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 …
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 …
Johnny Otis, son of Greek immigrants, eloped at age 19 with his childhood sweetheart of African American descent to Reno, Nevada. Interracial marriage was more accepted there. Otis later wrote, “As a kid, I decided that if our society dictated that one had to be black or white, I would be Black.” Young Johnny forged …
“Everybody has a breaking point,” says trumpeter and composer Terence Blanchard, “and I feel we’re getting close to ours.” Blanchard refers to the level of gun violence in America, and the number of violent acts committed against people of color. With his band E-Collective, Blanchard has recorded two albums considered open conversations, consciousness-raising dialogues on …
It’s 1931 and Earl “Fatha” Hines has packed up his Orchestra for the first of his 3-month whistle-stop tours, including gigs in the Deep South. Fatha’s band was the first major black big band to tour Jim Crow country. At the time, Hines led the house band at the famed Grand Terrace Café in Chicago. …
One might assume that the sister of legendary Cab Calloway would stand in a mighty long shadow. Not Blanche Calloway. She basked in her own spotlight. For a time, her nightclub gigs earned Blanche more income than her little brother. She worked with Eubie Blake, and was accompanied by Louis Armstrong on two recordings. Her …
1960. Black America’s struggle for civil rights reaches critical mass. In February, anti-segregationist lunch counter sit-ins began in Greensboro, North Carolina. Rallies and marches spread across the country like a brushfire, with Black and white musicians, dramatists, and visual artists adding their voices to the Movement. The question was no longer if a change was …
It’s 1935 and vibraphonist Red Norvo and his wife, singer Mildred Bailey, host a party. Their living room fills with the brightest stars in jazz. Pianist Teddy Wilson is there, as is Benny Goodman and many of his cohorts. Before long, a jam session breaks out. Goodman, of course, had brought his clarinet to …
