[dc--radio-coop] Archival Interviews with Historic Musicians

[Eddie Becker]

Perhaps some WPFW programmers might be interested in a pitch of and edit that includes interviews
with legendary musicians. 

Sounds and Stories from Maryland's African American Musical Communities

Oral history interviewers from Peabody and Hopkins have recorded
reminiscences of musicians in Baltimore's African American communities
on a new website, http://www.peabody.jhu.edu/sas/.  John Spitzer, Ph.D.,
musicology faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of Music, recorded the
first interview at the Eubie Blake Jazz Institute with Camay Calloway
Murphy.  Mrs. Murphy recalled her childhood adventures on summer days in
Baltimore and memories of her family:  Aunt Blanche, a remarkable jazz
singer and one of the first women band leaders, her father Cab Calloway
and her grandmother, organist Julia Calloway.  "My father had all of
these stories that you'd have to take with a grain of salt," she
recounts, "but he always said that he got his music into his head
because he was kind of hyperactive, and his other used to put him on the
floor under the organ.  When she would pedal the organ, she might take
her foot off the pedal and put it on him to hold him in place."

The interviews reflect the depth and richness of the African American
musical community:  Jazz musicians like Tracy McCleary and Montel
Poulson who played on Pennsylvania Avenue in its golden years, Wilmer
Wise, the symphony musician who broke the color barrier at the baltimore
Symphony before going on to New York to perform with Leonard Bernstein
and Philip Glass; divas Ethel Ennis and Ruby Glover; and Lucille Brooks,
successor to Eubie Blake's teacher at Waters A.M.E. Church, (she
recently celebrated her 90th birthday and is still active as an
organist).

Many of the musicians who have been recorded have in turn become actively
involved with the project, helping us to contact other musicians,
supplying leads and providing background information, and three of the
project's advisors, Audrey Cyrus McCallum, Camay Murphy, and pianist and
educator Reppard Stone, Ph.D., agreed to participate as interviewees.

Contemporary photographs of many of the musicians who were interviewed
for the project by photographer Russ Moss will be on view at a preview
exhibit celebrating the debut of the website at the Eubie Blake Cultural
Center at 847 North Howard Street in Baltimore [410 225-31320] through
April 2003.

The project is supported by grants from the Maryland Historic Trust and
the Maryland Humanities Council. (from H-MARYLAND%20at%20H-NET.MSU.EDU)


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