1750 – The South Carolina Gazette reports that Caesar, a South
Carolina slave, has been granted his freedom and a life
time annuity in exchange for his cures for poison and
rattlesnake bite. Caesar and the famous James Derham of
New Orleans are two of the earliest known African American
medical practitioners.

1862 – General Hunter of the Union Army issues a proclamation
freeing the slaves of Georgia, Florida and South Carolina.
A displeased President Lincoln annuls this act. Lincoln
stated, “General Hunter is an honest man…He proclaimed
all men free within certain states. I repudiated the
proclamation.”

1919 – James Reese Europe joins the ancestors after being stabbed
to death by a crazed band member (his drummer) after a
concert at Mechanics Hall in Boston. Europe was one of
the preeminent jazz bandleaders of the early 20th century,
beginning with his association with the team of J. Rosamond
Johnson and Bob Cole in The Shoo Fly Regiment in 1906.
Founder of the Clef Club, Europe joined the 15th, and
later, 369th Infantry Regiments. The military band he
formed during World War I was one of the most popular in
all of Europe.

1936 – After a eight month occupation, Italy annexes Abyssinia (now
Ethiopia). Italy’s dictator Benito Mussolini announces in
front of 400,000 people at the Piazza Venezia in Rome that,
by controlling Abyssinia, Eritrea, and Somaliland, Italy
now has its own Empire. This is the beginning of a five
year occupation, which will end in 1941.

1952 – Canada Lee joins the ancestors in New York at the age of 45.
A jockey and amateur boxer before turning to acting, Lee
achieved wide acclaim for his portrayal of Bigger Thomas
in the 1941 Broadway play “Native Son” and for the film,
“Cry the Beloved Country.”

1960 – Nigeria becomes a member of the British Commonwealth.

1974 – The House Judiciary Committee formally opens its impeachment
hearings against President Richard M. Nixon with
representatives John Conyers, Jr. (D-Mich.) and Barbara
Jordan (D-Tex.) among members of the committee. Jordan, in
particular, distinguishes herself as an eloquent and
incisive contributor to the hearings process.

1977 – Mabel Murphy Smythe is confirmed as Ambassador to the
Republic of Cameroon.

1987 – Chief Obafemi Awolowo, leader of the banned Action Group and
leader of the Yorubas of western Nigeria and first premier
of the defunct Western Region, joins the ancestors at the
age of 78.

1987 – Eddie Murray, of the Baltimore Orioles, is the first
baseball player to hit home runs as a switch hitter in 2
consecutive games.

1994 – South Africa’s newly elected parliament chooses Nelson
Mandela to be the country’s first Black president.

1995 – Kinshasa, capital of Zaire, is placed under quarantine after
an outbreak of the Ebola virus.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

James Reese Europe was an effective champion of African-American musicians and performers in all idioms, and helped to gain acceptance for them in the USA and abroad.  This collection of sheet music, “The Music of James Reese Europe“, is important because the works within it show Europe’s skill, imagination and versatility in his composing.  It is a valuable resource for early pop, ragtime and dance music. For more information about this or other collections of music, please contact us at 1-800-42-MUSIC, email us at keyboard@stantons.com, or visit our website at www.stantons.com. Shop Stanton’s for all your sheet music needs!

1779 – Jean Baptiste Pointe du Sable, an explorer of African descent,
from Santo Domingo (Haiti), builds the first permanent
settlement at the mouth of the river, just east of the present
Michigan Avenue Bridge on the north bank, of what is now the
city of Chicago, Illinois.

1861 – Jefferson Davis signs a bill authorizing the use of slaves as
soldiers in the Confederate army.

1862 – Congress forbids Union officers and soldiers from aiding in the
capture and return of fugitive slaves, ending what one
historian called the “military slave hunt.”

1869 – Arkansas legislature passes anti-Ku Klux Klan legislation.

1914 – James Reese Europe explains the significance of his Clef Club
Symphony Orchestra, consisting of the best African American
musicians in New York City: “… we colored people have our
own music that is a part of us. It’s the product of our
souls; it’s been created by the sufferings and miseries of our
race.”

1918 – John Rhoden is born in Birmingham, Alabama. An art student who
will study with Richmond Barthe’ and at Talledega College,
Rhoden’s sculptures will have strong romantic and classical
elements. He will receive commissions for Harlem Hospital and
Metropolitan Hospital in New York City, exhibit his work at
the Atlanta University annuals, the Art Institute of Chicago,
and the Whitney Museum and be represented in museums in the
United States and Europe. Among his major works will be
“Safari,” “Eve,” and “Quarter Horse.”

1930 – Richard Allen “Blue” Mitchell is born in Miami, Florida. The
trumpeter will make his name as a member of Horace Silver’s
Quintet. From 1974, he will play as a soloist or as an
accompanist for Tony Bennett and Lena Horne.

1932 – The “Atlanta World” becomes the first African American daily
newspaper in modern times, when it begins daily publication.
It was founded on August 3, 1928, by William A. Scott, III
and became a bi-weekly in 1930.

1943 – Frank Dixon becomes the first great African American miler in
track as he wins the Columbian Mile in New York City. Dixon
runs the mile in the record time of 4 minutes, 9.6 seconds.

1946 – Colonel Benjamin O. Davis, Jr. becomes the first African
American to command an United States Air Force base, when he
assumes command of Lockbourne Air Force Base in Ohio.

1961 – Floyd Patterson knocks out Ingemar Johannson to retain the
heavyweight boxing championship.

1984 – James L. Usry is elected the first African American mayor of
Atlantic City, New Jersey. He will serve as mayor until 1990.
A former member of the Harlem Globetrotters, he became an
educator before entering politics.

1999 – Evander Holyfield, the WBA and IBF champion, and Lennox Lewis,
the WBC champion, keep their respective titles after fighting
to a controversial draw in New York.

Information retrieved from the Munirah Chronicle and  is edited by Rene’ A. Perry.

The Spirit and Rhythms of Jazz

http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11&Itemid=70

The story of America is embedded in the spirit and rhythms of jazz; captured in beats that have traveled through the African Diaspora and a spirit of freedom that has impassioned slave and free born, immigrant and migrant since America’s founding.

The Spirit and Rhythms of Jazz is the 2013 Jazz Appreciation Month (JAM) theme highlighting jazz cultural history, musical performance and stories, programs and productions this April. JAM and UNESCO’s International Jazz Day April 30 provide rich platforms for individuals and communities to explore jazz principles of freedom, inclusion and creativity to learn how jazz has transformed America and inspired the world.

The Smithsonian will present stories, images, and music highlighting various jazz artists and people who helped shape America’s original art form – jazz – over several decades; three jazz legends to be featured are:

Lionel Hampton, Randy Weston and John Levy

• Lionel Hampton’s Smithsonian story has an unmistakable vibe. His image on the 2013 JAM poster is created from artwork by Frederick J. Brown on permanent display at the Smithsonian’s National Portrait Gallery. A set of vibes Hampton donated to the Smithsonian jazz collection in 2001 will be played at special jazz events.
• Randy Weston is renowned for illuminating linkages between African rhythms and jazz. His perspective is embodied in works like
  

  Randy Weston

  his Uhuru Afrika, collaborations with Gnaoua musicians of Morocco, and his promotion of the legacy of James Reese Europe. Weston will join the Smithsonian in presenting a concert and onstage discussion to showcase this history.

• John Levy was a successful African American jazz business manager during a period of American history when few black men commanded respect and fair business dealings for themselves, much less others. Levy delivered both, managing artists from jazz vocalist Nancy Wilson (who remained a client until Levy’s death) to British pianist George Shearing, among others, with integrity and keen business acumen on the strength of his handshake and courage.

John Clayton teams up with the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra to deliver a webcast performance of original music in tribute to John Levy, the jazz bassist turned business manager, to highlight the Smithsonian’s celebration of International Jazz Day.

For more about the Smithsonian’s Jazz programming, visit – http://www.smithsonianjazz.org/

This post is one of a series honoring Black History Month.

Today is the birthday of Star of Vaudeville #300: James Reese Europe. For more on this groundbreaking African American bandleader go here. And here he is with his orchestra playing the Castle House Rag (named of course in honor of the dance team who helped put him on the map). The Castle House was the name of their dance school:

To find out more about the variety arts past and present, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold. And don’t miss Chain of Fools: Silent Comedy and Its Legacies from Nickelodeons to Youtube, to be released by Bear Manor Media in 2013.

As Scott DeVeaux – jazz researcher and author of, among other things. “The Birth Of Bebop” – points out in his enlightening 1989 article “The Emergence Of The Jazz Concert 1935-1945″ (American Music Vol. 7, No. 1 pages 6-29), by the mid-30s, thanks to records and radio there was already a strong habit to enjoy jazz as listening experience rather than as a dancing one. However, bringing jazz to an audience in a concert hall was something much more than just changing the listening venue. It was about achieving wider respectability and bringing recognition to jazz. There was the hope that “the dignity which now accrues only to so-called classical music will attach itself in similar splendor …. to jazz (Barry Ulanov in a 1945 concert review).

Benny Goodman might have been the first one to bring a jazz concert in a full sense of the word to the podium of the venerable Carnegie Hall in New York when he did so in January 1938. But long before that a concert of black music (ragtime, blues and minstrel songs) performed by an all-black orchestra had taken place there. It happened on May 2nd, 1912 when the 31-year-old James Reese Europe led the Clef Club Orchestra in a concert of ragtime, blues and minstrel songs and the reception was such that Europe and the orchestra could return to Carnegie Hall both in in 1913 and 1914.

In the 1920s, there were a couple of jazz-related concerts. The most famous (though it did not take place at Carnegie Hall) is Paul Whiteman‘s 1924 “Experiment in Modern Music” concert with the premier of George Gershwin’s “Rhapsody In Blue” and then in 1928 W.C. Handy organized a concert at Carnegie Hall presenting the “evolution of black music”.

Common to the three concerts was – it seems to me – a quest for recognition and respectability, which actually foreshadowed what was to come.

The credo of DeVeaux’s article is that “the decade from 1935 to 1945 … may be seen as the period in which the jazz concert as an institution took root in American cultural life.” He analyzes and chronicles this development and I recommend anyone interested in it to read the full article at JStore.com.

DeVeaux seems to have chosen 1935 as the starting point because of Benny Goodman’s appearance at a “tea dance” organized by the Chicago Rhythm Club in November 1938. “The dance turned into a concert as nobody danced” reported the organizers. And this was not unique. The same thing had happened during Goodman’s break-through appearance at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles earlier the same year and it was repeated at many other swing band appearances. But this was of course not a concert in the strict sense that Barry Ulanov was talking about ten years later.

Benny Goodman’ s appearance at Carnegie Hall in January 1938 should meet the criteria for this but even more so Duke Ellington’s performances there in 1943, 1944, 1946 and 1947.

It seems to me that one can talk about four kind of jazz concerts during the 1935-1945 (DeVeaux distinguishes only three).

Firstly, there is the one where a band or orchestra – like Goodman in 1938 – played its usual repertoire with some showcases using musicians from outside the orchestra. The second kind is best exemplified by Ellington’s  Carnegie Hall appearances – where the concert features lengthy work – an orchestral suite- written specifically for the concert. A particular and third category is the (rather few) concerts which meant to tell the (hi)story of jazz. Goodman’s concert had an element of this but the most famous are of course John Hammond‘s two “Spirituals To Swing” concerts.

The fourth kind, which DeVeaux quite extensively deals with in his article, is the jam session style concert where a group of musicians is brought together to play and improvise in the style of a club jam-session. The two best examples are at quite opposite ends of the jazz spectrum. At one end there are the dixieland style concerts organized by Eddie Condon  at New York’s Town Hall in 1944 and 1945 and at the other concerts with be-bop musicians that Norman Granz started to organize at Los Angeles’ Philharmonic Hall in 1944. Out of Granz’ venture grew of course Jazz At The Philharmonic and the concept of package tour concerts by (a stable of) famous jazz musicians.

So, jazz managed to enter the concert halls. And what was the result? Did it make jazz more respected? Perhaps – but other developments contributed to this as well. Did it bring jazz a new audience? I doubt – but it gave the jazz aficionados a new place to enjoy their music. Did it give jazz more visibility. Yes I am sure – the many newspaper articles and reviews must have had an impact.

The individual artist or orchestra which were part of this first wave of concerts, also benefited very much. Harvey Cohen spells out in his excellent book “Duke Ellington’s America”, the first Carnegie Hall gave Ellington a position almost unheard of and was very important for building his long-life legacy. Similarly,  for Goodman his appearances at Carnegie Hall must have cemented his position as King Of Swing.

However, the most important result in my view is that the “invention” of the jazz concert opened up a new revenue avenue for jazz orchestras and individual musicians.

Felix Arndt (1889 – 1918), “Nola” (1915)
May Aufderheide (1888 – 1972), “Dusty” (1908)
Roy Bargy (1894 – 1974), “Pianoflage” (1922)
William Beebe, “Ragtime March” (1897)
Harry Belding (1873 – 1932), “Good Gravy Rag” (1913)
Theron C. Bennett (1879 – 1937), “The St. Louis Tickle” (1904)
Charlotte Blake (1885 – 1979), “That Poker Rag” (1909)
Eubie Blake (1887 – 1983), “Charleston Rag” (1917)
Blind Boone (1864 – 1927), “Southern Rag Medley No. 1″
George Botsford (1874 – 1949), “Black and White Rag”
Euday L. Bowman (1887 – 1949), “Twelfth Street Rag”
Thomas E. Broady (1877 – ?), “Whittling Remus”
Brun Campbell (1884 – 1952), “Barber Shop Rag”
Louis Chauvin (1881 – 1908), “Heliotrope Bouquet”
George L. Cobb (1886 – 1942), “Russian Rag”
Zez Confrey (1895 – 1971), “Kitten on the Keys”
Les C. Copeland (1887 – 1942), “French Pastry Rag”
Cecil Duane Crabb (1890 – 1953), “Fluffy Ruffles”
Reverend Gary Davis (1896 – 1972), “Italian Rag” and “Soldier’s March”
Claude Debussy (1862 – 1918), “Golliwogg’s Cakewalk” and “Général Lavine”
Jacob Henry Ellis, “Hannah’s Promenade” (1897)
James Reese Europe (1880 – 1919), “Castle House Rag”
Ernst Fischer (1900 – 1975), “Pretty Baby”
Lucian Porter Gibson (1890 – 1959), “Jinx Rag”
George Hamilton Green (1893 – 1970), “Ragtime Robin”
Roalde Smeets (1881 – 1930), “King of the Bungaloos”
Harry P. Guy (1870 – 1950), “Echoes from the Snowball Club”
R. J. Hamilton, “Ragtime Patrol” (1897)
Robert Hampton (1890 – 1945), “Agitation Rag”
Ben Harney (1871 – 1938), “You’ve Been a Good Old Wagon but You Done Broke Down” (1895) and “Cake Walk In The Sky”
Scott Hayden (1882 – 1915), “Pear Blossoms”
Ernest Hogan (1865 – 1909) “La Pas Ma La” and “All Coons Look Alike to Me”
Abe Holzmann (1874 – 1939), “Smoky Mokes”
Charles Hunter (1876 – 1906), “Tickled to Death”
Harry Jentes (1887 – 1958), “Bantam Step” (1916)
Charles L. Johnson (1876 – 1950), “Dill Pickles” (1906)
James P. Johnson (1894 – 1955), “Carolina Shout” (1925)
Scott Joplin (1867 – 1917), “Maple Leaf Rag” (1899) and “The Entertainer” (1902)
Joe Jordan (1882 – 1971), “Pekin Rag” (1904)
Sadie Koninsky (1879 – 1952), “Eli Green’s Cake Walk” (1898)
William Henry Krell (1868 – 1933), “Mississippi Rag” (1897) and “Shake Yo’ Dusters”, or “Piccaninny Rag” (1898)
Joseph F. Lamb (1887 – 1960), “American Beauty Rag” (1913)
Henry Lodge (1884 – 1933), “Temptation Rag”
Marie Louka pseudonym of Johann C. Schmid (1870 – 1951), “The Rajah” (1902), “Karmara” (1903)
Arthur Marshall (1881 – 1968), “Kinklets”
Artie Matthews (1888 – 1958), “Pastime Rag No. 5″
Blind Willie McTell (1898 – 1959) “Southern Can Is Mine”
Kerry Mills (1869 – 1948), “At a Georgia Camp Meeting”
Jelly Roll Morton (1890 – 1941), “Frog-I-More Rag”
Julia Lee Niebergall (1886 – 1968), “Horseshoe Rag”
Theodore Havermeyer Northrup (1866 – 1919), “Louisiana Rag” (1897)
Charlie Patton (1891 – 1934), “Shake It And Break It”
Paul Pratt (1890 – 1948), “Colonial Glide”
Arthur Pryor (1870 – 1942), “A Coon Band Contest” (1899), “Razzazza Mazzazza” (1906)
Luckey Roberts (1887 – 1968), “Junk Man Rag”
J. Russel Robinson (1892 – 1963), “Eccentric” and “Sapho Rag”
Paul Sarebresole (1875 – 1911), “Roustabout Rag” (1897)
James Scott (1885 – 1938), “Frog Legs Rag” (1906)
Arthur S. Shaw (1878 – 1949), “Rag-Ma-La” (1897)
Adaline Sheppard (1885 – 1950), “Pickles and Peppers” (1906)
Russell Smith (1890 – 1969), “That Demon Rag” (1911)
Ted Snyder (1881 – 1965), “Ramshackle Rag” (1911)
John Philip Sousa (1854 – 1932), “With Pleasure” (1912), “Willow Blossoms” (1916)
Etilmon J. Stark (1868 – 1962), “Billiken Rag” (1913)
Charley Straight (1891 – 1940), “Rufenreddy” (1921)
Igor Stravinsky (1882 – 1971), “Piano-Rag-Music” (1919)
Wilber Sweatman (1882 – 1961), “Down Home Rag” (1911)
Charles Hubbard Thompson (1891 – 1964), “The Lily” (1914)
Harry Tierney (1890 – 1965), “The Bumble Bee” (1909)
Tom Turpin (1873 – 1922), “Harlem Rag” (1897)
Fats Waller (1904 – 1943), “Valentine Stomp” (1929)
Percy Wenrich (1880 – 1952), “Peaches and Cream” (1905)
Clarence C. Wiley (1883 – 1908), “Car-Barlick Acid” (1901)
Clarence Woods (1888 – 1956), “Slippery Elm Rag” (1912)
Calvin Lee Woolsey (1883 – 1946), “Medic Rag” (1910)

Modern ragtime composers (since 1940)

William Albright (1944 – 1998), “Brass Knuckles”
Peter Andersson (born 1968), “The River Boat Slow Drag” [1]
James F. Andris, “The St. Louis Zoo Rag” [2]
Neil Blaze “Rosewood Rag”
William Bolcom (born 1938), “The Graceful Ghost”
Sune “Sumpen” Borg (1931 – 2002), “Ylva Rag” [3]
Arthur Breur (born 1968) “Solace – an homage to Joplin’s Mexican serenade (2009)” “Kiwi Rag (1986)”
Tom Brier “Goldeneye Rag”
Lou Busch (1910 – 1979) “Carr’s Hop”
Bob Darch (1920 – 2002) “Suicide Table Rag”
Bill Edwards, “The Hanon Rag” [4]
Richard Egan (born 1959), “Campbellmania”
Keith Emerson (born 1944), “Barrelhouse Shakedown”
Frank French, “Belle of Louisville” [5]
Ragnar Hellspong (born 1944), “Rag’s Rag” [6]
Dick Hyman (born 1927), “Ragtime Razz Matazz”
Mattias Högberg (co-composer) “Bowler Hat Rag”
Benjamin Intartaglia, “Ghost Castle Rag” [7]
Dave Jasen (born 1937), “Raymond’s Rag”
Daniel Jencka, “Frederick’s Royal Rag”
Glenn Jenks, “The Harbour Rag” [8]
Vincent M. Johnson, “Octopus On The Keys”
Elena Kats-Chernin (born 1957), “Russian Rag”
Max Keenlyside “Deep Fried Rag”
Sue Keller (born 1952), “Cranberry Stomp”
Scott Kirby, “Ravenna” [9]
Bill Krenz, “Mud Cat Rag”
Tom Lehrer (born 1928), “The Vatican Rag”
Peter Lundberg (born 1942), “Gothenburg Rag” [10]
Johnny Maddox, “Friday Night Stomp”
Eric Marchese, “The Grape Vine”
Oleg Mezjuev (born 1966), “Café Parisién” [11]
Larisa Migachyov, “The Purple Chicken Rag”
Max Morath (born 1926), “One for Amelia”
Ron O’Dell (born 1970), “Mad Scientist Rag” [12]
Andrew O’Donnell “The Rag of A Thousand Terrors”
Rudolf B. Radna (born 1975), “Tuxedo Vegas” “Vinegar Rag” [13]
David Thomas Roberts (born 1955), “Roberto Clemente”
Reginald Robinson (born 1972), “The Strong Man”
Ron Ross, “Digital Rag”
PJ Schmidt (1944 – 1999), “French Vanilla, Mathilda’s Waltz & Father Martin’s Song”
Thomas Shea (1931 – 1982), “Little Wabash Special”
Joakim Stenshäll (1962 – 2009), “Entropy Rag” [14]
Trebor Tichenor (born 1940), “Bucksnort Stomp”
Nobuo Uematsu (born 1959), “Spinach Rag”
Kjell Waltman (born 1960), “Orange Blossoms” [15]
Brent Watkins “Cedar River Ramble” [16]
Dick Zimmerman (born 1937), “Lost And Found Rag”

LIEUT. JIM EUROPE’S 369th U.S. INFANTRY (“HELL FIGHTERS”) BAND: Memphis Blues

New York: March 1919
Pathé 22085  (mx. T-67486)

.

FORD DABNEY’S BAND: Slow Drag Blues

New York: c. August 1919
Aeolian-Vocalion 12195  (mx. 2372)

.

WILBUR SWEATMAN’S ORIGINAL JAZZ BAND: Regretful Blues

New York: March 29, 1918
Columbia A2548  (mx. 77740-2)

.

Complete discographic details on these and more than 32,000 other jazz, proto-jazz, and jazz-related recordings can be found in Brian Rust’s classic Jazz and Ragtime Records, 1897-1942 (Sixth Edition) — now out-of-print in book form, but available as a fully searchable CD-ROM exclusively from Mainspring Press.

Today is the birthday of a pioneering African American musician James Reese Europe (for my full bio go here). And here he is with his band in 1913  (that trombonist is getting a work-out!):

To find out more about  the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

Noble Sissle was an American jazz lyricist, composer, singer, playwright and band leader. Above is Sissle’s 1928 version of Westward Bound.

Sissle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana on July 10, 1889. his parents were very religious but loved music. He joined the 369th Regimental Band led by the great James Reese Europe. During this time, he also met Eubie Blake who he collaborated with for years after the death of Europe.

Noble Sissle was one of African-American music’s unsung tradition-builders. As half of the duo that composed Shuffle Along, he helped to bring African-American creativity to a new level on the Broadway stage. As a bandleader, Sissle nurtured the careers of vocalist Lena Horne and other important musicians, and he participated fundamentally in the popularization of African-American jazz and pop in Europe. Sissle went on to compose memorable jazz tunes like I’m Just Wild About Harry and Shuffle Along. His song Viper Mad was in Woody Allen’s film Sweet and Lowdown.

]]> http://fatherinastrangeland.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/armans-first-jazz-festival-middelheim-2011/ Sun, 28 Aug 2011 11:25:41 +0000 Emre Sevinç http://fatherinastrangeland.wordpress.com/2011/08/28/armans-first-jazz-festival-middelheim-2011/

Watch the video of Omar Sosa @ Middelheim Jazz Festival 2011

Long before Arman was born I was dreaming of taking him to Middelheim jazz festival (celebrating its 30th year), but as we approached the festival date, I became a little pessimistic thinking that the weather would not be nice, there would be rain pouring and we would not be able to enjoy the best jazz festival in Belgium. After all, what’s the point of taking a 45 day old baby to an open air jazz festival at a park when it rains and you can’t enjoy lying on the grass? Never before in my life di I follow weather forecasts so meticulously. And on 15th of August, Monday, the final day of the jazz festival, I was pretty relieved to wake to a sunny morning.

I consider Arman lucky not only because the last day of the festival brought sunshine but also it brought a diverse spectrum of performances from romantic solo piano improvisations by Omar Sosa to real avant-garde free jazz performances by Fred Van Hove Ochgot Octet.

Arman listening to music @ Middelheim Jazz Festival 2011

I don’t know if he really liked free jazz that much, I have my doubts but then I leave the comments to the readers after they watch the following video (click on the picture to watch the video):

Watch the video of Fred Van Hove Ochgot Octet @ Middelheim Jazz Festival 2011

Luckily, at least for Arman and some other members of the audience I guess, the next concert provided us with more traditional jazz by Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Tribute to James Reese Europe. It didn’t feel like being a subject in a thought-provoking musical experiment but rather like listening to a beautiful and exciting story with some elements to which you can find resemblances from your personal memories (click on the pictures to watch the videos):

Watch the video of Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Tribute to James Reese Europe - Part 1 @ Middelheim Jazz Festival 2011

Watch the video of Randy Weston’s African Rhythms Tribute to James Reese Europe - Part 2 @ Middelheim Jazz Festival 2011

I hope Arman enjoyed the festival and the picnic as much as we did and I’m looking forward to getting feedback from him in meaningful sentences; during this festival his feedback consisted of carefully observing the blue sky, yawning and making strange sounds and sometimes opening his eyes wide open, somewhat terrified (especially during the free jazz session ).

“No inconsiderable part of our success was due to his wonderful playing…”

– Irene Castle

James Reese Europe (born today in 1880) can be thought of as the W.E.B. DuBois of American music, not just an accomplished musician, but a relentless teacher, theorist and advocate for the cause of widespread acceptance of African Americans as the equals of whites in the field of serious music.Europe had studied music seriously as a youngster in Washington, D.C., moved to New York, and quickly made a name for himself organizing bands for society parts, which is where he met Vernon and Irene Castle, who hired him to be their musical director.

Not surprisingly, the Europe Orchestra and their alumni were among the first African Americans to tread the vaudeville stage without the mask of burnt cork. Dressed in evening clothes, this crack ensemble of highly trained musicians infused their music with elements of ragtime and what was then coming to be known as jazz. Two of its more sophisticated alumni, Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake (author of “I’m Just Wild About Harry”) would form their own team called the “Dixie Duo” and become Palace headliners themselves, in addition to creating the seminal Broadway show Shuffle Along. Others he collaborated with included Walker and Williams, Cole and Johnson, Will Marion Cook and Ernest Hogan.

When the U.S. entered the World War in 1918, Europe further distinguished himself by organizing an all-black regimental band. This patriotic group bravely entertained doughboys throughout the theatre of war until the armistice, at which point they returned home for a triumphant U.S. tour. It was on the last performance of that tour in 1919 that one of his own musicians, over some perceived slight, stabbed Europe to death.

For more on Europe’s incredible contributions, go here.

To find out more about the history of vaudeville, please consult my critically acclaimed book No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and many other fine establishments.

I’m sure I alarmed him when I told him the first time I saw (heard) his band perform I bust out bawling. I’m not insane, just an incurable sentimentalist. There is no stronger physical evidence of the metaphysical power of music to transcend time and space than the PRO. Essentially, Benjamin’s modus operandi is to play American popular music from around the turn of the last century, with absolute, complete, scientific fidelity to the original. Aided by his vast personal collections of pit arrangements, old cylinders and disks, historical notations and recollections, etc, he gets the music as close as humanly possible to the original, with no compromises or sops to contemporary taste. You can find hundreds of crappy nostalgia records out there containing half-assed versions of Joplin, Eubie Blake and so forth, but they’re always adulterated by weak-sister choices — this mistaken idea that you “have to” meet the contemporary audience halfway. That just waters down the whiskey, man! The proof that Benjamin’s approach is the right one is the stunning power of his music. It is an EXPERIENCE. It is like living Jack Finney’s Time and Again.

So, I want to plug these two new CDs of their’s.

The first is  Black Manhattan: Music of James Reese Europe, Will Marion Cook, and Members of the Legendary Clef Club. The injustice of James Reese Europe’s present obscurity exceeds even that of Bert Williams’. In the years just prior to the advent of jazz he was the undisputed leader of black American music, not only one of its principle shapers, but its ambassador to the broader (white) world. For many years he was the leader of the celebrated Clef Club, a kind of union and professional organization for African American musicians. The record here contains not only music composed by Europe, but by his Clef Club cohorts, such as Will Marion Cook, best known as the composer of Clorindy, or The Origin of the Cakewalk. See this blog in February for a birthday post on Europe himself. Or buy the disk now and read Benjamin’s extremely thorough liner notes.

Even more amazing is their new release You’re a Grand Old Rag: The Music of George M. Cohan. This disk delivers Cohan’s music as you’ve never heard it, mostly because later producers and arrangers have considered modern tastes “too sophisticated” for the Father of Broadway’s music as it was intended to be played. (And they consider themselves too sophisticated for Cohan in general — a universal error I would love to contribute to correcting.) Best of all they got this guy Collin Pritchard to do “Cohan’s” vocals — and he is a ringer — a ringer. He nails the Rhode Island accent like a native (something this native Rhode Islander considers  an extreme rarity), and speak-sings even better than Cagney. And for dessert, a very funny six minute speech by Cohan himself, delivered in 1938. He ends it with something I thought I would never hear with my own ears — Cohan’s age-old sign-off:  “My mother thanks you, my father thanks you…” And so I began the day by weeping in my kitchen. I take it back — I am insane!

To find out more about these variety artists and the history of vaudeville, consult No Applause, Just Throw Money: The Book That Made Vaudeville Famous, available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and wherever nutty books are sold.

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