Author Archives: Diana - Page 12
A Portrait of William Russell
by Michael Slatter In 1905 the first great chapter in the jazz drama was drawing to its close in New Orleans with the approaching mental breakdown of Buddy Bolden. Sadly, this chapter was poorly documented, yet on February 26th of that same year, in Canton, Missouri, a man was born who, in later years, was to do more for the music of New Orleans than any other single individual. Once described, by photographer-lecturer Sam Rosenberg,…
Bill Russell YouTube Videos
A collection of YouTube videos about Bill Russell. It's actually quite tricky to find them amongst the Bill Russell basketball player and Bill Russell artist videos. Here is silent motion footage of Bill Russell with the legendary Bunk Johnson in 1946 at Washington Square in New York City. Presumably this is when he was playing with George Lewis at the Stuyvesant Casino, New York, , in June 1946. Also pictured is Bunk's wife Maude. Bill…
Annotated Bibliography – Bill Russell
This was compiled by Ben Wagner. DOWNLOAD "Bill Russell annotated bibliography" PDF
William Russell Jazz Collection at the Historic New Orleans Collection
42,500 items tracing the development of jazz in New Orleans that follows the migration of New Orleans musicians to New York, Chicago, California and beyond. William Russell, born Russell William Wagner (1905-1992), was a jazz historian and collector who focused on traditional New Orleans style jazz. The William Russell Jazz Collection documents his lifetime of studying New Orleans jazz and related musical forms such as brass bands, ragtime, and gospel music. Mr. Russell amassed…
Bill Russell Obituary – The Independent
William Wagner ('Bill') Russell, jazz historian, violinist, composer, producer, born Canton Missouri 26 February 1905, died New Orleans 9 August 1992. ONE OF the most shameful and yet most productive periods in the history of jazz was at the time of the internecine wars between the followers of New Orleans jazz and those of the then new be-bop music. It has never been clear why the former, characterised by sandals and scraggy beards, were known…
North Side Convergence
I discovered that multiple branches of my tree lived in North Side, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where I was born at exactly the same time. They probably were riding on the same trolleys and shopping at the same stores. Earnest Thornton and Helen Strawser, my paternal grandparents, moved to North Side Pittsburgh around 1929 to find work. William Weiler and his daughter Louise Weiler (my maternal grandmother), moved to North Side Pittsburgh in 1927 to pastor a…
Observations
As I go through the documents and photos, I have made various observations: None of the photos ever show the women pregnant, and yet most were pregnant most of their lives. In the few photos that show hands, married people often don't have wedding rings. I noticed this in photos of my maternal great grandparents Addie and Rev. Weiler, as well as a photo of Theo and Susan Hanning. Some of the people in a…
Addie’s Duck
This incident happened at the home of Addie Hanning Weiler when she lived alone in Loveland, OH, after her husband, Rev. William Weiler had passed away. It was the custom of the Paul Weiler family to visit her regularly almost every week. This was to do her weekly grocery shopping and see what else might be needed. Daughter Ophelia had brought to her a cute, small duck which had been given to her children as…
Snippets, Anecdotes and Shorts
As I enter data into the family tree, I discover interesting snippets that I extract that would otherwise be buried in the thousands of records. Stories and anecdotes handed down in the family or written up in the local newspaper: One day William Giegerich's father Nick came in his grocery store (in Canton) and told him "You know somebody shot at me this morning." What William didn't tell him was that he'd been cleaning his…
Quirky coincidences
Interesting but meaningless (or not???) coincidences discovered in the records on both sides of my family. Do you know of any interesting stories or coincidences? Please email me so I can add them here. The Vespers (on my mother's side) came to America on a ship called the Diana. The Wagners (also on my mother's side) came on a ship called the Eliza Thornton. Elizabeth Vesper married John Wagner, whose great great granddaughter's name was…