Category: Features

She was the youngest member of a black family in a white part of Pittsburgh, whose neighbours showed their displeasure by lobbing bricks through the windows. By the age of three Mary Elfrieda Scruggs had taught herself to play spirituals and ragtime on the household organ, and by six she…

She was the most adventurous of all the jazz singers, and yet to hear her on record was to catch only two-thirds of the deal. The rest lay in the spell she cast in person. Her innate strength of presence was amplified by the visuals: a billowing motion that was…