[Dixielandjazz] : Leslie Johnson and Stan Hall, RIP MinnPost.com

[Norman Vickers]

To:  DJML

 

Likely most of you on this list know by now of the death of Leslie Johnson
and the demise of "Mississippi Rag." Many may not yet know of the death of
Stan Hall of the Hall Brothers,  This from MinnPost.com

 

Norman Vickers

Jazz Society of Pensacola

 

 

 

 


Two losses in jazz: Mississippi Rag publisher Leslie Johnson and Stan Hall
of the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz Band


By Pamela Espeland | Published Mon, Feb 9 2009 8:00 am 

I recently received an email from Dick Parker with sad news for traditional
jazz and for jazz journalism. Parker is a retired Star Tribune copy editor
and assistant news editor, and a member of the Twin Cities Jazz Society
board. He has given MinnPost permission to include his email here:

"Just wanted to touch base with you regarding two recent local deaths:
Leslie Johnson and Stan Hall, both of whom I counted as friends.

"Leslie finished 35 years of editing/publishing the internationally
circulated Mississippi Rag virtually single-handedly, with a network of
correspondents. Stan was the founder of the Hall Brothers New Orleans Jazz
Band in the late 1950s and, with his musical colleagues, connected our end
of the Mississippi River with New Orleans by bringing the last of the old
original jazz musicians up here to the Emporium of Jazz for 25 years and
providing a venue for the best younger performers of old jazz.

"Leslie died Jan. 17 after battling cancer for more than three years; Stan
died Wednesday [Feb. 4] after a long siege with Parkinson's. Neither death
was unexpected, but within three weeks we lost two really significant
figures who put Minnesota on the map as a focus of traditional jazz."

The future of the Mississippi Rag is uncertain at this point. Back issues
are still available online <http://www.mississippirag.com/> . At Parker's
suggestion, the Hall Brothers band was featured in the Minnesota Historical
Society's MN150 compilation and exhibit. Go here
<http://discovery.mnhs.org/MN150/index.php?title=Hall_Brothers_New_Orleans_J
azz_Band>  to see the society's web page with links.

 

 
--end--