Sarah Vaughan's Birthday Is Today

The extraordinary jazz vocalist Sarah Vaughan (1924-1990), known as "The Divine One," was born on this day. Vaughan, a native of Newark, New Jersey, where there is a street named for her, would have celebrated her 101st birthday.

Keeping An Open Mind

"To be a great musician, you've got to be open to what's new, what's happening at the moment. You have to be able to absorb it if you're going to continue to grow and communicate."--Miles Davis (1926-1991), jazz trumpeter.

Quoted in Black Pearls: Daily Meditations, Affirmations, and Inspirations for African-Americans by Eric V. Copage (Quill/William Morrow and Company, 1993).

The above photo is of the storied New York jazz venue, the Village Vanguard. Miles Davis was one of many iconic jazz musicians who performed there.

The Divine Sarah

Queen of Bebop: The Musical Lives of Sarah Vaughan by Elaine M. Hayes (Ecco/HarperCollins, 2017) is a true page-turner. One memorable scene is the one in which Sarah Vaughan and her bandmates were touring the South in the band's bus in, I think, the 1950s. A vehicle rode alongside the bus and one of its occupants started shooting at it. Everyone quickly ducked for cover. Miraculously no one was hit. One of the perils of being black Down South at that time.

Harry Belafonte, The King Of Calypso, Dies At 96

Rest in peace and power Harry Belafonte (1927-2023). He was known as a singer, an actor, a civil rights activist, a humanitarian, and a son of Harlem.

Today I dusted off an old paperback biography called Belafonte: A Tough Kid from Harlem Goes to Hollywood by Genia Fogelson (Holloway House Publishing, 1980). The book is probably out of print but has a useful (although obviously incomplete) discography and filmography in the back. (Copies of the book are available on Amazon but not at its original price of $1.95. One copy is priced at $25.00, another is being offered for $28.98.)

Composer Billy Strayhorn Was Never In The Closet

A biopic about composer and pianist Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington's friend and musical collaborator, is long overdue.

In the 1990s, director Irwin Winkler was set to turn David Hajdu's biography of Strayhorn, Lush Life (Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1996), into a movie. It never happened. I remember Winkler being quoted in a newspaper interview as saying that Strayhorn was not open about his homosexuality. Clearly Winkler hadn't read the book. I, who read a significant portion of the book, learned early on that Strayhorn was very much open about his sexuality.

"...Strayhorn," writes Hajdu (pronounced Hay-doo) on page 79, "made himself a triple minority: he was black, he was gay, and he was a minority among gay people in that he was open about his homosexuality in an era when social bias forced many men and women to keep their sexual identities secret."

Maybe it was a good thing that the movie was never made. Who knows what other inaccuracies would have crept into the script.

In the right hands a Strayhorn biopic could become a powerful and memorable cinematic experience. Someone like director Barry Jenkins (Moonlight and If Beale Street Could Talk) might be that someone who could accurately bring Strayhorn's life and musical achievements to the big screen.

The big question then becomes this--who would be a good candidate to play Billy Strayhorn?

Thomas A. Dorsey, The Father of Gospel Music

Thomas A. Dorsey (1899-1993), who wrote more than a thousand gospel songs, among them "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," "If We Never Needed the Lord Before (We Sure Do Need Him Now)," and "Peace in the Valley," was called "the father of gospel music," a title he rightfully earned.

His most famous composition, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord," became Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s favorite. The classic song has been translated into more than fifty languages. Dorsey wrote it following the death of his first wife who died during childbirth. The child too died shortly after birth. The song's words mirrored Dorsey's feelings of grief and depression.

Born in Villa Rica, Georgia, Dorsey, when he was in his teens, played the blues on the piano in bordellos, a fancy name for whorehouses. He later composed several blues and jazz tunes and became known by his stage name, Georgia Tom. According to Wikipedia, "In 1923, he became the pianist and leader of the Wild Cats Jazz Band accompanying Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, a charismatic and bawdy blues shouter who sang about lost love and hard times."

Dorsey created the term "gospel music," merging elements of the blues and the spiritual. So people who consider the blues the Devil's music should be reminded that its presence is in gospel music, thanks to Thomas A. Dorsey.

Note: This blog post is based on an unpublished biographical sketch I recently found. I wrote it on February 15, 1993. Some changes to the original have been made. I hope to do more research on Dorsey's life and musical career.

An Anti-Racist Song From The 1950s

Carmen McRae recorded a beautiful tune in 1958 called "Georgia Rose" (found on the CD, Carmen McRae's Finest Hour on the Verve label).There's a line in it that goes "Don't be blue, 'cause you're black, Georgia Rose." The tune, written by Jimmy Flynn, Harry Rosenthal, and Alexander Sullivan,  was very bold for its time with its anti-racist, black is beautiful message. I mentioned this song in a blog post in 2012. It would be useful if someone, maybe me, wrote an article or a book about the origin of the song.

Black Banjo Players, A Rare Sight

The banjo is a beautiful sounding musical instrument. To my ears, anyway. (Writer Joe Queenan, no fan of the banjo, would strongly disagree.)

Despite being of African origin, it's very rarely seen being played by a black person from anywhere on the globe.

Three African-American banjo players, who come to mind, are Fred Guy and Elmer Snowden, members of Duke Ellington's band in the 1920s and Narvin Kimball. (Snowden also played the saxophone.)

Rose Marie McCoy, An Unheralded African American Songwriter

Rose Marie McCoy, an African American songwriter, who wrote 850 songs, is a hidden figure in the music business and deserves to have her life story told in a motion picture. She wrote these songs in a career that spanned seven decades. Her songs were recorded by such musical luminaries as Elvis Presley, Nat "King" Cole, and Sarah Vaughan, to name a few.

I recently learned about her after hearing Leonard Lopate interview Arlene Corsano on his daily show on New York's WBAI. Ms. Corsano  is the author of Thought We Were Writing the Blues, But They Called It Rock 'n' Roll: The Life & Music of Rose Marie McCoy.
                                                               
McCoy died on January 20, 2015 at the age of 92 .
                      
Her music can be heard on YouTube as well as in a short video clip of her playing the guitar and singing.

For more information, go to www.rosemariemccoymusic.com.

                                                   
                        

R.I.P. Natalie Cole

I own two CDs by the recently deceased Natalie Cole (1950-2015). My favorite of the two is Ask a Woman Who Knows (Verve). This CD would be among my desert island discs, those recordings I would want to bring with me if I was stranded on a desert island.

It is one of the few CDs I own that I would play from beginning to end because all 13 tracks are gems. The songs I particularly like are "So Many Stars," "The Music That Makes Me Dance," "Soon," "Tell Me All About It,"and "My Baby Just Cares for Me," which is on the final track. Her performance of this particular song is a real showstopper.

Now she has joined her father, Nat King Cole, in Heaven to perform eternal duets.

George Benson, Guitarist And Autobiographer

I'm looking forward to reading guitar virtuoso George Benson's recently published book, Benson: The Autobiography, written with Alan Goldsher (Da Capo Press, 2014).

I'm particularly interested in what he has to say about the recording sessions for Breezin' and In Flight, two of my favorite jazz recordings as well as what it was like collaborating with fellow guitar virtuoso Earl Klugh whose career I've been following since his emergence on the music scene in 1976 with his self-titled recording, Earl Klugh, on the Blue Note label.

I hope Klugh will also write his autobiography.

Queen Latifah As Bessie Smith In A Made-For-TV Biopic

The multi-talented Queen Latifah stars as blues singer Bessie Smith in the biopic Bessie. It premieres tonight  on HBO. (Mo'Nique co-stars as Smith's fellow blues singer Ma Rainey.) I learned of the film several weeks ago when I saw an ad for it on the side of a city bus.

Bessie Smith, who was called "The Empress of the Blues," died in a car accident in 1937 at the age of  43.

Unfortunately I won't be able to watch the film because I don't subscribe to cable TV. But I look forward to seeing it when it comes out on DVD.

Denzel Washington To Play Thelonious Monk On The Big Screen

Denzel Washington has played several real-life people on the big screen: South African activist Steven Biko, boxer Ruben "Hurricane" Carter, and Black Muslim orator Malcolm X, to name just three roles. AARP The Magazine (December 2014-January 2015 issue) in its "Big 5-Oh" feature on the back page, which celebrates celebrity birthday milestones, reports that Washington "hopes to star as jazz legend Thelonious Monk." This wouldn't be the first time Washington, who turned 60 this month, plays a jazz musician. He had the lead role (as a trumpet player) in Spike Lee's 1990 flick, Mo' Better Blues.

Don Cheadle Is Miles Ahead On His Miles Davis Film

Now that actor Don Cheadle has gotten his Miles Davis biopic, Miles Ahead,* before the cameras, maybe he should consider doing a biopic of Billy Strayhorn, Duke Ellington's openly gay friend and collaborator. (Strayhorn wrote among other well-known tunes, Take the A Train.)There was supposed to be a film version of  Lush Life, David Hadju's biography of Strayhorn, but nothing came of it. It would be wonderful if a film about Strayhorn would be made. Such a film would remove him from Ellington's shadow.


*Note: See Alan Light's article, "Middle-Aged Man Without a Horn," in the New York Times Arts & Leisure section (September 14, 2014). It is about Don Cheadle's making of the Miles Davis biopic.

At Home With The Bronze Liberace

Embedded in the sidewalk in front of the Apollo Theatre in Harlem is a gold-colored plaque with Little Richard's name on it. It is part of the Apollo's "Walk of Fame," which includes other African-American entertainment luminaries like Ella Fitzgerald and Michael Jackson.

Among those who have walked past the theatre, I am probably the only one who has set foot in the Los Angeles home of the man filmmaker and author John Waters said referred to himself as the Bronze Liberace.

In the early 1960s, my mother and I lived in an apartment building in South Central Los Angeles. We had a neighbor named Millie, who had been in show business and knew Little Richard. One evening we went along with her, her husband, and their daughter to Little Richard's house, which was a duplex. My memories of the evening are vague because at the time I was about 11 or 12 years old. But I do remember seeing Little Richard sitting at the piano with people gathered around singing. I do remember going upstairs and seeing people inside a room watching television with the door slightly open. If I had been ten years older, I would have remembered a lot more.