With the increased vaccination of people in our region against COVID-19, 2021 looks to be the start of a new “roaring 20’s” of a sort. Back then, as the economy was coming back from the Great War and the 1918 Flu pandemic, the music scene in Pittsburgh was a part of that “roar.”
Yet, many of the artists from that era in Pittsburgh are not remembered, today.
Pianist and historian Tom Roberts is working to lift some covers on that forgetting - and finding new artists from 100 years ago that deserve to be heard.
We visit with Tom about that - including Pittsburgh natives like Babe and Frank Russin, and Hildred and Frank “Fat man” Humphries (uncles of Pittsburgh drumming icon and mentor Roger Humphries).
Tom has a ZOOM program being hosted by Alphabet City on June 3 about Jazz: Lost Pittsburgh Found.
We also look at what is starting, with summer jazz gearing up, and rescheduled events being announced.
Babe Russin
Tom Roberts by Scott Hanley, WZUM