Earl 'Fatha' Hines discusses his wardrobe and dress sense.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.09MB)

Earl 'Fatha' Hines on playing piano as a young man.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.37MB)

Earl 'Fatha' Hines discusses his reknowned piano playing career.

Listen Now Add to Play List Read Transcript (File Size: 0.21MB)

If you are experiencing problems playing audio on this site,
please update to the latest version of Flash.

Transcription

Q: “You virtually invented modern piano playing. I think it can be directly traced to you and probably to those QRS recordings. You were still just a young man at that time; you were what, about twenty-three at that time?”

A: “A lot of those passages were out of … from things that I played in my classical training. That's where I came from, you see. There’s nothing new in music, you know, see. Like I used to remember my grandmother used to say that she heard a symphony band playing and they did make some of the strangest odd chord. They've got some terrific chords in classical music and that when those symphony orchestra were playing and they'd hit one of their big, funny chords, you know, with doubled augmented chords and flatted fist and all that my grandmother used to say, "That band is out of tune." You see, she didn't realize what was happening, you know, you see. But that, now, it's the repetition that the boys are doing in putting in music that's heard every night, you know, you see. Sometimes, some arrangements get a little too far off. Like I used to kid Duke, I said, "Duke, what in the world you want to put A-flat against an A-natural?" I said, "Now, why would you do that?" And he said, "Well, one has to have a shadow." Now, he's an amazing guy.”