A friend emailed earlier today to tell me that John Philip Sousa was born on this date in 1854. I have always maintained that Sousa’s influence is underappreciated by contemporary society, probably because to modern Americans he seems like such a social and cultural anachronism. Really he was the progenitor of Ellington, Armstrong and even Coltrane, who like Sousa played in a military band. In Coltrane’s case the Navy. Here is the United States Marine Band earlier today at Sousa’s resting place in Congressional Cemetery.
John Philip Sousa, 1854-1932
06 Monday Nov 2023
Posted Jazz, Those we remember
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