Brownsville Weekly News

_ New Orleans Feetwarmers,

e

~ cellent tenor give added lift to
= ~Steepy~~Time~ which is taken at
~ slow tempo. Cliff Jackson~s piano

Scott~s chorus, a local WPA group,

wade, the Cricket, as well as the

_ the amateur
_ gomething to look forward to and
- fan hurry into intensive training
' for the ~Big Break.~. SATCHMO. SWINGING

~Mood for~ Love~ which sounds
pretty sorfty. ~West End Blues,~
despite its eXcellence, can-. not compare with Louis~ earlier

tations there was renewed interest
black and tan revues at the Bal

SATURDAY, SULY 5, 1941.

FLINT BROWNSVILLE NEWS, FLINT, MICHIGAN

tees SEVER

Sidney Bechet Is Six-Piece Band All
By Himself In His Latest Recording

Robeson
Lewishon

NEW YORK~(ANP) Paul
Robeson appeared at the Lewishon
stadium Monday evening as guest
soloist with the New York Philharmonic Symphony orchestra. In
spite of chilly weather--there was
2 crowd of 14,000 persons present.
Included on the program were
works which were given when the
singer appeared at the stadium
last year, William Grant Still~s
~And They Lynched Him on a
Tree,~ and ~Ballad for Americans.~

Soloist At
Stadium

The Eva Jessye choir of 30 voices
assisted in an orchestral rendition
of parts of Mussorgsky~s ~Boris
Godunoff~ and Griffes~ ~The Pleasure Dame of Kuble Khan~ as well
as the Still works. Lawrence Brown,
pianist, accompanied the singer in
his solo parts.

Particularly impressive were Robeson~s spirituals which were enthusiastically received. After several
encores ~Water Boy~ was offered as
a final number.

| RATING THE RECORDS |

By FRANK MARSHALL DAVIS

Another of the seemingly endless Decca albums gives ten sides
cut by Louls Armstrong in the last
six years backed by the Luis Russell band. The numbers, all reissues
are MAHOGANY HALL STOMP,
~West End Blues,~ ~On The Sunny Side of the Street~ and ~I~m
In the Mood for Love;~ ~I Can~t
Give You Anything But Love Baby~ and ~Ain~t Misbehavin~.

These feature Saicnino~s stupendous horn and rasping voice, along
with Higgiribotham~s trombone,
Holmes~ alto and Nicholas~ clarinet with Pop Fosier presiding over
the big fiddle. Only weak spot is

waxing on Okeh. But this is on
the whole fine fare and the many
-Armstrong: fans ought to eat it

up.

ONE BY ONE

- The one and only Sidney ~Pops~
Bechet, with.& different batch of
shines
again on ~I Ain~t: Gonna Give
Nobody None O~ This Jellyroll~ and
~When It~s Sleepy~ Time Down
South,'a Victor. Pops~ soprano sax
is exciting on both sides and Wilson Myers~ bowed bass bit is quite
all right. Sandy Williams~ easy
trombone and Lem Johnson~s ex
sounds like ragtime instead of jazz
on ~Jellyroll.~ Not a bit commercial, and good jazz....Woody Herman forgets swing for the smooth
and sweet ~You'll Never Know~
tnd ~Lazy Rhapsody,~ Decca.
Fats Waller plays piano straight
on ~I Understand~ and sings it
that way, making~ him just oh, so
~sweet on Bluebird. Coupled is
~Pantin~ In the Panther Room,~ a
nice jump with all the cats riffin~
it out. The Round One pounds
some mean 88 and then changes
to electric organ.... Bob Crosby~s. Decca of ~Call It Anything~ and
~Something I Dreamed. No Doubt,~
is quite commercial but competent,
with the Bob-o-Links helping the
leader singing.. This re-discovery of violins by hot bands continues. First it was Artie- Shaw,
then Harry James and Now Lar~Ty Clinton. The latter on Victor

uses them to advantage in ~Town
@-warmed over classic.
a

Tattler,~
Flipover is ~Tempus Fugit,~

Ellingtonish at the start with
growl trumpet and minor chords.

ton riff special.

The Three Bits of Rhythm get
off to a goed start on Decca with
~The Old Blues.~ A lonesome and
talkative electric guitar sparks
this performance, and the piano
is loose and easy. Companion
piece is ~Bronzeville Jump,~ a
jump and jive jamboree.... Bob
Chester~s Bluebird of ~Clap Your
Hands on the After Beat~ is from
the ~Yes Indeed~ school. It = has
a fine,
the vocal jive. Other side is ~Time
and Time Again,~ a nicely played
pop tune..... Johnny Messner~s
Decca of ~Daddy~ won~t hurt this
up and coming song. His. glee club
and Jeanne D~Arey de all right by
the lyrics. Companion tune is Mobile Flag Stop,~ a boresome oddityin which Savitt~s shuffle rhythm
is borrowed.

The Deep River Boys, another
of the imposing list of topnotch
singing aggregations, hit the high
spots on Bluebird with ~My Heart
At They Thy Sweet Voice,~ with
fine. vocal effects and. pungent
rhythm, and Cherokee, hot and
blazing. Piano and drums add to
the performance...... Jimmy Dorsey is competent but not sensational on ~A Rose and a Prayer~

and ~Be Fair,~ the latter very
slow and moody, on Decca......
On... the

Pete Johnson's ~Boogin~
Downbeat~ as played by Teddy
Powell is good full band boogie
woogie. It has plenty of kicks and
lots of riffs. Coupled is ~Time on
My Hands,~ slow and a sender
with an excellent vocal by Ruth
Gaylor.

Smart harmonizing describes
~The Things I Love~ and ~I Do,
Do You~ by the Delta Rhythm
Boys on Decca. This is the Ink
Spots~ kind of performance....
The Five Breezes jump in the Ink
Spots~ old style on the Bluebird
of ~Laundry Man~ and ~Just a
Jitterbug,~ with plenty of jive......Peetie Wheatstraw is in his
usual earthy vein.on the Decca of
~You Got To Tell Me Something~
and ~Love Me With Attention,~
accompanied by piano and sharmonica on a boogie woogie kick.... Huddie Leadbelly always
sounds authentic when he.. sings
and plays guitar. He: is hedrd on
~Roberta,~ an honest to goodness
blues of serious nature which he

ace tune that~s

~definitely

explains, and ~Red Cross Store
oa in a humerous vein. A Blueird.:.

DIP~

ASS

HOLLYWCIOD~ What a ame
end of the sepia theatrical and
Musical:talent! It seemed at least
locally that the producers and proMoters of amusement, had suddenly awakened tc the fact that
an unlimited storehouse of ability
was at hand in the ranks of Neero artists.

They left that storehouse slight.
ly ajar and out came ~Wings Over
_ Jordan~ at Hollywood bow!, last
Thursday; a grand _ flourishing
wind-up of two weeks of capacity
attendance for Ethel Waters~
~Cabin In The Sky,~ at the Philharmoni~, Fats Waller and Eddie
~Rochester~ Anderson at the.Paramount, Ella Fitzgerald, her band
and revue, at the Orpheum; and

in the first. of weekly ~pop~ concerts at the Embassy auditcrium.
~Besides these transient~ presen
by the ofay nightlifer in the

Taborin, the Rhum Bogie, the

lier lounges that feature colored pianists, singers, or dancers.
3f this will only keep up, a lot of
talent will have

Taking a tip from the president,
as did the great Teddy Roosethat ~all work and

TOMO

HARRY LEVET TE
MIATEDNEGRO FRCS

a fine time, ard a good chicken

+ dinner.

Refreshed now, he is ready for
the busy days that will come when
Waiter Wanger~s ~Sundown~ troupe
returns from New Mexico to startshocting on the lot.~ Dorothy
Latkin, wha impressed with het
Singing and good looks and personality, during a week's engageMent at the Alabama, will prepare
for summer asdig: ments as soon
as Wadsworth School closes. She
is filling a clerical position there.
~(Quiz No. 1)~Why don~t Irene
Washington and her sister Ida
May, both finish pianists of. the
~Prof. Wilkins school, put their talent and- expensive training tc some
use?~(Quiz No. 2)~Way is Paul
McGee, my dangerous pal and felidwecribbler, locking. so glum
these days? Is it because a train
pulled out for Indianapolis a
few weeks ago?~(amd they used
to credit him with nty dames.)

OPPPORTUNITY FOR
JOURNALISTS:

If you should happen ~to spend
the summer on the coast now that
vacation is here and if you are a
student or graduate. of high school
who loves journalism, types fairly,
and would like actual ence
and remuneration, drop mz a line
at 727 E. 24th Street, Los Angeles,
California, giving information and
phone number. Would especially
like to hear from the young lady
who did the research work on the
life of Co. Charles Younz when
Million Dollar studio was prepar-.
ing to film a story of his life
summer before last. Unfortunateiy
I have forgotten her name, and
do not know if she is still in the
city. There are important events

Later it becomes a typical Clin--

liquid alto in addition to

Dean Dixon, 26-year-old New Yorker,
the NBC Summer Symphony last Saturday,
network. Mr. Dixon is the youngest conductor to lead the orches
tra. (ANP)

Conducts SummerSymphony

shown as he conducted

the NBC-Blue

over ~

Difficult Task Is

Not Hard,

~NEW YORK,~(ANP) ~Sidney
~pops~ Bechet, internationally famous as the forémost virtues of the
soprano saxophone and a veteran
New Orleans musican, has members of the music fraternity standing on their. heads following the
release by Victor of a coupling in
which Bechét,~ alone, performs as
a six piece band. The tunes, on
which he plays every instrument
are ~The Blues of Bechet~ and
~The Shiek of Araby.~

The instrument used are tenor
sax (string bass, drums, clarinet).
and soprano sax. Becet, incidentally, has had virtually no formal
training and plays by ear instead
of notes.

As to how this record was made,
let Miss Margaret Hartigan of the
Victor press department tell you.

~It was the idea of John D.
Reid, of Cincinnati, who first ex
perimented with Bechet on 4
home recorder. It was done, not
with mirrors, but by a series of

dubbings. The location~RCA-Victor recording studio in New York
City.... and maybe you don~t
know that a small-sized riot nearly occurred with one of New York~s
open air taxicabs drove up to the
door of 155 East 24th Street and
the. driver lifted out of his bus
one instrument after another, until the sidewalk was battered, and
the ushered out the none-too-none
person of Sidney Bechet, ~The
rest of the band | in another taxi
queried the driver, ~I am the
band~ said Bechet. The driver
looked startled for a moment. and
then, thinking he was being rib
By PETER DANA~

NEW YORK CITY~ S)
Graham Jackson, the Atlanta musician, is certainly one of the most
versatile instrumentalists in this
or any other land~and, if bookings are believable, just about the
busiest ever heard of.

Why, the man~s a miracle of energy and performance! Command
performances for.the citizens of
the United States are, for him, the
business of his boyish years. Indeed, the days of his years have
been spent in making music for the

-Many and the few, the select of

private parties and the common
folk of America who have the love
of music in their souls.
REMARKABLE YOUNG MAN

House organist for a half dozen
of America~s wealthiest families,
favorite entertainer for the President of the United States and his
family, teacher: of struggling music students and of the children
of the~ well-to-do, unbelievably
gifted yet refreshingly unspoiled,
Graham Jackson is certainly one of
the most, remarkable young men in
America today.

A Portsmouth,, Virginia boy just
out of high school,.Graham Jackson went to Atlanta, as head of an
orchestra traveling with a road
show playing at Atlanta~s famous
~81~ Theatre. So impressive was he
that the management of the theatre approached him with a proposition to take over. the house orchestra and the new Great Organ
the theatre was installing at the
time. Graham accepted, not only
because it was.a good offer but,
knowing Atlanta was a great educational center, because it would

offer him a opportunity to continue
his college education.

This was in the spring of 1925.
In the fall of the same year Graham Jackson and the writer were
freshmen at Morehouse and _ intimate friends besides. The writer
came to know this Portsmough, Va.,
lad as an exciting and resourceful
friend.

TURNS TO MUSIC

+ Near the end of his freshman
year, Graham decided to give all
his time to his music. And I was
glad for him; for genius such as
his should not have been confined
by the routines of mere formal college training.

Soon he had organized a dance
band and was the choice entertainer in the Gate City. Hardly a
year had passed before he was called to head the Music department
of the Booker Washington High
School, one of the country~s largest
public schools. A performer of expertness and charm on many instruments, Graham was also one of
the best choral conductors in the
country, his church and school
choirs being in great demand.

It was, then, a seldom pleasure
for the writer to see and talk with
his old boyhood friend, Graham
Jackson, a few days ago when he
stopped here at the Hotel Theresa,
on his way to New Haven to play
for a Yale Class Reunion.

NOW IN NEW YORK

Not altogether to the writer~s
surprise, but certainly without his
knowledge, Graham _ is in New
York almost as much as he is in Atlanta. A few days before ~he was
interviewed at the Théresa he had
entertained for Mr. Clarence
Schoo, the noted sportsman, at his
anniversary. In May of this year
he entertained at a dinner at the
Waldorf-Astoria for R. W. Woodruff, president of the Coco Cola
company, along with Andre Kostelanetz and Albert Spaulding.

Last summer, he was a staff muSician for NBC, between his duties
as house~ organist for Candler
Dobbs, the broker. In April of this
year his chorus of 22 voices entertained Lord and Lady Halifax on
the occasion of the British Ambassador~s visit to Atlanta,

While in New York a few days
ago Graham signed a radio contract with a nationally known advertising agency, which will keep
him in the East for the greater

part of the summer.

~TAPPING THE WIRES

it, the making, me ee Feet

you at once,!

By HAROLD: JOVIEN
A SUMMER GUEST COLUMN, by
Dorothy Maynor.
NBC, CBS, MBS, NETWORK |
RADIO STAR AND VICTOR
RECORDING ARTIST.

I have been asked to comment
about the part that recordings
have played in my study of singtng, and how I first started to
sing. It~s hard for me to remember just when that was. Certainly
ft couldn~t remember when there
wasn~t music around me. In the
beginning it was not I, but my
sister who played the piano, who
was believed to have the thusical
talent in the family.

in to sing with my family
that the first song I ever

was a lovely old hymn

~Jesus Loves Me.~

Even now, sometimes when
things look desolate, I like to
sing to myself this song which I

~first heard in my father~s church

in Norfolk, Virginia. He was a
Methodist Minister, and I think I
knew hymn tunes and spirituals
before I could talk. I did my first
singing in his church choir.

LEARNED SPIRITUALS

Later on, I was to learn many]

usual spirituals as a student at
Hampton Inst. in Va. There is a

Graham Jackson Is Termed
Nation~s Busiest Musician

Booked as ~Wand~ring Minstrel~
Atlantan Signed for Networks

chorus, sung in many parts.

During the years when I was a
student at Hampton, I sometimes | pa.
had the opportunity to sing solo
parts with the Hampton Chomis.
This summer I had the moving
experience of returning to ~the
same hall where I once gang, as a
student and having tried my wings
a bit in the Guiside ~world, ~it was
a happy reunion.

After Hampton, I went to study
at the Westminister Choir School
in Princeton, N. J. In those days
there was ho idea of my ever singing professionally. I was studying
to be. a teacher of public school
music: I sang as part of my general
studies, studied orchestration.and
harmony, and even played the oboe
and occasionally the French horn
in the school orchestra.

CONCERT RECORDED

After my first Town Hall concert in New York, a debut which
meant so much to me, my manager,
Mr. Lawrence Evans called me and
told me he had the whole concert
recorded. I couldn~t believe it was
true. When the package of records
was delivered by my ~ome, I was
afraid to open them. For hours
I looked with haunfed gaze on the
fateful discs, which for the first
time would let me hear my own
voice. This was so-final.

The audience was kind and I
thought they might have forgotten my faults in singing-yet here
were recorded all the things, good
and bad, which had happened Beg
that exciting evening. Finally, Mr
Evans laughed me out of my fears
and put the first record on the

He Says

bed, muttered to himself ~And I
am Louis de Fiftcent.~

~Finally Bechet was seated in
the studios, with all of ~his instruments around him, ready to
sound the first note of the recording~on the tenor sax. Fred
Maisch, the maestro of the control
boards was the engineer in charge,
and at his signal the waxes stgrted turning and Sidney began ~playing the tenor sax part.. his
own arrangement, not a ote of
which was down (and this is true
of all six parts)~of The Shiek of
Araby. At the conclusion of the
recording of the first part. Maich
played it back and Bechet, with
carphone- on, played the string

sax part to which he was listening
on the playback. Both parts were
recorded simultaneously on another disc. The second disc made
containing the tenor ~sax and
string bass parts, was them played
back and in the same manner
Bechet added the drums, and
the three parts were picked up on
a third dige. This precedure | has
continued until the piano, clarinet and soprano sax parts were
added and the whole dubbed into
the sixth and final record, contraining a six-piece-band version of

The Shiek, every instrument of
which was. played by Sidney
Bechet..

~For the other side of this record, Bechet improvised, while playing a special theme which he called
Blues of Bechet. In this record he
used four instruments~piano, tenor and soprano saxes, and clarinet
dubbing in~ as the Miss inspired

him. This performance left. the
engineers and attending musical
experts speechless with amaze
ment.

~When the last note of the session had been played, the controls
turned off, and the last note of
the final playbook sounded, Bechet
went sort of ~all in a heap~ mopped
his perspiring brown, and muttered weakly, ~Man! that ends
three months of torture. Thinking
about this session was giving me
nightmares; I dreamed I was
pons the whole Duke. Ellington

peo to take a vacation Sidney?~ He was asked. ~Naw,~ he
grinned happily, ~I want to make
another record like this, adding
the trumpet for a seventh piece.

my own voice? I can only tell you

that the experience of hearing
your voice for the first time is
a strange one; but it was an experience which made me more
and more determined to work with
every ounce of my being to be a
better singer.

PLANNING TRIP

This summer, I~m embarking on
an exciting trip, to try,to track
down and record some spirituals
that have never been written down.
With a friend, I~m going into remote Negro settlements in the
south where people have~ been
singing these songs the same way
for over a hundred years, Some

Negro harmonies are so wunusual
that there is no way to express
them on the music staff. |

For instance, they sometimes

embellish the singing by the use
of quarter tones. There~s a difference too, in the Negro and white
feeling of rhythm. The average
white listener feels that rhythm
of the divided beat when he listens to a spiritual. But Negroes
feel, besides, what I can~t call other than the pulse of the music.

That you can~t write down. The
only way this music can he cap
Specialists In Rhythm

a

bass part in unison with: the tenor |

Se,

~1 ~Meet The People.~
machine. Good gracious! Was that;

CAMP ORD, Cal.~Remember Farina, the |
of the old ~Our Gang~ comedies?
~Farina~ is Private Allen Hoskins, Company D, 47th Quartermaster
Regiment, stationed at the Presidio in Monterey, Cal.
a tire on an Army truck, bound for military maneuvers.~Acme.

~Farina~ In The Army Now~

i

-haired little ~girl~
Well, she~s in the Army now.

Here he~s fixing

LOS ANGELES, Claif~(NPB)~
Literally standing ori their toes
thousands of rabid theatre fans
here hourly awaited the opening
of ~Jump For Joy~ the farcical
stage piece now completing rehearsings at the downtown Mayan theatre. The well rounded stage piece
featuring Duke Ellington and his
band, is set for an opening at the
Mayan theatre, the night of Thursday, July 10.

Dorothy Dandridge, rapidly ascending sepia singing actress, will

By LAWRENCE F. LaMAR |

have the starring role in the. fast | |

moving: elegantly planned production. She will top such sterling performers as both Ivie Anderson and.
Herbie Jeffries in the star studdéd
cast. Miss Dandridge was the star
of a recent Hollywood production

Others prominent in the cast include Jess. Lee Brooks, star of
~Swing Mikado,~ Marie Bryant, exotic comediene, the Three Rockets,

elongated dance trio, ~Garbo~,

Coast Fans Await
Duke's New Revue

beateous torso swinging danseuse,,.
the Three Hi-Hatters, clever dance
trio, Wonderful Smith, Al Guster,
a Duke Ellington discovery, a comic ~
trio known as Pot, Pan and Skillet,
and chorus line of 12 famed ~beautiful dancing girls. ~

For ~Jump For Joy~ ~Duke Ellington has penned some very fine
tunes. Among which are, the title
song ~Jump For Joy~, ~Chocolate
Shake~, ~I Got It Bad, and That
Ain't Good,~ ~The Brown Skinned Gal in The

Records. Hal Borne shared music
writing honors -with.

Paul Webster getting crédit vith
the lyrics.

Henry Blankfort, ~ is producing
~Jump for Joy~, with direction being handled by Sid Kuller. Dance
direction is being handled by Nick
Castle dance director at Universal
film studio, assisted by Patsy Hunter and Jo Stevenson.

| FOOTLITE

=

Ta

FLICKERS

By ~ALVIN MOSES

~DIDJA KNOW THAT~???~~
Negro dancing should be correctly
divided into two types namely,
group and partner dancing, when
one wishes to trace geneology of
interpretative dancing scores. From
the early slave, tired though he
was from the overlord~s lash and
the merciless rays of the sun, came.. the cake walk; public dance
halls of parishes and cities produced fox trot and lindy hop; pigfoot and rent parties evolved the
slow drag, bumpty-bump,> boogie.
woogie, and kitchen stomp; ~ the
flickering footlights introduced
any number, the more prominent
being Charleston, Susi-Q, ickieroo, truckin~, peckin~, black bot.
tom acrobatic-split (done to step

time)??
James Reese Europe, while
bandmaster of the old 15th regi
NEY one

tured is by recording it as sung.

terested in the idea and has offered to lend me a little recording
-set, which the singers won~t even
see. I know that there is a wealth
of Negro folk music that is still
unknown. It~s nice to know that
there are still some beautiful and
undiscovered spirituals awaiting a
musical rebirth.

Mrs, M, R. George ~

CHICAGO,~(ANP) ~ The Chicago Music Association will give a
testimonial on Sunday, June 27,
to Mrs. Maude Roberts George at
the. Bec bee ballroom. Mrs.

widow of the ate
aage ~albert B. George, is a past
president of the association of the

25 (1940),

ragtime

The Library of Congress is in
Feted By Musicians |;

~National Association of Negro Mu- '

ment of New York, went to France
and introduced to millions ~jaz

music~. He might have become the ~
world~s finest composer and direc~
tor, had he lived to the present
music cycle:..DEAN DIXON,
pupil of Albert Stoessel of the Jul_
ilard Music school, at the age of
conducted the famous..
New York City Symphony orches
tra, first time a Negro artist had
been so honnred:.. Mrs. Lottie Joplin, New York City hostess whose
home has been the gathering spot.
for~ stage celebrities since first
World war days, writes in to tell
us that __~My late beloved hus.
bend. SCOTT JOPLIN, introduced
music to the American
contininent (1897-98), with his
popular compositions entitled
~Mampie Leaf Rag~ and ~Euphonic
Sounds~~Pigmeat Markham is regarded by 90 per cent of the visit- |
ing whites (Apollo Theatre), as
well as Harlem~s fun_loving agp of
~patrons. as the most capable, as
Well as best-liked comedian, since ~
the.- Jewish comics~Weber and
Fields:~That. JACOB HOMER
TUTT. living half of th internationally famous team of Whitney Brothers (Whitney part of
name was borrowed), tives in Harlem~s ~block ~beautiful~ (139th ~
street), and has the best collection of photographs of old-time
stage performers we've seen, anywhere..ANNA COOK PANKY will