“Winifred Atwell’s piano performances were simply captivating. She showed me what was possible and was a total inspiration.” - Elton John [on nominating Miss Atwell as his choice for the Gay Icons exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in London way back in 2009]
In 1954 Trinidadian-born, Royal Academy of Music educated Winifred Atwell became the first black music artist to have a #1 single in the UK with her instrumental hit single, Let’s Have Another Party - and is still the only female instrumentalist to do so.
Her popularity saw her leading her own television programmes on BBC and ITV, opening a beauty parlour and amassing a performance catalogue that travelled between classical music and jazz. She enjoyed great popularity in Britain and Australia from the 1950s with a series of boogie-woogie and ragtime hits, selling over 20 million records. She performed in three Royal Variety Performances, appeared in every capital city in Europe, and played for over twenty million people. At a private party for Queen Elizabeth II, she was called back for an encore by the monarch herself, who requested Roll Out the Barrel.
Winifred’s "Other Piano" on which she played ragtime and boogie-woogie, is on display in V&A East museum’s inaugural exhibition, The Music is Black: A British Story.
However it was at the V&A South Kensington that Madam Acarti and I attended a special event on Friday at exploring Winnie's life and legacy, In Celebration of Winifred Atwell.
At the core of the discussion panel was "national treasure" and lifelong Winnie fan Sir Richard Stilgoe, who rescued the "Other Piano" from oblivion and purchased it at auction - and has loaned it to the exhibition. Fellow panellists, classical and jazz pianists Dr. Samantha Ege and Beatrice Nicholas - although they had done their homework - were a bit less au fait with the great lady's impact, having really only discovered her in their adulthood the legacy of this remarkable musician. Ms Nicholas, especially, however, was able to demonstrate on the keyboard at the event exactly how much of a musical arranging genius Winnie was - taking old ragtime-era numbers and injecting her own complex and elaborate pianistic flourishes (learned from her classical training) into each of them...
And in case you are in any doubt about just how brilliant she was, here are just a few examples:
Simply faboo!
Una Winifred Atwell (27 February or 27 April 1910 or 1914 – 28 February 1983)
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