Arts and Culture

Bay Area African American Women in Music: Blues “Gave Me the Experience to Stand Fast for the Master,” said Lillian Glenn

Published

9 years ago

July 14, 2015

“I’ve got the meanest feelin’ I ever had. The man I got treated me so bad…I’m gettin’ mighty tired the way my daddy’s doggin’ me,” Lillian Glenn wailed in a robust contralto on “Doggin’ Me Blues” during her first session for Columbia Records in Dallas in 1927.

The 78 RPM record sold so well that the company recorded 10 more over the next two years, helping to establish the Kaufman, Texas-born singer as a star on the African American vaudeville circuit.

Yet, Glenn began having qualms about the type of tunes she was singing, some of them laced with sexual innuendo.

One Sunday evening in April 1929 at the 81 Theater in Atlanta, as the star of a traveling show, she had second thoughts while making her entrance as the orchestra played “Doggin’ Me Blues.”

“I walked out on the stage that night, but my mind wasn’t there,” she told this writer in 1979 while sitting in the living room of her North Oakland home. “I was working, making good money, but I didn’t like what I saw. I knew I couldn’t serve God and be where I was.”

Glenn recalled seeing men in her audiences get into a fight over one man seeing the other’s wife, or trying to. “I’d be singing and see all this going on. I’d say, ‘My God, I got to leave here. I don’t belong in this mess,’” she said.

She recalled standing on the 81 Theater stage silently for a few moments, missing her cue. She then kicked off her glittering rhinestone shoes and began tearing up the black velvet cape that she wore over her rhinestone-dotted blue chiffon dress.

“I got to the steps and walked down,” she continued. “The people were grabbing me by the arm, but I kept running till I got out the front door ‘cause God had spoken to me. He told me to get out of this place and go back home to my mama.”

After returning to Dallas, Glenn worked in a hotel and sang in churches during the Depression. During World War II, she moved to Oakland where she married Rev. H.R. Smith of Temple of Truth Baptist Church in West Oakland.

Glenn could be heard singing on remote broadcasts from the church on KWBR (later known as KDIA) for over a decade and on KEST twice a week as late as 1979.

Glenn, whose dates of birth and death are unknown, said she did not regret having once sung the blues for a living.

“I’m so glad I came through there,” she said. “It gave me the experience to stand fast for the Master. Can’t nothin’ shake me now.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Related Topics:Blues Lee Hildebrand Lillian Glenn

Up Next

“Yes We Code,” Hidden Geniuses’ Say

Don't Miss

Bay Area African American Women in Music: Long Live Zydeco Accordion Queen Ida

Oakland Post

Click to comment

Arts and Culture

Faces Around the Bay Dr. Carl Blake, Pianist

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999. One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Published

3 days ago

April 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Dr. Carl Blake

By Barbara Fluhrer

Born in Liberty, Missouri, Carl Blake, a virtuoso and respected pianist, made his most recent migration to the East Bay in 1999.

One might have seen him performing recently at Noontime Concerts in San Francisco, or at the Piedmont Center for the Arts in Oakland. He is Director of Music at The Church for the Fellowship of All Peoples in San Francisco. He was also co-organizer and collaborative pianist at Herbst Theater for The Majesty of the Spirituals concert in 2022 and has held several church positions in the Bay Area.

Blake obtained a Bachelor of Music from Boston University and continued post-baccalaureate studies in Jamaica before earning a Master of Arts in Music at San Jose State University. He was the recipient of two Fulbright residencies in Honduras and completed a third residency at the University of St. Petersburg in Russia. He has a Doctor of Musical Arts from Cornell University.

At age 19, Blake, then an undergraduate piano major at Boston University, was “discovered” by Impresario Dr. W. Hazaiah Williams, who is the Founder and Director of Today’s Artists/Four Seasons Arts.

Williams honored Blake by awarding him the first Marian Anderson Young Artist Award. Anderson personally presented the award at the Masonic Auditorium in S.F. Subsequently, Blake was presented by Dr. Williams in his San Francisco debut at The Herbst Theatre. Williams subsidized a year of study abroad for Blake at the Paris Conservatory of Music. Additionally, Williams sponsored Blake’s New York Weill Hall debut, where he has performed twice since. Blake performed several times at the Yachats Music Festival in Oregon.

Blake continues to perform nationally and abroad. His hobbies are reading, baking and travel. He says, “I’m still pumping ivories, as Belgian pianist Jeanne Stark described the disciplined practice of concert piano.”

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Arts and Culture

Oakland Jazz Great Offers Master Class as City Declares “John Handy Day”

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city. Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

(L-R) Del Handy, John Handy, Roger Glenn, and Joe Warner celebrate John Handy Day at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle, Oakland. Photo by Lady Bianca.

By Conway Jones

World-renowned jazz master saxophonist John Handy, a McClymond’s High School graduate, was presented with a Mayor of Oakland Proclamation declaring Feb. 12, as John Handy Day in the city.

Handy is most notably known as the featured saxophonist for Charles Mingus on “Goodbye Pork Pie Hat” from the album “Mingus Ah Um” (1959) and on “Hard Work” from his own album “Hard Work” (1976).

“John Handy is a jazz icon and an inspiration to musicians everywhere,” said Ayo Brame, a 16-year-old Oakland tenor saxophone player who is enrolled at the Oakland School for the Arts.

In celebration of this day, the reception in downtown Oakland at Geoffrey’s Inner Circle was a gathering of artists, young and old, coming together in his honor and celebrating his 91st birthday.

Handy presented a Saxophone Colossus free masterclass for musicians. This class afforded a rare opportunity to learn about the saxophone from an aficionado. The class was free and open to all – saxophonists, vocalists, aficionados, students, and casual listeners.

“As a longtime friend for over 60 years, and fellow musician who has had numerous opportunities to share the stage with John, it has always been a pleasure performing with him and hearing his creative interpretations of the music and his gift of ease inspiring the next generation of jazz musicians,” said Roger Glenn, a multi-instrumentalist.

Oakland Post

Posts by Oakland Post

Arts and Culture

Musical Chronicling Life of Betty Reid Soskin Set for Bay Area Debut

Betty Reid Soskin’s storied 102 years includes time spent as a WWII defense worker, activist, business owner, songwriter, National Park Service park ranger and so much more. Now the Richmond icon is the subject of a musical based on her incredible life.

Published

2 months ago

February 24, 2024

Oakland Post

Betty Reid Soskin. Photo courtesy of Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historical Park in Richmond.

The Richmond Standard

“Sign My Name to Freedom,” a San Francisco Bay Area Theatre Company (SFBATCO) production which will focus on the life, music and writing of Ms. Soskin, will premiere at San Francisco’s Z Space Friday, March 29 and continue through Saturday, April 13. Tickets range from $15–$65 and can be purchased online at https://www.sfbatco.org/smntf

The musical is directed by Elizabeth Carter, while playwright Michael Gene Sullivan integrates Ms. Soskin’s own music throughout dialogue between what SFBATCO calls “The Four Bettys” as they progress through a century of experiences of this awe-inspiring American woman.

The cast of “Sign My Name to Freedom” features Tierra Allen as Little Betty, Aidaa Peerzada as Married Betty, Lucca Troutman as Revolutionary Betty and Cathleen Riddley as Present Betty Reid Soskin, according to Artistic Director Rodney Earl Jackson Jr. and Managing Director Adam Maggio. Other casting will be announced in the future.

Jackson said that having Soskin’s blessing to steward her life’s story is an honor and career highlight for him and that her journey stands as “a beacon for Black Americans, women and people of color all across the world [and] is a testament to the strength of the human spirit.”

San Francisco’s Z Space is located at 450 Florida St. in San Francisco. Check out the trailer here at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B-ap9N2XBB0