Description:

Huddie Ledbetter
New York, NY, January 10, 1949
Huddie Ledbetter ALS: "we was Plum Broke...and diden get no check las week," One of Few Known!
ALS

Scarce autograph letter signed, "H Ledbetter," New York City, January 10, 1949, to his manager, Marjorie Fairbanks. Letters written by Huddie Ledbetter are prohibitively rare and this particular correspondence was likely one of the last letters he wrote in his lifetime as he passed away later that very year on December 6, 1949. One page, 8.25" x 11". Small rust stain in upper left corner, flattened folds and light waves in paper commensurate with age, none of which affect the bold handwriting or signature. In very good to relatively fine condition.

The letter is accomplished in bold ink on a piece of "University of Minnesota" letterhead. He writes (with idiosyncratic spellings preserved):

"New York City
Jan 10 1949
Dear Mrs M C FairBanks
How are you today as we ar OK Martha and i say thinks so much as we was Plum Broke i haven and diden get no check las week i call the office no one answered i diden no what was the matter i call up my Boy from Boston He diden no so we got this letter this morning so iam sinding this one to you so you tell me what you want me to do will Be weighting Peaples Ben calling me i diden know what to say i can pick out a man if you say are let austin pick out one so him and i can work to gether austin can handle me his self with my help dont lisen to what I'm asking about is what will I do for money what mr wilder say i dont have no Booking untill april now there is little dates But i dont want them les you say so Thinks agan for the checks here is the letters at once pleas
H Ledbetter."

Although he is identified primarily with his solo-guitar work, in the late 1930s and early 1940s, Ledbetter began playing with jazz ensembles - part of the burgeoning New Orleans jazz revival. Huddie discovered that he was being credited as an important source in the development of jazz when music historians Charles Edward Smith and Frederick Ramsey, Jr. began inquiring into the roots of his music. In the early to mid 1940s, Ledbetter toured with several jazz and blues bands including combos headed by the likes of Bunk Johnson, Brownie McGhee and Art Hodes. Around June 1946, he recorded five songs in New York with George "Pops" Foster on bass (together with Willie "The Lion" Smith on piano, Sonny Terry on harmonica, and Brownie McGhee on guitar).

During January and February 1949 he made several radio appearances on the WNYC Jazz Festival as well as a $75 gig at the Jazz Band Ball in February and in the same month he joined the musicians union (Charles K. Wolfe, Life and Legend of Leadbelly, 1992, pp. 232-244). Clifford Manz was serving the lecture and concert coordinator for the University of Minnesota when Ledbetter performed there in the fall of 1948. (Ibid, p. 253).

This item comes with a Certificate from John Reznikoff, a premier authenticator for both major 3rd party authentication services, PSA and JSA (James Spence Authentications), as well as numerous auction houses.

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  • Dimensions: 8.25" x 11"
  • Medium: ALS

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