. Amparo Iturbi, 70, José Iturbi's younger sister and a piano virtuoso in her own right; of a brain tumor; in Beverly Hills. Though overshadowed by her brother, Amparo carved out a successful career with orchestras in the U.S. and abroad; she won special acclaim for her interpretations of Granados' difficult "Goyescas...