He started playing the piano when he was seven. As a teenager, he played professionally in churches around Albuquerque. He soon was playing in local dance halls.
Started by a tight-knit Black community near Charleston, South Carolina, the Charleston permeated dance halls where young women suddenly had the freedom to kick their heels and move their legs.
Dance halls, cinemas, this age of jazz are all, if we may believe our ears, gateways to Hell, and we should be better employed sitting at home contemplating our sins.