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Tally B. Washington
Successful African-American jazz drummer from Fritz Leiber's short story "Rump-Titty-Titty-Tum-TAH-Tee," first published in Fantasy & Science Fiction vol. 14, no. 5 (May 1958).
He and his artistic circle accidentally stumble on a rhythm so catchy, it threatens to destabilize civilization. His rhythm becomes a new international musical fad called Drum 'n' Drag. When they can't even keep the rhythm from intruding into their thoughts, he and his circle hold a seance and invoke the spirit of Washington's great-great-great-great-great-grandfather (A Dahomey witch doctor) for help. He gives them a counter-rhythm (Tah-titty-titty-tee-toe") that acts as an antidote.
Full name Taliaferro Booker Washington.
Once upon a time, when just for an instant all the molecules in the world and in the collective uncon- scious mind got very slippery, so that just for an instant something could pop through from the past or the future or other places, six very important intellectual people were gathered together in the studio of Simon Grue, the accidental painter.
There was Tally B. Washington, the jazz drummer. He was beating softly on a gray hollow African log and thinking of a composition he
would entitle “Duet for Water Hammer and Whistling Faucet.”
