W.C. Handy
Composer of “The St. Louis Blues."
W.C. Handy, center rear, with his Memphis Orchestra c. 1918.
About The artist
W.C. Handy changed the course of popular music by integrating blues and Latin rhythms he heard in vaudeville minstrel shows into then-popular ragtime music. He was a bedrock musician in blues, ragtime, and jazz. He brought Southern Black music into the mainstream by copyrighting old songs along with his new compositions.
Did you know...
As a young child, Handy displayed a keen interest in music and his intuitive ear could catalog the musical notes of songbirds, the whistles from nearby river boats, and even the rhythms of the Tennessee River.
