Born June 27, 1927 in Birmingham, Alabama, to David McCarty and Dorothy Ethel (Clark) McCarty. .
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August. 19, 2018
E. Kittrell Obituary
Kittrell, E. Jean Jeannie (nee McCarty) died peacefully on August 14, 2018 at the age of 91. Hospice was of great benefit to her and her loved ones. She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama and studied music theory at Blue Mountain College. She married Ed Kittrell and became the proud mother of Rebecca (deceased) and loving daughter Camille and son-in-law Tom Bryant. In the 60's Jean and Ed formed their first band, toured Germany and the Netherlands to great success, all while earning her Masters Degree in Philosophy. She continued her studies at SIUE, then received her Ph.D. from SIUE in British Literature, where she served as Professor and Chair in the English Department for many years. So, Professor by day, and Jazzy Jeannie by night! Playing piano and singing red-hot Dixie and Blues in her signature fringe dresses! She formed, led, and managed 3 bands and played Europe, Japan, and numerous US Jazz Festivals. Most weekends were spent aboard the Robt. E. Lee on the Landing. She retired in 2008. Jeannie: a wonderful Mother, Professor, Entertainer and Friend! Memorials appreciated to SIUE Foundation, Jean Kittrell Archives & Scholarship.
****************************
Jean donated her body to St. Louis University Medical School
Her remains were buried April 7, 2021.
********************************
the career of local favorite Jean Kittrell
STEVE HORRELL [email protected]
Aug. 31, 2018
EDWARDSVILLE - Long before she became the "Red Hot Mama of Dixieland Jazz," Jean Kittrell was a self-described untypical Southern belle who grew up playing piano in her Southern Baptist church.
On Aug. 14, Kittrell passed away at the age of 91, a local legend who played "foot-stomping, barrel-house piano" and belted out "lusty Bessie Smith songs," according to jazz trombonist Stan Vincent.
From the late 1950s until her retirement in 2008, she was often seen aboard the Robert E. Lee steamboat, joining the likes of the Jazz Incredibles, the St. Louis Rivermen and the Old St. Louis Levee Band. She sang "Happy Birthday" to Louis Armstrong, and played in Germany and the Netherlands, the latter performance at the Breda National Jazz Festival.
Kittrell even made it to the Wildey Theatre. On April 12, 2011 - a year before the historic theatre re-opened on North Main Street following a major facelift - Kittrell played ragtime piano music at an open house that marked 102 years since the theatre first opened.
She had played Edwardsville seven years before as part of the Edwardsville Arts in the Park series. At that concert, Kittrell sang and played the piano, joined by members of the St. Louis Rivermen: David "Red" Lehr (sousaphone), Bobby Grimm (tenor banjo), Don Schroeder (drums), Steve Lilley (cornet), Eric Sager (clarinet) and Brett Stamps (trombone).
Those who showed up at the bandstand at City Park were treated to a mix of classic jazz, traditional Dixieland jazz, blues, marches, ragtime, spirituals and swing. Among the offerings were jazz favorites from Armstrong, W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael.
Over the years, Kittrell formed, led and managed three bands.
Whether it was in concert at the Wildey or across the river on the Landing, Kittrell's performances were sprinkled with humor and storytelling and the music sometimes reached a frenetic pace that made her signature fringe bounce.
But it wasn't until 1957, at the age of 30, that her jazz career began in earnest. She had been born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1927 and went on to major in music theory at Blue Mountain College in Mississippi. At that time, according to an Intelligencer article on Feb. 2, 2012, her main ambition was not a musical career. Like most women of that era, marriage and managing a family were her top priority.
Her husband, Dr. Ed Kittrell, decided he wanted to start playing jazz and asked Jean to accompany him on the piano.
"He'd invite students to the house to jam," Jean Kittrell recalled for the Intelligencer. They would play anything they could find, she added. Sometimes as many as 100 kids would show up to play, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. Before long, Ed Kittrell, who played the trumpet, got a few musicians together and formed the Chesapeake Bay Jazz Band.
"We would go out on Chesapeake Bay and picnic and sit on the beach and play. I had a little two-octave piano to take to the beach," Jean Kittrell told the Intelligencer.
The next year the couple and their two children moved to Chicago so Ed Kittrell could begin working on his Ph D. They continued making music there and soon joined the Chicago Stompers. Around that time, Jean Kittrell began pursuing a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago.
In 1967, Jean Kittrell began teaching a general composition class at SIU Carbondale and continued her musical career, playing solo at the Old Levee House on Laclede's Landing in St. Louis.
For two years she was lecturer by day, jazz pianist by night. On top of that, she was choir director at a local Methodist church and was raising two daughters at home.
According to the Intelligencer article, Kittrell had a housekeeper who came in on Friday evenings and stayed for the weekend. They would all have dinner together on Friday evening, and then the housekeeper would put the girls to bed while Jean drove from Murphysboro to St. Louis for a show that began at 9 p.m. and ended around 1 a.m. Kittrell graded papers on those Saturday afternoons and went down to Lacledes' Landing to repeat the shows that night. When the show ended, she went straight home.
"I'd drive home sometimes in my fringe!" Kittrell told the paper. "That was quite a time. I'd get home between 2:30 and 3 a.m. on Sunday and then go to church at 10:30 a.m. to lead the choir," she said. But in 1973 she completed her Ph.D in British Literature from SIU Carbondale.
Soon after that, she moved to Edwardsville and joined the English Faculty at SIUE, where she also served as its chairman from 1987 to 1990. All the while, she continued playing jazz piano and singing on the weekends, this time aboard the Robert E. Lee steamboat (and the Delta Queen) in St. Louis. She later described that as one of the most fun periods in her life. She would play on Friday night with the Jazz Incredibles and appeared the following night with a seven-piece band known as the St. Louis Rivermen.
One of her favorite memories, described in the Intelligencer, was traveling to the Netherlands and playing at the Breda Jazz Festival. "They have such amazing concert centers that would dwarf Kiel Auditorium. It is luxury," Kittrell noted. Unfortunately, they had to follow a 16-piece band that had two singers and performed a lot of complicated arrangements. While they waited off stage, Kittrell says they were "scared to death," but nevertheless wound up putting on the show of their lives. "I always wore fringe and I bounced when I played and thank goodness for that fringe," she told the paper. "The three of us played the best we ever played. We got a standing ovation and cheering. They didn't do that for the big band."
If Jean Kittrell echoed the tartness of Bessie Smith, she was also part James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Jellyroll Morton. Her knowledge of music was thorough and intellectual, but she also had a good-natured approach to music that often veered into humorous ballads and lusty barroom tunes. Their Arts in the Park concert at the bandstand in Edwardsville featured traditional 1920s Dixieland Jazz. It was music that Kittrell said she developed out of the ragtime sounds of Missouri in the 1890s and the black spirituals of the Civil War era. Kittrell told the Intelligencer that even before the Civil War the syncopations usually associated with the jazz sounds were actually rooted in the African rhythms of the slaves.
"Those syncopations and the blues and everything sort of drifted down to New Orleans, which was a lively center of music," she told the Intelligencer in 2004. The various types of musical sounds merged together with the marches that were being played in New Orleans to form the form the traditional Dixieland jazz known today.
In 1998, Kittrell received the "Great Ladies of Jazz" award given by the Directors of the Sun Valley Swing 'n' Dixie Jazz Jamboree.
A decade later, in July of 2008, health issues forced her to retire as a pianist and leader of the three jazz bands. She was 81. (Leaving the leadership of her bands to sousaphonist David "Red" Lehr and his wife Caroline Lehr.)
In April of 2018, Kittrell's musical collection was featured in an exhibit and presentation at SIUE's Lovejoy Library.
Kittrell's legacy also lives on through the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive, at Lovejoy. She and members of the Old Guys Jazz Band raised money to establish the archive in 1974. Since then, it has documented early recorded jazz and the lives of national and particularly St. Louis area jazz musicians. More than 20,000 recordings are there, along with audio and video tapes, photographs, sheet music, piano music, and oral history materials. The display was designed by Doug Meyer and Theresa Dickman, an associate professor and Fine Arts Librarian at Lovejoy Library.
The Jean Kittrell Jazz Scholarship was established in 2009 at SIUE.
Recently, a graduate student at SIUE began working on a digital exhibit that will showcase the life and music of Jean Kittrell.
Written By
STEVE HORRELL
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August. 19, 2018
E. Kittrell Obituary
Kittrell, E. Jean Jeannie (nee McCarty) died peacefully on August 14, 2018 at the age of 91. Hospice was of great benefit to her and her loved ones. She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama and studied music theory at Blue Mountain College. She married Ed Kittrell and became the proud mother of Rebecca (deceased) and loving daughter Camille and son-in-law Tom Bryant. In the 60's Jean and Ed formed their first band, toured Germany and the Netherlands to great success, all while earning her Masters Degree in Philosophy. She continued her studies at SIUE, then received her Ph.D. from SIUE in British Literature, where she served as Professor and Chair in the English Department for many years. So, Professor by day, and Jazzy Jeannie by night! Playing piano and singing red-hot Dixie and Blues in her signature fringe dresses! She formed, led, and managed 3 bands and played Europe, Japan, and numerous US Jazz Festivals. Most weekends were spent aboard the Robt. E. Lee on the Landing. She retired in 2008. Jeannie: a wonderful Mother, Professor, Entertainer and Friend! Memorials appreciated to SIUE Foundation, Jean Kittrell Archives & Scholarship.
****************************
Jean donated her body to St. Louis University Medical School
Her remains were buried April 7, 2021.
********************************
the career of local favorite Jean Kittrell
STEVE HORRELL [email protected]
Aug. 31, 2018
EDWARDSVILLE - Long before she became the "Red Hot Mama of Dixieland Jazz," Jean Kittrell was a self-described untypical Southern belle who grew up playing piano in her Southern Baptist church.
On Aug. 14, Kittrell passed away at the age of 91, a local legend who played "foot-stomping, barrel-house piano" and belted out "lusty Bessie Smith songs," according to jazz trombonist Stan Vincent.
From the late 1950s until her retirement in 2008, she was often seen aboard the Robert E. Lee steamboat, joining the likes of the Jazz Incredibles, the St. Louis Rivermen and the Old St. Louis Levee Band. She sang "Happy Birthday" to Louis Armstrong, and played in Germany and the Netherlands, the latter performance at the Breda National Jazz Festival.
Kittrell even made it to the Wildey Theatre. On April 12, 2011 - a year before the historic theatre re-opened on North Main Street following a major facelift - Kittrell played ragtime piano music at an open house that marked 102 years since the theatre first opened.
She had played Edwardsville seven years before as part of the Edwardsville Arts in the Park series. At that concert, Kittrell sang and played the piano, joined by members of the St. Louis Rivermen: David "Red" Lehr (sousaphone), Bobby Grimm (tenor banjo), Don Schroeder (drums), Steve Lilley (cornet), Eric Sager (clarinet) and Brett Stamps (trombone).
Those who showed up at the bandstand at City Park were treated to a mix of classic jazz, traditional Dixieland jazz, blues, marches, ragtime, spirituals and swing. Among the offerings were jazz favorites from Armstrong, W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael.
Over the years, Kittrell formed, led and managed three bands.
Whether it was in concert at the Wildey or across the river on the Landing, Kittrell's performances were sprinkled with humor and storytelling and the music sometimes reached a frenetic pace that made her signature fringe bounce.
But it wasn't until 1957, at the age of 30, that her jazz career began in earnest. She had been born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1927 and went on to major in music theory at Blue Mountain College in Mississippi. At that time, according to an Intelligencer article on Feb. 2, 2012, her main ambition was not a musical career. Like most women of that era, marriage and managing a family were her top priority.
Her husband, Dr. Ed Kittrell, decided he wanted to start playing jazz and asked Jean to accompany him on the piano.
"He'd invite students to the house to jam," Jean Kittrell recalled for the Intelligencer. They would play anything they could find, she added. Sometimes as many as 100 kids would show up to play, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. Before long, Ed Kittrell, who played the trumpet, got a few musicians together and formed the Chesapeake Bay Jazz Band.
"We would go out on Chesapeake Bay and picnic and sit on the beach and play. I had a little two-octave piano to take to the beach," Jean Kittrell told the Intelligencer.
The next year the couple and their two children moved to Chicago so Ed Kittrell could begin working on his Ph D. They continued making music there and soon joined the Chicago Stompers. Around that time, Jean Kittrell began pursuing a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago.
In 1967, Jean Kittrell began teaching a general composition class at SIU Carbondale and continued her musical career, playing solo at the Old Levee House on Laclede's Landing in St. Louis.
For two years she was lecturer by day, jazz pianist by night. On top of that, she was choir director at a local Methodist church and was raising two daughters at home.
According to the Intelligencer article, Kittrell had a housekeeper who came in on Friday evenings and stayed for the weekend. They would all have dinner together on Friday evening, and then the housekeeper would put the girls to bed while Jean drove from Murphysboro to St. Louis for a show that began at 9 p.m. and ended around 1 a.m. Kittrell graded papers on those Saturday afternoons and went down to Lacledes' Landing to repeat the shows that night. When the show ended, she went straight home.
"I'd drive home sometimes in my fringe!" Kittrell told the paper. "That was quite a time. I'd get home between 2:30 and 3 a.m. on Sunday and then go to church at 10:30 a.m. to lead the choir," she said. But in 1973 she completed her Ph.D in British Literature from SIU Carbondale.
Soon after that, she moved to Edwardsville and joined the English Faculty at SIUE, where she also served as its chairman from 1987 to 1990. All the while, she continued playing jazz piano and singing on the weekends, this time aboard the Robert E. Lee steamboat (and the Delta Queen) in St. Louis. She later described that as one of the most fun periods in her life. She would play on Friday night with the Jazz Incredibles and appeared the following night with a seven-piece band known as the St. Louis Rivermen.
One of her favorite memories, described in the Intelligencer, was traveling to the Netherlands and playing at the Breda Jazz Festival. "They have such amazing concert centers that would dwarf Kiel Auditorium. It is luxury," Kittrell noted. Unfortunately, they had to follow a 16-piece band that had two singers and performed a lot of complicated arrangements. While they waited off stage, Kittrell says they were "scared to death," but nevertheless wound up putting on the show of their lives. "I always wore fringe and I bounced when I played and thank goodness for that fringe," she told the paper. "The three of us played the best we ever played. We got a standing ovation and cheering. They didn't do that for the big band."
If Jean Kittrell echoed the tartness of Bessie Smith, she was also part James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Jellyroll Morton. Her knowledge of music was thorough and intellectual, but she also had a good-natured approach to music that often veered into humorous ballads and lusty barroom tunes. Their Arts in the Park concert at the bandstand in Edwardsville featured traditional 1920s Dixieland Jazz. It was music that Kittrell said she developed out of the ragtime sounds of Missouri in the 1890s and the black spirituals of the Civil War era. Kittrell told the Intelligencer that even before the Civil War the syncopations usually associated with the jazz sounds were actually rooted in the African rhythms of the slaves.
"Those syncopations and the blues and everything sort of drifted down to New Orleans, which was a lively center of music," she told the Intelligencer in 2004. The various types of musical sounds merged together with the marches that were being played in New Orleans to form the form the traditional Dixieland jazz known today.
In 1998, Kittrell received the "Great Ladies of Jazz" award given by the Directors of the Sun Valley Swing 'n' Dixie Jazz Jamboree.
A decade later, in July of 2008, health issues forced her to retire as a pianist and leader of the three jazz bands. She was 81. (Leaving the leadership of her bands to sousaphonist David "Red" Lehr and his wife Caroline Lehr.)
In April of 2018, Kittrell's musical collection was featured in an exhibit and presentation at SIUE's Lovejoy Library.
Kittrell's legacy also lives on through the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive, at Lovejoy. She and members of the Old Guys Jazz Band raised money to establish the archive in 1974. Since then, it has documented early recorded jazz and the lives of national and particularly St. Louis area jazz musicians. More than 20,000 recordings are there, along with audio and video tapes, photographs, sheet music, piano music, and oral history materials. The display was designed by Doug Meyer and Theresa Dickman, an associate professor and Fine Arts Librarian at Lovejoy Library.
The Jean Kittrell Jazz Scholarship was established in 2009 at SIUE.
Recently, a graduate student at SIUE began working on a digital exhibit that will showcase the life and music of Jean Kittrell.
Written By
STEVE HORRELL
Born June 27, 1927 in Birmingham, Alabama, to David McCarty and Dorothy Ethel (Clark) McCarty. .
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August. 19, 2018
E. Kittrell Obituary
Kittrell, E. Jean Jeannie (nee McCarty) died peacefully on August 14, 2018 at the age of 91. Hospice was of great benefit to her and her loved ones. She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama and studied music theory at Blue Mountain College. She married Ed Kittrell and became the proud mother of Rebecca (deceased) and loving daughter Camille and son-in-law Tom Bryant. In the 60's Jean and Ed formed their first band, toured Germany and the Netherlands to great success, all while earning her Masters Degree in Philosophy. She continued her studies at SIUE, then received her Ph.D. from SIUE in British Literature, where she served as Professor and Chair in the English Department for many years. So, Professor by day, and Jazzy Jeannie by night! Playing piano and singing red-hot Dixie and Blues in her signature fringe dresses! She formed, led, and managed 3 bands and played Europe, Japan, and numerous US Jazz Festivals. Most weekends were spent aboard the Robt. E. Lee on the Landing. She retired in 2008. Jeannie: a wonderful Mother, Professor, Entertainer and Friend! Memorials appreciated to SIUE Foundation, Jean Kittrell Archives & Scholarship.
****************************
Jean donated her body to St. Louis University Medical School
Her remains were buried April 7, 2021.
********************************
the career of local favorite Jean Kittrell
STEVE HORRELL [email protected]
Aug. 31, 2018
EDWARDSVILLE - Long before she became the "Red Hot Mama of Dixieland Jazz," Jean Kittrell was a self-described untypical Southern belle who grew up playing piano in her Southern Baptist church.
On Aug. 14, Kittrell passed away at the age of 91, a local legend who played "foot-stomping, barrel-house piano" and belted out "lusty Bessie Smith songs," according to jazz trombonist Stan Vincent.
From the late 1950s until her retirement in 2008, she was often seen aboard the Robert E. Lee steamboat, joining the likes of the Jazz Incredibles, the St. Louis Rivermen and the Old St. Louis Levee Band. She sang "Happy Birthday" to Louis Armstrong, and played in Germany and the Netherlands, the latter performance at the Breda National Jazz Festival.
Kittrell even made it to the Wildey Theatre. On April 12, 2011 - a year before the historic theatre re-opened on North Main Street following a major facelift - Kittrell played ragtime piano music at an open house that marked 102 years since the theatre first opened.
She had played Edwardsville seven years before as part of the Edwardsville Arts in the Park series. At that concert, Kittrell sang and played the piano, joined by members of the St. Louis Rivermen: David "Red" Lehr (sousaphone), Bobby Grimm (tenor banjo), Don Schroeder (drums), Steve Lilley (cornet), Eric Sager (clarinet) and Brett Stamps (trombone).
Those who showed up at the bandstand at City Park were treated to a mix of classic jazz, traditional Dixieland jazz, blues, marches, ragtime, spirituals and swing. Among the offerings were jazz favorites from Armstrong, W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael.
Over the years, Kittrell formed, led and managed three bands.
Whether it was in concert at the Wildey or across the river on the Landing, Kittrell's performances were sprinkled with humor and storytelling and the music sometimes reached a frenetic pace that made her signature fringe bounce.
But it wasn't until 1957, at the age of 30, that her jazz career began in earnest. She had been born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1927 and went on to major in music theory at Blue Mountain College in Mississippi. At that time, according to an Intelligencer article on Feb. 2, 2012, her main ambition was not a musical career. Like most women of that era, marriage and managing a family were her top priority.
Her husband, Dr. Ed Kittrell, decided he wanted to start playing jazz and asked Jean to accompany him on the piano.
"He'd invite students to the house to jam," Jean Kittrell recalled for the Intelligencer. They would play anything they could find, she added. Sometimes as many as 100 kids would show up to play, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. Before long, Ed Kittrell, who played the trumpet, got a few musicians together and formed the Chesapeake Bay Jazz Band.
"We would go out on Chesapeake Bay and picnic and sit on the beach and play. I had a little two-octave piano to take to the beach," Jean Kittrell told the Intelligencer.
The next year the couple and their two children moved to Chicago so Ed Kittrell could begin working on his Ph D. They continued making music there and soon joined the Chicago Stompers. Around that time, Jean Kittrell began pursuing a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago.
In 1967, Jean Kittrell began teaching a general composition class at SIU Carbondale and continued her musical career, playing solo at the Old Levee House on Laclede's Landing in St. Louis.
For two years she was lecturer by day, jazz pianist by night. On top of that, she was choir director at a local Methodist church and was raising two daughters at home.
According to the Intelligencer article, Kittrell had a housekeeper who came in on Friday evenings and stayed for the weekend. They would all have dinner together on Friday evening, and then the housekeeper would put the girls to bed while Jean drove from Murphysboro to St. Louis for a show that began at 9 p.m. and ended around 1 a.m. Kittrell graded papers on those Saturday afternoons and went down to Lacledes' Landing to repeat the shows that night. When the show ended, she went straight home.
"I'd drive home sometimes in my fringe!" Kittrell told the paper. "That was quite a time. I'd get home between 2:30 and 3 a.m. on Sunday and then go to church at 10:30 a.m. to lead the choir," she said. But in 1973 she completed her Ph.D in British Literature from SIU Carbondale.
Soon after that, she moved to Edwardsville and joined the English Faculty at SIUE, where she also served as its chairman from 1987 to 1990. All the while, she continued playing jazz piano and singing on the weekends, this time aboard the Robert E. Lee steamboat (and the Delta Queen) in St. Louis. She later described that as one of the most fun periods in her life. She would play on Friday night with the Jazz Incredibles and appeared the following night with a seven-piece band known as the St. Louis Rivermen.
One of her favorite memories, described in the Intelligencer, was traveling to the Netherlands and playing at the Breda Jazz Festival. "They have such amazing concert centers that would dwarf Kiel Auditorium. It is luxury," Kittrell noted. Unfortunately, they had to follow a 16-piece band that had two singers and performed a lot of complicated arrangements. While they waited off stage, Kittrell says they were "scared to death," but nevertheless wound up putting on the show of their lives. "I always wore fringe and I bounced when I played and thank goodness for that fringe," she told the paper. "The three of us played the best we ever played. We got a standing ovation and cheering. They didn't do that for the big band."
If Jean Kittrell echoed the tartness of Bessie Smith, she was also part James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Jellyroll Morton. Her knowledge of music was thorough and intellectual, but she also had a good-natured approach to music that often veered into humorous ballads and lusty barroom tunes. Their Arts in the Park concert at the bandstand in Edwardsville featured traditional 1920s Dixieland Jazz. It was music that Kittrell said she developed out of the ragtime sounds of Missouri in the 1890s and the black spirituals of the Civil War era. Kittrell told the Intelligencer that even before the Civil War the syncopations usually associated with the jazz sounds were actually rooted in the African rhythms of the slaves.
"Those syncopations and the blues and everything sort of drifted down to New Orleans, which was a lively center of music," she told the Intelligencer in 2004. The various types of musical sounds merged together with the marches that were being played in New Orleans to form the form the traditional Dixieland jazz known today.
In 1998, Kittrell received the "Great Ladies of Jazz" award given by the Directors of the Sun Valley Swing 'n' Dixie Jazz Jamboree.
A decade later, in July of 2008, health issues forced her to retire as a pianist and leader of the three jazz bands. She was 81. (Leaving the leadership of her bands to sousaphonist David "Red" Lehr and his wife Caroline Lehr.)
In April of 2018, Kittrell's musical collection was featured in an exhibit and presentation at SIUE's Lovejoy Library.
Kittrell's legacy also lives on through the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive, at Lovejoy. She and members of the Old Guys Jazz Band raised money to establish the archive in 1974. Since then, it has documented early recorded jazz and the lives of national and particularly St. Louis area jazz musicians. More than 20,000 recordings are there, along with audio and video tapes, photographs, sheet music, piano music, and oral history materials. The display was designed by Doug Meyer and Theresa Dickman, an associate professor and Fine Arts Librarian at Lovejoy Library.
The Jean Kittrell Jazz Scholarship was established in 2009 at SIUE.
Recently, a graduate student at SIUE began working on a digital exhibit that will showcase the life and music of Jean Kittrell.
Written By
STEVE HORRELL
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
August. 19, 2018
E. Kittrell Obituary
Kittrell, E. Jean Jeannie (nee McCarty) died peacefully on August 14, 2018 at the age of 91. Hospice was of great benefit to her and her loved ones. She was born and raised in Birmingham, Alabama and studied music theory at Blue Mountain College. She married Ed Kittrell and became the proud mother of Rebecca (deceased) and loving daughter Camille and son-in-law Tom Bryant. In the 60's Jean and Ed formed their first band, toured Germany and the Netherlands to great success, all while earning her Masters Degree in Philosophy. She continued her studies at SIUE, then received her Ph.D. from SIUE in British Literature, where she served as Professor and Chair in the English Department for many years. So, Professor by day, and Jazzy Jeannie by night! Playing piano and singing red-hot Dixie and Blues in her signature fringe dresses! She formed, led, and managed 3 bands and played Europe, Japan, and numerous US Jazz Festivals. Most weekends were spent aboard the Robt. E. Lee on the Landing. She retired in 2008. Jeannie: a wonderful Mother, Professor, Entertainer and Friend! Memorials appreciated to SIUE Foundation, Jean Kittrell Archives & Scholarship.
****************************
Jean donated her body to St. Louis University Medical School
Her remains were buried April 7, 2021.
********************************
the career of local favorite Jean Kittrell
STEVE HORRELL [email protected]
Aug. 31, 2018
EDWARDSVILLE - Long before she became the "Red Hot Mama of Dixieland Jazz," Jean Kittrell was a self-described untypical Southern belle who grew up playing piano in her Southern Baptist church.
On Aug. 14, Kittrell passed away at the age of 91, a local legend who played "foot-stomping, barrel-house piano" and belted out "lusty Bessie Smith songs," according to jazz trombonist Stan Vincent.
From the late 1950s until her retirement in 2008, she was often seen aboard the Robert E. Lee steamboat, joining the likes of the Jazz Incredibles, the St. Louis Rivermen and the Old St. Louis Levee Band. She sang "Happy Birthday" to Louis Armstrong, and played in Germany and the Netherlands, the latter performance at the Breda National Jazz Festival.
Kittrell even made it to the Wildey Theatre. On April 12, 2011 - a year before the historic theatre re-opened on North Main Street following a major facelift - Kittrell played ragtime piano music at an open house that marked 102 years since the theatre first opened.
She had played Edwardsville seven years before as part of the Edwardsville Arts in the Park series. At that concert, Kittrell sang and played the piano, joined by members of the St. Louis Rivermen: David "Red" Lehr (sousaphone), Bobby Grimm (tenor banjo), Don Schroeder (drums), Steve Lilley (cornet), Eric Sager (clarinet) and Brett Stamps (trombone).
Those who showed up at the bandstand at City Park were treated to a mix of classic jazz, traditional Dixieland jazz, blues, marches, ragtime, spirituals and swing. Among the offerings were jazz favorites from Armstrong, W.C. Handy, Duke Ellington, George Gershwin and Hoagy Carmichael.
Over the years, Kittrell formed, led and managed three bands.
Whether it was in concert at the Wildey or across the river on the Landing, Kittrell's performances were sprinkled with humor and storytelling and the music sometimes reached a frenetic pace that made her signature fringe bounce.
But it wasn't until 1957, at the age of 30, that her jazz career began in earnest. She had been born in Birmingham, Ala., in 1927 and went on to major in music theory at Blue Mountain College in Mississippi. At that time, according to an Intelligencer article on Feb. 2, 2012, her main ambition was not a musical career. Like most women of that era, marriage and managing a family were her top priority.
Her husband, Dr. Ed Kittrell, decided he wanted to start playing jazz and asked Jean to accompany him on the piano.
"He'd invite students to the house to jam," Jean Kittrell recalled for the Intelligencer. They would play anything they could find, she added. Sometimes as many as 100 kids would show up to play, much to the chagrin of the neighbors. Before long, Ed Kittrell, who played the trumpet, got a few musicians together and formed the Chesapeake Bay Jazz Band.
"We would go out on Chesapeake Bay and picnic and sit on the beach and play. I had a little two-octave piano to take to the beach," Jean Kittrell told the Intelligencer.
The next year the couple and their two children moved to Chicago so Ed Kittrell could begin working on his Ph D. They continued making music there and soon joined the Chicago Stompers. Around that time, Jean Kittrell began pursuing a master's degree in philosophy from the University of Chicago.
In 1967, Jean Kittrell began teaching a general composition class at SIU Carbondale and continued her musical career, playing solo at the Old Levee House on Laclede's Landing in St. Louis.
For two years she was lecturer by day, jazz pianist by night. On top of that, she was choir director at a local Methodist church and was raising two daughters at home.
According to the Intelligencer article, Kittrell had a housekeeper who came in on Friday evenings and stayed for the weekend. They would all have dinner together on Friday evening, and then the housekeeper would put the girls to bed while Jean drove from Murphysboro to St. Louis for a show that began at 9 p.m. and ended around 1 a.m. Kittrell graded papers on those Saturday afternoons and went down to Lacledes' Landing to repeat the shows that night. When the show ended, she went straight home.
"I'd drive home sometimes in my fringe!" Kittrell told the paper. "That was quite a time. I'd get home between 2:30 and 3 a.m. on Sunday and then go to church at 10:30 a.m. to lead the choir," she said. But in 1973 she completed her Ph.D in British Literature from SIU Carbondale.
Soon after that, she moved to Edwardsville and joined the English Faculty at SIUE, where she also served as its chairman from 1987 to 1990. All the while, she continued playing jazz piano and singing on the weekends, this time aboard the Robert E. Lee steamboat (and the Delta Queen) in St. Louis. She later described that as one of the most fun periods in her life. She would play on Friday night with the Jazz Incredibles and appeared the following night with a seven-piece band known as the St. Louis Rivermen.
One of her favorite memories, described in the Intelligencer, was traveling to the Netherlands and playing at the Breda Jazz Festival. "They have such amazing concert centers that would dwarf Kiel Auditorium. It is luxury," Kittrell noted. Unfortunately, they had to follow a 16-piece band that had two singers and performed a lot of complicated arrangements. While they waited off stage, Kittrell says they were "scared to death," but nevertheless wound up putting on the show of their lives. "I always wore fringe and I bounced when I played and thank goodness for that fringe," she told the paper. "The three of us played the best we ever played. We got a standing ovation and cheering. They didn't do that for the big band."
If Jean Kittrell echoed the tartness of Bessie Smith, she was also part James P. Johnson, Fats Waller and Jellyroll Morton. Her knowledge of music was thorough and intellectual, but she also had a good-natured approach to music that often veered into humorous ballads and lusty barroom tunes. Their Arts in the Park concert at the bandstand in Edwardsville featured traditional 1920s Dixieland Jazz. It was music that Kittrell said she developed out of the ragtime sounds of Missouri in the 1890s and the black spirituals of the Civil War era. Kittrell told the Intelligencer that even before the Civil War the syncopations usually associated with the jazz sounds were actually rooted in the African rhythms of the slaves.
"Those syncopations and the blues and everything sort of drifted down to New Orleans, which was a lively center of music," she told the Intelligencer in 2004. The various types of musical sounds merged together with the marches that were being played in New Orleans to form the form the traditional Dixieland jazz known today.
In 1998, Kittrell received the "Great Ladies of Jazz" award given by the Directors of the Sun Valley Swing 'n' Dixie Jazz Jamboree.
A decade later, in July of 2008, health issues forced her to retire as a pianist and leader of the three jazz bands. She was 81. (Leaving the leadership of her bands to sousaphonist David "Red" Lehr and his wife Caroline Lehr.)
In April of 2018, Kittrell's musical collection was featured in an exhibit and presentation at SIUE's Lovejoy Library.
Kittrell's legacy also lives on through the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive, at Lovejoy. She and members of the Old Guys Jazz Band raised money to establish the archive in 1974. Since then, it has documented early recorded jazz and the lives of national and particularly St. Louis area jazz musicians. More than 20,000 recordings are there, along with audio and video tapes, photographs, sheet music, piano music, and oral history materials. The display was designed by Doug Meyer and Theresa Dickman, an associate professor and Fine Arts Librarian at Lovejoy Library.
The Jean Kittrell Jazz Scholarship was established in 2009 at SIUE.
Recently, a graduate student at SIUE began working on a digital exhibit that will showcase the life and music of Jean Kittrell.
Written By
STEVE HORRELL
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