It’s 1941 and drummer Gene Krupa steps between his bandmate, trumpeter Roy Eldridge, and the nightclub doorman who refuses to let him enter. Krupa points to the poster beside him, with he and Eldridge listed as headliners. The doorman doesn’t move. Furious, Krupa confronts the club owner. Fire that doorman or the band walks out – right here, right now. The doorman is fired. 

Krupa saw the effect that Eldridge had on listeners. “Even Joe Public knew this was artistry,” he said. “It was like someone switched on a light.” But it didn’t matter that Eldridge, a trumpet virtuoso, stunned audiences every time he played. He was Black and the rest of the band was white. Just getting to the bandstand was a nightly struggle.

Ironically, said bandmate Artie Shaw, “Droves of people would ask him for his autograph, but he couldn’t get off the bus to buy a hamburger.” Krupa more than once did jail time for punching a restaurant manager who refused Eldridge a menu, or for threatening a hotel clerk when the band’s reservations suddenly disappeared from the books.

As one writer noted in retrospect, Krupa was one of the most forward-thinking men in jazz. He knew that he couldn’t change the ugly face of bigotry by punching it in the nose. It wouldn’t open people’s minds. But Roy Eldridge’s playing, along with that of many other great Black musicians, would, at least, open people’s ears. And that, believed Krupa, was a good place to start.

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

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It’s the late 1930’s and Herb Jeffries, a popular singer in several big bands, saddles up to become the first African American singing cowboy.  Dubbed “The Bronze Buckaroo,” Jeffries starred in several low-budget Westerns, like Harlem Rides the Range, and Two Gun Man from Harlem.

Every Saturday, children of all skin colors packed afternoon matinees, and watched the   adventures of such white Western stars as Tex Ritter and Gene Autry. If the cast did include people of color, the roles were stereotypes and caricatures. Children of color needed heroes they could identify with, Jeffries understood. They needed characters who went through life with dignity and humanity. 

In 1937, Jeffries financed and starred in Harlem of the Prairie, making history with the first talking, singing Black cowboy picture with an all-Black cast. Over two years, he made four movies, starring as Bob Blake, the lonesome hero who rides into town, solves problems with his fists, quick wits, and six-guns. And while winning the heart of the rancher’s daughter, he finds time to sing a ballad or two.

Jeffries hung up his spurs in 1939 to join Duke Ellington’s Blanton-Webster Orchestra. Over his long career he recorded with the Erskine Tate band, Earl Hines, Sidney Bechet, and the all-male orchestra led by Blanche Calloway. His rich, silky baritone kept him on the bandstand for decades. And his pioneering movies kept him signing autographs his entire life.

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

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It’s 1948 and the DuMont Television Network airs the first episode of its new program, The Laytons, starring jazz singer and actor Amanda Randolph. Little is known about this situation comedy, but Randolph made history in its mere ten episodes as the first African-American in a starring TV role.

Despite The Laytons’s brief run, Randolph’s performance was so well-received by the network that she made history, again, as the first African-American woman to host her own show. Simply titled Amanda, this musical variety program not only showcased Randolph’s talent, but allowed her to welcome other Black performers into the national spotlight.

But Amanda Randolph was a history-maker long before television. The piano rolls she cut in 1919 are the earliest existing recordings of a Black musician. As a singer in the Twenties, Randolph recorded with her own orchestra. She garnered rave reviews in the Eubie Blake/Noble Sissle review, Shuffle Along. She performed regularly on radio, and even lent her voice to a series of cartoons. She appeared alongside Sidney Poitier in No Way Out, and was a regular on Amos & Andy and the Danny Thomas Show.

When she passed in 1967, the entertainment trades printed tributes acknowledging Amanda Randolph’s trail-blazing career, and her work to advance the careers of fellow Black performers.

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

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Oscar Brown, Jr. was not a man easily defined. Labels like songwriter, composer, actor, singer, director, producer, playwright all fit, but not quite. He was also an activist, a visionary, and a social commentator. A vocalist whose technique was steeped in jazzy agility and swing, his performances were consistently witty, shrewd, musical and humane, and he wrote lyrics to several classic jazz anthems that sounded integral to them, rather than afterthoughts.

Born in Chicago, Brown’s father intended for him to follow in his footsteps and become a practicing lawyer, but influenced by the Harlem Renaissance as he was by the Civil Rights Movement, Brown had a desire to create and to communicate. In doing so he penned over 1,000 songs, recorded 11 albums, and wrote several plays.

A forerunner of the political consciousness that would become predominant in soul, funk, and hip-hop in the decades to follow, his efforts to exact social change spread across the arts and even into government, spurring two unsuccessful but memorable campaigns for office.

Of his work, Oscar Brown, Jr. said, “Our society is being bombarded with images designed to accustom it to horror and benumb all compassion … Therefore, I am launching a creative counter-attack. Where I confront hate, I will exemplify love. In the face of ugliness, I will present beauty. As an antidote to lies, I will reveal the truth. Boisterous, bellicose noises must be diminished by hip harmonies set to moving rhythms and messages.”

Though he never received the recognition many felt he deserved during his life, his music and words have had a continued influence on a whole new generation of artists and activists.

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

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