Putney Dandridge

Performing accompaniment for the great tap dancer Bill "Bojangles" Robinson in 1930 may seem historic enough for most music enthusiasts, but Putney Dandridge had already been in the music business for more than a decade when he got this gig. He was part of a revue known as the Drake and Walker Show beginning in 1918 and subsequently became known as one of the most active players on the Buffalo music stampede. After several years with Robinson, the pianist and vocalist skimmed his way around the Great Lakes in order to establish a new residency in Cleveland, complete with his o...