Terry Waldo
Encyclopedia
Terry Waldo is an American pianist, composer, and historian of early jazz, blues, and stride
music, and is best known for his contribution to the genre of ragtime
and his role in reviving interest in this form, starting in the 1970s. Says Wynton Marsalis
in his introduction to Waldo’s book: “He teaches Ragtime, he talks about Ragtime, he plays it, he embodies it, he lives it, and he keeps Ragtime alive.” The book, This is Ragtime, published in 1976, grew out of the series of the same title that Waldo produced for NPR in 1974. Waldo is also a theatrical music director, producer, vocalist, and teacher. He is noted for his wit and humor in performance, as “a monologist in the dry, Middle Western tradition.” Eubie Blake
describes his first impression of Waldo’s performance thus: “I died laughing… that’s one of the hardest things to do––make people laugh. Terry’s ability to do this, combined with his musicianship, actually reminds me of Fats Waller
.”
in Kansas City, Missouri, and is considered to be one of the most extensive in the world. As a child, Waldo also listened to Spike Jones
and Dixieland records, and became a record collector himself. At around the age of eight he began studying classical piano. The formal lessons continued for three years; in relatively short order he made the transition from classical to jazz and ragtime. He also learned how to play trumpet, tuba, string bass, cello, tympani drums, banjo, and organ. By 1961, he had organized his first band: The Fungus Five Plus Two (“our music grows on you,”) which appeared on Ted Mack
’s Original Amateur Hour
in 1963 right after Waldo graduated from high school. In 1969 Waldo met Eubie Blake
at the St. Louis Ragtime Festival. At this point, Waldo began a mentorship and lifelong friendship with the preeminent ragtime musician. Waldo studied piano with Blake from 1971 through 1983, although Blake qualifies their arrangement: “Now, I’m not going to say I taught Terry how to play, because he already knew his stuff when I met him...He has become not only a fine musician, but an excellent entertainer.” Waldo also studied piano with Sir Roland Hanna
, Dick Wellstood
, Jaki Byard
, and Peter Howard (Broadway conductor and arranger)
. The Red Garter, home to various banjo bands, was one of his venues. 1965 and 1966 found Waldo in San Francisco playing at another Red Garter, and at Earthquake Mcgoon’s, with West Coast jazz revival musicians. Against the current tide of rock and roll, the young ragtimer played with Turk Murphy
’s Jazz Band, and studied with other prominent jazz musicians such as Pops Foster
, Lu Watters
, Wally Rose
, and Clancy Hayes
, all the while living in a room above Mcgoon’s for one dollar per day.
Back in Ohio, Waldo pulled together a new band, Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators, in 1969. This traditional jazz group included players Frank Powers, Roy Tate, and Jim Snyder – among many others – as the group reconvened over time up until recent years. The Syncopators performed at festivals and clubs and have made a number of recordings. This band attracted top musicians from Chicago and New York and featured such notable guest performers as Susan LaMarche, George Rock (of Spike Jones fame), Ruth Brisbane and Edith Wilson (singer)
.
Waldo went to New York City in the early 1970’s, where he began playing at legendary jazz clubs including The Cookery, The Village Gate
, Hanratty's, and The Knickerbocker. Waldo's twenty-six part NPR series, This is Ragtime, aired in 1974 and helped fuel the 1970s ragtime revival. The book of the same title grew out of that series: first published in 1976, and subsequently republished in 1991 and 2009. Eubie Blake, who did the introduction for the book, credits his protégé thus: “Terry’s love of Ragtime goes back a long way, long before its ‘rediscovery.’ People then were always trying to talk him out of playing that ‘corny old stuff.’”
Meanwhile, Waldo continued to support the music scene of his native Ohio, forming Waldo’s Ragtime Orchestra in 1980. This group, composed largely of members of Columbus Jazz Arts Group, performed concerts and recorded two albums for Stomp Off Records, which were later reissued by the classical record labels, Musical Heritage Society and Sine Qua Non.
In 1984, The Gotham City Jazz Band was born. The band remains active through the present day, having recorded several albums, and headlining regularly at festivals, concerts, and venues in New York City including Michael's Pub, Symphony Space
and The Museum of Modern Art. Peter Ecklund
, Dan Barrett, Howard Alden
, Eddy Davis, Brian Nalepka, Chuck Wilson, and Arnie Kinsella, longtime associates, are but a few of the many superlative jazz and ragtime musicians who have been part of the group in its many incarnations over the years. Notable guests of the band include Odetta
, Leon Redbone
, Maurice Hines
, Susan La Marche, and Colleen Hawks.
To date, Waldo has produced and arranged more than 40 albums for many labels including Sony BMG, Blackbird Records, GHB Records, Stomp Off Records, Musical Heritage Society, Sine Qua Non, Metronome Records and Delmark Records
.
Television and film work include performances and compositions on The Tonight Show
, the PBS documentary Storyville: The Naked Dance, and Ken Burns
’s PBS documentary, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
. Terry has also worked as a composer for a number of his own albums as well as others including Leon Redbone. Terry's TV work has included a year as music director, talent and producer for the experimental and highly publicized two-way television operation, Warner Qube in 1978.
His work in New York City theatre includes credits as Music Director for shows such as Mr. Jelly Lord (directed by Vernel Bagneris), Playwrights Horizons production of Heliotrope Bouquet (directed by Joe Morton), Ambassador Satch (directed by André DeShields
), and Warren G (directed by Tom O'Horgan
), the Off-Broadway production of Shake That Thing! and Waldo's 1927 Revue.
Terry Waldo’s work as a teacher began in Ohio at Denison University
in the 1970s, with courses in jazz and ragtime history and in film, and continues to the present day with ragtime courses for Swing University for Jazz at Lincoln Center
in 2009, and a course in early jazz piano styles in 2010.
Waldo’s range of expertise (composing, arranging, writing, directing, and performing) has been evidenced across a wide spectrum of media and performing arts, as well as in his several one-man shows: Eubie and Me, and The Naked Dance: The Music of Storyville. He continues to produce his own shows and recordings along with his partner, Janice Lee, through Waldo/Lee Music Productions, Inc. Waldo/Lee recently provided production assistance for the latest revised edition of Waldo's book, This Is Ragtime for Jazz at Lincoln Center
Library Editions, as well as reissuing the radio series of the same title made for NPR
. The company is now developing a new Off-Broadway musical show for Waldo. Meanwhile, he continues a series of live performances in diverse venues including The Supreme Court, The Smithsonian Institute, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall (as a featured guest with the New York Pops) and The National Gallery of Arts in Washington.
Watrous, Peter. "Jazz Festival; The Ragtime Piano Man, Terry Waldo." The
New York Times. June 24, 1990.
Stride
Stride can stand for:* A period of locomotion defined by the complete cycle of a reference limb. See gait* In music:** STRIDE - An indie rock n roll band from North East Scotland** Stride , a type of piano playing...
music, and is best known for his contribution to the genre of ragtime
Ragtime
Ragtime is an original musical genre which enjoyed its peak popularity between 1897 and 1918. Its main characteristic trait is its syncopated, or "ragged," rhythm. It began as dance music in the red-light districts of American cities such as St. Louis and New Orleans years before being published...
and his role in reviving interest in this form, starting in the 1970s. Says Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Marsalis
Wynton Learson Marsalis is a trumpeter, composer, bandleader, music educator, and Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center. Marsalis has promoted the appreciation of classical and jazz music often to young audiences...
in his introduction to Waldo’s book: “He teaches Ragtime, he talks about Ragtime, he plays it, he embodies it, he lives it, and he keeps Ragtime alive.” The book, This is Ragtime, published in 1976, grew out of the series of the same title that Waldo produced for NPR in 1974. Waldo is also a theatrical music director, producer, vocalist, and teacher. He is noted for his wit and humor in performance, as “a monologist in the dry, Middle Western tradition.” Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
describes his first impression of Waldo’s performance thus: “I died laughing… that’s one of the hardest things to do––make people laugh. Terry’s ability to do this, combined with his musicianship, actually reminds me of Fats Waller
Fats Waller
Fats Waller , born Thomas Wright Waller, was a jazz pianist, organist, composer, singer, and comedic entertainer...
.”
Early life, Influences, and Training
The Waldo family moved to Columbus, Ohio, when Terry was about five years old. The move was especially serendipitous in that one of the neighbors, John Baker, happened to own a vast collection of jazz recordings, piano rolls and and jazz films; the association made a critical impression on the young Waldo. The film portion of John Baker’s collection was eventually acquired by the American Jazz MuseumAmerican Jazz Museum
The American Jazz Museum is a jazz museum in the United States. Located in the historic 18th and Vine district in Kansas City, Missouri, in a building also housing the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum, it preserves the history of the American music: jazz. The museum features exhibits on Charlie...
in Kansas City, Missouri, and is considered to be one of the most extensive in the world. As a child, Waldo also listened to Spike Jones
Spike Jones
Mel Blanc, the voice of Bugs Bunny and other Warner Brothers cartoon characters, performed a drunken, hiccuping verse for 1942's "Clink! Clink! Another Drink"...
and Dixieland records, and became a record collector himself. At around the age of eight he began studying classical piano. The formal lessons continued for three years; in relatively short order he made the transition from classical to jazz and ragtime. He also learned how to play trumpet, tuba, string bass, cello, tympani drums, banjo, and organ. By 1961, he had organized his first band: The Fungus Five Plus Two (“our music grows on you,”) which appeared on Ted Mack
Ted Mack
Ted Mack may refer to:*Ted Mack , Edward Mack, Australian politician*Ted Mack , born William Edward Maguiness, American television host...
’s Original Amateur Hour
Original Amateur Hour
The Original Amateur Hour is an American radio and television program. The show was a continuation of Major Bowes Amateur Hour which had been a radio staple from 1934 to 1945. Major Edward Bowes, the originator of the program and its master of ceremonies, left the show in 1945 and died the...
in 1963 right after Waldo graduated from high school. In 1969 Waldo met Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake
James Hubert Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, Blake and long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans...
at the St. Louis Ragtime Festival. At this point, Waldo began a mentorship and lifelong friendship with the preeminent ragtime musician. Waldo studied piano with Blake from 1971 through 1983, although Blake qualifies their arrangement: “Now, I’m not going to say I taught Terry how to play, because he already knew his stuff when I met him...He has become not only a fine musician, but an excellent entertainer.” Waldo also studied piano with Sir Roland Hanna
Roland Hanna
Roland Hanna was an American Jazz pianist.Hanna studied classical piano as a boy, but was strongly interested in jazz. This increased after his time in military service.He studied at Eastman School of Music and Juilliard School...
, Dick Wellstood
Dick Wellstood
Richard MacQueen "Dick" Wellstood was an American jazz pianist...
, Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard
Jaki Byard was an American jazz pianist and composer who also played trumpet and saxophone, among several other instruments. He was noteworthy for his eclectic style, incorporating everything from ragtime and stride to free jazz...
, and Peter Howard (Broadway conductor and arranger)
Peter Howard (Broadway conductor and arranger)
Peter Howard was an American musical theater arranger, conductor and pianist...
Career
In 1963, Waldo began playing with Gene Mayl’s Dixieland Rhythm Kings out of Dayton, Ohio. Mayl’s band was one of a few select hold-outs dotting the country from the traditional jazz revival of the 1940s. The twenty year-old Waldo then appeared in New Orleans in 1964, playing with such notables as Kid Valentine and Johnny WiggsJohnny Wiggs
Johnny Wiggs was a jazz musician and band leader.Born John Wigginton Hyman on in New Orleans, Louisiana, he started his music career on the violin. He soon adopted the cornet and moved to New York for some time before returning to New Orleans...
. The Red Garter, home to various banjo bands, was one of his venues. 1965 and 1966 found Waldo in San Francisco playing at another Red Garter, and at Earthquake Mcgoon’s, with West Coast jazz revival musicians. Against the current tide of rock and roll, the young ragtimer played with Turk Murphy
Turk Murphy
Melvin Edward Alton “Turk” Murphy was renowned as a trombonist who played traditional and dixieland jazz in San Francisco....
’s Jazz Band, and studied with other prominent jazz musicians such as Pops Foster
Pops Foster
George Murphy "Pops" Foster was a jazz musician best known for his vigorous playing of the string bass. He also played the tuba and trumpet professionally....
, Lu Watters
Lu Watters
Lucius "Lu" Watters was a trumpeter and bandleader of the Yerba Buena Jazz Band in the "West Coast revival" of Dixieland music...
, Wally Rose
Wally Rose
Wally Rose was an American jazz and ragtime pianist.Rose was a mainstay of the jazz scene in San Francisco during the 1940s and 1950s. He was the pianist for Lu Watters's group, the Yerba Buena Jazz Band, for its entire existence, from 1939 to 1950...
, and Clancy Hayes
Clancy Hayes
Clarence Leonard Hayes was a jazz vocalist, banjoist and guitarist born November 14, 1908 in Caney, Kansas. He lived in Parsons, Kansas for a short time, and the town is the subject of his song "The Parsons, Kansas Blues": . He worked always as a professional musician, turning up in San Francisco...
, all the while living in a room above Mcgoon’s for one dollar per day.
Back in Ohio, Waldo pulled together a new band, Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators, in 1969. This traditional jazz group included players Frank Powers, Roy Tate, and Jim Snyder – among many others – as the group reconvened over time up until recent years. The Syncopators performed at festivals and clubs and have made a number of recordings. This band attracted top musicians from Chicago and New York and featured such notable guest performers as Susan LaMarche, George Rock (of Spike Jones fame), Ruth Brisbane and Edith Wilson (singer)
Edith Wilson (singer)
Edith Wilson was an American blues singer and vaudeville performer.-Biography:Born Edith Goodall in Louisville, Kentucky, Wilson's first professional experience came in 1919 in Louisville's Park Theater. Lena Wilson and her brother, Danny, performed in Louisville; Edith married Danny and joined...
.
Waldo went to New York City in the early 1970’s, where he began playing at legendary jazz clubs including The Cookery, The Village Gate
The Village Gate
The Village Gate was a nightclub at the corner of Thompson and Bleecker Street in Greenwich Village, New York.Art D'Lugoff opened the club in 1958, on the ground floor and basement of 158 Bleecker Street. The large 1896 Chicago School structure by architect Ernest Flagg was known at the time as...
, Hanratty's, and The Knickerbocker. Waldo's twenty-six part NPR series, This is Ragtime, aired in 1974 and helped fuel the 1970s ragtime revival. The book of the same title grew out of that series: first published in 1976, and subsequently republished in 1991 and 2009. Eubie Blake, who did the introduction for the book, credits his protégé thus: “Terry’s love of Ragtime goes back a long way, long before its ‘rediscovery.’ People then were always trying to talk him out of playing that ‘corny old stuff.’”
Meanwhile, Waldo continued to support the music scene of his native Ohio, forming Waldo’s Ragtime Orchestra in 1980. This group, composed largely of members of Columbus Jazz Arts Group, performed concerts and recorded two albums for Stomp Off Records, which were later reissued by the classical record labels, Musical Heritage Society and Sine Qua Non.
In 1984, The Gotham City Jazz Band was born. The band remains active through the present day, having recorded several albums, and headlining regularly at festivals, concerts, and venues in New York City including Michael's Pub, Symphony Space
Symphony Space
Symphony Space is a multi-disciplinary performing arts organization at 2537 Broadway on the Upper West Side of Manhattan. Performances take place in the 760-seat Peter Jay Sharp Theatre or the 160-seat Leonard Nimoy Thalia theater. Programs include music, dance, theater, film, and literary readings...
and The Museum of Modern Art. Peter Ecklund
Peter Ecklund
Peter Ecklund is an American jazz cornetist.Ecklund graduated from Yale University in 1967, then played with Gregg Allman, Maria Muldaur, Leon Redbone, and Paul Butterfield. He formed the Galvanized Jazz Band in the late 1960s and toured with Paula Lockheart, in addition to working with many pop...
, Dan Barrett, Howard Alden
Howard Alden
Howard Alden is an American jazz guitarist born in Newport Beach, California. He has recorded a long series of albums for Concord Records. His performances were dubbed over Sean Penn as 'Emmet Ray' in the 1999 Woody Allen film Sweet and Lowdown...
, Eddy Davis, Brian Nalepka, Chuck Wilson, and Arnie Kinsella, longtime associates, are but a few of the many superlative jazz and ragtime musicians who have been part of the group in its many incarnations over the years. Notable guests of the band include Odetta
Odetta
Odetta Holmes, known as Odetta, was an American singer, actress, guitarist, songwriter, and a human rights activist, often referred to as "The Voice of the Civil Rights Movement". Her musical repertoire consisted largely of American folk music, blues, jazz, and spirituals...
, Leon Redbone
Leon Redbone
Leon Redbone is a singer and guitarist specializing in interpretations of early 20th-century music, including jazz and blues standards and Tin Pan Alley classics....
, Maurice Hines
Maurice Hines
Maurice Hines is an American actor, director, jazz singer and choreographer.Born in New York City, Hines began his career at the age of five, studying tap dance at the Henry LeTang Dance Studio in Manhattan. LeTang recognized his talent and began choreographing numbers specifically for him and his...
, Susan La Marche, and Colleen Hawks.
To date, Waldo has produced and arranged more than 40 albums for many labels including Sony BMG, Blackbird Records, GHB Records, Stomp Off Records, Musical Heritage Society, Sine Qua Non, Metronome Records and Delmark Records
Delmark Records
Delmark Records is an independent American jazz and blues record label, based in Chicago since 1958. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when owner Bob Koester released a recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the "Delmar" imprint.-History:Born in 1932 in...
.
Television and film work include performances and compositions on The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show
The Tonight Show is an American late-night talk show that has aired on NBC since 1954. It is the longest currently running regularly scheduled entertainment program in the United States, and the third longest-running show on NBC, after Meet the Press and Today.The Tonight Show has been hosted by...
, the PBS documentary Storyville: The Naked Dance, and Ken Burns
Ken Burns
Kenneth Lauren "Ken" Burns is an American director and producer of documentary films, known for his style of using archival footage and photographs...
’s PBS documentary, Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson
Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson is a documentary by filmmaker Ken Burns based on the nonfiction book of the same name by Geoffrey C. Ward ....
. Terry has also worked as a composer for a number of his own albums as well as others including Leon Redbone. Terry's TV work has included a year as music director, talent and producer for the experimental and highly publicized two-way television operation, Warner Qube in 1978.
His work in New York City theatre includes credits as Music Director for shows such as Mr. Jelly Lord (directed by Vernel Bagneris), Playwrights Horizons production of Heliotrope Bouquet (directed by Joe Morton), Ambassador Satch (directed by André DeShields
André DeShields
André De Shields is an American actor, singer, dancer, acclaimed novelist, choreographer, and college professor....
), and Warren G (directed by Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan
Tom O'Horgan was an American theatre and film director, composer, actor and musician. He is best known for his Broadway work as director of the hit musicals Hair and Jesus Christ Superstar...
), the Off-Broadway production of Shake That Thing! and Waldo's 1927 Revue.
Terry Waldo’s work as a teacher began in Ohio at Denison University
Denison University
Denison University is private, coeducational, and residential college of liberal arts and sciences founded in 1831. It is located in Granville, Ohio, United States, approximately 30 miles east of Columbus, the state capital...
in the 1970s, with courses in jazz and ragtime history and in film, and continues to the present day with ragtime courses for Swing University for Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
in 2009, and a course in early jazz piano styles in 2010.
Waldo’s range of expertise (composing, arranging, writing, directing, and performing) has been evidenced across a wide spectrum of media and performing arts, as well as in his several one-man shows: Eubie and Me, and The Naked Dance: The Music of Storyville. He continues to produce his own shows and recordings along with his partner, Janice Lee, through Waldo/Lee Music Productions, Inc. Waldo/Lee recently provided production assistance for the latest revised edition of Waldo's book, This Is Ragtime for Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center
Jazz at Lincoln Center is part of Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts. JALC's performing arts complex, Frederick P. Rose Hall, is located at West 60th Street and Broadway in New York City, slightly south of the main Lincoln Center campus and directly adjacent to Columbus Circle. Frederick P....
Library Editions, as well as reissuing the radio series of the same title made for NPR
NPR
NPR, formerly National Public Radio, is a privately and publicly funded non-profit membership media organization that serves as a national syndicator to a network of 900 public radio stations in the United States. NPR was created in 1970, following congressional passage of the Public Broadcasting...
. The company is now developing a new Off-Broadway musical show for Waldo. Meanwhile, he continues a series of live performances in diverse venues including The Supreme Court, The Smithsonian Institute, The Kennedy Center, Carnegie Hall (as a featured guest with the New York Pops) and The National Gallery of Arts in Washington.
Discography
- 1969 Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators (GHB Records)
- 1971 Jazz in the Afternoon (Blackbird Records)
- 1979 Feelin' Devilish (Stomp Off Records)
- 1986 Footlight Varieties (Stomp Off Records)
- 1989 Waldo's Gutbucket Syncopators, Waldo's Gotham City Band––New Orleans Jazz Echoes (Musical Heritage Society)
- 1997 Classic Waldo - Ragtime & Blues (Metronome Records)
- 1997 Jass and Blues (Metronome Records)
- 1998 Kinky & Sweet (Stomp Off Records)
- 2003 Sounds of Ragtime & Vaudeville Vol.1 (Waldo/Lee Music)
- 2003 Sounds of Ragtime & Vaudeville Vol.2 (Waldo/Lee Music)
- 2003 Just a Little While to Stay Here (Waldo/Lee Music)
- 2003 Let It Shine (Stomp Off Records)
- 2004 Hot House Rag (Delmark RecordsDelmark RecordsDelmark Records is an independent American jazz and blues record label, based in Chicago since 1958. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when owner Bob Koester released a recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the "Delmar" imprint.-History:Born in 1932 in...
) - 2009 Ohio Theater Concert Featuring Edith Wilson (Delmark RecordsDelmark RecordsDelmark Records is an independent American jazz and blues record label, based in Chicago since 1958. The label originated in St. Louis, Missouri, in 1953 when owner Bob Koester released a recording of the Windy City Six, a traditional jazz group, under the "Delmar" imprint.-History:Born in 1932 in...
) - 2010 Ragtime: The Best of Terry Waldo Sampler (Waldo/Lee Music)
Other Reading
Balliett, Whitney. "Jazz." The New Yorker. July 23, 1984.Watrous, Peter. "Jazz Festival; The Ragtime Piano Man, Terry Waldo." The
New York Times. June 24, 1990.
External links
- Terry Waldo
- Wilson, John S. "A Home Away From Home For the Jazz of New Orleans" New York Times December 2, 1989
- Ratliff, Ben. “It All Started With Ragtime” New York Times June 24, 1997
- Klein, Alvin. "Sharing Music That Made Satchmo Happy."New York Times. March 30, 2003
- [ Yanow, Scott. “Terry Waldo: Biography.” All Music Guide]
- This Is Ragtime