It’s Sunday, September 15, 1963, and four Klansmen have planted dynamite under the 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, Alabama. The explosion killed four young girls and injured many others. History records this incident as a turning point in the Civil Rights movement. John Coltrane, his heart broken, was driven to tears, anger, and frustration. …
Category: Soundtrack to The Struggle
Soundtrack To The Struggle: Queens of the Blues
Three pioneering women lay claim to Blues royalty. Mamie Smith, Ma Rainey, and Bessie Smith made an impact on American culture that still resonates today. In 1920, Mamie Smith became the first Black musician to make vocal blues recordings. A savvy marketer, she exploited the new medium of radio to reach audiences across the country …
Soundtrack to the Struggle 2024
What promise did Marilyn Monroe make to secure a gig for Ella Fitzgerald? And which legendary jazz drummer’s “Freedom Now Suite” involved dozens of musicians in a musical demand for equal treatment? Find out during February on KCCK’s award winning daily show, “Soundtrack to the Struggle.” Each day during Black History Month, Hollis Monroe explains …
Soundtrack to the Struggle: Paul Robeson
Paul Robeson had been invited to sing at the Fourth Canadian Convention of the International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers in Vancouver in February of 1952. An outspoken supporter of civil rights worldwide and an admirer of the Soviet Union, where he perceived there to be no racism, Robeson had been increasingly persecuted …
Soundtrack to the Struggle: The Green Book
1936, and New York City postman Victor Hugo Green publishes the first edition of the Negro Motorist Green-Book. This directory of hotels, restaurants, mechanics, and other services open to Blacks became an indispensable resource for travelers of color. Each annual edition grew in size and detail, mapping roads relatively safe from police profiling. “Driving while …
Soundtrack to the Struggle: Clyde Otis “This Bitter Earth”
It’s 1959 and Dinah Washington records the latest from hit-maker Clyde Otis. As she sings, she knows the song – “This Bitter Earth” – will be a classic. But neither Washington nor Otis could predict just how great an impact “This Bitter Earth” would have on American culture. Clyde Otis wrote over 800 songs during …
Soundtrack to the Struggle: Blood On the Fields
It’s 1994 and it’s opening night for Wynton Marsalis’s Blood on the Fields – an extended jazz oratorio on the condition of American slavery. The narrative unfolds and the music courses through elements of work songs, call and response, blues, ragtime, and jazz. The audience realizes that Blood on the Fields is far more than …
Soundtrack to the Struggle: Territory Bands
Outside the bright lights of Harlem, where Ellington and Armstrong reigned supreme, hard-working, lesser-known orchestras brought jazz to the masses. Like the barnstormer leagues of baseball, these “territory bands” of hungry newcomers played small-town dance halls, ice cream socials, and Elks Lodges, and introduced rural America to its native music. Based in smaller cities and …