Are you aware of the fundamental role the Southwest specifically Texas and Oklahoma played in the creation of jazz?

Do you know how many essential jazz pioneers had Native American ancestry?

Here’s a short list:

Eddie Durham, Mildred Bailey, Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Carl Fischer, Jim Pepper, Oscar Pettiford, Jimmy Blanton, Doc Cheatham, Lenny Breau, Don Cherry, Ornette Coleman, Lionel Hampton, Kid Ory, Lena Horne and Jack Teagarden – just to name a few.

No music here.

Just some essential – and mostly untold – American history from the great William Loren Katz (1940-2019)