Arts and Culture

Book Review: “The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture & Style”

Published

10 years ago

May 5, 2014

By Terri Schlichenmeyer, The Bookworm Sez, LLC

They should have called you Super-Fly.

Yep, that’s what you were, dancing in front of your TV every Saturday, spinning on the carpet and waving your arms around until you got yelled at for “gonna break something.”

But you were the flyest of fly. The only thing you were going to bust was a move, just like on Soul Train. And in “The Hippest Trip in America ” by Nelson George, you’ll read about the iconic TV program that you never, ever missed.

Everyone knew that Don Cornelius had “ambition”: he was a car salesman, policeman, and insurance agent before his “foghorn voice” led him to radio in 1966.

He made the transition to TV two years later, and he soon realized there was a need for a “black” TV show. He presented the idea, then found major corporate sponsorship, and on October 2, 1971, Soul Train appeared locally in Chicago.

The show was “’overnight hot’” but Cornelius knew there was more to this idea. With another sponsor on-board for a nation-wide launch, Cornelius pitched the show to the networks, but they turned it down. He decided to syndicate Soul Train and moved the show to Los Angeles.

Though the music was always the focus of Soul Train, Cornelius knew that the dancers (in particular, those in the Soul Train line) were what brought viewers back.

In L.A., scouts kept their eyes open for promising teens who could dance, often mining prospects from three main area clubs.

Dancers performed for free and were fed chicken dinners, but the real appeal of being a Soul Train dancer was fame and the opportunity for a career in show biz. It seemed as though every regular viewer wanted to be a Soul Train regular, too.

But as much as Cornelius controlled his show (and, to a certain extent, his dancers), he couldn’t control what happened, culturally. Early-90s fashions confounded him, music videos concerned him, and gangsta rap made him uncomfortable.

And so, though the show would continue for another 13 years, Cornelius announced in 1993 that he’d step down as Soul Train host – a move that arguably meant “the show was over.”

From its first pages and throughout, the word “joy” crops up often in “The Hippest Trip in America,” and for good reason: it was everywhere in the show and even more in this book.

I took great joy, in fact, in seeing how author Nelson George sent me to the Internet. His descriptions of what happened through the years on Soul Train made me want to see, too, and there are plenty of clips online.

I also liked the interviews with former dancers and the cultural frame-of-reference included here, and the history of the show – along with little-known tidbits – made this a great (and surprisingly fast-paced) read filled with reminiscing, “love, peace, and soul.”

Get out your bell-bottoms and your best dancin’ shoes, have a good Internet connection, and get ready

For you, “The Hippest Trip in America” is a book you’ll want to bust out and find.

“The Hippest Trip in America: Soul Train and the Evolution of Culture & Style” by Nelson George, c.2014, William Morrow, $27.99, 256 pages.

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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

2 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.”

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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.

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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.”