With his truly remarkable dynamism and technique, it is no wonder that Buddy Rich eventually acquired the title of World's Greatest Drummer. One of the most popular and renowned jazz drummers, Rich began life in 1917, and by the age of 4 he was a solo performer known by his vaudeville act moniker, Traps the Drum Wonder. Rich went on to join the Tommy Dorsey band in 1939, and later went on to front...

Before he died in 2003, the late classical musician Eugene Istomin sat down with some of his musical compatriots to record a series of programs titled "Great Conversations in Music". These four wonderful programs are included here on this website, which is maintained by the Library of Congress. The programs were produced and directed by Peter Rosen, and visitors may wish to start their travels...

Ragtime is a uniquely American musical idiom and it is generally distinguished by its three or four contrasting sections or strains, each one being 16 or 32 measures in length. Played by itinerant pianists who made their way across the South and Midwest, the music first began to be formally published in the mid-1890s, and it soon made its way to Europe and other parts of the world. The Library of...

Paul Anka and Francis Scott Key don't usually come up in the same sentence (or paragraph, most likely), but here in the Songwriters Hall of Fame Virtual Museum both men are part of the heady mix that visitors will find on this interesting and entertaining website. This Hall of Fame has a distinguished pedigree as its first president in 1969 was Tin Pan Alley icon Johnny Mercer, who himself was...

Correspondence between Woody Guthrie and staff of the Archive of American Folk Song (now the Archive of Folk Culture, American Folklife Center) at the Library of Congress are at the heart of this new site from the Library of Congress American Memory series. The featured 53 items (84 pages) of material by, about, and to Woody Guthrie were penned mostly in the early 1940s. The collection provides...