Hazel
Scientific classification
Kingdom:	Plantae
(unranked):	Angiosperms
(unranked):	Eudicots
(unranked):	Rosids
Order:	Fagales
Family:	Betulaceae
Genus:	Corylus L.
Species
See text

The hazels (Corylus) are a genus of deciduous trees and large shrubs native to the temperate Northern Hemisphere. The genus is usually placed in the birch family Betulaceae,^[1][2][3][4] though some botanists split the hazels (with the hornbeams and allied genera) into a separate family Corylaceae.^[5][6]

They have simple, rounded leaves with double-serrate margins. The flowers are produced very early in spring before the leaves, and are monoecious, with single-sex catkins, the male catkins are pale yellow and 5–12 cm long, and the female ones are very small and largely concealed in the buds, with only the bright-red, 1- to 3-mm-long styles visible. The seeds are nuts 1–2.5 cm long and 1–2 cm diameter, surrounded by an involucre (husk) which partly to fully encloses the nut.^[3]

The shape and structure of the involucre, and also the growth habit (whether a tree or a suckering shrub), are important in the identification of the different species of hazel.^[3]

• 

  Male flowers of common hazel in early spring

• 

  Leaves and nuts of Turkish hazel: note the spiny involucres (husks) surrounding the nuts

• 

  Female flower of C. avellana

Species[link]

Corylus has 14–18 species. The circumscription of species in eastern Asia is disputed, with WCSP and the Flora of China differing in which taxa are accepted; within this region, only those taxa accepted by both sources are listed below.^[3][7][8][9] The species are grouped as follows:

• Nut surrounded by a soft, leafy involucre, multiple-stemmed, suckering shrubs to 12m tall
  • Involucre short, about the same length as the nut
    • Corylus americana—American hazel, eastern North America
    • Corylus avellana—Common hazel, Europe and western Asia.
    • Corylus heterophylla—Asian hazel, Asia
    • Corylus yunnanensis—Yunnan hazel, central and southern China
  • Involucre long, twice the length of the nut or more, forming a 'beak'
    • Corylus colchica—Colchican filbert, Caucasus
    • Corylus cornuta—Beaked hazel, North America
    • Corylus maxima—Filbert, southeastern Europe and southwest Asia
    • Corylus sieboldiana—Asian beaked hazel, northeastern Asia and Japan (syn. C. mandshurica)
• Nut surrounded by a stiff, spiny involucre, single-stemmed trees to 20–35 m tall
  • Involucre moderately spiny and also with glandular hairs
    • Corylus chinensis—Chinese hazel, western China
    • Corylus colurna—Turkish hazel, southeastern Europe and Asia Minor
    • Corylus fargesii—Farges' hazel, western China
    • Corylus jacquemontii—Jacquemont's hazel, Himalaya
    • Corylus wangii—Wang's hazel, southwest China
  • Involucre densely spiny, resembling a chestnut burr
    • Corylus ferox—Himalayan hazel, Himalaya, Tibet and southwest China (syn. C. tibetica).

Several hybrids exist, and can occur between species in different sections of the genus, e.g. Corylus × colurnoides (C. avellana × C. colurna). The oldest confirmed hazel species is Corylus johnsonii found as fossils in the Ypresian-age rocks of Ferry County, Washington, USA.^[10]

Uses[link]

Hazelnuts

The nuts of all hazels are edible. The common hazel is the species most extensively grown for its nuts, followed in importance by the filbert. Nuts are also harvested from the other species, but apart from the filbert, none is of significant commercial importance.^[4]

A number of cultivars of the common hazel and filbert are grown as ornamental plants in gardens, including forms with contorted stems (C. avellana 'Contorta', popularly known as "Harry Lauder's walking stick" from its gnarled appearance); with weeping branches (C. avellana 'Pendula'); and with purple leaves (C. maxima 'Purpurea').

Hazels are used as food plants by the larvae of various species of Lepidoptera.

Mythology and folklore[link]

The Celts believed hazelnuts gave one wisdom and inspiration. There are numerous variations on an ancient tale that nine hazel trees grew around a sacred pool, dropping into the water nuts that were eaten by salmon (a fish sacred to Druids) which absorbed the wisdom. The number of spots on the salmon were said to indicate how many nuts they had eaten.^{[citation needed]}

A Druid teacher, in his bid to become omniscient, caught one of these special salmon and asked a student to cook the fish, but not to eat it. While he was cooking it, hot liquid from the cooking fish splashed onto the pupil's thumb, which he naturally sucked to cool, thereby absorbing the fish's wisdom. This boy was called Fionn Mac Cumhail (Fin McCool) and went on to become one of the most heroic leaders in Gaelic mythology.^[11]

The Hazel Branch, from Grimm's Fairy Tales, claims that hazel branches offer the greatest protection from snakes and other things that creep on the earth.

References[link]

Shirley Booth
Booth in 1950.
Born	Marjory Ford (1898-08-30)August 30, 1898 Brooklyn, New York, United States
Died	October 16, 1992(1992-10-16) (aged 94) North Chatham, Massachusetts, United States
Occupation	Actress
Years active	1925–1974
Spouse	Ed Gardner (m. 1929–1942) «start: (1929)–end+1: (1943)»"Marriage: Ed Gardner to Shirley Booth" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Shirley_Booth) William H. Baker (m. 1943–1951) «start: (1943)–end+1: (1952)»"Marriage: William H. Baker to Shirley Booth" Location: (linkback:http://en-wiki.pop.wn.com/index.php/Shirley_Booth)

Shirley Booth (August 30, 1898 – October 16, 1992) was an American actress.

Primarily a theatre actress, Booth's Broadway career began in 1925. Her most significant success was as Lola Delaney, in the drama Come Back, Little Sheba, for which she received a Tony Award in 1950. She made her film debut, reprising her role in the 1952 film version, and won both the Academy Award for Best Actress and Golden Globe Award for Best Actress for her performance. Despite her successful entry into films, she preferred stage acting, and made only four more films.

From 1961 until 1966, she played the title role in the sitcom Hazel, for which she won two Emmy Awards, and was acclaimed for her performance in the 1966 television production of The Glass Menagerie. She retired in 1974.

Early life[link]

Booth was born as Marjory Ford, the daughter of Albert James Ford and Virginia Martha Wright.^[1] Her childhood was spent in the Flatbush section of Brooklyn where she attended P.S. 152. By the time of the 1910 census in April 1910, aged 11, she was known as Thelma by her family.^[2] She had only one sibling, a younger sister, Jean Valentine Ford, who died January 23, 2010.

Career[link]

She began her career onstage as a teenager, acting in stock company productions, and was briefly known as Thelma Booth Ford. She was a prominent actress in Pittsburgh theatre for a time, performing with the Sharp Company.^[3] Her debut on Broadway was in the play, Hell's Bells, opposite Humphrey Bogart on January 26, 1925.

Booth first attracted major notice as the female lead in the comedy hit Three Men on a Horse which ran almost two years in 1935 to 1937. During the 1930s and 1940s, she achieved popularity in dramas, comedies and, later, musicals. She acted with Katharine Hepburn in The Philadelphia Story (1939), originated the role of Ruth Sherwood in the 1940 Broadway production of My Sister Eileen and performed with Ralph Bellamy in Tomorrow the World (1943). She was a prolific Broadway performer for over three decades.

Booth also starred on the popular radio series Duffy's Tavern, playing the lighthearted, wisecracking, man-crazy daughter of the unseen tavern owner on CBS radio from 1941 to 1942 and on NBC-Blue Radio from 1942 to 1943. Her husband, Ed Gardner, created and wrote the show as well as playing its lead character, Archie, the malapropping manager of the tavern; Booth left the show not long after the couple divorced.

Booth auditioned unsuccessfully for the title role of Our Miss Brooks in 1948; she'd been recommended by Harry Ackerman, who was to produce the show, but Ackerman told radio historian Gerald Nachman that he felt Booth was too conscious of a high school teacher's struggles to have full fun with the character's comic possibilities. Our Miss Brooks became a radio and television hit when the title role went to Eve Arden, making her a major star.

Booth received her first Tony, for Best Supporting or Featured Actress (Dramatic), for her performance as Grace Woods in Goodbye, My Fancy (1948). Her second Tony was for Best Actress in a Play, which she received for her widely acclaimed performance as the tortured wife, Lola Delaney, in the poignant drama Come Back, Little Sheba (1950). Her leading man, Sidney Blackmer, received the Tony for Best Actor in a Play for his performance as her husband, Doc.

Her success in Come Back, Little Sheba was immediately followed by the musical A Tree Grows in Brooklyn (1951), (based on the popular novel) in which she played the feisty but lovable Aunt Sissy, which proved to be another major hit. Her popularity was such that, at the time, the story was skewed from the original so that Aunt Sissy was the leading role (rather than Francie).

She then went to Hollywood and recreated her stage role in the motion picture version of Come Back, Little Sheba (1952), with Burt Lancaster playing Doc. After that movie, her first of only five films in her career, was completed, she returned to New York and played Leona Samish in The Time of the Cuckoo (1952) on Broadway.

In 1953, Booth received the Oscar for Best Actress in a Leading Role for her performance in Come Back, Little Sheba, becoming the first actress ever to win both a Tony and an Oscar for the same role. The film also earned Booth Best Actress awards from The Cannes Film Festival, the Golden Globe Awards, The New York Film Critics Circle Awards, and National Board of Review. She also received her third Tony, which was her second in the Best Actress in a Play category, for her performance in the Broadway production of Arthur Laurents' play The Time of the Cuckoo.

So prolific was Booth as an award winner at that time, that during her May 3, 1953, appearance on the TV game show What's My Line?, John Charles Daly said, "I might say, if I may, without causing you too much embarrassment, that it's a great honor for us to have the young lady who got the Oscar Award and the Antoinette Perry Award and just won the award in Cannes, in fact I think one of our New York columnists, Mrs. Lyon, said the only thing that you hadn't won so far was the Kentucky Derby." Booth jokingly replied, "Well, I almost won it yesterday, but I drew the wrong ticket in the lottery."^[4]

Booth was 54 years old when she made her first movie, although she had successfully shaved almost a decade off her real age, with her publicity stating 1907 as the year of her birth. The correct year of birth was known by only her closest associates until her actual age was announced at the time of her death. Her second starring film, a romantic drama About Mrs. Leslie (1954) opposite Robert Ryan, was released in 1954 to good reviews. In 1953, Booth had made a cameo appearance as herself in the all-star comedy/drama movie Main Street to Broadway.

She spent the next few years commuting between New York and Southern California. On the Broadway stage, she scored personal successes in the musical By the Beautiful Sea (1954) and the comedy Desk Set (1955). Although Booth had become well known to moviegoers during this period, the movie roles for both The Time of the Cuckoo (re-titled as Summertime for the film in 1955), and Desk Set (1957), both went to Katharine Hepburn.

She returned to motion pictures to star in two more films for Paramount Pictures, playing Dolly Gallagher Levi in the 1958 film adaptation of Thornton Wilder's romance/comedy The Matchmaker (the source text for the musical Hello, Dolly!), and to play Alma Duval in the drama Hot Spell (1958). She was named runner-up to Susan Hayward in I Want to Live! as the year's Best Actress by the New York Film Critics Circle for her two 1958 films.

In 1957, she won the Sarah Siddons Award for her work on the stage in Chicago. She returned to the Broadway stage in 1959, starring as the long-suffering title character in Marc Blitzstein's musical Juno, an adaptation of Sean O'Casey's 1924 classic play, Juno and the Paycock. Director Frank Capra unsuccessfully attempted to bring Booth back to the screen with Pocketful of Miracles in 1961, but after viewing Capra's original version, Lady for a Day (1933), Booth informed him there was no way she could match May Robson's moving, Oscar-nominated performance in the original film. So Frank Capra instead cast Bette Davis -- and, indeed, Davis was unfavorably compared to May Robson by most reviewers when the film was released.

In 1961, Booth began starring in the television situation comedy Hazel, based on Ted Key's popular comic strip from the Saturday Evening Post about the domineering yet endearing housemaid, Hazel Burke. The show reunited her with Harry Ackerman who produced the show, and she won two Emmys for her role in the series, in 1962 and 1963, making her one of the few performers to win all three major entertainment awards (Oscar, Tony, Emmy), and new stardom with a younger audience. Booth received another Emmy nomination for her third season as "Hazel" in 1964, and in 1966 was also Emmy-nominated for her performance as Amanda in a television adaptation of The Glass Menagerie.

Booth owned Hazel and personally hired Lynn Borden, a former Miss Arizona, to play the role of Barbara Baxter in the final season, when the series aired on CBS. Borden replaced Whitney Blake, and Ray Fulmer, as Steve Baxter, followed Don DeFore as George Baxter. Hazel ended not because of low ratings in its fifth season but because of Booth's health problems.^[5]

In 1963, Booth told the Associated Press, at the height of Hazel's popularity, "I liked playing Hazel the first time I read one of the scripts, and I could see all the possibilities of the character—the comedy would take care of itself. My job was to give her heart. Hazel never bores me. Besides, she's my insurance policy." She proved prescient with the last comment; the show was seen in syndicated reruns for many years after it ceased first-run production in 1966.^{[citation needed]}

Her last Broadway appearances were in a revival of Noël Coward's play Hay Fever and the musical Look to the Lilies, both in 1970. In 1971, she returned to Chicago to star opposite Gig Young in "Harvey" at the Blackstone Theater. After appearing as Grace Simpson in the TV series A Touch of Grace (1973), which was directed by Carl Reiner, she did voice work for The Year Without a Santa Claus (1974), an animated special, playing "Mrs. Santa", after which she retired.

Personal life[link]

Shirley Booth was first married in 1929 to Ed Gardner, who later gained fame as the creator and star of Duffy's Tavern on radio. In 1942, the marriage ended in divorce.

Booth's second marriage, to William Baker in 1943, lasted until his death in 1951; the actress never remarried and had no children from either marriage. She was blind in her last years and died after a brief illness at her home in North Chatham (Cape Cod), Massachusetts. She is interred in Mount Hebron Cemetery, Montclair, New Jersey.

Shirley Booth has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6840 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood.

Work[link]

Theatre (Broadway)[link]

Film[link]

Television[link]

Bibliography[link]

• Tucker, David C. (2008). Shirley Booth: A Biography and Career Record. Jefferson, NC: McFarland. ISBN 978-0-7864-3600-2. 
• Manago, Jim; Manago, Donna (2008). Love is the Reason for It All: The Shirley Booth Story. Albany, GA: BearManorMedia. ISBN 978-1-59393-146-9. 
• Manago, Jim (2010). For Bill His Pinup Girl: The Shirley Booth & Bill Baker Story. U.S.: Jim & Donna Manago Books. ISBN 978-0-615-42181-0. 

References[link]

External links[link]

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Shirley Booth

Biography portal

• Blog devoted to Shirley Booth at http://shirleyboothstory.blogspot.com or http://shirleybooth.info
• Shirley Booth at the Internet Broadway Database
• Shirley Booth at the Internet Movie Database
• Shirley Booth at AllRovi
• Obituary, NY Times, October 21, 1992

Thomas David "Tommy" Roe (born May 9, 1942, Atlanta, Georgia)^[1] is an American pop music singer-songwriter.

Best-remembered for his hits "Sheila" (1962) and "Dizzy" (1969), Roe was "widely perceived as one of the archetypal bubblegum artists of the late 1960s, but Roe cut some pretty decent rockers along the way, especially early in his career", wrote critic Bill Dahl.^[1]

Biography[link]

Roe was raised in Atlanta where he attended Brown High School.^[2] After graduating, he landed a job at General Electric soldering wires.

He had a Billboard #1 hit record in the U.S. and Australia in '62 with the track "Sheila". A buildup of global sales of "Sheila" meant that the R.I.A.A. did not present the gold record until 1969.^[2]

When "Sheila" became a hit, ABC-Paramount Records asked him to go on tour to promote the hit. He was reluctant to give up his secure job at GE until ABC-Paramount advanced him $5,000.^[3]

The following year Roe scored a Top 10 hit with "Everybody", which reached US #3 and UK #9, and the critically acclaimed "The Folk Singer" (#4 UK^[4]) written by Merle Kilgore was also popular. However in March 1963, the UK music magazine NME reported that he and Chris Montez had both been upstaged by The Beatles and their fans on a 21-day UK tour.^[5]

Following a more successful tour of the United Kingdom by his friend Roy Orbison, Roe toured there and then moved to England where he lived for several years. In 1964 Roe recorded a self-penned song, "Diane From Manchester Square", with his backing group at the time, the Roemans. It was a story in song about a girl called Diane who worked in an upstairs office at EMI House when it was based in London's Manchester Square. Sales of this single in the UK were poor, and it failed to chart. In 1965, he and Jerry Lee Lewis combined with Orbison to create an album for the Pickwick International label. During the 1960s, he had several more Top 40 hits, including 1966's #8 "Sweet Pea" (#1 Canada) and #6 "Hooray for Hazel" (#2 Canada).^[2] In 1969, his song "Dizzy" went to No. 1 on the UK Singles Chart,^[4] #1 in Canada, as well as to Billboard's #1 in the U.S. This transatlantic chart-topper sold two million copies by mid-April 1969, giving him his third gold disc award.^[2]

His final Top 10 single, a track co-written with Freddy Weller, "Jam Up and Jelly Tight", was his fourth gold record, peaking at #8 in the U.S. and #5 in Canada.^[2]

A resident of Beverly Hills, California, he is married to Josette Banzet, an actress from France who won a Best Supporting Actress Golden Globe Award for her performance in the 1976 television mini-series, Rich Man, Poor Man.

In 1986, he was inducted into the Georgia Music Hall of Fame and his pioneering contribution to the genre has been recognized by the Rockabilly Hall of Fame. Although his style of music declined in popularity with the 1970s mass market, he maintained a following and continued to perform at a variety of concert venues, sometimes with 1960s nostalgia rock and rollers such as Freddy Cannon and Bobby Vee.

Partial discography[link]

Albums[link]

Singles[link]

Legacy[link]

• Sheila's stage name was taken from the title of her first release, which was a French cover of the song "Sheila".
• In 1991 The Wonder Stuff and Vic Reeves released a cover of "Dizzy" that topped the UK Singles Chart.^[10]

See also[link]

• List of artists who reached number one in the United States
• List of artists who reached number one on the UK Singles Chart
• List of acts who appeared on American Bandstand
• List of performers on Top of the Pops
• The History of Rock & Roll
• Where the Action Is
• List of people from Georgia (U.S. state)

References[link]

External links[link]

• Official website
• Video of Roe performing in Palm Springs, California in 2002
• Mini biography at classicbands.com

Hazel Scott
from the trailer for the film Rhapsody in Blue (1945).
Born	Hazel Dorothy Scott (1920-06-11)June 11, 1920 Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago
Died	October 2, 1981(1981-10-02) (aged 61) Mount Sinai Medical Center, New York City, New York, U.S.
Spouse	1) Adam Clayton Powell, Jr. (m. 1945-1960); 2) Ezio Bedin (1961-?)

This article includes a list of references, related reading or external links, but its sources remain unclear because it lacks inline citations. Please improve this article by introducing more precise citations. (April 2012)

Hazel Dorothy Scott (June 11, 1920 – October 2, 1981) was an internationally known, American jazz and classical pianist and singer; she also performed as herself in several films. She was prominent as a jazz singer throughout the 1930s and 1940s. In 1950, she became the first woman of color to have her own TV show, The Hazel Scott Show, featuring a variety of entertainment. To evade the political persecution of artists in the McCarthy era, Scott moved to Paris in the late 1950s and performed in France, not returning to the United States until 1967.

Born in Port of Spain, Hazel was taken at the age of four by her mother to New York. Recognized early as a musical prodigy, Scott was given scholarships from the age of eight to study at the Juilliard School. She began performing in a jazz band in her teens and was performing on radio at age 16.

Early years and education[link]

Hazel Scott was born in Port of Spain, Trinidad and Tobago to Alma Long Scott, a musician. They moved to New York City when Hazel was four. Recognized as a child musical prodigy, the young Scott was awarded scholarships to study classical piano at the Juilliard School from the age of eight. As a teenager, she performed piano and trumpet with her mother’s "Alma Long Scott" all-girl jazz band, which sometimes featured Lil Hardin-Armstrong.

Music career[link]

By the age of 16, Hazel Scott regularly performed for radio programs for the Mutual Broadcasting System, gaining a reputation as the “hot classicist.”^[1] In the mid-1930s, she also performed at the Roseland Dance Hall with the Count Basie Orchestra. Her early musical theatre appearances in New York included the Cotton Club Revue of 1938, Sing Out the News and The Priorities of 1942.^[1]

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Scott performed jazz, blues, ballads, popular (Broadway songs and boogie-woogie) and classical music in various nightclubs. From 1939 to 1943 she was a leading attraction at both the downtown and uptown branches of Café Society. Her performances created national prestige for the practice of “swinging the classics”.^[2] By 1945, Scott was earning $75,000 ($968,207 today^[3]) a year.^[4]

In addition to Lena Horne, Scott was one of the first African-American women to garner respectable roles in major Hollywood pictures. She performed as herself in several features, notably I Dood It (MGM 1943), Broadway Rhythm (MGM 1944), with Lena Horne and in the otherwise all-white cast The Heat's On (Columbia 1943), Something to Shout About (Columbia 1943), and Rhapsody in Blue (Warner Bros 1945). In the 1940s, in addition to her film appearances, Scott was featured in Café Society’s From Bach to Boogie-Woogie concerts in 1941 and 1943 at Carnegie Hall.

She was the first woman of color to have her own television show, The Hazel Scott Show, which premiered on the DuMont Television Network on July 3, 1950. Thereafter, she guest starred in an episode of CBS's Faye Emerson's Wonderful Town musical series.

With the beginning of political intimidation during the years of Senator Joseph McCarthy's influence, Scott was called to testify by the House Un-American Activities Committee (HUAC). Her television variety program was cancelled soon afterward on September 29, 1950. This was also a time of continued racism in the advertising industry and economic hardships for jazz musicians in general. Scott remained publicly opposed to McCarthyism and racial segregation throughout her career.

To evade the oppression in the United States, Scott moved to Paris in the late 1950s. She appeared in the French film Le Désordre et la Nuit’ (1958). She maintained a steady but difficult career in France and touring throughout Europe. She did not return to the US until 1967. By this time the Civil Rights Movement had led to federal legislation ending racial segregation and enforcing the protection of voting rights of all citizens; most African Americans in the South could vote again, after nearly 100 years of many being excluded from the franchise. Other social changes were underway.

Scott continued to play occasionally in nightclubs, while also appearing in daytime television until the year of her death. She made her television acting debut in 1973, on the ABC daytime soap opera One Life to Live, performing a wedding song at the nuptials of her "onscreen cousin", Carla Gray Hall, portrayed by Ellen Holly.

Scott recorded as the leader of various groups for Decca, Columbia and Signature, among them, a trio that consisted of Bill English and the double bass player Martin Rivera, and another featuring Charles Mingus on bass and Rudie Nichols on drums. Her album Relaxed Piano Moods on the Debut Record label, with Mingus and Max Roach, is generally her work most highly regarded by critics today.

Marriage[link]

In 1945, Scott, who was a Catholic, married Adam Clayton Powell, Jr., a Baptist ministers and U.S. Congressman, in Connecticut.^[4] They had one child, Adam Clayton Powell III, but divorced in 1960 after a separation.

On January 19, 1961, she married Ezio Bedin, a Swiss-born comedian.^[5]

Death[link]

On October 2, 1981, Hazel Scott died of cancer at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. She was 61 years old, and survived by her son Adam Clayton Powell III. She was buried at Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York, near other musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Johnny Hodges, and Dizzy Gillespie.^[6]

Legacy[link]

Scott was best-known internationally as a performer of jazz. She was also accomplished in politics, leading the way for African Americans in entertainment and film; and was successful in dramatic acting and classical music. She was noted for her swinging style, performing at the Milford Plaza Hotel in her last months.^[6]

References[link]

Sources[link]

• “Bye-Bye Boogie: Hazel Scott leaves night clubs and moves to concert stage.” Ebony Nov. 1945: 31-34.
• “Café Society Concert.” Time Magazine, 5 May 1941.
• “Hazel Scott is Queen Once More in Warner’s ‘Rhapsody in Blue,” Chicago Defender, 1 Sep. 1945: 14.
• McAfee, J., Jr., “Scott, Hazel,” CBY 1943 Obituary, JSN, ii/4 (1982), 19
• Bogle, Donald. 2001. “The Hazel Scott Show,” in Primetime Blues: African Americans on Network Television. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, pp. 15–19.
• Chilton, Karen. Hazel Scott: The Pioneering Journey of a Jazz Pianist from Cafe Society to Hollywood to HUAC (University of Michigan Press 2008)
• Feather, Leonard. “Swinging the Classics,” The New York Times, 18 May 1941: X5.
• McGee, Kristin. “Swinging the Classics: Hazel Scott and Hollywood’s Musical-Racial Matrix,” in Some Liked it Hot: Jazz Women in Film and Television, 1928-1959 (Middletown, CT: Wesleyan University Press 2009 http://www.upne.com/0-8195-6907-0.html]) 113-133.
• Myter-Specner, D.: “Hazel Scott, Jazz Pianist: Boogie-woogie and Beyond,” Jazz Research Papers, x (1990), 75
• Reed, Bill. 1998. “The Movies: Hazel Scott,” in Hot From Harlem: Profiles in Classic African American Entertainment, Los Angeles: Cellar Door Press, pp. 110–128.
• Taubman, E. 1941. “Café Music Heard at Carnegie Hall,” The New York Times, 24 Apr. 24: 24.
• Taubman, E. 1943. “Swing feature Soviet Benefit: Café Society assures at least a thousand watches for the Russian Fighting Forces,” The New York Times, 12 Apr. 1943: 28.
• Taylor, A. “Hazel Scott,” Notes and Tones: Musician-to-Musician Interviews (Liège, Belgium, 1977, rev. and enlarged 2/1993)

External links[link]

• Hazel Scott at IMDB

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Hazel Scott

This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page. It is written like an advertisement and needs to be rewritten from a neutral point of view. Tagged since February 2009. It may contain original research. Tagged since February 2009. Its tone or style may not reflect the formal tone used on Wikipedia. Tagged since February 2009.

Bobin Jon Michael Eirth better known as B'eirth or B'ee (born March 25, 1973), is the vocalist and conductor/composer in the experimental psych folk band In Gowan Ring.

Biography[link]

Rarely mentioned in articles and reviews without an adjective, B'eirth has been called "mysterious," "reclusive," "nomadic," "effusive," and "singular." Much of this attention is due to his cultivated image as a modern-day troubadour, often performing music (and presumably living) in old-fashioned clothes or costumes, and preferring instruments with Renaissance roots.

He explains his moniker and artist name B'eirth as a contraction for his "less wieldy" given name, and B'ee as a simpler version still, with a fitting polysemy: His father was a beekeeper. On his mother's side, he is related to the fourth Prophet of the LDS Church, Wilford Woodruff, his Great-great-great grandfather. Despite this, he does not follow the Mormon discipline. He was born in the U.S., but is vague about where he was raised, saying it was "further east in green territory" rather than in Salt Lake City proper. He currently lives in downtown Portland, Oregon, United States.

B'eirth is proficient at playing a myriad of instruments, including guitar, cittern, harps (both mouth harps and folk harps), harmonica, recorder, reeds and flutes. He is largely self-taught (though says he has didactically studied "16th century polyphony"), and designs and fabricates his own stringed instruments. He is also, unless otherwise credited, the designer and artist of In Gowan Ring's album artwork.

As a live performer, B'eirth is commonly associated with his easily recognizable "double-necked guitar."[1] This instrument is actually a guitar/cittern hybrid made by B'eirth himself in 1998, which he calls the Stringed Spade. It is, in his own words:

...a standard 6 string on the top neck and 9 strings in 5 courses (low course single) on the lower neck. I wanted the combination so as to avoid changing instruments between songs during performance. Occasionally I play both necks during one song and sometimes use the cittern neck as resonant strings while the top neck strings are sounding. [2]

In November 2005, he released the first self-titled album of his solo project Birch Book - a more Donovan-sounding classic folk album than any of his previous releases. The project's MySpace description explains:

‘Birch Book’ marks an evolution in sound away from the overtly psychedelic towards a simpler, highly effective, direct song based approach ... This album is not what many expect, it is not overly experimental or droning but it simultaneously brings the older mystical folk into the current and points a new individualistic way forward for the artist. [3]

In November 2006, Birch Book Volume II, Fortune And Folly, was released on the Denver-based psychedelic label Helmet Room Recordings. As of October 2010, the last Birch Book release has been Birch Book Volume III, A Hand Full Of Days.

B'eirth is a frequent contributor in other projects, appearing for example on Seth Nehil's album Umbra (recorders and reeds), Waldteufel's album Heimliches Deutschland (flute), Backworld's album Of Silver Sleep (recorder) and has performed commonly with Blood Axis.

External links[link]

Official[link]

• In Gowan Ring website
• Birch Book website
• Birch Book MySpace
• Helmet Room Recordings Website

Unofficial[link]

• B'eirth interview, from Ptolemaic Terrascope #35 (January 2005)
• B'eirth interview, from music.gothic.ru (2000)