VINTAGE PHOTOGRAPHIC PRINT OF W.C. HANDY, INSCRIBED BY HIM

HANDY, W.C. Photograph signed. No place, circa 1949. Vintage photographic print, measuring 8 by 10 inches, signed on the recto. WITH: Sheet music for Saint Louis Blues. $450.

Handsome vintage photographic print of African-American jazz musician and composer W.C. Handy, inscribed by W.C. Handy and dated: "6 27 1949."

The son of a minister and his wife who were former slaves and strongly opposed to secular music, Handy left home at age 18 to become an itinerant musician. He ultimately published music that broke "with the ragtime style… and paved the way for public acceptance of the Negro folk blues, as distinct from spirituals and worksongs" (New Grove 8:144). "His influence on stage music and jazz was profound; 'St. Louis Blues' remains one of the most frequently recorded of all jazz pieces" (ANB). This photograph captures an older W.C. Handy, seated and holding a cane. Accompanied by a sales sample (five pages) of the concert edition of Handy's "Saint Louis Blues," arranged for two pianos, circa 1943.

Fine condition.