A conversation with Farah Jasmine Griffin, Robert G. O’Meally, Loren Schoenberg, and Judith Tick
Thursday, March 23, 2017 6:30 p.m. Apollo Theater
Static Image: Ella Fitzgerald, Duke Ellington and Benny Goodman/Late 1940s/Photo Credit William Gottlieb
Front Cover: Portrait of Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt (Milton) Jackson, and Timmie Rosenkrantz, Downbeat, New York, N.Y., ca. Sept. 1947. William P. Gottlieb/Ira and Leonore S. Gershwin Fund Collection, Music Division, Library of Congress.
LIVE WIRE: ELLA! A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION On Wednesday, November 21, 1934 a nervous teenager entered the Apollo’s legendary Amateur Night competition. Though she initially planned to dance, she changed her mind when she encountered her competition, the semi-professional Edwards Sisters. The young woman decided to showcase her singing instead. Somewhat awkward and shy, dressed in oversized clothing and ill-fitting shoes, the gifted young songstress nonetheless emerged the victor. The Apollo’s audience, notorious for their high standards, responded enthusiastically to her renditions of the popular tune “Judy,” and named the young Ella Fitzgerald the night’s winner. Ella never received the weeklong engagement promised to winners of Amateur night, but it was only a matter of time before she became a featured vocalist with the Chick Webb Orchestra. She was blessed with relative pitch, impeccable diction, an infectious sense of timing, and an unrelenting work ethic. That young woman would become one of the greatest artists to emerge from the Apollo: Ella Fitzgerald is virtually unmatched in popularity, critical acclaim and artistic influence. For over five decades, Ella, whose centenary we celebrate this year, became a standard bearer of American Popular singing. From her breakout hit with the Webb Orchestra, “A Tisket, A Tasket” (1938), through what her biographer Stuart Nicholson calls a “tour de force” of be-bop singing, “Flying Home” (1944), to her groundbreaking recordings of the American Songbook (1956-59), Ella reigned as one of the Queens of Jazz and Popular Music. Throughout it all she weathered the challenges of being a woman in a man’s musical world of jazz, a black woman in a racially segregated society, and an artist in a constantly changing musical landscape. Just as she did that November night in Harlem, she overcame these challenges and sustained a long lasting and highly accomplished career as an artist and public figure. In spite of the open innocence and accessibility of her singing style, in many ways, Ella Fitzgerald is the mystery woman of American Song. Intensely private, even secretive about her early years, Ella did not share her personal history with audiences eager to “know” those who entertain them. The apparent simplicity of her style belies her studied approach to her craft and her musical genius. Tonight’s program of conversation and song not only celebrates the singer we love, but also offers insight into the lesser-known parts of her life, her work and her legacy. Farah Jasmine Griffin March 2017
LIVE WIRE: ELLA! A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION - BIOS Farah Jasmine Griffin is the William B. Ransford Professor of English and Comparative Literature, Jazz Studies, and African American Studies at Columbia University. Professor Griffin received her B.A. from Harvard, where she majored in American History and Literature and her Ph.D. in American Studies from Yale. Her major fields of interest are American and African American literature, music, and history. She has published widely on issues of race and gender, feminism and cultural politics. Griffin is the author of Who Set You Flowin?: The African American Migration Narrative (Oxford, 1995), If You Can’t Be Free, Be a Mystery: In Search of Billie Holiday (Free Press, 2001) and co-author, with Salim Washington, of Clawing at the Limits of Cool: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, and the Greatest Jazz Collaboration Ever (Thomas Dunne, 2008). She is also the editor of Beloved Sisters and Loving Friends: Letters from Addie Brown and Rebecca Primus (Knopf, 1999) co-editor, with Cheryl Fish, of Stranger in the Village: Two Centuries of African American Travel Writing (Beacon, 1998) and coeditor with Brent Edwards and Robert O'Meally of Uptown Conversations: The New Jazz Studies (Columbia University Press, 2004). Her most recent book, Harlem Nocturne: Women Artists and Progressive Politics During World War II, was published by Basic Books in 2013. Professor Griffin has collaborated with composer, pianist, Geri Allen and director, actor S. Epatha Merkenson on two theatrical projects, for which she wrote scripts. The first, “Geri Allen and Friends Celebrate the Great Jazz Women of the Apollo,” premiered at the Apollo Theater in May of 2013. The second, “A Conversation with Mary Lou,” premiered at Harlem Stage in March 2014. It was performed at The John F. Kennedy Center in May of 2016. Professor Griffin's essays and articles have appeared in The New York Times, The Guardian, Harper's BAZAAR, Art Forum and numerous other publications. She is also a frequent radio commentator on political and cultural issues. Robert G. O’Meally is a Zora Neale Hurston Professor at Columbia University, and director of Columbia’s Center for Jazz Studies. His books include Lady Day: The Many Faces of Billie Holiday, The Craft of Ralph Ellison, and Romare Bearden: A Black Odyssey. He has edited or co-edited many volumes, including The Jazz Cadence of American Culture, History and Memory in African American Culture, and The Norton Anthology of African American Literature. Several of his music projects have won awards; his co-produced Smithsonian box set, The Jazz Singers, was nominated for a Grammy. In recent years, O’Meally has served as co-curator for art at Jazz at
LIVE WIRE: ELLA! A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION - BIOS Lincoln Center, and has curated many other exhibitions, including one that traveled for the Smithsonian Institution and others presented in New York, Paris, and Istanbul. His articles have appeared in the New York Times, the Atlantic Monthly, and many other places, including Les Cahiers du Musée National D’Art Moderne. His new edited volume is The Romare Bearden Reader, forthcoming on Duke University Press. O’Meally is an amateur saxophonist whose sons say Dad plays “for his own amazement!” Loren Schoenberg is Founding Director and Senior Scholar of The National Jazz Museum in Harlem. He is currently on the faculty at The Juilliard School and The Hartt School. Mr. Schoenberg has also taught at The New School, the Manhattan School of Music, William Paterson University, Long Island University, and The Hartt School. In addition, he has lectured at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The White House, The New York Philharmonic, and The Aspen Institute, where he is a Fellow. Mr. Schoenberg has conducted the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra (JLCO) as well as The Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra, The American Jazz Orchestra and the West Deutscher Rundfunk Jazz Orchestra in Kohn, Germany. Mr. Schoenberg, a tenor saxophonist/pianist, has played and recorded with Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Heath, John Lewis, Christian McBride, Buck Clayton, the JLCO, and was musical director for Bobby Short from 1997-2005. He also received two Grammy awards, for best album notes in 1994 and 2004. Mr. Schoenberg oversaw the Benny Goodman Archives at Yale University, where he produced a ten-CD release of previously unissued Goodman recordings. He has taught for several Jazz at Lincoln Center education programs, including Band Director Academy and Jazz 101 adult education classes, and annually serves as a screening judge for Essentially Ellington tape entries. Mr. Schoenberg has been published widely (including the New York Times), and his book, The NPR Guide to Jazz, was released in 2003.
Judith Tick is a Matthews Distinguished Professor Emerita from Northeastern University in Boston. She is writing a biography of Ella Fitzgerald for W. W. Norton, Inc. Elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences as an “innovator in the field of music biography,” she received a NEH Fellowship for Ella Fitzgerald biography in 2013. She was named an Honorary Member by the American Musicological Society in 2010. In addition to awarding her with a Lifetime Achievement Award, the Society for American
LIVE WIRE: ELLA! A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION - BIOS Music established a fellowship in her name for her scholarship in American music and Women’s History. Tick summarizes her intellectual priorities as the study of music as biography, the study of American musical life as cultural practice, and the study of gender as a historical variable. Prior publications include: Women Making Music; The Western Art Tradition 1150-1950 (1987); “Charles Ives and Gender Ideology” in Ruth Solie, ed. Musicology and Difference (University of California Press, 1995); Ruth Crawford Seeger. A Composer’s Search for American Music (1997); Aaron Copland’s America. A Cultural Perspective (coedited with Gail Levin) (2000); “The Generation of 1938, program essay for the Tanglewood Music Center (on line through New Music Box. The Online Journal of the American Music Center. 2007); and Music in the USA. A Documentary Companion (2008), which includes an excerpt by Oscar Peterson describing just how intimidating Fitzgerald was as a competitive improviser. Andrea Frierson (performer/writer), a two-time Helen Hayes Award nominee, has performed leading roles in numerous Broadway productions, including The Lion King (Rafiki); Once on This Island (Erzulie, Goddess of Love, original cast); Marie Christine at Lincoln Center Theater (Prisoner #2); George Wolfe's Bring in ‘Da Noise/Funk (‘Da Singer); Julie Taymor’s Juan Darien: A Carnival Mass (The Mother) at Lincoln Center Theater and at the Edinburgh Festival in Scotland; For Colored Girls... (original Broadway production), and A Christmas Carol at Madison Square Garden (Young Scrooge’s Mother, original cast). Regional Theatre roles include: Aretha Franklin/Tina Turner in Beehive! (Arena Stage, Washington, DC), and Lisa in A New Brain (Studio Theatre, Washington, DC). Off-Broadway, Andrea performed the role of Grace in the solo theatre piece by the same name, written by Kirsten Childs and Charlayne Woodard as part of the annual Inner Voices series. For three seasons, she played the role of Ms. Melody on the Nickelodeon TV series, Allegra’s Window. Television audiences may also remember Andrea from the 1980's TV vocal competition, Star Search (5-time winner and semifinalist). Most recent television appearances include an episodes of Elementary (CBS), and Red Oaks (Amazon Original series). Andrea is a former Dramatists Guild Fellow, a NYSCA grant recipient, and a Library of Congress Awardwinner (American Folklife). Her first musical play, Lady Be Good, was presented in a five-day workshop at Lincoln Center Theater. Later, her musical Soon of a Mornin’ was an invited show in the NYMF Festival and ran at the Lion's Theatre on Theatre Row. She is currently working on her new CD, You Are There, as well as an illustrated memoir. www.andreafrierson.com www.meandella.com
LIVE WIRE: ELLA! A CENTENNIAL CELEBRATION - BIOS Ron Abel (musical director/piano/orchestrator) is a multi-award winning composer, producer and musical director who is pleased to have worked with everyone from opera diva Jessye Norman to pop diva Taylor Dayne. He has created nightclub and concert acts for many Broadway stars including Lucie Arnaz, Michele Lee, Shirley Jones, and Valarie Pettiford. Ron has also be seen on the Fran Drescher TVLand series Happily Divorced playing himself! He has written the musical scores for the award winning Twist of Fate and Rockwell and is currently developing the musicals Hazel-Maid in America; Bricktop and Re-introducing Laurette Bishop.
Rex Benincasa (percussion) Freelancing drummer/world music percussionist in NYC since 1978. Hundreds of television/radio commercial recordings. Performed with: New Music Consort, Apollo's Fire, Ensemble Caprice, Alba Consort, Zig Zag Quartet, Flamenco Latino, Carlota Santana Spanish Dance, Zorongo Flamenco Dance, Pilar Rioja, Grammy Orchestra, Amanecer Flamenco Progressivo, Merce Cunningham. Recordings: Marty Balin, Karen Mason, Andrea Marcovicci, Craig Rubano, Shelly Markham, Jamie DeRoy, Foday Musa Suso, Philip Glass, NFL Films. Lots of Broadway. Rex likes all kinds of music. Hilliard Greene (bass) has been performing internationally for more than 30 years. Greene studied at the University of Northern Iowa and Berklee College of Music. He has performed/recorded/ toured with Jimmy Scott, serving as his bassist/Musical Director and with Cecil Taylor as his Concert Master for his group “Phtongos”. He is a faculty member at the Collective in New York City. WetRock Entertainment/Murphy Cross & Paul Kreppel (producers/ directors) are proud Tony Award winners for co-creating/directing and producing Jay Johnson: The Two and Only! Murphy and Paul first joined forces with Both Barrels: A Salvo of John Forster Songs, in Los Angeles, The Goodspeed Opera House and Off-Broadway as A Good Swift Kick. They produced and directed the West Coast touring production of “Hello Muddah, Hello Fadduh!” the Allan Sherman musical and produced the critically acclaimed, award winning Los Angeles and off-Broadway productions of The Big Voice: God or Merman? and with longtime collaborator, Ron Abel, created Six Degrees of Marvin Hamlisch benefitting The Actors Fund. Paul & Murphy have participated in a plethora of TV, film and stage “roles” as veteran performers, choreographers and directors. WetRock Entertainment is dedicated to creating innovative theatrical experiences that inspire and uplift. We hope you thoroughly enjoy the beautiful Andrea Frierson and these songs from “me & ella”. www.wetrockentertainment.com
ABOUT THE APOLLO THEATER The Apollo is a national treasure that has had significant impact on the development of American culture and its popularity around the world. Since introducing the first Amateur Night contests in 1934, the Apollo Theater has played a major role in cultivating artists and in the emergence of innovative musical genres including jazz, swing, bebop, R&B, gospel, blues, soul, and hiphop. Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Billie Holiday, Sammy Davis, Jr., James Brown, Michael Jackson, Bill Cosby, Gladys Knight, Luther Vandross, D’Angelo, Lauryn Hill, and countless others began their road to stardom on the Apollo’s stage. Based on its cultural significance and architecture, the Apollo Theater received state and city landmark designation in 1983 and is listed on the National Register of Historic Places. www.apollotheater.org
APOLLO EDUCATION PROGRAM The Apollo Theater Education Program extends the Apollo’s commitment to enhancing the life of the community. The Education Program focuses on four distinct areas of learning and engagement: residencies, workshops and tours for schools; curriculum materials aligned to state and national learning standards and study guides derived from the Theater’s history; career development for teens and adults through the Apollo Theater Academy; and discussions and lectures for the public that highlight the history of the Apollo and its impact on American art, culture and entertainment.
LIVE WIRE Produced by the Apollo Theater Education Program, Apollo Live Wire is a discussion series that focuses on the arts, culture, entertainment and other topics pertinent to the legacy of the Apollo Theater. @ApolloEd
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Generous support from Apollo EmpowerHer, Conscious Kids Inc., Con Edison, Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, Insperity, The Reginald F. Lewis Foundation, Ellis L. Phillips Foundation, Pinkerton Foundation, and public funds from the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.