Love Austin album
*The birth of Lovie Austin was in 1887 and is marked on this date. She was a Black piano player and band leader.
After studying music in college in Chattanooga, TN, she toured on the vaudeville circuit, settling in Chicago in 1923. From 1924 to 1926, she repeatedly recorded with her Blues Serenaders, a group that had Kid Ory and Johnny Dodds playing at various times. Austin (as house pianist for Paramount) also backed many blues singers (including Ida Cox, Ma Rainey, and Alberta Hunter). But after 1926, her recording activity largely came to a halt.
Austin worked for 20 years as the musical director for the Monogram Theatre and later as a pianist at a dancing school, only returning to record in 1961 as part of Riverside's Living Legends series. However, mostly an ensemble pianist, Lovie Austin was a talented and skilled arranger. She died on Jul 10, 1972, in Chicago, IL.
Nothing But the Blues The Music and the Musicians
Edited by Lawrence Cohn
Copyright 1993 Abbeville Publishing Group, New York
ISBN 1-55859-271-7
