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Print this pageSyncopatin’ Fate
By Stefene RussellFate Marable was red-haired, short of temper, equally at ease with ballroom pianos and riverboat calliopes—and his rigor as a bandleader was legendary. Musicians flocked to his “floating conservatory” on the Mississippi, where players were required to learn a new slate of songs every 14 days—and would be fined for playing too fast or too slow. When Marable fired a musician, he’d give the poor fellow a rehearsal time 15 minutes later than the rest of the band: The doomed man would arrive to see an ax sitting in his chair and hear his bandmates playing “There’ll Be Some Changes Made.” Still, Marable trained some of the finest jazz musicians of the 20th century—Louis Armstrong called his years with Marable “going to the university.” The photo is from jazz DJ Dennis Owsley’s new book, City of Gabriels, whose title refers to St. Louis’ fame as “cradle of the Gabriels”—the city of trumpet-playing angels.
