Lawrence Lucie (1907-2009), der hier das Banjo schrammelt, im Interview (2007):
Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong. They were all great. I’m on many of their records. I can’t even name all the records I am on. After Louis‘ band, I went into the Army. After the Army, I started playing solo guitar.
I did it all. I had my own record company, so that I could record my own songs. I had several hit songs. I’d make more money if I owned my recordings. I also had a music publishing company and I wrote arrangements for Columbia Records; John Hammond was a good friend of mine. He was a very nice fellow. He’d come to Harlem when I was playing with Benny Carter’s band at the Cotton Club.
The bands playing today are playing the same things as the older bands. They learned from the older bands.
I retired when I was 99. I’ve been playing all my life. My final gig was solo guitar at Arturo’s Restaurant in Greenwich Village. I had an apartment in the Village before I moved to a retirement home. I have my guitar with me in my room. I sold the other ones. I had so many guitars that I had to get rid of them. Now I just have one. I haven’t played now for a while.
https://www.freddiegreen.org/interviews/lawrencelucie.html
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"Don't play what the public want. You play what you want and let the public pick up on what you doin' -- even if it take them fifteen, twenty years." (Thelonious Monk) | Meine Sendungen auf Radio StoneFM: gypsy goes jazz, #164: Neuheiten aus dem Archiv, 10.6., 22:00 | Slow Drive to South Africa, #8: tba | No Problem Saloon, #30: tba