In the Classroom

Continued from page 23

years, partly to focus on her own wellness. In 2020, under her company Revive Music, she embarked on yet another important mission; she described it by stating, “We now look to focus on another extremely important and vital part of advocacy and that is the health and wellbeing of each member and musician in our community.” During that year’s Winter Jazzfest, along with its founder Brice Rosenbloom, she coordinated a benefit show entitled ‘Revive Yo Feelings’ to benefit Jazz Foundation of America and MusiCares, that featured Robert Glasper. The initiative was organized to address the music industry’s surrounding issues of mental health, addiction and recovery (just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic).

“Meghan possessed a rare combination of intuitive wit, coupled with when to time a strike to present her artistic vision for success, and she miraculously accomplished it tenaciously!” said trumpeter and friend Charles Tolliver.

Stabile collaborated with trumpeter and composer Igmar Tomas to form The Revive Big Band which he leads and is now in the process of completing its debut album. For approximately 13 years Revive Music Group promoted and produced live shows while maintaining an online publication, The Revivalist, in association with Okayplayer.

“There is a lack of exposure to live jazz for the younger generation. A lot of young musicians were influenced by hip hop music and many hip hop artists sampled jazz music,” said Stabile during an interview with this writer in 2009. “We’ve become a link that brings together jazz and hip hop artists that don’t necessarily know each other but have respect for each other’s creativity.”

Stabile presented her debut concert series Revive Da Live in 2009 which featured Jeru the Damaja, Large Professor (producer for Common and A Tribe Da Live concerts in unorthodox venues like Webster Hall, Le Poisson Rouge and little unknown spots on the Lower East Side that proved to be neutral territory for young jazz fans and the hip hop crew. The admission was very reasonable, no quiet rules, dancing and talking permitted. Her concerts were packed and it was my first time seeing young jazz musicians and fans mixing it up with hip hop lovers and here I was the oldest in the place giving me hope another side of hip hop other than the stereotypical bling, bling, money and women lyrics.”

Meghan Erin Stabile was born July 26, 1982, in Corpus Christi, Texas and grew up in Dover, N.H. She was raised mainly by her grandmother and an aunt, and had no relationship with her father. She was estranged from her mother, Gina Marie Skidds, who died last year.

“I got kicked out of four schools—three high schools

Called Quest), and Daru Jones. They were teamed with young jazz musicians like bassist/vocalist Esperanza Spalding, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, drummer Chris “Daddy” Dave, alto sax Jaleel Shaw, and pianist Aaron Parks. Over the years Stabile continued to work with these artists which developed into a friendship that grew until her untimely passing.

“I’m so honored to have been part of many of the projects you presented. They were always so much fun and you brought so many people of all ages and races together with those shows,” stated Shaw.

Stabile presented her Revive that jazz was reaching younger people crossing genres. At the end of her concerts it wasn’t jazz or hip hop it was good music. Stabile understood Duke Ellington’s statement “there is only good music and bad music.” She combined the Black music tradition with today’s music for digestion by larger audiences that included many races of various ages and circumstances.

During an interview with The New York Times in 2013, she noted, “We have a strategic plan to get both hip hop and jazz fans together. The show is a vehicle to educate the audience about hip hop and jazz, some have never seen a live jazz performance. It also shows and a middle school,” Stabile told John Leland. “For fighting. I went through a lot, and I made it through. It didn’t break me. So always having that strength has been able to pull me through any type of situation.”

She attended Berklee, in Boston, as a guitarist and a singer, but eventually decided on music business courses. The seeds for concert promotion and producing came from her experiences at the local hangout spot Wally’s Cafe, where jazz musicians played regularly. Stabile told “Jazz Night in America.” She began to wonder “why this music isn’t readily available, or why this music isn’t on the radio, why this band isn’t selling

out venues.” When she moved to New York in 2006, Stabile brought her new business acumen and a desire to bring live shows to the people. She started on a shoestring budget while waiting tables in the East Village. She developed her Revive Music into an institution, a New York Hang that brought musicians together for the greater good. Which wasn’t easy for a young woman navigating in a world of older men who weren’t looking for any changes in the system. Don Was, president of Blue Note Records, took notice of her accomplishments and partnered with the organization to release an album, “REVIVE Music Presents: Supreme Sonacy (Vol. 1),” in 2015. “I think Revive has a keen understanding of the basic nature of the music, which is that it’s got to keep moving forward,” Was said in press materials. “Not decade by decade, or year by year, but every day.” Others affiliated with Stabile’s mission were keyboardMeghan Stabile, photographed onstage with Robert Glasper during Winter Jazzfest 2020 (Jonathan Chimene/WBGO photo) ists Ray Angry, harpist Brandee Younger, trumpeter Keyon Harrold, rapper producer ThunderCat, drummer Justin Brown and producer Raydar Ellis. “…The music community, known for its power to uplift, must unite to combat all stigma and misinformation related to mental health by promoting messages of wellness through music,” said Stabile in 2009, extracted from a larger statement. “Our message not only serves our community of musical innovators but also the audiences receiving the music and thus humanity as a whole.” In addition to her grandmother, she is survived by a sister, Caitlin Chaloux, and a brother, Michael Skidds.

LaWanda Page, comedic genius and evangelist

By HERB BOYD

Special to the AmNews

One recent evening while surfing the television cable networks, I saw where “Sanford and Son” was scheduled show after show. As in the past when the show starring Redd Foxx was popular from the late ’70s to the early ’80s, the temptation to check them out again was too good to ignore, particularly when LaWanda Page, as Aunt Esther, appeared and exchanged insults with Foxx. When she didn’t excoriate the irascible Foxx, she at least held her own in verbal standoffs.

Page was born Alberta Peal on Oct. 19, 1920, in Cleveland, Ohio. From an early age Page’s ambition was to work in show business, and she claimed she was born “talented” and never had one singing, dancing or acting lesson. She nourished her dream to entertain at the Friendly Inn Settlement in Cleveland, a community center founded by the Women’s Christian Temperance Union. When the family moved to St. Louis, she attended Banneker Elementary School and fortuitously met Redd Foxx who was two years her junior.

Both pursued their dreams of the stage on the Chitlin Circuit, and on occasion worked together in a variety of comedy skits and shows. At the beginning of her career, she was mainly a dancer and as a teenager performed as a fire dancer, where she walked over flames and often was scorched. She became so proficient that she was billed as “The Bronze Goddess of Fire” or “LaWanda, the Flame Goddess.” The clubs where she displayed her unique skills were often beset with dangerous shootouts and knife fights. She told a reporter that if you weren’t home by 9 o’clock at night “you can be declared legally dead.”

It wasn’t the best environment for an aspiring entertainer and at some point in the early ’50s she moved to Los Angeles. Meanwhile, she continued to earn a living as a fire dancer at clubs across the globe, from Canada to Japan. After the flames simmered down, she turned to stand-up comedy. This pursuit may have been a product of her early days on the Chitlin Circuit where she cultivated the performances in tandem with Foxx. Whatever the case, she was soon no longer dousing flames or walking on hot coals but dealing with hecklers as a comedian. After several years tossing barbs back and forth with loudmouthed members of the audiences, she joined the Skillet, Leroy & Company comedy troupe.

Soon, her nightly performances and several recordings earned her a new title—“The Queen of Standup Comedy.” It should be noted that many of her albums were classified as “blue” much in the manner of some of Redd Foxx’s initial ventures on vinyl. “Watch it, Sucker!” was the title of one of her albums, taking the name from one of her catchphrases often spewed on “Sanford and Son.” Her guest appearances on the television show spread her fame and popularity, and her snappy retorts were soon summoned on shows hosted by Frank Sinatra, Dean Martin, and Betty White. In many ways, her style and delivery were in the tradition of Moms Mabley—with a dash of color in her remarks.

So, from a phone call from Foxx in 1972, Page, who thought the call to appear on his show was a joke, auditioned and won the role hands down, and once again was back performing with her childhood friend. The two friends and actors were often in confrontation on the show, her churchgoing, biblequoting, holier-than-thou demeanor was often in combat with Foxx’s whiskeydrinking, cussing, loutish behavior. During one episode that was a good example of their name-calling, Foxx compared her to a gorilla, and she countered with a series of comments we can’t print here.

At one time, the producers were opposed to Page being a regular on the show, but Foxx let it be known that if she wasn’t hired, he was no longer available. They won out, at least for a few years, before a contract dispute by the late ’70s put an end to the show.

There were a couple attempts to revise the show under different names but none of the spinoffs gained traction. When “Sanford,” the new show, was launched in 1981, with Page reunited with Foxx but without Demond Wilson, it didn’t last a year before it was canceled by NBC. No longer part of an ongoing series, Page made guest appearances and agreed to a number of commercial ads, including one with Church’s Chicken, spouting her “Gotta Live it” phrase.

She appeared in a number of films such as “My Blue Heaven” with Steve Martin as well as numerous cameo roles where her one liners often stole a scene. And stealing scenes were just a portion of her skills when it came to show business. She was an avowed fighter for the rights of actors and actresses, demanding equal pay and treatment.

Page was married and widowed three times but vowed that the third marriage was the last. She was a very religious woman, a trait consistent with her character of Aunt Esther, and later became an evangelist. Her daughter, Clara, was also an evangelist preacher.

The phenomenal actress died of a heart attack on Sept. 14, 2002, following complications of diabetes.

ACTIVITIES

FIND OUT MORE

Several online platforms that deal with comedians and their legacies include a profile on Page, and Jet Magazine did an extensive obit on her.

DISCUSSION

She knew Redd Foxx from an early age, but I wish I could have included more about their professional relationship.

PLACE IN CONTEXT

Her days on the Chitlin Circuit and into television marked the scope of her life and career.

THIS WEEK IN BLACK HISTORY

June 26, 1974: Yankee great, Derek Jeter, was born in New Jersey.

June 27, 1872: Esteemed poet Paul Laurence Dunbar was born in Dayton, Ohio.

June 28, 1964: Malcolm X formed the Organization of Afro-American Unity (OAAU).