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 his career. He wrote for Elvis, for Brook Benton, and for Nat King Cole. “This Bitter Earth” was another in a string of hits, peaking at Number 1 on the charts. Over the years, it was re-recorded by dozens of artists – from Aretha Franklin to Gladys Knight. It has been sampled in rap songs, and used in dance choreography and in video games. The song has never faded from the public’s ears.

It’s now 1978, and young filmmaker Charles Burnett debuts his latest creation at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Killer of Sheep follows Stan, a sensitive dreamer who fights daily against the stress and ennui of life in the Watts ghetto of Los Angeles. “This Bitter Earth,” is the metaphoric catalyst, and is heard throughout the film.

The Library of Congress declared Killer of Sheep a national treasure for its “culturally, historically, and aesthetically significant” depiction of life in Watts. Following a recent restoration, the film screens regularly at festivals around the globe and on cable movie channels.

Over 60 years later, Clyde Otis’s “This Bitter Earth,” continues to engage the eyes, ears, and consciousness of the people.

“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.

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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 yet another story of racial degradation.

Blood on the Fields, as Stanley Crouch wrote, is “An epic truth-telling of the national condition of slavery, that pushes against the Constitution, disregards the Christian underpinnings of the nation. It molds our politics, our military history, our arts, the Civil War and its echoes, the Harlem Renaissance and the Civil Rights Movement.”

The Lincoln Center audience follows Jesse and Leona from the slave ship to the auction block to the plantation. Jesse, a prince in Africa, leans on Leona. Her great strength shows not only Jesse, but the audience and all Americans, how to face truth, how to survive, and how to be truly free. Blood on the Fields, says Wynton Marsalis, teaches, “what it takes to achieve soul: The willingness to address adversity with elegance.”

Blood on the Fields became a true cultural force and agent for change. It was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Music in 1997 – the first work of jazz to be so honored. Marsalis’s oratorio opened the door for previously ignored jazz works by Duke Ellington, George Gershwin, Thelonious Monk, and John Coltrane to receive posthumous recognition.

“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.

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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 touring a general geographic region, these territory bands played most every night. Young musicians saw them as training to break onto the national scene. Count Basie and Lester Young, for example, got their starts in Walter Page’s Blue Devils, touring a circuit from the upper Midwest to Oklahoma City.  

Heartland circuits were fertile ground for the primarily all-Black territory bands. But they were not without pitfalls. Small-town Midwest, especially, fell under the withering gaze of Jim Crow. Segregation and intimidation were commonplace. Lynchings were not unheard of. Bands were careful not to book gigs in “sundown towns.”

Despite the dangers, as Village Voice jazz critic Francis Davis wrote, “Territory bands disseminated swing and jazz to an ignored audience where radios and record players were still rare.” Culturally, territory bands were often an audience’s first encounter with the Black community. Black musicians took the stage in the face of prejudice, but in so doing, opened ears to the art of Jazz and, through that art, opened minds against preconceived notions.

“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.

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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.”

UNSPECIFIED – JANUARY 01: Photo of Johnny OTIS; Posed. Sitting down, wearing suit and bow tie (Photo by Charlie Gillett/Redferns)

Young Johnny forged his father’s signature on a credit slip to buy his first drum kit. He played in local swing orchestras by the early 1940’s. He founded his own band in 1945, which included Charles Brown and Illinois Jacquet, and scored a hit with “Harlem Nocturne.” He opened the Barrelhouse Club in the Watts district of Los Angeles in 1947. Like its namesake club in Omaha, Nebraska, the Barrelhouse welcomed Black and white patrons as equals.

As much for his music, Otis gained fame as an advocate for Black musicians. He hustled gigs, arranged recording sessions, hosted a television show, worked as a disc jockey, and formed his own label – Ultra Records – to give Black artists a greater audience. He also had a sharp ear for discovering new talent. Etta James, “Big Mama” Thornton, and Jackie Wilson all thank Otis for their big break.  

By the end of his career, Otis’s attention shifted to journalism and politics. He served as deputy chief of staff to Congressman Mervyn Dymally. His autobiography, “Upside Your Head,” was hailed as a brutally honest account of the toxic racism in the entertainment industry.

“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.

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“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 racism, violence, and the pattern of backward movement toward racial equality. “It’s like Ralph Ellison said: We’re invisible,” Blanchard believes. “It’s frustrating. You’re just tired of this.”

Songs produced for their “Live” album were recorded in cities plagued by racial tension and violence – Dallas, Cleveland, and Minneapolis. Comparisons are made to Max Roach’s 1960 protest, “We Insist.” “We Insist” uses Oscar Brown’s words to convey its message; Blanchard continues that message using sound and a sense of place. Blue Note Records describes Blanchard’s horn playing throughout as, “the sound of a group of people standing up for their rights … like a gathering of people chanting en masse in a communal demand for justice.”

Blanchard’s previous album, “Breathless,” takes its title from Eric Garner’s death by chokehold while being arrested in New York City. Garner, a 43-year-old African-American horticulturalist, is heard saying, “I can’t breathe,” as officers held him to the pavement.

Despite the signs of an even more ominous future ahead, Blanchard remains optimistic. He praises such positive acts as the March Against Gun Violence, and the eloquence of the Parkland School students. Because people still hold out hope, says Blanchard, so will he. And so will his music.

“Soundtrack to the Struggle” is hosted by Hollis Monroe. Produced by Ron Adkins. Executive Producer is Dennis Green.

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