Pittsburgh is a foundational city of this American music we call “jazz.”

Earl “Fatha” Hines” was a major jazz figure from Duquesne, PA who influenced the musical world. Called “Fatha” because he was, early in his career, considered the father of what became jazz piano.

Earl Hines is at long-last being recognized for his historical importance by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission with a marker to be located his hometown of Duquesene, which was approved and announced in March 2021.

The markers share a fabulous and broad array of stories from where we live, and the 2021 class included recognition for Earl Hines, Andy Warhol, Stan Musial and other people and places worthy of recognition.

We checked with the Pennsylvania Historical & Museum Commission on what the status was on the Earl Hines marker, and according to Howard Pollman at the commission, there had been delay since the pandemic, and things are moving forward. The marker to celebrate Earl Hines’ Duquesne roots is currently being manufactured and the unveiling will be set up by the City of Duquesne, soon.

In our program, we also find a connection to black history month that goes well beyond jazz - famed black entrepreneur (and vocalist) Madam CJ Walker spent years in Pittsburgh as here businesses grew, and had an important role in the musical life of an Earl Hines mentor and onetime Pittsburgh musician, vocalist Lois Deppe.

WZUM has also made connections with the last singer to tour with Fatha, Marva Josie of Clariton, PA - her comments on how she came to spend 16 years on the road with Hines are worth hearing - as is her music with him from 1970.

Connections

We’ll look and listen into some of Earl Hines’ influences, and his own words about how he developed his performing style from a 1963 appearance on the early public television program, Jazz Casual. We’ll also hear from contemporary jazz experts on Hines - Tom Roberts and Dr. Nelson Harrison.

We’ll also hear music from another Pittsburgher who was very important in the career of Earl Hines - a gentleman singer named Lois Deppe. Lois Deppe performed widely with Earl Hines, including at the Leader House (precursor to Crawford’s Grill). In 1921, there are many reports of Deppe and Hines performing a duet on KDKA radio, which is considered the first live radio appearance by African American artists on radio in the US - a performance that was also heard over loudspeaker on Wylie Avenue in the Hill.

Deppe’s career later included work with notables like the influential McKinney’s Cotton Pickers from Detroit, bandleader/arranger Fletcher Henderson, and legendary players like tenor saxophonist Coleman Hawkins and bassist John Kirby (who would later marry another influential Pittsburgh native, vocalist Ernestine Anderson).

Another fascinating connection to this story is the African American entrepreneur, Madam C. J. Walker. Her career in women’s hair products made her a multi-millionaire - and in 1908-1910, she lived and worked in Pittsburgh. In 1910, she moved to Indianapolis where she started a larger beauty products factory, but she still, apparently, had her eye on Pittsburgh. As a singer and a patron of the arts, Walker brought a young Lois Deppe to perform in Indianapolis in 1913 (when he was age 16). She later brought Deppe to New York City and had him study with Enrico Caruso's vocal coach, Buzzi Pecci. By 1917, back in Pittsburgh, Deppe recruited a very young Earl Hines as his pianist for solo recitals and for his band, Deppe’s Serenaders for several years. The Serenaders are considered the first “swing band” in the history of Pittsburgh cited as performing at Pittsburgh's Paramount Inn as early as 1919. Deppe and Hines also recorded other music beyond popular sounds of the day - including a 1924 Gannett recording of “Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child” which was featured in an episode of the HBO series “Boardwalk Empire.”

In an interview with Melody Maker in 1954, another Pittsburgh jazz legend, Mary Lou Williams, recalled Lois Deppe:

One of our local characters, one of the most famed was Lois Deppe, the popular baritone singer who had been around since 1918 or earlier. His band was the talk of Pennsylvania, and at that time included the great Earl Hines -- a local boy from nearby Carnegie -- and Vance Dixon on saxophone and clarinet. Wherever Deppe's band appeared, the kids from all around were sure to go -- and when Vance started to slap-tongue on that saxophone they really went wild. Numbers I remember the band doing were Milenberg Joys, Isabelle and Congaine. The last two were recorded by Deppe in the early Twenties.

Earl Hines moved on to Chicago around 1924 after the strong encouragement to Earl and his parents by Eubie Blake (a friend of Hines’ Aunt Sadie). In Chicago, by 1927-28, the connection of Earl Hines to Louis Armstrong became revolutionary. Combining these two innovative players in the late 1920’s changed the sound of jazz, popular music and America. Hines would influence Art Tatum, Erroll Garner, Nat “King” Cole and legions more.

Earl “Fatha” HInes, December 28, 1903 – April 22, 1983. When not on the road, he spent the last three decades of his life in Oakland, California. After his passing, his estate donated to the University of California, Berkley for the Earl "Fatha" Hines Young Musicians Development Fund for the campus's Young Musicians Program, which provides year-round, individualized instruction to musically gifted low-income students in grades four to 12 at no cost to their families. Paricipants in the program have included saxophonist Joshua Redman, pianist Benny Green, and drummer Will Kennedy.

Take a dip into the history of jazz piano with Earl “Fatha” Hines on WZUM

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