Being a part of album projects never gets old, so I’m delighted to announce that Keenan McKenzie and the Riffers have released a new album called Lakewood Jump! Recorded in August of 2023 at Magnetic Sound Studios in the Lakewood area of Durham, NC, it’s been more than a year in the making, with some planned and unplanned delays involved in its production.
The album is a mix of originals, classics, and some lesser known gems of the jazz world. It was an absolute pleasure to record this, less than 10 minutes from my house, and with Cocoa Cinnamon coffee across the street to sustain me. Available on Bandcamp, digital and (soon, as of the date of this post) vinyl, I’m singing on 7 tracks – enjoy!
Ella Fitzgerald, Dinah Washington, Helen Humes, Billie Holiday, Ivie Anderson, Helen Ward, Helen Forrest – these are some of the iconic big band vocalist names whose works have inspired performances at Lindy Focus and, for Fitzgerald and Washington, featured charts in the Heritage Sounds transcription projects. As we approach the year of Erskine Hawkins as the featured bandleader for the 2024 transcription project, you may notice that there’s not a definitive vocalist in his lineup, except perhaps Hawk himself yelling out “Tuxedo!” as his band launches into that famous tune. His discography hints at 11 featured vocalists and there were others as the band continued live performances into the 1960s. The in-depth biographies of most these musicians may be largely lost to time, but here’s a bit of information – dates denote recording release years and/or other dates I may have found online:
JIMMY MITCHELL, alto saxophone and vocals (1936-1949 recordings, ‘Bama State Collegians and E.H. Orchestra)
“Hawk, if you can keep us working, we will stay with you.” This was the sentiment that the rest of the ‘Bama State Collegians as the band embarked on their tour to New York in 1934. Jimmy Mitchell was one of those musicians, a reed player and the most consistent and prolific vocalist of the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Mitchell goes all the way back to Birmingham Industrial High School and, as a student of the esteemed “Fess” Whatley, was granted a music scholarship to Alabama State Teachers College along with others of his Industrial HS peers, including Erskine Hawkins. There is scant biographical information about Mitchell online, but one thread throughout is that mentions of Mitchell in the press and in references online show that he was a featured vocalist, a named musician in advertisements, and thus a draw to the orchestra for his popular vocal stylings.
Mitchell recorded 39+ vocal sides with the Orchestra, in addition to being featured on radio broadcasts, for which we still have recordings. The ‘Bama State Collegians were signed to Vocation and Mitchell recorded the first song of their first New York recording session, “It Was a Sad Night in Harlem” (an ironic choice, as I’m certain their residency at the Savoy inspired many happy nights) on July 20, 1936. For the transcription project, we’ve picked his rendition of Keep Cool, Fool from 1941. His last recording with the Orchestra was “Brown Baby Blues” on November 30, 1949.
WILLIAM “BILLY” BOONE DANIELS (1935-1936)
Billy Daniels is one of most famous people on this list and has a Hollywood walk of fame star to prove it. Born in Jacksonville, Florida, Daniels moved to Harlem in 1935 with the intention of attending law school at Columbia. He worked at Dickie Welles’ Place as a busboy, then as a singing waiter. It was here that Daniels was plucked from obscurity by Hawkins and invited to join his orchestra. He toured with the Hawkins orchestra throughout 1936 and recorded three sides with the band. He left the band to pursue his solo act, with performances at the Onyx Club, Ebony Club and the Famous Door.
This was just the beginning – Daniels went on to radio, records, Broadway productions, Las Vegas residencies, made three films for Columbia Pictures, and hosted his own television show starting in 1952. The Billy Daniels Show was the first sponsored television show starring a black entertainer. The show was broadcast from the same theater that would later be named the Ed Sullivan Theater, now home to The Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
His most famous tune was “That Old Black Magic,” recorded in 1948, after his service in the Merchant Marines during WWII ended, and sold more than nine million copies. Compare to his first recording ever (which was during the first Hawkins orchestra recording session in 1936), the classic “Until the Real Thing Comes Along.”
MERLE TURNER (recordings from 1936-1938, ‘Bama State Collegians and E.H. Orchestra)
Merle Turner from Charleston, West Virginia joined New Orleans-born, Texas-based territory bandleader Don Albert as a vocalist in 1935. The band recorded 8 sides at a recording session in San Antonio, Texas in November of 1936, including a Turner vocal on “Sheik of Araby” (with the “with no pants on” call/response).
In June of 1937, Albert’s orchestra arrived in New York, but had difficulty finding work in a saturated market. They played at least one show in New York, because Leonard Feather wrote in Melody Maker about the band’s recording of Sheik, which had “caused a considerable mystery” since they were an unknown band.
Turner (perhaps seeing the writing on the wall, needing work, and/or using the review of his vocal recording as a springboard) left the Albert band that same month to join the ‘Bama State Collegians. Wasting no time, Turner went into the studio with the Collegians on August 12, 1937, singing “I’ll Get Along Somehow,” with the croon of an Ink Spot and a high note to finish. Turner recorded several more sides with the Orchestra through September of 1938.
Beyond 1938, I was only able to locate a recording Turner made in 1946 with Hawkins alum/trumpeter Wilbur “Dud” Bascomb leading the session, the aptly titled “Just One More Chance.”
RUBY HILL (1937)
While Hill is credited as being a regular vocalist with the Hawkins Orchestra in 1937, her web presence is primarily limited to her performances at the Harlem Uproar House and the Apollo Theater.
On January 29 1937, Hill appeared at the Apollo along with Willie Bryant and comedian Pigmeat (presumably Markham? A Durham, NC native!).
In the April 1937 issue of The Show-Down, a magazine documenting night clubs, theaters, and performers, gave Ruby Hill a shoutout – “Ruby Hill’s torch songs touch one from head to toe” – in a rundown of accolades from a revue at the Harlem Uproar House. The revue featured Hawkins’ Orchestra and a cast that included vocalist Velma Middleton, Savoy Ballroom emcee Bardu Ali, and Tiny Bunch leading a troupe of Lindy Hoppers.
On November 3, 1939, Hill was back at the Apollo Theater with Noble Sissle.
I was not able to locate a photograph of Hill, so I leave you with a photograph of the chorus line at the Harlem Uproar House from 1937.
IDA JAMES (recordings 1938-1939)
A native of Providence, Rhode Island, Ida was still young when she started her career in Philadelphia, performing on The Horn and Hardart Children’s Hour on WCAU in the 1930s. By January 1937, she was singing with Earl Hines’s Orchestra in Chicago and stayed with him until May 1938, when she joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. She stayed with the Orchestra on and off until 1942, which was basically a launch pad for her, because she stayed busy in the 1940s!
Brooklyn native Dolores Brown was born to musical parents – Edna Hiddleston, a pianist, and Bill Brown, trombonist and leader of Bill Brown and his Brownies, who had a radio broadcast and cut a few sides for Brunswick in the late 1920s. Brown cut her teeth performing at school and community functions as a tween and transitioned to professional work in her late teens.
In 1938, Brown had a residency at the Black Cat in Greenwich Village as part of the club’s revue. She performed at the Apollo Theater’s Amateur Night and, like the Cinderella story of Ella Fitzgerald, was scouted and joined Duke Ellington’s Orchestra in the summer of 1938. She toured with Ellington until January, 1939, then left the Orchestra for reasons unknown. She joined a revue at the Kit Kat Club for spring of 1939.
On August 17, 1939, the California Eagle reported that Brown had joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Brown was featured in several recording sessions in 1939 and 1940, starting with the recording Rehearsal in Love. She was also featured at times with the Savoy Sultans during the Hawkins Orchestra’s Savoy Ballroom residency.
Unfortunately, Brown’s early newspaper mentions focus on her relationship with cornet player Leslie “Bub” “Bubber” Lewis, who she started dating in 1936, so we don’t get a lot of context about what she was doing at the time. In 1940, Brown ditched Lewis and fell in love with (and ultimately married) one of the Orchestra’s trumpet players, Marcellus Green. Following their marriage on December 2, 1940, Brown left the band and Hawkins re-signed Ida James as the Orchestra’s female vocalist. Just before she left, Brown recorded the apropos S’posin’ on November 20, 1940, one of the songs selected for the transcription project.
In August of 1942, Green and other Orchestra members Avery Parrish, Lee Stanfield, and Heywood Henry were in a terrible automobile accident near Chattanooga, Tennessee that killed Green and injured the others. I can’t even imagine how significantly this impacted such a closely-knit group, not to mention the accident occurring less than two years into Brown’s marriage to Green.
Brown was all over the jazz-sphere in 1943, at nightclubs and theaters in Pittsburgh, Allentown, Boston, Montreal, Chicago, Detroit, and back to New York. Brown joined Don Redmon’s Orchestra from January through August of 1944, then appeared at the Onyx Club until November of that year. She did a brief stint with Lucky Millinder in 1945, then went back to the Hawkins Orchestra!
The August 4, 1945 issue of Afro-American commented on “her courageous return to show business. Dolores thought that she was through with singing, but fate played a different hand.” She stayed with the Orchestra until April of 1946, then left again for reasons unknown. She continued recording and touring throughout the US with jazz luminaries through the 1960s. Brown never remarried and news of her passing in 2003 named her as “Dolores Green.”
EFFIE SMITH (1944 Jubilee Broadcasts)
From an Amazon.com record description: “Part of the explosion of black entertainment that occured on the West Coast in the early 1940’s, which led to an eruption of independent record labels and the birth of the R&B record industry, California was the breeding ground for the recording careers for a host of strong, talented women performers – among them was Effie Smith, a talented singer and comedienne whose career stretched from the early 1930’s until the early 1970’s. Early on Effie worked in Lionel Hampton, Erskine Hawkins and Benny Carter’s orchestras, and later on with small bands organized by Johnny Otis and her husband, John Criner, as well as R&B legends Roy Milton and Buddy Harper. With the advent of rock n’ roll in the mid-fifties, Effie made several records with The Squires for the Los Angeles based Vita Records imprint.”
Smith was marketed as Hawkins’ featuring vocalist, as you can see from this head shot, noting Gale Agency as her manager. The only two recordings we have of Smith with the Hawkins Orchestra are those from the October 1944 Jubilee Broadcasts, which were only available on CD until I uploaded Straighten Up and Fly Right to YouTube contemporaneously with the writing of this blog post. Enjoy this recording now and the arrangement live at Lindy Focus once we’ve completed the transcription project.
ASA “ACE” HARRIS, piano and vocals (recordings 1944-1950)
Harris grew up in Florida playing piano and in 1930 (when he was 20) he joined Billy Steward’s Celery City Serenaders (Celery City = Sanford, FL), a territory band that toured throughout most of the US. In 1935, he joined the Sunset Royal Serenaders. Within months of joining the SRS, their frontman Steve Washington died of pneumonia in January of 1936. The trombonist Doc Wheeler took over leading the band and, during a double bill with the Tommy Dorsey Orchestra in Philadelphia, Dorsey snaked the band’s 4/4 version of Marie with band vocals (originally an Irving Berlin waltz) and it became a hit for Dorsey in 1937. After proving himself as an excellent showman, Harris took over leadership of the band and they recorded in 1937 as Ace Harris & his Sunset Royal Orchestra.
When the band made it to New York City in 1939, Harris decided he wanted to stay. From 1940-1942, Harris was an accompanist and arranger for The Ink Spots. The Ink Spots often toured with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, so it was easy for Harris to transition to performing with the Orchestra full-time in 1944. The Orchestra had a hit in 1945 with his recording of “Caldonia” (#13 for the year on R&B charts). He continued to simultaneously perform with the Orchestra and manage his own solo recording career, recording for New York City labels Hub and Sterling between 1945 and 1948. In 1947 he left the Orchestra, but returned from 1950-1951 and recorded the Orchestra’s last R&B hit (#6 on the charts in December 1950) “Tennessee Waltz.” He also returned in 1955 to record a couple of singles for Decca.
Throughout the 1950s Harris continued performing and recording. He had a residency at Chicago’s Black Orchid alternating and performing piano duos with Buddy Charles. The pair had such a following that they recorded an album in 1957.
At some point, Harris’ sister married Hawkins, but it is not clear if that was Hawkins’ first wife Florence Browning, who he married in 1935, or if it was Gloria Dumas, who he married “later,” of whom the internet has almost no information.
Harris’ daughter, whose name is also Asa Harris, is/was a Chicago-based jazz vocalist.
CAROL TUCKER (recordings 1945)
Tucker grew up in Chicago in a musical family, as the child of a bandmaster of the Eighth Illinois Regiment. She attended DuSable High School, where she worked with Walter Dyett, a music educator who also worked with young Nat King Cole, Bo Diddley, Milt Hinton, and Dinah Washington. After graduating in January 1945, she secured an audition and landed a spot with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. The Orchestra had a residency at the Regal Theater, then hit the road to cities on the east coast. The press was receptive and, by the time she got to New York with the band, her star had risen.
At some point while in New York, Tucker became “stricken” with an unidentified ailment. Hawkins’ physician examined Tucker and recommended that she return to Chicago to rest at home. She died of this mystery illness in the first part of March 1946.
RUTH CHRISTIAN (recording 1946)
Christian grew up in New York and showed up in the entertainment press in 1939 as the vocalist for Buddy Walker and His Harlem Varieties. She had radio performances and was billed as such in a star-studded opening performance at the Community Theater Of St. Martin’s in Harlem on October 11, 1940, along with Ethel Waters, Katherine Dunham, Willie Bryant, W.C. Handy, and the Delta Rhythm Boys, among others.
At some point, Christian attended and graduated from college, perhaps in this gap between press clippings in the early 1940s. While in college, Christian met Ethel Harper, Leona Hemingway, and Charles Ford, who began singing as a vocal quartet, sharing performances with college choirs and participating in church services. The quartet began singing professionally around 1942, billing themselves as The Ginger Snaps (but may also be identified as the Four Ginger Snaps, the Gingersnaps, and the Four Gingersnaps because news sources seem to have chronic issue with band names). Their first show of record is as part of “Harlem Cavalcade”, an all-black variety show produced by Ed Sullivan that ran for most of May 1942 at the Ritz Theater. In July 1942 they appeared at Kelly’s Stable, then at the Apollo Theater the second week in November, sharing the stage with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and Jackie Mabley (later “Moms” Mabley). After a brief run in Philadelphia, they were back in New York and on the radio in December 1942 and at Le Ruban Bleu in January and February 1943, then back to Philly in April to appear with Sidney Bechet in March and April 1943. They spent the summer of 1943 performing in Wildwood, NJ, then back to Philly, then to Cleveland, St. Louis, Wilkes-Barre, and more.
In 1944 they appeared on the G. I. Journal radio show, produced by Armed Forces Radio Service (AFRS), singing what appears to be their signature or perhaps most popular song, “The Shrimp Man.”
On April 21, 1944, the Ginger Snaps were back at the Apollo, this time with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, and now we know for sure that their paths crossed. The rest of 1944 was back on the road to (you guessed it) Philadelphia, they appeared in a Royal Crown Cola ad, then performed in Atlantic City, Buffalo, Baltimore, Philly, Pittsburgh, Detroit, Rochester, then to California in 1945! In 1945 they recorded songs for three different entities while in Hollywood – at NBC Studios in Hollywood for the AFRS Jubilee series, for University Records, and RCA.
In early 1946, Christian left The Ginger Snaps to join the Hawkins Orchestra. She recorded one side with the Orchestra on April 24, 1946, “That Wonderful Worrisome Feeling.” Unfortunately, Christian then disappears from online sources. POOF!
COZINE STEWART (recording 1946)
The only mentions of Stewart online is her live performance with the Orchestra, a radio broadcast from the Hotel Lincoln’s Blue Room, New York, May 1, 1946 – the song is Personality and I could only find it on CD or LP. I’d like to think someone with the name Cozine has a wonderful personality.
LAURA WASHINGTON (recordings 1946-1947)
Birmingham-born Washington started singing as a child, performing in small clubs and churches, where she was scouted by Birmingham jazz musician J.L. Lowe. Lowe later recommended Washington to Hawkins and she joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra in New York as a teenager in 1946 (apparently beating out hundreds of interested vocalists, per the news caption at right), making her debut at the Strand Theater on Broadway. She recorded a total of 5 songs with the Orchestra, scoring a hit within a few months with the tune “I’ve Got a Right to Cry.” The song reached #2 on the Billboard “race” charts and #17 in the year-end ranking for 1946.
While in New York, Washington got to meet her idol, Ella Fitzgerald (yesssssss!), and became friends with another vocalist who shares her surname and home state, Dinah Washington.
Washington married reed man Julian Dash in 1948. In 1952, she and Dash returned to Birmingham and she focused on raising her children. In the 1980s, after her children were grown and Dash had passed away, Washington began singing again, becoming a regular performer at Grundy’s Music Room.
LUCY “LU” ELLIOTT (recording 1951)
During high school, Elliott was a tuba player who, at some point, and transitioned to being a vocalist and tuba player. As a teen, she won the Amateur Night at the Apollo Theater, which got the attention of someone important, because by September of 1949 she was recording with Duke Ellington. She left Ellington’s orchestra in February 1950 and turned back up singing with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra in 1951. She recorded two songs with the Hawkins Orchestra on December 6, 1951, “Lost Time” and “I Remember My Love.”
Jet Magazine was covering Elliott, noting that she was the only woman tuba player in the musicians union in 1954.
She had a contract and several recording sessions in the 1960s with ABC Paramount. In 1967, she toured with B.B. King, then spend 10 weeks in Australia performing, then recorded an album called Way Out From Down Under, living the dream and feeding a kangaroo on her album cover.
In the 1970s, Elliott continued touring and performing in clubs in New York, New Jersey, The Virgin Islands, St. Thomas, then made her way to Las Vegas to perform with Redd Foxx. She continued performing in New York and Las Vegas almost until she passed away in 1987.
Her sister, Billie Lee, was also a professional vocalist, but I was not able to locate any details online because she shares a name with a reality TV star. Womp womp.
DELLA REESE (1953)
Born Deloreese Patricia Early in Detroit, Reese started singing for her family by imitating movie stars and by the age of 6 had joined her church’s choir. When Reese was 13, Mahalia Jackson was touring with a stop in Detroit and she heard Reese sing in church. She immediately went on tour with Jackson and joined her tour for 5 consecutive summers.
In 1947 she enrolled in Wayne State University as a psychology major and sang in a gospel group called The Meditations. In 1949, at the encouragement of her pastor to pursue more professional singing gigs, Reese took a job at a bowling alley/nightclub as a host and vocalist.
In 1951, Reese was named Detroit’s favorite vocalist in a newspaper poll, which got her a week-long gig at the Flame Show Bar, where the big names in jazz performed. This started a two year period of regular gigs for Reese at the Flame. While at the Flame, she caught the attention of Lee Magid, a New York agent, who convinced her to move to New York in 1953 and found her a placement with the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra.
Unfortunately, her time with the Orchestra was short-lived and she left after less than a year to advance her solo career. Fortunately, this totally worked out for her because her first recordings were hits – “I’ve Got My Love To Keep Me Warm, ”“Time After Time” and “In The Still Of The Night,” sold 500,000 copies. In 1957, her recording of “And That Reminds Me Of You” went gold, selling millions of copies. In 1959, she signed with RCA and had her biggest hit, “Don’t You Know,” which garnered Reese a Grammy nomination.
In the 1960s she had over 300 television appearances, 100 of those just on the Ed Sullivan Show. She was the first woman to substitute-host for Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show. She appeared in night clubs in Las Vegas and all over the U.S. By the end of the decade, however, Reese felt like she needed to pivot to keep working, so she turned to acting.
Reese’s acting debut came in 1968, appearing as a disco owner on The Mod Squad. This, along with the success of her hosting The Tonight Show, led to Reese getting her own talk show in 1969 called simply Della. She was the first black woman to host her own television talk show, which ran for two seasons.
In the early 1970s she picked up touring again, hitting all the hot spot night clubs in the U.S. and toured Europe, Asia, and South America. On Sanford and Son, Redd Foxx starting referring to Reese and Lena Horne on the show as the ultimate black super stars, so of course Reese made a few cameos on the show. She guest starred in other TV shows, did a few pilots, landed a role in the show Chico and the Man in 1976, and finished out the final season of Welcome Back Kotter as a substitute teacher in 1978.
Reese went on in the same can’t-stop-won’t-stop into the 1980s and 1990s – she recorded albums, was nominated for another Grammy in 1987, became an ordained minister, appeared in the film Harlem Nights with Eddie Murphey, starred in a cabaret revue called Some of My Best Friends Are the Blues, she was the literal angel in the TV show Touched by an Angel, was nominated for another Grammy in 1999, added festivals and symphony appearances to her regular performance venues, just crushing everything always. She was the last of the Hawkins vocalists (that I was able to find) to go – she made it to 2017, ending an era.
SOURCES Erskine Hawkins Orchestra generally 12345, Billy Daniels 1234, Merle Turner 12, Ruby Hill 123, Dolores Brown 1, Ida James 12, Effie Smith 1, Ace Harris 1234, Carol Tucker 123, Ruth Christian 1, Laura Washington 123, Lu Elliott 1, Della Reese 12
As we embark on the next Heritage Sounds transcription project, it was time that I updated my web page to reflect the newest bandleader of the moment – Erskine Hawkins! A crowd funding campaign will run now through August 2, 2024 to raise funds to transcribe enough charts for a night of dancing to Hawkins’ repertoire at Lindy Focus, then make the charts available on the Heritage Sounds website, in the hopes that people now and in the future will be able to enjoy live big band performances of this music. As always, you can contribute as little or as much as you like, rewards include sponsoring and entire song as well as some sweet swag that includes a letter jacket (in honor of Hawkins’ ‘Bama State Collegians).
We’ve only just settled on a set list and continue the deep dive into this material. I plan to profile the 11 or so vocalists who recorded with Hawkins’ orchestra, so stay tuned for more information. For now, I’d like to share with you the beginnings of the Hawkins orchestra, which, like many things, begins with a community and teachers. Infinite thanks to Burgin Mathews for his dissertation on Magic City Jazz for his UNC M.A. in Folklore, all of the following is summarized/copied in parts from his research:
John T. “Fess” Whatley was the music teacher at Industrial High School in Birmingham, Alabama, beginning in 1917 as a 21-year-old printing teacher. He built a school band from scratch, with donated instruments and some purchased himself out of a portion of his salary. They would practice on weekends and before/after school and, after 5 months, played their first concert. This and subsequent concerts were such a resounding success with the Black community that, by end of 1918 school year, the school had built an outdoor bandstand to showcase the band and accommodate the needs of the community. After the school band got going, Whatley and other educators added regular “Community Sings,” almost a variety show of local musical and poetic/oratory talent. Band soon became a trade at the high school, not an extracurricular, and it was arguably a more rigorous field of study than other trades at the school, as, in addition to 1/3 of classroom time, students had before/after school and weekend rehearsals, performances, parades, assemblies, dances, and other events/obligations as part of their training. Music was a trade with a path to a middle class income, on par with teaching and ministry, and potentially a ticket to a big city.
Fess Whatley was a trumpet player with a distinct, crisp tone, musical precision, and exacting standards, so it is no surprise that his instruction gave rise to what became the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. He led Birmingham’s first jazz orchestra, the 10-piece Jazz Demons, starting in 1921. So many people wanted to be trained by Whatley that he had to turn people away. Students graduated and went all over the US and to such faraway places as the Taj Mahal Hotel in India to lead the band there. In addition to Erskine Hawkins gaining national fame, alumni include bandleaders Teddy Hill and Sun Ra.
“At Alabama State Teachers College in Montgomery, three popular jazz bands—the ’Bama State Collegians, the ’Bama State Revelers, and the ’Bama State Cavaliers—became popular touring acts during the Great Depression, raising money for their school wherever they went. During the Second World War, the directors of Army, Navy, and Air Force bands similarly looked to Birmingham for recruits. At the Tuskegee Army Air Field, Whatley musicians helped fill the ranks of the 313th Army Air Force Band and a swinging orchestra, the Imperial Wings of Rhythm.”
The school band’s uniform was, of course, a tuxedo. Allegedly, King Edward VII originated the tuxedo jacket because he requested of his Saville Row tailor something more dressy than a lounge suit, but less formal than a tailsuit. The word tuxedo comes from the Lenni-Lenape Native American tribe, who were allegedly called Tuxedo (meaning “he has a round foot” (which may be in reference to the wolf), “place of the bear” or “clear flowing water”) by their enemies the Algonquins. The Lenni-Lenape lived near a lake which they named “Tucseto,” which later became known as Tuxedo Lake, and the area where they lived was called Tuxedo. In 1885, Pierre Lorillard IV developed a piece of land his grandfather owned in Tuxedo for a summer resort for the wealthy and well-to-do, naming it Tuxedo Park. He then “organized the Tuxedo Club and the Tuxedo Park Association, as hunting and fishing preserve (and society), and surrounded the property with a high game fence. In 1886, he built a club house,” which hosted a number of formal events where the tuxedo jacket became popular, likely a function of the resort and the feeling that it was acceptable to “dress down” (as compared to donning a tailcoat every night). By the time Whatley was leading bands in tuxedos, the ensemble was ubiquitous as the epitome of class and sophistication.
Whatley prioritized sight-reading and playing multiple instruments, to ensure that a musician could jump on a bandstand without rehearsal and so that the musician could fill as many chairs as possible for maximum employment potential. If you told someone you were from Birmingham, they knew you could read and this gave Birmingham musicians an edge in hiring, often without an audition. Whatley did not allow improvisation – what this did was prioritize fundamentals. Learn the rules so you can break them.
Whatley paid his students for their arrangements, incentivizing the creation of charts to build the band’s book and to help his students develop this valuable skill. Hawkins’ band always had at least two arrangers on staff, contributing charts. Whatley’s student Amos Gordon went on to become Louis Armstrong’s arranger in the 1940s.
A noticeable impact on the Hawkins orchestra, outside of the ensemble’s tightness, was the sheer volume of “sweet” arrangements I’ve encountered in reviewing this material, perhaps created or honed from the arrangers’ high school days at Industrial. I also wonder how much of an impact Birmingham’s music taste had on Hawkins’ decision to record so many sweet tunes.
Whatley’s Jazz Demons gained a regional reputation for Birmingham, starting out playing more improvisational, New Orleans style in the 1920s; then evolved into a 14 piece band, the Vibra-Cathedral Orchestra, playing more arranged music in the 1930s; then a full big band Sax-o-Society Orchestra in the 1940s. His band was comprised of his own former and current students. They were booked out months to a year in advance and, if they weren’t available, the high school band would often take its place. Whatley’s students left with knowledge of a vast repertoire of standards, stomps, trad jazz, sweet music, blues, swing, spirituals – they played music from the entire history of jazz.
This is the foundation for Erskine Hawkins’ orchestra – a seasoned group of musicians from this Birmingham jazz tradition, professional performers since their high school years, with a reputation for excellence preceding them and the heights of the swing era to raise them into the national spotlight.
The lineup of the Hawkins orchestra remained almost intact for recordings from July 1936 through the end of 1938, with one tenor saxophone substitution and one vocalist. After that, the next substitution was guitar and another vocalist in October of 1939; guitar again in February 1940; then in June 1940, a trumpet sub, but then we’re back to the original tenor sax player, Paul Bascomb, who subbed out in 1938; then in November 1940 the original trumpet player who subbed out, Wilbur Bascomb, came back, leaving the orchestra with the same lineup for 4+ straight years with the exception of guitar and female vocalist. The orchestra was more than just a band, it was community.
In July 18, 1939, when the band recorded Tuxedo Junction for RCA Victor in New York, it was more than just a song, it was foundational to their home, their training, their music family.
We’d like to welcome Erskine Hawkins to the Lindy Focus family and invite dancers to Lindy Focus on December 30 dance to 30 or so Savoy Ballroom-vetted numbers and hear more about the history of this orchestra from our bandleader, Jonathan Stout; invite musicians and bandleaders to dive into these charts once they are created and share this music with the world; and invite all of you to drop a few dollars in the virtual collection jar, because the only way we keep making these projects a reality is through our mutual love of swing era jazz and the dances it inspired.
As we are in the midst of a fourth crowd-funding campaign to transcribe and make available the charts of Black bandleaders and their bands from the swing era, with Al Cooper and the Savoy Sultans as the band for 2023, I wanted to take a moment and highlight the importance of this work and the legal hurdles that often prevent this music from being more widely available and prevent these venerable musicians from being better known by the public. United States copyright law has catered to corporations and their lobbyists (particularly a certain dynastic purveyor of cartoon princesses, endearingly silly critters, and acquirer of a certain multiverse), extending the copyright term well beyond what is beneficial to the artist, focusing on corporate ownership, to the detriment of the public domain. We are dancers of historic American vernacular dances, some approaching an age that would be considered antique if a piece of furniture, and yet we struggle for this music to be available for live performance, competition videos on YouTube, and other media that would benefit from this music being in the public domain.
As a broad generality, for works created after January 1, 1978, copyright protection lasts for the life of the author plus 70 years. Contrast this with Article I, Section 8, Clause 8 of the United States Constitution: “[The Congress shall have Power . . . ] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.” In 1790, Congressmen interpreted this to mean 14 years with a potential 14 year renewal, for a total of 28 years. I won’t go into the details of how we went from 14 years to a life (which continues to get longer as medical science evolves) + 70 years, but the only limitation is Congress’s willingness to make the term itself as a limitation (as opposed to copyright in perpetuity), not that the time is particularly limited in its duration
At this point, almost all of the music from the swing era is controlled by corporations and very little of the money is actually going to the artist’s family. None of these artists are alive.
When we embarked on the first transcription project in 2016, to create enough charts for a night of live music and dancing to the Chick Webb Orchestra’s songbook at Lindy Focus, I knew it would be a lot of work to obtain licenses to be able to subsequently publish the sheet music for 30+ songs on the Heritage Sounds website. I did not anticipate the extent of what this meant and how difficult this particular music would be to license. Here is an overview of the steps I took to obtain these licenses:
1. Research the copyright – determine who wrote the song and whether that song is still under copyright. For works published or registered between 1923 and 1977, the maximum copyright duration is 95 years from the date of publication, if copyright was renewed during the 28th year following publication. Since it was 2016 at the time I started this research, if it was written before 1923, the assumption was that the song is in the public domain; if 1923 or after, the assumption was that it was under copyright. When 2019 rolled over, the public domain date went up to 1924 and has continued to proceed without corporate pressure for Congress to enact a new copyright extension. We are now up to works published prior to January 1, 1928 having come into the public domain. The Music Modernization Act is supposed to create a database to help with this kind of research, but since that is still only a concept at this point (that I’m aware of), I would dig through the usual websites to try to determine the creator of the work. I usually start with the Harry Fox database, then move on to ASCAP and BMI, then I do internet searches if those sources fail. Sometimes the liner notes on CDs or records will have helpful information. As of the writing of this blog post, my most recent research found that ASCAP and BMI have combined their searches, so I can use the ASCAP search for both and not have to input queries into two separate websites.
2. Locate the entity that does the music publishing licensing – this is probably the most frustrating part. Start with the databases at Hal Leonard and Alfred Music – between these two companies, it’s likely that most of what you are seeking to license is controlled by one of these two companies. If the song you are researching is not in either of these databases, you will have to track it down – no one ever posts information about who does their music publishing licensing, but there is usually information available about who controls the mechanical licensing. This means that I am web-form-submitting, emailing, and/or calling (or all three) and leaving a message asking who does the music publishing licensing. Be persistent, someone in these big conglomerates has this information, you just have to figure out who.
3. Determine the parameters of your license – keep in mind that the copyright holder takes 50% of the sales price and, in most cases, the licensee has to pay that 50% upfront for the number of copies you are seeking to obtain permission to sell. It is difficult to figure out how many copies you plan to sell, but more often the consideration is what you can afford in terms of the number of licenses. Sometimes the licenses will require an annual or bi-annual accounting, but those licenses are in the minority. Sometimes these middlemen will put a time frame on the license, to incentivize you to sell your copies within that time frame. A license for digital copies is more cost-effective than a license for paper copies. You will probably want to limit the scope of your selling, for the purposes of obtaining licenses, to the US, as international distribution is likely to cost more. The cost is determined by the market and whatever you negotiate – we wanted to keep the cost of the charts pretty low, so I researched charts on several websites and arrived at $30/chart (as compared to the Essentially Ellington charts at $50 a pop).
Her hopeful face glazed over as she was sent to yet another voicemail inbox…
4. Request a license – Hal Leonard and Alfred Music have online web forms where you submit your request. Others you will have to email with your information – tell them you want a license for X song, written by Y composer(s), to sell Z number of copies priced at $ to sell digital copies in the US. That should be enough to get the ball rolling. The important thing to note is that they don’t have to give you a license – unlike bands who record cover songs, there is no compulsory license for sheet music publishing rights. Heritage Sounds has definitely been denied publishing rights, which seems wild given that licensees are paying up-front for most of these licenses – why would copyright owners refuse cash in hand? Everyone except Hal Leonard has granted me the licenses I have sought on behalf of Heritage Sounds. Though Hal has given us some licenses, they have tended to keep everything at arm’s length, while everyone else I have encountered has been personable, helpful, and responsive to my questions as I navigated this terrain. The time frame varies – sometimes I can get a license within a few weeks; typically, it has taken Hal Leonard 6 months or longer to even respond to my initial request (even though their website lists a much shorter time frame). I still have many outstanding inquiries that have received no response, from Hal Leonard and others, over the course of the three prior transcription projects (Jimmie Lunceford, Lionel Hampton, and the aforementioned Chick Webb).
5. Review license carefully – read the agreement carefully to ensure you aren’t signing too many rights away to someone and don’t be afraid to ask questions. Most of these companies have a standard license; in some cases, I have had to draft my own. Once the license is executed, review the terms again and make notes about any actions you need to take, such has time frames for licensing or accounting, notice requirements for what information you need to put on the published sheet music, etc. Managing these licenses, their different time tables, payees, methods of payment, etc. is a meticulous, time-consuming task, one that we should all thank Jaya Dorf for managing.
6. Not every song can be found – sometimes there’s nothing. Sometimes there’s partial information, but not enough to connect you with a composer, lyricist, and/or copyright holder. Sometimes there’s conflicting information. In these instances, I advised the group to hold the owner’s 50% portion of sales for these songs in escrow, should a copyright owner surface.
Patience and organization are key – there was definitely a tracking spreadsheet updated every time I sat down to work on these licenses. Each year builds on the next, as the previously negotiated licenses expire and you may need to seek a renewal, which involves more waiting and creates more work to maintain a catalog of charts.
At this point, I have put in close to 100 hours of work on this project. If you were to pay an attorney do this work and that attorney received the same hourly rate that my employer at the time charged clients for my services, that comes out to $30,000. With Heritage Sounds recouping $15 per chart sold, that would mean having to sell more than 2,000 charts (because taxes) to pay for the legal services to keep this project running. The math does not add up for this to be anything but a labor of love.
But we do love this music and have a mission to make it more accessible for live performance. This music should be celebrated, for its exuberance, its creativity, as a historical marker, and for its contribution to the genre of jazz and other art forms. I wish that more of this licensing money would go to people of color, rather than the corporations who have the resources to either buy out these catalogs (and, in many cases, sit on them) or, as often occurred in the swing era, swindle/negotiate/steal the copyright from the artists creating these works (I’m looking at you, Irving Mills, and everyone who took advantage of Fats Waller when he needed money for alimony). My hope is, as this music slowly comes into the public domain in the next couple of decades, that the focus will remain on the contributions of Black jazz musicians, lyricists, arrangers, and bandleaders; that history will represent them as at least as significant as their white contemporaries; and that we will find more ways to ensure that our resources lift up the Black voices of the swing era.
So where do we go from here with Heritage Sounds? We’ll have to take it one year at a time, one project at a time. We started with a lot of ambition, but the amount of work and the global pandemic slowed things down a bit. Whatever happens, I’ll be along for the ride.
The last time we had a big Lindy Hop workshop in Durham was 2019 and a lot has changed in Durham since that time, in large part due to the pandemic. That said, I still love living here and there will be lots to eat within and near the downtown area where the workshops are held, so here is a non-exhaustive list of some of my favorite places to eat for those of you attending Flying Home:
COFFEE
Cocoa Cinnamon – this is the only one I’m listing because it’s the best and it’s the only one I frequent that’s open on Sunday. Like people don’t need coffee on Sunday…
BREAKFAST/LUNCH
Monuts – delicious donuts, both cake and yeast, and IMO the best sandwiches in Durham. The world is a better place with their focaccia in it.
Loaf – bakery with European and American goodies, their flatbreads are the cheapest lunch downtown. There’s no seating, but you can grab something and walk to the end of the block for a seat in a tiny park or on the swings.
Toast – Italian sandwiches, salads, soups, and accoutrements.
Rise Biscuits and Donuts – great biscuit sandwiches, donuts, and the best apple fritters. No seating here, either, but ideal when you are pressed for time – order online, grab, and go.
Mateo – tapas meets American south, with a stellar cocktail program to boot. Definitely need a reservation.
LATE NIGHT FOOD
Queeny’s – a little something for everyone, spacious and dive-y, this is where the local dancers go after our dances downtown. Open until 2 a.m.
Cosmic Cantina – a short drive away, excellent burritos, open until 4:00 a.m.
COCKTAILS
Alley Twenty-Six – James Beard nominated bar program, my favorite chef is here (my vote for best burger in Durham), and for the summer they have an entire tropical/tiki cocktail menu that is extensive and delightful. If you are eating dinner, I recommend making a reservation.
Kingfisher – across from Alley Twenty-Six, below Queeny’s, they are doing clever and botanical cocktails, along with some nibbles.
The Parlour – our incredible local shop with a mix of regular and seasonal flavors, plus gluten free and vegan options. If there’s a line, it moves quickly.
Jeni’s Splendid Ice Creams – yes, it’s a chain, but as someone who would seek out Jeni’s locations at other dance events, I need you to know that we have one here and it’s lovely.
GROCERY
Bulldega – food, toiletries, whatever you forgot. Also a good place to grab lunch, they usually have prepared foods like sandwiches and salads.
This is just a jumping off point – there are so many other delicious places in downtown Durham that I haven’t mentioned, you really can’t go wrong. So pull up Yelp, see what looks good, and go for it.
[EDITED TO ADD that, after much effort, patience, and the kindness of friends of friends, I am back on Facebook. I’m leaving this post up for posterity, as I’m sure this lack of customer service will continue.)
The Nigerian/Australian/Alabamian* scammer/hacker must have hit the jackpot when they found the Balboa community on Facebook -a close-knit group of kind individuals with years of positive interactions that built trust and mutual respect. Just the kind of people who didn’t think twice about helping a friend, who turned out to be someone fraudulently accessing their friend’s account to gain access to their account so that the cycle could continue indefinitely. Please note that I would never send you a link to a business/investment scheme and I would never ask you for $200 via Messenger, as all my financial requests are done in public and usually involve supporting a non-profit, the arts, and/or a transaction in exchange for music/swag.
It might not have been as bad if it hadn’t occurred on a Monday morning. I subsequently had a busy day at work and didn’t get back to thinking about Facebook until around 8:00 p.m. that night. By that time, the hacker had changed my email, telephone number, and password. Facebook sent me emails after these changes with links to “secure your account,” but the hacker had already changed all information that I would use to secure my account, so this was useless. I spiraled, going through the steps on the Facebook Help Center page for Hacked and Fake Accounts over and over – sometimes it would be a Sysiphian loop going nowhere and sometimes it would lead me to a step that I thought would allow me access, only to deny the access because [insert one of several error messages].
I submitted a copy of my drivers license to Facebook twice in an attempt to recover my account. I attempted to re-set my password upon prompts from this submission and both times I received an error message that I had “entered too many codes.”
I had a brief moment of hope when I was taken through a loop that allowed me to add a second email to my account to receive recovery codes. The main issue with this is that, every time I requested a code, the hacker would also receive the email and be notified of my attempts to recover my account. None of the codes Facebook sent me worked – Facebook sent me five recovery codes via email and, every time I would enter a code, an error message would tell me I had an incorrect code.
In less than 24 hours, the hacker figured out what I was doing and removed the second email from my Facebook account. I received an email asking if I had removed the email from my account and was provided the same link to “secure your account,” which, again, asked for the hacker’s password and would only send recovery links to the hacker’s phone and email.
Thanks to Frankie Hagan for this absolute gem!
Meanwhile, I received text messages every 15 minutes from friends asking if my account is hacked or letting me know that they received a strange message from me on Facebook. This continued for four days. This was incredibly stressful, being constantly reminded that a stranger was in my personal virtual space on Facebook, impersonating me and taking advantage of the trust I built with my friends and the goodwill I built with my businesses and my various positions in the swing dance community.
Other things I did to try to get Facebook’s attention and/or recover my account:
Filed a complaint with the North Carolina Attorney General’s office – I received a generic email response acknowledging the receipt of my complaint. “We’ll review your complaint and work with you and the business to try to reach a resolution of your dispute.” It’s been two weeks, nothing more has happened.
Filed a complaint with the California Attorney General’s office – no email confirmation from this, but I did print out the screen I was told to print that confirmed my submission. No word from them, either.
Ranted on Twitter @laurawindley – this has worked in the past with other businesses who have blown me off for months, but Facebook is the honey badger of customer service, even when threatened with a small claims action and me personally showing up on their doorstep in California. It also had the unwanted side-effect of attracting bots and other scammers who claimed they could recover my account for me.
Ranted on Instagram @mintjulepjazzband – I have a more supportive community on IG than Twitter, so this was more for catharsis and to let my friends know I’m still alive, but had the same unwanted scammers/hackers/bots messaging me about account recovery.
Filed a copyright infringement claim with Facebook – this was denied. Hacker stole my IP and used it to defraud my friends out of money, but whatever, I get it.
Filed a trademark infringement claim with Facebook – I felt like I had a much more compelling argument here: “A hacker who has cut off access to my business Facebook account is using my trademark and its associated goodwill to ask for money from fans of the band. I am attaching photos of message I received, indicating that people received requests for money from the hacker. Several messages are sent by an intermediary/personal acquaintance because I have no other connection to them other than my business with the associated trademark. Please see attachments for screen shots of messages. Prior to the hacker, I had been asking publicly on the band website, Facebook page, and in the Facebook event for advance tips/donations for the Mint Julep Jazz Band sponsored event, the Orchard Park Jazz Picnic, so the timing of the hacker’s requests for money while posing as me/my band could seem legitimate. I have been using Mint Julep Jazz Band as a trademark for my band since 2011. The band has released 3 studio albums, our music has been aired on Sesame Street (the Jon Hamm episode), we’ve performed at Lincoln Center, and last month the band had 22,000 listeners on Spotify. Please get this guy out of my account so I can continue to run my business.” Facebook disagreed. The only resolution they offered was to terminate the Mint Julep Jazz Band Facebook page.
A friend who was also hacked tried the two phone numbers listed online for Facebook, both of which are recordings that direct you to the Facebook Help Center.
When friends texted me about being messaged by the hacker, I asked them to report my account as hacked. Facebook subsequently directed my friends to share the Facebook Help Center page with me.
I know that most people use Facebook casually or to share photos of their kids, but I use Facebook primarily for business and both disseminating and receiving information about the swing dance community, which is tied to both my personal joy and my business. Facebook is the primary means of communication for the swing dance community. Business metrics are important – people care about how many fans/likes you have, how many people you engage with on social media, and Facebook is a critical component.
Here’s what I need to be communicating and have been denied the ability to reach the broadest audience through (unfortunately) the most effective means of communication with friends and fans:
The Empower Foundation fundraiser – “The mission of the Empower Dance Foundation is to provide access to professional dance classes for all children and youth ages 2-18. Empower seeks to eliminate the barriers of economic inequality, racism and representation for young people.” I’m excited to be serving on The Empower Foundation’s Board and help in their fundraising endeavors. This is a chance to promote beauty, creativity, diversity, and opportunity – we are not powerless, we are stronger in numbers, which is why I believe in crowd funding. If Black American dance has brought you joy in your life, consider the value of that gift. The Empower Foundation was established to provide opportunities, scholarships, and outreach for underserved youth; to eliminate economic inequality, inherent racism, lack of representation, and barriers. It takes money, time, and resources to make all of this happen and we’d love for you to be a small part of making this world a more equitable and beautiful place and pay it forward to the next generation of artists. Please consider investing in this community and visit this link to donate.
Keenan McKenzie and the Riffers album Kickstarter – we’re recording in August, campaign runs through June 15, 2023. I’m singing on this album and completely missed that this campaign had launched until someone told me today, because Facebook.
Flying Home – Durham’s Lindy Hop workshop weekend with a killer instructor and band lineup, July 21-23, 2023
Integrated Rhythm Podcast, Episode 39: I LOVE Fabric – Chisomo Selemani, Bobby White, Donna M’Shanga, and I discuss the fashion industry in Zambia and cultural issues stemming from one of my sewing projects. I love love loved this discussion and hope you will, too!
Six Count Podcast – we are so incredibly lucky to have a podcast focusing on the jazz community here in Durham, hosted by Xara Wilde, and I am lucky to be her very first live podcast interview, recorded at a house party surrounded by dancing and music friends.
US Modernist Radio, Episode 301 – this is my second appearance on this architecture podcast and I was delighted to be invited back to talk about music.
There’s more I can’t even tell you yet, but if a tree falls in the forest, no one will know because Facebook won’t give me back my account from the hacker.
This is mostly for catharsis, just me screaming into the void.
My day job is at a company that has a huge customer service component, the calls are non-stop and we are just a North Carolina-based business. I don’t understand how a company as large as Facebook, who profits from our data and who is the custodian of so much of our time, energy, memories, and even our own business’s customer service can get by without any customer service at all.
In the meantime, I’ll just sit over here on my own virtual Elba and wait.
*Reported login locations; time zone consistent with Nigeria.
We were pleasantly surprised to find our vinyl records were delivered this week, as we weren’t expecting them until May. You can pick up a copy on our Bandcamp page or message us in advance if you’d like to purchase an LP at one of our shows. Thanks again to our Kickstarter backers who made this dream a reality!
It’s finally here! After much pandemic and the regular trials and tribulations of creating a studio album, the Mint Julep Jazz Band’s 3rd album Watch the Birdie takes flight today, Halloween 2022. We hope you enjoy it as much as we enjoyed making it. Available wherever you get your digital music – if you’d like for the most money to go to the band, we encourage you to pick up a copy on our Bandcamp page.
I had a few gigs on the calendar in the fall of 2021 that quickly evaporated once the COVID Delta variant hit. One of these was a Saturday gig with Keenan McKenzie and the Riffers, which left us without a gig and with a wide-open Saturday. Keenan decided to make lemonade with those lemons and set up a recording session for us at Butler Knowles’ studio, Worry Less Music, in Raleigh. We recorded three of Keenan’s arrangements and I’m singing on “When My Sugar Walks Down the Street” and “I’ll See You in My Dreams.”
The three recordings are available for purchase on Keenan’s Bandcamp page and you can watch the live footage on YouTube.
TL/DR: The Mint Julep Jazz Band is recording our third album, Watch the Birdie, and the Kickstarter launched today for pre-orders and swag!
Our incredible album artwork for Watch the Birdie by Durham-based artist Darius Quayle’s
When I was young, I wondered why each subsequent band album seemed to have more and more years between albums, but now I understand. When a band does well, they are busy, then the members are busy contributing to other endeavors, and then people need a break after being so busy, so the thought of a new album is definitely lower on the priority list, particularly when other work is steady.
In 2020, we decided that 5 years was enough time gone by since the release of Battle Axe and that we should record another album. You know how the rest of this story goes with the global COVID-19 pandemic essentially putting a halt to life as we knew it.
We scheduled this recording a couple of times during the pandemic and had to keep pushing it back, but we believe it’s for real this time, so we are launching a Kickstarter today for album pre-orders and swag. I know some of you have told me that you need a new tee shirt, so we got you! I’m also excited to add enamel pins, Burt’s Bees, a sponsorship option, and some quality time noshing with yours truly as rewards, in addition to some of our recurring rewards.
What will this album be? It’s a dance album, of course, but it’s also the culmination of efforts aggregated just prior to the pandemic that still feel new to us, plus some new-to-us arrangements created during the pandemic, and some old favorites that should be put on tape. The project feels fresh to us, so we hope you enjoy it as we slowly re-open our jazz dance and music community.
It’s also a celebration of our 10th anniversary as a band! Our first gig was in February of 2012 at the (now defunct) Hot Club of Durham weekly swing dance in the Trotter Building in Durham’s DIY district. I look at videos of that night and think about how far we’ve come, but also how we did a respectable job for a very first gig. It’s been a wild ride and we thank you for all the wonderful musical experiences we’ve shared since then.
Visit our Kickstarter page for more information about the tracks on the album, swag, and how to get your copy/copies of our recordings – we’re offering digital, CD, and vinyl this time!
Laura Windley 