Oscar Rivers, Jr. is the quintessential representative of the Charleston-Orangeburg, South Carolina jazz connection. In the 1950’s, the Burke High School saxophone prodigy went to South Carolina State College where he built a reputation that still stands.
Rivers is a master bebop player, somewhere around Charlie Parker and Sonny Stitt, with whom he played in Chicago [...]
George Kenny, a native Charlestonian, received his first musical experiences as a trumpet player at Burke High School in Charleston. He later trained as a saxophonist after enlisting in the United States Air Force (Korea), and then attended South Carolina State College (now South Carolina State University) earning a bachelor of science degree in music [...]
Former educator, politician and professional musician, Lonnie Hamilton III is an alto saxophonist and clarinetist in Charleston. He toured with the Jenkins Orphanage Bands during the mid-1940s, and played with his own band, Lonnie Hamilton and the Diplomats, the signature jazz band in Charleston for decades. Hamilton’s Diplomats was the house band for a very [...]
As a solo artist, ensemble vocalist, and music producer, Ann Caldwell is Charleston’s “first lady of jazz.” Performing locally for decades, Caldwell is a jazz and blues singer, and is greatly influenced by the past. She has performed a series of centennial concerts devoted to the music of Duke Ellington and formed the Magnolia Singers [...]
A native of Awendaw, SC, Charlton Singleton started playing the piano at the age of 3. While his older sister and brother took 30 minute lessons, Charlton would watch and then eventually “pick out” what he heard and observed in their lessons. His parents would eventually ask the teacher to include him in the weekly [...]
Legends, CJI’s first recording, features music from the early 20th century to 2010 that documents Charleston’s influence in the jazz performance traditions of many of this country’s big bandleaders, sidemen, and soloists. It marks the first CD recording of tunes composed, arranged or performed by musicians of Charleston and South Carolina’s rich jazz legacy.
In June [...]
