Music
A Nazi rally in Madison Square Garden. A public concert by opera singer Marian Anderson at Lincoln Memorial on Easter Sunday. The World’s Fair in New York. All three events took place in 1939 and are at the center of crime novelist Frankie Bailey’s next novel.The historical thriller, “A Penny Struck by Lightning,” takes the reader into the world of jazz in New York City at the height of the Great Depression and on the cusp of World War II. The protagonist, a Pullman porter, is an undercover FBI agent whose investigation leads him into the city’s speakeasies and nightclubs (where he eventually bumps into Billie Holiday at the Café Society).Bailey is the author of the Lizzie Stuart mystery series as well as of several police procedural novels that feature detective Hannah McCabe. She is also a professor of criminal justice at the University at Albany, SUNY.Learn more about Bailey’s work.Music: "The Best Thing for You," by Colleen Pratt with the Empire Jazz Orchestra.Photo credit: "Portrait of Billie Holiday and Mister, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., ca. June 1946," by William P. Gottlieb. Source: The Library of CongressThank you for listening to Six Count. This show, hosted and produced by Xara Wilde, seeks to promote and preserve the jazz and swing scene in the Capital Region of New York.Six Count is a listener-supported, independent project. Contribute to the series.Have a comment, question or suggestion for who to feature next? Contact Six Count by email at sixcountpodcast@gmail.com or you can find the show on Twitter @SixCountPodcast.