Author Archive
Friday, October 1st, 2010
 Who was the New Orleans jazz pioneer who did most to make this music a unique art form? When this question is asked, the name of Louis Armstrong invariably comes to mind, and rightly so.
But there is another jazz musician whose name deserves to be coupled with Armstrong as the greatest of the New Orleans Jazz players. His name is Sidney Bechet.
Bechet was born in New Orleans in May 1897, just three years before his compatriot, Louis Armstrong. Although the two boys grew up in the same city, their home environments were worlds apart.
Armstrong grew up in dire poverty, living alternately with his mother and a succession of “stepfathers” and his grandmother, and spending time in a reform school.
Sidney Bechet, who was of Creole ancestry, grew up in a middle class environment. His father, Omar, who was a shoemaker, played the flute as a hobby. Indeed, music had an important role in the Bechet household, as Sidney’s four brothers also played instruments.
His brother, Leonard, played the clarinet and trombone, and it was to the former instrument that eight-year-old Sidney was attracted. Leonard, whose main interest was the trombone, passed along his clarinet to his younger brother.
At first, Sidney played in the family musicales – waltzes, quadrilles, the polite music of the middle class. But as he grew into adolescence, Sidney was attracted to the syncopated music played in the dance halls and brothels in the Storyville District of New Orleans.
As a boy, he would watch the street parades in which jazz bands played. Young Sidney was so attracted to the music, that he often played hooky from school. And as he became more proficient on the clarinet, Sidney played in local jazz bands, such as the Young Olympians. His playing so impressed Bunk Johnson, the legendary cornet player, that Sidney was invited to join Johnson’s band, the Eagle Band. Sidney gained much experience, playing in dance halls, and for picnics, and parties.
Bechet left New Orleans for the first time when he was 19, traveling to Chicago with pianist, Clarence Williams and his variety show. Bechet’s big break came in 1919 when the composer-conductor Will Marion Cook asked him to join his Southern Syncopated Orchestra for an engagement in London.
Here Bechet came to the attention of the noted Swiss Conductor, Ernst Ansermet, who conducted the music of Stravinsky for the Ballets Russa. Ansermet wrote in a Swiss musical Journal, “The extraordinary clarinet virtuoso Bechet is an artist of genius!”
Sidney Bechet eventually became even better known as a virtuoso of the soprano saxophone. He first tried to play on a beat-up old soprano sax he purchased in a pawn shop. Such was the difficulty of the soprano sax, an instrument extremely difficult to play in tune, that Bechet gave up and obtained his money back from the pawnbroker.
A year latter in London, Bechet purchased a brand new instrument and tried again. This time he was successful and succeeded in making the soprano saxophone an important voice in jazz.
Bechet played both the clarinet and soprano saxophone with a broad vibrato, a characteristic that gave passion and intensity to his playing.
Much of Sidney Bechet’s subsequent career was spent abroad. In 1925 he played in Claude Hopkin’s band, which was accompanying a revue starring Josephine Baker. Bechet also played in bands led by Noble Sissle in London and Paris, and later, in the United States. Some of the numbers performed and recorded by Bechet with Nobel Sissle are Loveless Love, Polka Dot Rag, and Dear Old Southland.
In 1932, Bechet and his friend, trumpet player Tommy Ladnier, formed their own band, the New Orleans Feetwarmers. When engagements for the Feetwarmers became scarce, Ladnier and Bechet opened a dry cleaning shop in Harlem. Bechet became quite adept at pressing and altering clothes.
Sidney Bechet’s association with Brooklyn began in 1945 when he moved into a house at 160 Quincy Street. To augment the unstable income of a jazz musician, Bechet began teaching music. The adolescent that became his star pupil and disciple was Bob Wilber, then still in high school. Bechet taught Wilber the rudiments of both the clarinet and soprano saxophone. When he finished high school, Wilber moved into the Quincy Street house with Bechet so that he could have longer and more frequent lessons. Today, Bob Wilber is a leading exponent of the soprano sax and clarinet, and with his own group, the Bechet Legacy, he plays in the Bechet tradition.
Much of the latter part of his life, Bechet spent in France. Many of his compositions are inspired by his love for that country. They include Petite Fleur, Rue des Champs Elysees, and Si tous vois ma mere. Other Bechet compositions include Chant in the Night, Blues in the Air, Bechet’s Fantasy, and his ode to his Brooklyn home, Quincy Street Stomp.
Sidney Bechet died in Paris, May 14, 1959. In July 1997, The Sidney Bechet Society has been formed to perpetuate the name and fame of Sidney Bechet. To that end, the Sidney Bechet Society sponsors concerts, symposia, in-depth studies, a newsletter, change the name of Quincy Street to Bechet Street and a Website to carry the appreciation of this great jazz pioneer into the next century.
Copyright By The Sidney Bechet Society, Ltd.
Posted in Artist of the Month | 7 Comments »
Thursday, September 30th, 2010
WNCU will hold its fall fundraiser, Shave a Day, from October 20th – 29th.
Ten days of pitching every few minutes to remind our listeners that we need financial support to keep going can be shorten by donating now.
For every $8,000 we raise between now and Oct. 20th, we will take one day off fundraising. If we raise $80,000 before Oct. 20th, we may not have to pitch at all.
Send in your donation and help us avoid interrupting your favorite programs. You can renew your membership or become a new member online or by mailing your donation to PO Box 3659, Durham, NC 27702.
This is our 15th anniversary year, so why not donate at least $150 this time around and help us shorten our campaign?
Posted in Music News | 9 Comments »
Monday, September 27th, 2010
 The North Carolina Central University Department of Theatre opens its fall season with the Broadway musical Sarafina!. Performances are scheduled for Oct. 1, 2, 8 and 9 at 8 p.m., with matinee performances on Oct. 3 and 10 at 2 p.m., in the University Theater.
Written by South African playwright Mbongeni Ngema, Sarafina! takes place at Morris Isaacson High School in Soweto, where in 1976 about 200,000 black students assembled to protest against a government decree that imposed the “official” language of Afrikaans as the new medium of instruction in their classes, instead of their own language. Through story and song, Sarafina! follows the activities of a fictional class and, in particular, one girl named Sarafina, who inspires her classmates with her commitment to the struggle against apartheid.
“This play takes us into a world of social consciousness and captures a panoramic view of the complexities of human relationship from mankind’s attempt to reach the ultimate concept of world peace to the intrinsic premise of individual self-worth,” said director Stephanie “Asabi” Howard, assistant professor of theater. Howard is confident that audience members will leave thoroughly moved by the experience. “The extraordinary life of the South African is captured through an account of historical events that unify the experience of any group of people who have ever fought for equality,” she said. “The story is very humorous and at times extremely sad.”
NCCU students taking on the challenging roles of South Africans include: Jessica Jones as Sarafina, the student everyone loves for various reasons; Quan Acapella as Colgate, the narrator with a dazzling smile; Kayln Smith as Teaspoon, the school gossip; Kammeran Giggers as Mistress, the teacher who often uses the phrase ‘It’s a pity,’ and Justin Smith as Stimela, the school trendsetter. Darius Burruss provides musical direction and Tina Yarborough Liggins is the choreographer.
All shows are $15 general admission, and $10 for students, senior citizens and faculty. Tickets can be purchased through the NCCU ticket office at (919) 530-5170.
Posted in Public Affairs | 7 Comments »
Friday, September 17th, 2010
September 30 is the official launch day for HD2, our second channel. In order to hear our HD2 stream, you will need an HD radio. HD radio allows you to hear both our channels in crystal clear high definition audio.
Shows on HD2
BBC World Service: For over 70 years, BBC World Service has been the globe’s most comprehensive source for news. No other news source has a network of international correspondents, reporters, and producers to rival BBC. When news breaks anywhere, anytime BBC is there. Listeners count on BBC to provide superior news programming because they know they can trust BBC World Service, the world’s most respected news source.
The Bioneers: This award-winning series is composed of themed half-hour programs highlighting cutting-edge solutions to major environmental challenges and crises, along with broader social approaches for ecological and cultural restoration. Breakthrough ideas, technological innovations and bold activist social strategies make for compelling radio, powered by the charismatic voices of the Bioneers themselves. These radio series present both the heartbreaking and triumphant stories of Bioneers from around the world.
The Bioneers: Revolution from the Heart of Nature was nominated for the United Nations Public Information Program for Environmental Programming. Series III won a Bronze Medal award from the New York Festival of International Radio, and in 2004, the show “Restoring Life’s Fabric: The Biological Bottom Line” with David Suzuki was awarded the Crystal Award of Excellence. “Peace Means Coming Back to the Table: Transforming Urban War Zones” with Aqeela Sherrills was awarded the Crystal Award of Distinction.
Earth Beat is public radio’s new weekly talk program covering the environment and our impact on it. Host Marnie Chesterton takes listeners around the world to hear stories big and small that surprise and illuminate. Audiences will laugh and be engaged in a global discussion of where our planet is heading, and our role in shaping that.
Humankind Weekly is a series that profiles humanitarians, idealists and visionaries, hosted by award-winning documentary producer DAVID FREUDBERG. Hear stories of citizens who inspire us by their courage and motivate us to be good citizens.
Alternative Radio is a weekly one-hour public affairs series that features diverse perspectives on national and international issues. Alternative Radio challenges conventional views and is dedicated to the founding principles of public broadcasting: “to serve as a forum for controversy and debate” and “provide a voice for groups that may otherwise be unheard.” Programs feature Helen Caldicott, Noam Chomsky, Barbara Ehrenreich, Ralph Nader, Michael Parenti, Edward Said, Cornel West, and many others.
On Point unites distinct and provocative voices with passionate discussion as it confronts the stories that are at the center of what is important in the world today. Leaving no perspective unchallenged, On Point digs past the surface and into the core of a subject, exposing each of its real world implications.
Each hour of the broadcast opens with a news brief analyzing the day’s biggest stories, followed by an in-depth conversation decoding a single topic with newsmakers, thinkers, and callers, and closes with compelling personal reactions to news and important issues, including radio diaries, excerpts from speeches, or special series segments.
Host Tom Ashbrook combines his journalistic instincts with a listener’s openness and curiosity — focusing on the relevant topics and deconstructing issues along with the audience. News analyst Jack Beatty, Senior Editor at The Atlantic Monthly, also guides the program by providing his own unique perspective to the conversation.
Michael Eric Dyson Show: Dr. Dyson is one of the nation’s most influential and renowned public thinkers, named by Ebony magazine as one of the 150 most powerful African Americans, and according to The Philadelphia Weekly, “is reshaping what it means to be a public intellectual.” Recent interviews with Bennett College President Dr. Julianne Malveaux, first lady of Neo-Soul Erykah Badu, and unexpected voices from all sides of the Arizona immigration law debate are great examples of the depth, wit, and potency Dr. Dyson brings to mid-days. He instinctively knows when to listen, and when to push back on those not used to being pushed back on.
The Tavis Smiley Show offers a unique blend of news and newsmakers in expanded conversations on topics ranging from presidential power to reparations for slavery, from campaign finance reform to miscegenation in music videos — all with a special focus on black America.
Smiley’s guest roster includes former President Bill Clinton, Fidel Castro, and Pope John Paul II. He also shares the mic with regular guest commentators: Cornel West — professor of Religion at Princeton University and one of the nation’s most provocative public intellectuals. Connie Rice — co-director of the Los Angeles-based Advancement Project and celebrated for her success in tackling problems of inequity and exclusion. J.C. Watts — staunch Republican and former congressman from Oklahoma who continues to wield strong influence in national Republican politics. Michael Eric Dyson — professor of African American Studies at the University of Pennsylvania, author, lecturer, community activist. The Tavis Smiley Show is provocative, thoughtful, and thoroughly engaging.
Free Speech– a daily 30 minute ,in depth alternative newscast and discussion from Pacifica network.
Only a Game is a weekly one-hour radio sports magazine featuring nationally known author and veteran NPR commentator Bill Littlefield. The program, crafted to lead into Weekend Edition Saturday, is characterized by Littlefield’s exceptional writing and affable personality.
Only a Game maintains a strong “on-the-scene” presence, to provide listeners with a sound-rich, weekly tour of the world of sports. Over the past four years, the program has covered diverse stories and issues, including Title IX and the explosion of interest in women’s sports, racism, competitive opportunities for the disabled, and the business of sports, in addition to who won and who lost the latest competitions.
Latino USA, the multi award-winning radio journal of news and culture, is the only nationally distributed English-language radio program produced from a Latino perspective. It combines high-quality news, cultural and public affairs journalism with compelling sound to bring a rich understanding to a wide spectrum of listeners.
Latino influences and contributions continue to have an increasingly important impact on the evolving identity, life, and reality of the U.S. Latino USA acts as a forum for connections and reflects the experience of a changing population from a Latino viewpoint.
Maria Hinojosa is the popular host of Latino USA. She is also urban affairs correspondent for CNN and a former NPR News reporter. In addition to being a venerable broadcaster, Hinojosa is the author of Raising Raul (Viking Press, 1999), a frequent lecturer on college campuses, a devotee of the arts, and a first generation American Latina. A widely acclaimed journalist, she has received the Robert F. Kennedy Award, an Associated Press award and the National Council of La Raza’s 1999 Ruben Salazar Award, to name a few.
Snap Judgment’s raw, intimate, and musical brand of storytelling dares listeners to see a sliver of the world through another’s eyes . . .
Snap Judgment host Glynn Washington takes listeners on a narrative journey – leaping from one person’s frying pan into another person’s fire.
Deejay-driven musical delivery, paired with lush sound design, drops listeners into the very heart of what matters. Snap Judgment’s fast-paced (sometimes dark, sometimes playful) narrative highlights stories burning hot on the lips of people from across the globe.
Get your radio transmitter seismically retrofitted because this will generate some waves. It’s a sweet rhythmic blend of drama, humor, music and personality all hosted by the man who won the Public Radio Talent Quest. Snap Judgment. Storytelling . . . with a beat.
Le Show w/ Harry Shearer: A weekly, hour-long romp through the worlds of media, politics, sports and show business, leavened with an eclectic mix of mysterious music, hosted by Harry Shearer.
PRI’s Peabody Award-winning “Studio 360 with Kurt Andersen” from WNYC is public radio’s smart and surprising guide to what’s happening in pop culture and the arts. Each week, Kurt Andersen introduces you to the people who are creating and shaping our culture. Life is busy – so let “Studio 360” steer you to the must-see movie this weekend, the next book for your nightstand, or the song that will change your life.
Kurt Andersen – novelist, journalist, and co-founder of legendary “Spy” magazine – gets inside the creative mind through conversations with guests such as Yo-Yo Ma, Zadie Smith, Sean Lennon, Sean Penn, Walter Mosely, Dolly Parton, Ang Lee, Dave Eggers, Frank Gehry, and Tori Amos. “Studio 360” is also the place where a Freudian shrink can analyze a videogame about bunnies and astronauts play piano on the International Space Station.
Spend an hour at Coney Island with “They Might Be Giants,” walk through steel monoliths with sculptor Richard Serra, and hang out with indie rock stars in an Omaha basement. Let “Studio 360” be your cultural guide.
Are We Alone: one hour weekly program. Searching for life as we don’t know it begins with understanding life as we do. From amoebas to zebras, from androids to antimatter, Are We Alone? explores the science that makes life possible. Find out how to extract DNA from a banana, what size wrench you need to build a time machine, and whether dark energy can be bottled (yes). Also, separate the science from pseudoscience during our monthly feature on critical thinking. Are We Alone? : Science radio for thinking species on any world.
Jazz Profiles: Nancy Wilson is host to this NPR radio series, a weekly one-hour documentary series profiling the people, places and things in jazz.
European Jazz Stage: From the great stages of Europe, Radio Netherlands Worldwide brings you this year’s European Jazz Stage with host Daniel Frankl. Go on a jazz vacation: 13 hours of performances beckon from venues across the continent including the acclaimed North Sea Jazz Festival. And we’ll bring jazz names you may not have heard: Han Bennink, Fay Claassen, Till Brönner and more. Don’t let the consonants and accents faze you — these musicians swing.
This year, Afropop Worldwide celebrates 20 years of excellence in connecting Americans to Africa and the World!
In 1988, Afropop was launched by NPR as a weekly series. It was the first of its kind and, 20 years later, the program has expanded its vision to include the music and cultures that encompass the entire African Diaspora. The program is still the standard for both the curious and the connoisseur, and takes listeners to dynamic music capitals such as Dakar, Senegal; Johannesburg, South Africa; Cairo, Egypt; Havana, Cuba; Salvador de Bahia, Brazil; New York and Paris. Listeners meet the leading stars as well as emerging artists. Live concert recordings of world-class artists such as Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Cesaria Evora, Gilberto Gil, Baaba Maal, Kanda Bongo Man and others are featured on the program.
Hosted by one of Africa ‘s best-loved broadcast personalities, Georges Collinet, and produced by Sean Barlow
Brazilian Hour is an eclectic show devoted to Brazilian music, and featuring styles such as samba, bossa nova, instrumental, pop, afro-bloco, and more. The show also features interviews.
Hear the World: Radio Netherlands Worldwide takes you on a global adventure: visiting all the continents, finding the roots, and exploring crossovers of a vast mixture of musical ideas…. Get inspired by the colors, tastes, and sounds on Hear the World.
American Routes is a two-hour weekly excursion into American music, spanning eras and genres — roots rock and soul, blues and country, jazz, gospel and beyond.
From moody streets and muddy waters to purple mountains and the open range, America has produced an incredibly wide body of music, and host Nick Spitzer samples it all. He takes listeners on exciting musical journeys from the known to the unknown and back again, visiting sites with familiar sounds but also making side trips to the places where Cajun, klezmer, and Téjano flourish.
American Routes features interviews with renowned artists such as Marcia Ball, Doc Cheatham, James Cotton, Steve Earle, Jerry Garcia, Dr. John, Ellis Marsalis, Nicholas Payton, Pharaoh Sanders, Mavis Staples, Allen Toussaint, Doc Watson.
Berimbau: Sounds of Brazil Hosted by Tony Regusters and Zezeh Maria
Since Antonio Carlos Jobim brought the bossa nova to the U.S in the 1960s, Jazz artists have always had a special relationship with Brazilian music. Veteran radio, tv and film broadcaster Tony Regusters and Afro-Brazilian dancer Zezeh Maria take us on a cultural excursion with beautiful ballads sung by Brazilian and American artists, the thumping rhythmic sambas, joyful carnival tunes and the ethereal sound of the new Brazilian artists.
Please note! This list is subject to change and some shows may be added or dropped on HD2, WNCU.
Posted in Music News | 7 Comments »
Monday, September 13th, 2010
 The NCCU Marching Sound Machine will participate in the world famous 2011 Tournament of Roses Parade in Pasadena, California!
Through Travel Gallery of Pasadena, NCCU is offering faculty, staff, alumni, parents and friends tour packages to accompany the band on this historic trip.
Highlights of Official Tour Package Options:
- Premium Rose Parade Seating on Colorado Blvd., plus close-by parking for coaches, an official Rose Parade Program and escort guide to and from the Parade
- A Tournament of Roses Band Fest event float construction viewing to see how the flowers are applied to the floats
- A Hollywood tour with ITMI-certified guides
- Airport transfers and meet-and-greet service at the LAX
- Superior first class hotel accommodation at the Sheraton Park
- Social events package for easy fellowship
- Entire program escorted by Los Angeles-based staff; Easy walking distance to Disneyland and Calif. Adventure Park
- Easy pick and choose menu to include the tour components you want
Official Package Tours
Gold Level – Five Nights (Dec. 28 – Jan. 2)
The package price includes:
* Group air round trip from Charlotte/Los Angeles – see below
* Airport transfers from Los Angeles airport (LAX) to Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort on Dec. 28 and Jan. 2
* Five nights’ hotel accommodation including taxes – Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort
* Official Band Fest Tour on Dec. 30
* Rose Parade Tour on Jan. 1, including premium reserved grandstand seating and official Tournament of Roses Program
* NCCU Social Events Package featuring a Welcome Reception on Dec. 29 and Alumni Cocktail Celebration on Dec. 30
Room costs per person based on the number of people sharing a room:
$1,381 Quadruple
$1,439 Triple
$1,554 Twin/Double
$1,899 Single
Airfare Group Flights Included in Gold Level – A limited number of group air seats are available. The cost for the schedule below has been included in the Gold Package.
28 DEC 10 – TUESDAY
US AIRWAYS 1433 COACH CLASS
LV: CHARLOTTE 1000A NONSTOP
AR: LOS ANGELES 1212P
02 JAN 11 – SUNDAY
US AIRWAYS 786 COACH CLASS
LV: LOS ANGELES 735A NONSTOP
AR: CHARLOTTE 312P
*If you have your own airfare you can deduct $550 per person.
Silver Level – Four Nights (Dec. 29 – Jan 2) (Airfare sold separately)
The package price includes:
* Airport transfers from Los Angeles airport (LAX) to Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort on Dec. 29 and Jan. 2
* Four nights’ hotel accommodation including taxes – Sheraton Park Hotel
* Official Band Fest Tour on Dec. 30
* Rose Parade Tour on Jan. 1, including premium reserved grandstand seating and official Tournament of Roses Program
Room costs per person based on the number of people sharing a room:
$599 Quadruple
$649 Triple
$739 Twin/Double
$1,016 Single
Airfare is purchased separately through Travel Gallery, the airline or by using frequent flyer mileage.
Add the Social Events Package
A special feature of the Official NCCU Alumni, Parents and Friends Tour Program is a social events package of two events.
Dec. 29 – Welcome Reception
NCCU staff will welcome you to an evening cocktail party at the Sheraton Park Hotel at the Anaheim Resort ($45 per person).
Dec. 30 – University Club of Pasadena Celebratory Reception
Chancellor Charlie Nelms will be on hand to unite the local chapter of the NCCU Alumni Association with visiting friends, faculty and alumni. This will be a great opportunity to celebrate the Marching Sound Machine’s great performance ($65 per person).
Deposit and Payments
Refund and Cancellations are covered in the terms and conditions on the website.
A deposit of $100 per person will reserve your space on the Official NCCU Tour – the deposit will only be processed once an operating minimum of 40 people is reached.
For those purchasing Gold Package including group airfare, a second payment of $400 is due October 1.
The final tour balance is due November 1.
Reservations and Booking for Tour and Air Travel
Travel Gallery is ready to begin making reservations for the tour and airfare. Visit the NCCU Tournament of Roses website and follow the Rose Parade Tour Packages link to make your reservation today. After booking via the website, Travel Gallery will provide a prepared invoice for your review before you pay the deposit. You can also make a reservation by calling 1-800-858-6999.
Posted in Public Affairs | 2 Comments »
Wednesday, September 1st, 2010
 From All Music. com
Biography by Richard Skelly
Like many great blues and classic jazz vocalists, the Savannah, GA raised Irene Reid began singing in the church. She was born on September 23, 1930 in Savannah, and attended the Alfred E. Beach/Cuyler High School. There, she learned vocal music from teacher Peter Smalls. In her early days singing around Savannah, it was either in the church or in the high school, and the thought of becoming a blues or jazz singer didn’t dawn on her until sometime later.
After her mother passed away in 1947, she moved to New York City to live with an aunt. Later that same year, she won the Apollo Theater Amateur contest for five consecutive weeks, and later she was the featured vocalist with Dick Vance at the Savoy Ballroom from 1948-1950. She joined legendary bandleader/pianist Count Basie’s band as the featured vocalist in 1961-1962, where she made several European tours with the band. In 1961 she returned to her hometown to perform with Basie at the municipal auditorium. Since her years with Basie’s band, Reid has shared stages with Carmen McRae, Sarah Vaughan, Aretha Franklin, B.B. King, and others. She performed at the Savannah Jazz Festival in 1991, 1994, and 1996.
During the ’60s, she recorded two big-band albums for Verve Records, Room for One More in 1965, and It’s Too Late in 1966. Her most visible job in the post-Basie years was on Broadway, where she joined the cast of The Wiz. By the late ’80s, she was coming out of a period of limelight and performed at a remote broadcast from Citicorp Center in Manhattan for Newark jazz station, WBGO-FM. This was the beginning of her career renaissance, which she enjoyed through the late ’90s with the Manhattan-based Savant Records label.
Reid passed away on January 4, 2008, but any of her six albums for Savant Records demonstrate just how artfully she blended blues and jazz at her live shows and on record. They include Million Dollar Secret (1997), I Ain’t Doin’ Too Bad (1999), Movin’ Out (1999), Uptown Lowdown (2000), One Monkey Don’t Stop No Show (2002), and Thanks to You (2004). At Savant, she recorded with two very skilled Hammond B-3 organist/producers, Bobby Forrester who often performed with singer Ruth Brown, and Charles “The Mighty Burner” Earland.
Posted in Artist of the Month | 4 Comments »
Thursday, August 26th, 2010
 Still Singing the Blues features musicians in New Orleans and South Louisiana who continue to perform both traditional blues and rhythm-and-blues—often despite poverty, ill health, and the impacts of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. The hour-long documentary burrows into the lives of three outstanding older performers: Carol Fran of Lafayette, Harvey Knox of Baton Rouge, and Little Freddie King of New Orleans. Listeners will travel with these musicians to recording sessions, street corners, birthday celebrations, and neighborhood taverns.
Also interviewed are blues pianist and singer Marcia Ball; blues-and-funk guitarist Ernie Vincent; and Bethany Bultman, president of the New Orleans Musicians Clinic.
Accompanying this documentary is a web site, http://stillsingingtheblues.org, which features additional audio clips, photographs, a blog, and links for readers who want to obtain CDs, find music venues, and learn more about non-profit organizations that promote Louisiana’s music and support its musicians. The producers will add audio and photos to the site throughout the coming year.
Musical Works
| Title |
Artist |
Album |
Label |
Year Length |
| Tou’ Les Jours C’est Pas La Meme (Every Day Is Not The Same) |
Carol Fran |
Louisiana Swamp Stomp |
Honeybee Entertainment (unreleased) |
2010 00:00 |
| Emmitt Lee |
Carol Fran and Clarence Hollimon |
Gulf Coast Blues, Volume One. |
Black Top / Rounder Records |
1990 03:14 |
| Stormy Monday |
Carol Fran and Clarence Hollimon |
Carol Fran: Women in (E)motion |
Tradition & Moderne |
1993 05:57 |
| Daddy Daddy |
Carol Fran and Clarence Hollimon |
Carol Fran: Women in (E)motion |
Tradition & Moderne |
1993 02:35 |
| Peeping and HIding |
Carol Fran and Clarence Hollimon |
Carol Fran: Women in (E)motion |
Tradition & Moderne |
1993 05:44 |
| Track 3 |
Harvey Knox and the Soul Spectrum Band |
Natchez – Black Dots – LIVE |
Harvey Knox (unreleased) |
1987 05:27 |
| Track 4 |
Harvey Knox and the Soul Spectrum Band |
Natchez – Black Dots – LIVE |
Harvey Knox (unreleased) |
1987 05:21 |
| Crack Head Joe |
Little Freddie King |
You Don’t Know What I Know |
Fat Possum Records |
2005 04:05 |
| Goin Out da Mountain (Live) |
Little Freddie King |
Gotta Walk with Da King |
MadeWright Records |
2010 08:02 |
| Bus Station Blues (Live) |
Little Freddie King |
Gotta Walk with Da King |
MadeWright Records |
2010 07:23 |
| Pauger Street Boogie |
Little Freddie King |
Field Recording |
Yeoman and Ziglar (unreleased) |
2010 01:00 |
This documentary was sponsored by Filmmakers Collaborative with generous funding from a grant provided by the Louisiana Endowment for the Humanities, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. Narration was recorded by Dave Tilley of Bogue Sound Studios, Durham NC.
Posted in Music News | 7 Comments »
Monday, August 23rd, 2010
 Originally published in The New York Times
Leonard’s smoke-filled images of jazz greats in dark clubs documented a musical era. Many of his black-and-white prints were lost in Hurricane Katrina.
Herman Leonard, a photographer best known for his iconic images of such jazz greats as Billie Holiday, Duke Ellington and Miles Davis, has died. He was 87.
Leonard died Saturday at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, a family spokeswoman said. No cause was given. He had been living in Los Angeles since Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans in 2005, flooding his home and destroying thousands of prints.
Leonard became famous for the smoky, backlighted black-and-white photos he took in dark jazz clubs beginning in the late 1940s.
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“I took advantage of being a photographer to get myself into the clubs so I could sit in front of Charlie Parker,” he told The Times in March before the opening of an exhibit on jazz photography at the Fahey/Klein Gallery in Los Angeles. “I got to listen to music in person. That enriched me. The money didn’t. And I tried to make images that would satisfy me.”
The images did much more than that. They documented a musical era and cemented Leonard’s status.
“He knows how to capture, and to make, the natural beauty, artistry and individuality of musicians shine through — shine through the paper and the chemicals and the book and the gallery and the years,” John Edward Hasse, of the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History, told the Morning Call in Allentown, Pa., in 1999. “He’s an artist.”
He was born in Allentown in 1923 and became interested in photography early on thanks to his older brother. He attended Ohio University to study photography but that was interrupted by a stint in the Army from 1943 to 1945. Leonard returned to college and graduated with a bachelor’s degree in 1947.
After working as an apprentice for famed portrait photographer Yousuf Karsh, Leonard moved to New York in 1948 and started becoming immersed in the jazz scene. Using a 4-by-5 Speed Graphic camera, he shot Art Tatum, Dizzy Gillespie, Sarah Vaughan and countless other jazz greats.
Ellington watching Ella Fitzgerald sing in 1948. Dexter Gordon sitting, holding a cigarette and balancing his saxophone on a knee. There was music, amazing access and plenty of smoke.
“The smoke was part of the atmosphere of those days and dramatized the photographs a lot, maybe over-stylized them a bit,” he told The Times in 1990.
He spent 1956 as a personal photographer for actor Marlon Brando on a trip to the Far East. Then he moved to Paris and did commercial work, including for Playboy magazine, and kept shooting jazz.
“Ninety-nine percent of everything I shot was off the cuff,” he said in 2001. “I wanted to capture what was really there untainted by anything I would do. My whole principle was to capture the mood and atmosphere of the moment.”
The negatives of his jazz photos had been put away when he left the United States; but beginning in the 1980s he rediscovered them, and his first book, “The Eye of Jazz,” was published in 1985. The first exhibition of Leonard’s jazz photos was held in London in 1988.
More exhibitions and praise followed.
Leonard’s work showed an intimacy that “comes from a true insider whose genuine friendship with the musicians allowed him to capture moments that are personal and insightful,” David Houston, chief curator of the Ogden Museum of Southern Art in New Orleans, told the Morning Call in 2005. “You could teach the personal and musical evolution of jazz in the ’50s through his work.”
Leonard moved to New Orleans in 1992. His home was flooded by Hurricane Katrina and he lost thousands of prints. But his 60,000 negatives were safe, having been sent before the hurricane to the Ogden Museum. His return to New Orleans was chronicled in the 2006 documentary “Saving Jazz.”
“When I was photographing Miles or Dizzy in the early days, I knew these were good and important musicians, but not as important as they turned out to be,” he told the Chicago Tribune in 1999. “I had no idea. If I had any inkling, I would have shot 10 times as many pictures.”
Leonard is survived by children Valerie, Shana, Michael and David; and six grandchildren.
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Monday, August 23rd, 2010
The following times are approximates.
Newport Jazz Festival 2010
7 am – Conrad Herwig
8 am – Matt Wilson
9 am – Trio da Paz
10 am – Fly
11 am – Amina Figerova
12 pm – Darcy James Big Band
1 pm – J.D. Allen
2 pm – Marshall Allan w/ Matthew Shipp
3 pm – Ben Allison
4 pm – David Binney
5 pm – Maria Schneider
6 pm – Democrocy Now
7 pm – Rez Abassi Acoustic Band
Detroit Jazz Festival 2009
8 pm – Hour One – Dave Brubeck, Eddie Daniels, DeeDee Bridgewater, Gerald Wilson Orch., Sheila Jordan, Sean Jones and Christian McBride
9 pm – Hour Two – T.S. Monk, Janis Seigel w/ Detroit Jazz Festival Orchestra, Stefon Harris and Urbanus, Louis Hayes Cannonball Legacy Band, John Pizzarelli, Geri Allen Trio and Clayton Brothers w/ Scott Gwinell Big Band
WNCU Regular Schedule
10 pm – Jazz at Lincoln Center
11 pm – Overnight-Bob Parlocha
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