In conjunction with this weekend's Blues, Views and BBQ Festival sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association's, jazz historian and Staples High School graduate Todd Bryant Weeks will speak about the great unsung Kansas City trumpeter and blues singer Oran ‘Hot Lips’ Page on Saturday, September 20, 2008 at 11:00 a.m. in the McManus Room. Weeks, who has taught Jazz History and Introduction to Music at Rutgers University and has lectured at the Institute of Jazz Studies in Newark, is the author of Luck's In My Corner: The Life and Music of Hot Lips Page. He will show rare photos, play musical excerpts, and discuss Kansas City Jazz and Page’s influence in the development of this swinging and highly accessible musical form.
Jazz trumpeter Page was born in Dallas, Texas and learned to play piano from his mother. By the time he was twelve, he had added clarinet, saxophone and trumpet to his repertoire. He was initiated into the professional musical scene with a band that accompanied Gertrude "Ma" Rainey; the other groups that he performed with include Troy Flody, the Blue devils and Bennie Moten. He went out on his own during the 1930's-1950's touring throughout the U. S. and Europe. He played and recorded with Bud Freeman, Joe Marsala, Don Redman, Artie Shaw and Ethel Waters. His trumpet playing and bluesy singing was quite similar to Louis Armstrong.
Here is an example of his superlative musicianship: