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. The Grand Terrace, a luxurious “black-and-tan” integrated speakeasy owned by Al Capone, was one of the most important jazz clubs in music history. Hines and Louis Armstrong, along with dozens of their protégés, were making solid reputations. Capone thought Hines was “nuts” when he announced his tour plans. Not only was he stepping outside the hot Chicago jazz scene, but he’d also be outside the protection of Capone and his boys. But, despite it all, Capone knew the tour was important. 

Such trips were never a smooth ride. “When we traveled by train through the South,” he said, “they would send a porter back to our car to let us know when the dining room was cleared. Then we would all go in together. We couldn’t eat when we wanted to. We had to eat when they were ready for us.” Later, during the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960’s, Hines would joke, “You could call us the first Freedom Riders.” 

Finding food and lodging in stopover towns was a constant struggle, often setting off threatening encounters with local police. Hines came to call these tours “invasions,” because of the constant threat of imminent danger. Any contact with whites, even if they were fans of his music, was risky. At one gig in Alabama, a bomb exploded under their feet while they played on stage. “We didn’t none of us get hurt but we didn’t play so well after that, either.”

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

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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 time with Andy Kirk’s Clouds of Joy Orchestra taught her much about the music business.

She used that knowledge to make history. Blanche Calloway and Her Joy Boys was the first big band led by a woman … and an African-American woman, at that. Over the course of its run, the Joy Boys featured such future jazz legends as Ben Webster, Cozy Cole, Bennie Moten, Andy Kirk, and Chick Webb. Newspapers hailed Calloway and Her Joy Boys one of the top ten Black bands in the country.

This success, however, didn’t come easy. She was arrested for knowingly using a whites-only restroom. She spoke her mind and wrote provocative lyrics to her music. And after several years of playing to segregated audiences, and fighting the singer-dancer stereotype of women in jazz, the gigs dried up.

Later years saw her enter the political arena. In 1958, she made history again, becoming the first African-American precinct voting clerk and the first Black woman to vote in Florida. She was active in the NAACP and the Congress of Racial Equality. In 1964, she stood with other African American women at the Hague in support of the NATO Women’s Peace Force.

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

Podcast (soundtrack): Play in new window | Download

Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | RSS