JazzForum: The Jazz History of Indianapolis

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JazzForum: The Jazz History of Indianapolis
JAZZed
4
4
33-34
2009/07
eng
The crown jewel of the African American community in a segregated Indianapolis, Indiana, the Madame Walker Theatre still stands today. During its first year, in 1927, the venue began featuring an array of black entertainers from blues queen Mamie Smith and her Original Jazz Hounds to the Whitman Sisters. As a result, clubs lined Indiana Avenue, the theater's street, creating an active entertainment industry for the city's black population. These were the places where Indianapolis musicians learned to survive and thrive. They jammed freely with the big name artists that came through town. There were homegrown virtuosos who left the city for the West Coast. Indianapolis' Crispus Attucks High School became a haven of African American scholarship and achievement and ground zero for an explosion of jazz.
Villes et régions , Éducation