Hines (Earl "Fatha") Collection, 1903-1983,, bulk bulk 1903-1983

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Summary

Title:
Earl "Fatha" Hines collection
Dates:
1903-1983,, bulk bulk 1903-1983
Creators:
Hines, Earl "Fatha"
Abstract:
Collection of items relating to the personal and musical life of Earl "Fatha" Hines, jazz pianist and bandleader.
Extent:
Number of containers: 27 Linear feet: 32.1
Language:
Collection materials are in English
Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Earl "Fatha" Hines Collection, ARCHIVES HINES 1, Music Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Background

Scope and content:

This collection contains papers, correspondence, compositions, and realia of and pertaining to Earl Hines. In addition to material of biographical interest, the collection also includes many charts (i.e., arrangements) used by his various performing ensembles.

Biographical / historical:

(b Duquesne, PA, 28 Dec 1903; d Oakland, CA, 22 April 1983). American jazz pianist and bandleader. He studied the trumpet briefly with his father, took his first piano lessons with his mother, and later studied with other teachers in Pittsburgh. He first played professionally in 1918, accompanying the singer Lois Deppe, with whom he later made his first recordings; his earnings allowed him to study with two local pianists.

Hines moved to Chicago in 1923. He played with Carroll Dickerson's orchestra at the Entertainers Club (c1925), on a 42-week tour to the West Coast and Canada (1925-6) and back in Chicago at the Sunset Club. During this last engagement Hines and his fellow sideman Louis Armstrong doubled as members of Erskine Tate's Vendome Theater Orchestra. In 1927 Hines became director of Dickerson's group under Armstrong's nominal leadership and at the end of the year he joined Jimmie Noone's band at the Apex Club. In 1928 Hines recorded several titles with Noone, including Apex Blues (1928, Voc.), and made a series of influential recordings with Armstrong, among them the highly original trumpet and piano duet Weather Bird (1928, OK); he also recorded a group of solos for QRS.

On his 25th birthday Hines inaugurated his own band at the Grand Terrace in Chicago, where he played for ten years; the band became known through nationwide tours and, from 1934, radio broadcasts. Until 1947 he continued to lead big bands, featuring such important figures as Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie and many others. From 1948 to 1951 Hines played with Armstrong's All Stars and afterwards worked with small groups led by himself and others, attracting critical notice in the mid-1960s for his solo, trio and quartet playing. He led his own small band into the 1980s, and continued to perform regularly in the USA and abroad until the weekend before his death.

[From The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]

Arrangement:

Arranged to the container level.

Accruals:

No additions are expected.

Physical location:
For current information on the location of these materials, please consult the Library's online catalog.
Rules or conventions:
Finding aid prepared using Describing Archives: a Content Standard

About this collection guide

Collection Guide Author:
Finding Aid written by Matthew Weber
Date Prepared:
© 2007
Date Encoded:
Machine-readable finding aid generated by Finding Aid author(s) via EAD XPress; markup validated by Music Library staff using OAC validation tools; Date of source: June 2011

Access and use

Restrictions:

Collection is open for research.

Terms of access:

All requests for permission to publish or quote from manuscripts must be submitted in writing to the Head of the Music Library.

Preferred citation:

[Identification of item], Earl "Fatha" Hines Collection, ARCHIVES HINES 1, Music Library, University of California, Berkeley.

Location of this collection:
Jean Gray Hargrove Music Library
Berkeley, CA 94720-6000, US
Contact:
(510) 642-2623
music_reference@berkeley.edu
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