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Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D159418-1
Date(s)
- 1970-12-12 (Creation)
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Name of creator
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Ragtime great Joe Jordan posed with family and friends on December 12, 1970, in his home at 1501 Yakima Ave. So. Gwendolyn Bryant (violinist), Ella Mae Crawford (soprano), granddaughter Kimi Ginn, and Kim Brown (seated) would be involved in a tribute to Mr. Jordan entitled "Reminiscing with Joe Jordan," shown on KTPS-TV on January 12, 1971. Composer of "Old Black Crow," "Lovie Joe," and "Until," orchestra leader, and successful businessman, Mr. Jordan relocated to the Pacific Northwest at the age of 62 when the US Army invited him to join as a captain and because of his musical expertise, organize musical entertainment for black troops in the then-segregated military. He liked the area so much he decided to stay. He wrote "Dear Lincoln" for Lincoln H. S., a school that no one in his family attended; "Go Giants" for Tacoma's Pacific Coast League baseball team; and he even wrote a state song considered much jauntier than the official one. Mr. Jordan had written music for Ginger Rogers, Ethel Merman, Josephine Baker and Blossom Seeley, among others, and had worked extensively with Orson Wells and Florenz Ziegfeld, Jr. A 600-piece collection of Mr. Jordan's scores, photographs, legal documents, letters and posters was discovered packed away in the family home some 30-years after his 1971 death by his granddaughter Kimi Ginn Rabun. This collection was donated to Virginia's Hampton University, a historically black university, to become the "Joe Jordan Ragtime Jazz and Entrepreneurship Collection." (TNT 6-14-06-Kathleen Merryman article; TNT 1-8-71, p. 13) TPL-9511
Jordan, Joe; Musicians--Tacoma--1970-1980; Bryant, Gwendolyn; Crawford, Ella Mae; Rabun, Kimi Ginn; Brown, Kim; Pianos;