I'd never heard of Rosetta Reitz but she must have been quite a woman! Visit her tribute site and you'll discover why.
Although an American, The Dutch named a street after her in Leiden, Netherlands, such was her charisma.
Her interests were many and varied ranging from jazz and blues, via her own record label (Rosetta Records), to the menopause and cooking with mushrooms, - writing authoritatively on all three subjects and probably many more.
However, apart from my admiration of this lady who died in 2008, it got me thinking about street names. South Shields has a Mozart St. and a Beethoven St. yet I doubt if they ever visited the town. Muhammad Ali did, but even he hasn't had a street named after him so what chance does South Shields have of getting a Kathy Stobart St., a Mike Carr St.? In Sunderland, there is a Stobart St., although I doubt if it has anything to do with Kathy and, the home of the northeast's premier third tier football team, has yet to name one of its boulevards after legendary drummer Ronnie Stephenson.
Are there any UK towns/cities with streets named after jazz people?
Lance
5 comments :
Kel Dennis is the late father of jazz musicians Noel and Adam. He was a fine drummer and very highly regarded as a music teacher in the Teesside area, much loved in fact. After he passed away a street was named in his memory. Kel Dennis Close in the Eston area.
Roly
Surely there should be a street somewhere named after Duke Ellington. What's the matter with the town planners these days?
Well now - Ellington is a small village on the Northumberland coast - and obviously renamed Ellington in honour of the Duke! Not really, but there is a place with this honourable name. Plus, maybe the Stobart Street in Sunderland was named for Eddie Stobart, the mass haulage company guy?
Fore Bondgate in Bishop Auckland could be renamed Paganini-Martin Boulevard in honour of two of the great violinists - Niccoló Paganini and Daniel John Martin - who played in the room on Fore Bondgate above what is now Sam Zair's cafe. Paganini got there first, some two centuries before DJM. I've visited the premises...homely and, as yet, no commemorative plaque.
In Brook Street, Mayfair, London there is a plaque - but no change of street name - commemorating the fact that George Friederich Handel and Jimi Hendrix shared the same flat, albeit 250 years apart!
In Hebburn, on Victoria Road East, there is a blue plaque to Robert Saint who composed the miner's hymn Gresford - played every year at Durham Miner's Gala. His sons, Ronnie and Stan, played tenor sax and double bass respectively in local dance bands and Ronnie could knock out a fair chorus or two on his old Conn tenor.
Robert's grandson David took piano lessons from my mother and, ultimately, became organist at Birmingham Cathedral. A talented family.
Of course, when your surname is Saint, there are streets named after you in just about every town and city!
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