Black History

Book Review: ‘The Jazzmen: How Duke Ellington, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie Transformed America’

Your toes didn’t wait long before they started tapping. They knew what was coming, almost as soon as the band was seated. They knew before the first notes were played and the hep cats and jazz babies hit the floor to cut a rug. Daddy, it was the bee’s knees but in the new book “The Jazzmen” by Larry Tye, if you were the Sheik on the stage, makin’ cabbage wasn’t all that swank.

Published

4 months ago

May 17, 2024

Oakland Post

Courtesy of Lisa Frusztajer

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Your toes didn’t wait long before they started tapping.

They knew what was coming, almost as soon as the band was seated. They knew before the first notes were played and the hep cats and jazz babies hit the floor to cut a rug. Daddy, it was the bee’s knees but in the new book “The Jazzmen” by Larry Tye, if you were the Sheik on the stage, makin’ cabbage wasn’t all that swank.

Louis Armstrong was born in 1900 or thereabouts in a “four-room frame house on an unpaved lane” in a section of New Orleans called “Back o’Town … the Blackest, swampiest, and most impoverished” area of the city. His mother was a “chippie,” and the boy grew up running barefoot and wild, the latter of which led to trouble. At age twelve, Armstrong was sent to the Colored Waif’s Home for recalcitrant Black boys, and that changed his life. At the “home,” he found mentors, father-figures and love, and he discovered music.

For years, Bill “Count” Basie insisted that he’d grown up with “no-drama, no-mystery, and nobody’s business but his,” but the truth was “sanitized.” He hated school and dropped out in junior high, hoping to join the circus. Instead, he landed a job working in a “moving-picture theater” as a general worker. When the theater’s piano player didn’t come to work one day, Basie volunteered to sit in. He ultimately realized that “I had to get out … of Red Bank [New Jersey], and music was my ticket.”

Even as a young teenager, Edward Ellington insisted that he be treated like a superstar. By then, his friends had nicknamed him “Duke,” for his insistence on dressing elegantly and acting like he was royalty. And he surely was — to his mother, and to millions of swooning female fans later in his life.

Three men, born at roughly the same time, had more in common than their ages. Two of them had mothers “who doted” on them. All three were perform-aholics. And, for all three, “Race … fell away as America listened.”

Feel up to a time-trip back a century or more? You won’t even have to leave your seat, just grab “The Jazzmen” and hang on.

In his introduction, author Larry Tye explains why he so badly wanted to tell the story of these three giants of music and how Basie’s, Ellington’s, and Armstrong’s lives intersected and diverged as all three were near-simultaneously performing for audiences world-wide. Their stories fascinated him, and his excitement runs strong in this book. Among other allures, readers used to today’s star-powered gossip will enjoy learning about an almost-forgotten time when performers took the country by storm by bootstrapping without a retinue of dozens.

And the racism the three performers encountered disappeared like magic sometimes, and that’s a good tale all by itself.

This is a musician’s dream book, but it’s also a must-read story if you’ve never heard of Basie, Ellington, or Armstrong. “The Jazzmen” may send you searching your music library, so make note.

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Oakland Post: Week of September 4 – 10, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of September 4 – 10, 2024

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3 days ago

September 6, 2024

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Oakland Post: Week of August 28 – September 4, 2024

The printed Weekly Edition of the Oakland Post: Week of August 28 – September 4, 2024

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1 week ago

August 30, 2024

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Black History

The Value of the Black Vote

It’s time to take control of our own narrative: When they say ‘January 6’ we say “yeah, but how about Jan. 7?’ JUNETEENTH – JAN. 7. In the vast chronicle of American history, two dates in particular have come to symbolize the nation’s ongoing journey towards making its founding ideal of democracy a reality for all its citizens – Juneteenth and January 7th.

Published

2 weeks ago

August 28, 2024

Oakland Post

In May, President Joe Biden bestowed the Presidential Medal of Freedom on Congressman James Clyburn. Photo courtesy of Congressman James Clyburn.

By J. Barry Washington

Special to The Post

It’s time to take control of our own narrative: When they say ‘January 6^’ we say “yeah, but how about Jan. 7?’

JUNETEENTH – JAN. 7

In the vast chronicle of American history, two dates in particular have come to symbolize the nation’s ongoing journey towards making its founding ideal of democracy a reality for all its citizens – Juneteenth and January 7th.

Juneteenth, observed annually on June 19, commemorates June 19, 1865 – the day the last enslaved African Americans in Galveston, Texas, finally learned they had been freed by the Emancipation Proclamation over two years earlier.

While the Emancipation Proclamation had officially abolished slavery in 1863, it could not be enforced in places still under Confederate control until Union troops arrived to enforce the order. Juneteenth thus marks the definitive end of slavery in the United States – a pivotal milestone in the struggle to realize America’s professed commitment to liberty and equality.

For more than a century-and-a-half since, Juneteenth has been celebrated by African American communities as a hard-won affirmation of their long-denied rights and humanity.

In 2021, it was also enshrined as a federal holiday with the passage of the Juneteenth National Independence Day Act. This official recognition underscored Juneteenth’s status as a commemoration not just of the end of slavery, but of Black Americans’ perseverance in the face of bondage and injustice to continually hold America to its founding promise of freedom for all.

At the other end of the historical spectrum lies the events of Jan. 6, 2021, when a mob of rioters violently stormed the U.S. Capitol building in an attempt to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election.

Spurred by the false claims of widespread voter fraud propagated by former President Donald Trump and his allies, the insurrectionists sought to prevent the congressional certification of President-elect Joe Biden’s victory through force and intimidation.

The value of the Black vote during the Jan. 7, 2021, certification of the presidential election cannot be overstated. The unprecedented turnout of Black voters, particularly in key swing states, played a pivotal role in determining the outcome of the election.

Despite facing numerous obstacles, including voter suppression efforts and the disproportionate impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, Black voters turned out in record numbers, exercising their fundamental right to have their voices heard.

The unwavering commitment of Black voters to uphold the principles of democracy served as a bulwark against these nefarious efforts, ensuring that the will of the people was respected, and the peaceful transfer of power could proceed.

The Black vote’s impact extended beyond the immediate electoral outcome, as it also served as a powerful reminder of the ongoing struggle for equal rights and representation in the United States.

The resilience and determination displayed by Black voters in the face of adversity resonated across the nation, inspiring others to defend the sanctity of the democratic process and uphold the values upon which the country was founded.

Juneteenth marked the official beginning of the still ongoing struggle for former slaves of color to realize the full benefits and responsibilities of citizenship in this country.

We have again fulfilled our responsibilities by being the difference on Jan. 7, 2021, by nullifying the efforts of the January 6 mob. Now it’s time for the descendants of those former slaves of color to realize maximum benefits of that citizenship.