Hank Duncan

Henry James " Hank " Duncan ( born October 26, 1894 in Bowling Green (Kentucky), † June 7, 1968 in Long Iceland, New York ) was an American stride pianist and bandleader of Dixieland jazz.

Hank Duncan first visited the High School in Louisville (Kentucky) and then studied at Fisk University in Nashville (Tennessee). He already had his own jazz band in which played in Louisville trombonist Jimmy Harrison, and went mid-1920s to New York, where he first five years worked for the bandleader Fess Williams, with whom he toured in 1928 in the Savoy Ballroom. He then worked at King Oliver in 1931, Sidney Bechet New Orleans Foot Warmers, Tommy Ladnier, Charles "Fat Man " Turner and others. With Fats Waller, he went as second pianist on tour, on which he - as a regular part of the stage show - cutting contests conducted by Waller. In 1939 he played in a trio of Zutty Singleton. In 1945, he took in a trio for Black & White Records on ("I Gave You My Word "). In later years he played in clubs like the New Yorker Nick's ( 1947-55 and again from 1956 to 1963 ) and at the Metropole Cafe in trio with Zutty Singleton and Louis Metcalf, until an illness ended his career.