Sweet, Hot and Blue

Sweet, Hot and Blue gives lives and careers of 124 musicians whose styles range from jazz to classical and who were born in St. Louis or in the surrounding area. The research includes 57 original personal interviews with the artists. Each person’s entry gives stage nicknames, date and place of birth, and biographical highlights. The main emphasis is on band affiliations, club and concert performance dates, and recording credits. The glossary of 186 terms, from axe (an individual’s instrument) to woodshed (practice to keep up one’s skills), explains some of the slang used in the interviews.

The late Lyn Driggs Cunningham was a writer, editor, researcher, poet and lyricist of Florissant, Missouri.
The late Jimmy Jones was a multi-talented musician-singer, composer, lyricist pianist, organist, drummer and music teacher. He lived in Edgemont, Illinois.

Lyn Driggs Cunningham and Jimmy Jones
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 256
Bibliographic Info: 53 photos, glossary index
Copyright Date: 2012 [1989]
pISBN: 978-0-7864-7384-7
Imprint: McFarland

“recounting the histories of St. Louis Jazz musicians is an enormous undertaking, and in Sweet, Hot and Blue authors Lyn Driggs Cunningham and Jimmy Jones have succeeded beyond measure. They have given voice and immortality to the unknown names in the St. Louis music scene and illuminated the backgrounds of many who started here…a wonderful anthology…no other book has so completely chronicled St. Louis musicians, whatever their fame or fortune”—Missouri Historical Society; “will enhance American musical collections…will serve admirably as a ready reference for the scholar and student alike”—Come-All-Ye.