Jan August

It is well-documented that surf guitarist Dick Dale's career was revitalized by the inclusion of his 1962 recording of "Misirlou" in Quentin Tarantino's blockbuster film Pulp Fiction; what is less known is that the song was originally a major hit for a slender, elegant pianist from New York, who was paid less than $40 for the million copies of his version that made the song a fixture in American pop history. Pianist Jan Augustoff was born on September 24, 1904, the fifth and final child of middle-class immigrants in New York City. His siblings -- three sisters and a brother -- had all received music lessons while growing up, to dismal results; so when it came time for Jan to study, his parents decided he probably would be as incapable, and his music study was dropped. The youngster, however, had a natural inclination toward music -- he became fascinated with the player pianos at the local movie houses, and would come home and pick out the melodies on the family piano. He had a distaste for mathematics that gave him trouble in school, causing him to finally flunk his courses and drop out; with some natural talent as a cartoonist, he got a job working for Bud Fisher, the creator of the popular Mutt & Jeff series. Still, it was music that kept his attention -- his brother taught him a simple left-hand chord on the piano and he taught himself the rest, additionally learning to play saxophone, vibraphone, and xylophone. He began getting small jobs in Greenwich Village nightclubs under his shortened name, Jan August, and eventually was recruited into Paul Specht's band. In the '30s he was invited to play in the highly popular orchestra of Paul Whiteman, "the King of Jazz," which he did for some years; he played occasionally with the young Ferde Grofé as well. By the 1940s...