Harry "The Hipster" Gibson

Harry "The Hipster" Gibson was a jazz pianist, singer, proto-rapper and songwriter. Born : June 27, 1915 in The Bronx, New York. Died : May 03, 1991 in Brawley, California. Gibson played New York style Stride piano and boogie woogie while singing in a wild, unrestrained style. His music career began in the late 1920s, when he played stride piano in Dixieland jazz bands in Harlem. He continued to perform there throughout the 1930s, adding the barrelhouse boogie of the time to his repertoire, and was discovered by Fats Waller in 1939.[ Between 1939 and 1945, he played at various Manhattan jazz clubs on 52nd Street ("Swing Street"), most notably the Three Deuces, run by Irving Alexander, and Leon and Eddies, run by Leon Enkin and Eddie Davis.