Earl 'Fatha' Hines

Earl Kenneth Hines was born on the twenty-eighth of December 1903 at Duquesne, Pennsylvania, the son of Joseph Hines — a Duquesne Black Pittsburgh-Coal-and-Iron Company foreman and cornetist — and Mary Hines, a Black church organist. He was raised in the principal Duquesne Pittsburgh-Steel-and-Iron Black community of the principal early-twentieth-century Pittsburgh-Coal-and-Iron-Company community.

He was instructed in piano from age nine by his stepmother Mary Hines and the principal Pittsburgh Black-Baptist-Church-and-piano-and-organ community — and was hired at sixteen in 1919 at the principal Pittsburgh Eutillus Pearle Theatre as a junior piano-accompanist.

He relocated to Chicago in 1924 — and was hired in 1925 at the principal Carroll Dickerson Orchestra at the principal Chicago Sunset Cafe alongside the principal Louis Armstrong. He recorded the principal Louis Armstrong Hot Five Hines-and-Armstrong sessions at the principal OKeh Records at Chicago in 1928 — including the principal 'Weather Bird' and 'West End Blues' recordings of the principal post-1928 American jazz-piano canon.

He founded the principal Earl Hines Orchestra at the principal Grand Terrace Cafe at Chicago in December 1928 — and held the principal Grand Terrace Cafe Earl-Hines-Orchestra residency from December 1928 to 1940.

He led the principal Earl Hines Orchestra across the principal 1928 to 1947 Earl-Hines-Orchestra commercial period — and the principal Earl Hines Orchestra is at this day the principal foundational pre-bebop developmental swing-orchestra of the principal post-1928 American swing-era jazz canon.

The principal Earl Hines Orchestra included across the principal post-1942 Earl-Hines-Orchestra commercial period the principal trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, the principal saxophonist Charlie Parker, the principal vocalist Billy Eckstine, the principal vocalist Sarah Vaughan, the principal trumpeter Benny Harris, and the principal saxophonist Dexter Gordon — at the principal post-1942 Earl-Hines-Orchestra pre-bebop developmental period.

He was the principal pre-bebop developmental bandleader of the principal post-1942 Earl-Hines-Orchestra pre-bebop developmental period at the Earl-Hines-Orchestra principal post-1942 Grand-Terrace-Cafe-and-Chicago-Apollo-Theater commercial period.

He disbanded the principal Earl Hines Orchestra in 1947 — and joined the principal All-Stars Louis Armstrong Sextet at the principal 1948 to 1951 Armstrong-Sextet commercial period.

He was a principal post-1964 American jazz-piano commercial-and-academic-resurgence pianist of the principal post-1964 American Earl-Hines-commercial-resurgence period — at the principal 1964 Little Theater at New York Earl-Hines-commercial-resurgence three-concert series.

He died at Oakland, California on the twenty-second of April 1983 of complications of a heart attack, at seventy-nine.

He is honored here as the founder of the Earl Hines Orchestra.