Draper | en

Ray Draper was an excellent tuba soloist, one of the few in the 1950s to utilize the instrument for bop improvisations. After attending the Manhattan School of Music, he played and recorded with Jackie McLean (1956-1957), worked with Donald Byrd, and recorded with John Coltrane (1958). Draper was with Max Roach's band (1958-1959) and worked with Don Cherry in the early '60s. However, from that point on drugs played havoc with his life. He did play later in the 1960s with Horace Tapscott, Archie Shepp, Brother Jack McDuff (recording with him in 1971), and Howard Johnson's group Gravity, but had...

Draper has had a passion for music from an early age and at 16 started recording in collaboration with various underground artists. Merely two years later, inspired by the stiff competition here at Indaba Music, he became heavily involved in the remixing scene. Rising through the ranks, he appeared frequently on our winners’ lists, receiving accolades such as runner up on the Laurie Anderson competition judged by Lou Reed, first prize in the ‘Electronic Musician Magazine’ and ‘Conspiracy For Good’ original composition contests, and most recently placing as a runner-up in The Qemists remix competition. Draper’s first big break came...

When Linda Draper was a little girl, she thought Gene Vincent’s “Be-Bop-A-Lula” was written by her Dad. “It was my favorite song in the whole world,” she says. “I was five-years-old, and he would sing and play it on the piano.” Raised just north of New York City, Draper describes the scene, saying: “I’d dance around the room in the way that only little kids who are too young to be self-conscious know how to do.” While growing up in a musical household with parents and siblings who are all musicians (father Frederick is a classical guitar virtuoso who studied...

Ruth Draper (born December 2, 1884, New York City - died December 30, 1956, New York, New York) was an American actress and dramatist. She specialized in character-driven monologues and monodrama. Her best known pieces include The Italian Lesson, Three Women and Mr. Clifford, Doctors and Diets, and A Church in Italy. Such theatre legends as George Bernard Shaw, Thornton Wilder, John Gielgud, Katharine Hepburn, Maurice Chevalier, Laurence Olivier, and Uta Hagen were among those dazzled by Draper's artistry and talent, as were Henry James, Henry Adams, and Edith Wharton. Draper died in 1956, aged 72, just hours after giving...