Today’s episode of Finding Sounds is very special because our guest is my late grandfather, James W Black aka Jimmy Black. He was a renown jazz pianist from here in Richmond, Virginia. He played many years and countless events with so many great musicians. His focus was mainly dixieland and swing, but he played many styles ranging from country to big band to lounge jazz to flirting with classical music in his practice time. He passed away in 2004, and there is a vcu jazz building named in his honor by his longtime friend and jazz patron Bill Singleton.

He left behind a vast collection of music. Thanks to my friend Herbert, who lent me a Portastudio, i have begun digitizing his collection. This mix is exclusively from his cassettes and includes live bootleg recordings, home practice sessions, radio rips and more very rare and likely previously unheard recordings. This is a huge project for me to digitize and archive his catalogue but its very necessary. If it werent for him I would not be here. He gave my brother and I instruments at a very young age, which we both pursued later in life. I am very grateful to him, and it is a special feeling to connect to these moments. It is like time traveling in a way.

Keep an ear out for the small conversations between songs in the live recordings. They are a real slice of life from a world which now feels so distant. Enjoy these 2 hours of piano music. Much love to you Big D. I know youre here with us.

Thank you for listening, enjoy the show.

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