RUFFIN: NOW, A JAZZ MOMENT

Backwater Blues up, under

NEA JAZZ MASTER LORRAINE GORDON LOVE FOR JAZZ GOES BACK TO HER ADOLESCENCE WHEN SHE AND HER FRIENDS FORMED A LISTENING GROUP CALLED "THE HOT CLUB."

GORDON: Jazz can be hot, and everybody knows what that means if you like jazz. It was just a group of kids in Newark that found each other and we had a meeting house, the neighborhood house, it was called. And we'd all have a topic that we'd have to come and bring to, and discuss and our records that we liked. And, say, we don't know who's on this record, does it sound like Louis Armstrong or is it Bix Beiderbecke, you know we had to identify. And it was wonderful, and we loved it. That was my beginning of, well, it was a part of growing up and loving jazz. 

Backwater Blues up, under

THIS JAZZ MOMENT WITH JAZZ ADVOCATE LORRAINE GORDON WAS PRODUCED BY THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS.
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Excerpt of "Backwater Blues" written and performed by Bessie Smith with  James P. Johnson, from the album Essential Bessie Smith, used courtesy of Sony Music Entertainment and used by permission of the MPL Communications (BMI).