Herb Ellis
Herb Ellis discusses the importance of music during the depression
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Herb Ellis remembers the first jazz bands he saw
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Herb Ellis discusses his time with Oscar Peterson
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Transcription
Q: “When you were a kid it was depression times, right? Would it be that the guitar was around the house and was your entertainment?”
A: Herb Ellis: “It was around the house. It was my entertainment because it didn't have, you know, the community, there were just a few people there and they were sometimes long away.”
Interviewer: “West Texas, is it?”
Herb Ellis: “Northwest Texas near...
Interviewer: “Northwest Texas.”
Herb Ellis: “About forty miles from Dallas, way up the country. So the guitar was my friend. I mean, you know, I didn't have many people there or hardly anyone to play with, you know, except when I went to school. So it was two reasons, well, more than two, I liked it. It was something to occupy and kept me interested and I also knew, I knew, mind you at an early age, that I was going to be a guitar player when I grew up and I was going to be good. I was going to travel the world. I mean, I really knew these things as a kid.”