BISHOP, RUBY

Homebase: Seattle, WA.
Stats: (December 22, 1919 -- June 23, 2019)
Misc Notes: "Ruby Carol Cogwell was born on December 22, 1919 in Thurston County, Washington, the eighth child on the family farm. Dancing for country fairs at age five and mostly self-taught on a piano carted home by a brother, she led the Centralia Buccaneers Band at the age of 12. After graduating from high school, her parents sent her to the University of Washington in Seattle where they hoped she would be trained as a pharmacist. Within a year she left the University to start her music career.

Settling in Seattle, Cogwell played solo gigs at many of Seattle’s well-known jazz venues. Because of restrictions imposed by the white musician’s union, black performers were limited to the south part of town on or below Jackson Street. This is where touring jazz greats could stay, play, and hang out in sessions at the black Musician Union Local #493 building. Over the years Bishop befriended and hosted many of these performers who looked forward to both her music and a home-cooked meal. These greats included Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, and especially Louis Armstrong, whom she often escorted when he played in Seattle"