Spring 1 9 9 9
T r a c i n g U.S. B l ac k V e r n a c u l a r M u s i c a l S t y l e s
Center for Black Music Research, Columbia College Chicago
-
I
roject Stop-Time is a celebration. Although the primary
impulse behind the latest project
for the Center for Black Music
I
The Celebration Impulse
and Project Stop-Time
a celebration and a party noneth
I characterize the project in this
way for many reasons.
Ensemble Stop-Time jams!
This collective of sixteen musicians embraces a variety of
performing media, including
solo, duo, quintet, septet, and
big band jazz instrumentations.
Comprised of some of
Chicago's leading professional
musicians, the ensemble performs the entire range of AfricanAmerican popular music, from spirituals, blues, and ragtime, to gospel,
R&B, and hip hop. The ensemble
teaches about the history of black vernacular music in the United States
through public performances and lecture-demonstrations.
The ensemble was obviously hand
picked, and as a native Chicagoan, I
came of age hearing about and listening to the exploits of many of these
Ken Chaney, and Art Hoyle are just a
filled the space despite the first con-
What a pleasure it was for me to witness them playing together live at the
Stop-Time Ensemble's first performance.
The Cultural Center is located on
Chicago's Southside, in the historic
Black Belt, which has provided a fer-
century. Bronzeville, as this neighborhood is called, provided the people,
institutions, and performance venues
with one of America's most influential
can claim exclusive bragging rights to
any particular genre of black vemacular music, one can still identify specific
The Cel&tstior '-3ulse
venue, locale, and the people who celebrated within them. Stomping the Blues
uses visual illusmtions, including live
and publicity photographs of musicians, famous and nondescript venues
of performance, ecstatic social dancing,
blues d~vas,jam sessions, church services, the actual record labels of commerc~alrecordings, movie stills, advertisements, and promotional materials to
create the experience of being there.
Murray's attention to the material
aspects of vernacular culture provides a
v~vidcatalog of the sights, senslbilit~es,
smells, and sonorous riffs and runs of
the time. Taken together, these images
amount to an unquestionable celebration of blues-based musical styles.
(continued from pa.
of black vemacular music. Project
Stop-Time seeks to educate its audiences about this dynamic history, doing
so through the pleasures of rnusical cel-
the BIw
1
I
of African-American culture
have noted the compelling sense of cultural celebration resonating in many
forms of black vernacular music.
Writer Albert Murray has articulated
the importance and pleasures of "the
celebration impulse." In Stomping the
Blues, arguably his most popular book,
Murray identifies various attitudes,
customs, personalities, secret rituals,
discreet and visible venues, social
functions, and vibrant dance forms
associated with the black vernacular. In
the words of one writer, Murray was
able to "make a reader or listener
understand and feel the special qualities of black experience as it is reflected in black music."
Murray understood the Importance of
SimtonhMyEir
Other writers have developed their bwn
ways to make their readers feel it. In
one of the volumes of her autobiographical series Singin', Swingin'and
Makin ' Merry Like Christmas, poet
Maya Angelou describes the power
of celebration in post-World War 11
gospel music. During a church
servlce, she "finds herself' within the
I
emble Stop-Time musicians. Each
@d.@!if$@
i @gs
a singular expertise to the collectivn
@$~:k~&<~a7proren
commitment to the ideals of
&eB&,PrOiect
Stop-Time, and the oresewation
mnd promotion of black music culture
Fred C. Matthews NI
Vice President of Community Relations,
YMCA of MetropolitanChicago, and
Executive Dir~tor,Duncan YMCI1 Chicago
Sterling ~iumpp
University of Illinois at Chicago
Robert Pruter
R&B Editor, Goldmine, and writer,
Charles D. Spencer and Associates, Chicago
Tabatha ~usselkkoyiass
Center Director, Chicago Park District's
!South Shore Cultural Center
Advisory Committee
Sheila V. Baldwin
Professor of English and African-American Stuum
)Charles R. Sherrell II
3FdiDE?ctoi of Columbia College Scholars Program,
riChief Executive Offiier, Manier Broadcasts, Inc.,
- &and
President, WBEE Jazz Radio
@$j@iaCollege Chicago
~~ffi@mmam~n
Hazel B. Steward
Region Three Education 0ffic1
~ ~ . -$. &r K U $. Nolthwestern
~
University
y @ .#Burton
y ' '. .
Chicago Public Schools
~@.@&@~f~i&ifitj:~~ffairs,Columbia College Chicago
J. Wayne Tukes
. ..
Academic Advisor, Columbia College Chicago
-. .
4!!$%5
The spirituals and gospel songs were
sweeter than sugar. I wanted to keep
my mouth full of them and the
sounds of my people singing fell like
sweet oil in my ears. When the
polyrhythmc hand-clapping began
and the feet started tapping, when
one old lady in a comer raised her
voice to scream "0 Lord, Lordy
Jesus," I could hardly keep my seat.
The ceremony drove into my body,
to my fingers, toes, neck and thighs.
My extremities shook under the emotional possession. I imposed my will
on their quivering and kept them
fairly still. I was terrified that once
loose, once I lifted or lost my control, I would rise from my seat and
dance like a puppet, up and down the
aisles. I would open my mouth, and
screams, shouts and field hollers
would tear out my tongue in thew
rush to he free.
JaZa
In her acclaimed novel Jazz Toni
Mornsou highlights the sensual side of
-
Randall M. Johnson
Interim Dean of Career Programs,
Malcolm X College, Chicago
tion of the
celebration of black religious music:
Richard A. Wang
Professor, Department of PelformingM s .
University of Illinoisat Chicago.
Ensemble Stop-Time
T. 5. Galloway. Coordinator and Music Director
Stephen E. Beny, trombone
Mwata Bowden, saxophone
Ari Brown, saxophone
Derek Cannon, trumpet
Ken Chaney, keyboards
Kenneth C. Clark, saxophone
Rodney A. Clark, trumpet
Buddy Fambro, guitarlbanjo
Andy Goodrich, saxophone
Roger Harris, piano
Aaron Horne, clarinet
Arthur "Art" Hoyle, trumpet
Leon Joyce Jr., drums
Tokunori Kajiwara, trombone
Lucy Smith, vocals
John C. Whitfidd, bass
Stop-Time is funded in part by
the generous support of The John D.
and Catherine T. MarArthur Foundation,
The Chicago Community Tmd,
The Joyce Foundation, and
WPWRN Channel 50 Foundation
I
the "sporting lifee' in 1920s urban life.
She uses secular music to help her portray an inner-city world of fleshly pleasure, fashion, and nasty closeness. In
one passage she writes, "And where
there was violence wasn't there also
vice? Gambling. Cursing. A terrible
and nasty closeness. Red dresses.
Yellow shoes. And, of course, race
music to urge them on."
Hear from My Horses
In my own forthcoming study, Race
Music, which deals with post-World
War 11 black music, I offer the following literary snapshot as an attempt to
capture some of the energy that I experienced as a young musician trying to
be one of those cats in the late-1970s
and early-1980s Chicago jazz scene.
Relentless and self-imposed routines
filled the days and nights: aggressive
collecting and learning of jazz stanand
~ 'tracing
'
the
dards; " ~ ~ s c o v ~ M
influences of important jazz artists;
playing as many gigs on the chitterIln' circuit as possible; and "sltting
in" on Monday nights at the El
Matador Lounge and on Tuesdays at
the Club Enterprise, two long-mnning jazz "sets" on Chicago's black
Southside. The upscale Northside of
Chicago also boasted several regular
jam sessions with good musicians
who played a lot of the same repertory; but we were drawn to the
Southside sessions because its specific ethos seemed geared toward
and welcoming to African-American
musicians and audiences. These
weekly episodes lasted well into the
wee hours of the morning, and their
consistent structure, organization,
and flow took on ritualistic dimensions. One of these involved the sessions' floating waitress, China Doll,
an endearing term that referred to
her obvious biracial (probably Asian
and black) background, Without fail,
she asked each week what we were
drinking that night. Since none of us
were old enough to legally be there
in the fust place, our answers never
varied: orange juice and ginger ale.
We had come for the music, anyhow. Veteran tenor saxophonist Von
Freeman, then a fifty-ish, salt-'npepper-haired Gene Ammons prot6g.6, whose breathtaking virtuosity
and mix of urbane yet Southern-fned
patter stole any show, began each
evening playing standards with his
house band. Freeman's masterful
musicianshipincredibly fast bebop
runs, timing that pushed ahead of the
beat, soulful tone, and onginal
melodic approach-was in itself
mind boggling and inspirational. Yet
despite his consistent ability to leave
everybody in the house awestruck at
his abilities, distractions were also
part of the scene. As patrons entered
the dankness of the dimly lit club,
those already seated would survey
newcomers with more than passing
interest. Of course, one could not
easily ignore them smce the door
was situated-in typical hole-in-thewall fashiondirectly adjacent to
the bandstand. Each new arrival
could bring a !mown musical rival,
new competition, or, perhaps, visiting musicians that had "graduated"
from their apprerlticeshipson our
local scene and moved to New York
City to really test their mettle. These
musicians usually returned full of
stories of how many dues they were
paying. As young players we were,
of course, very impressed. Not that
one had to leave Chicago
- to Day
dues, though. On the occasion of my
first jazz gig and that of my steady
bassist Lonnie Plaxico, I showed up
eaui~vedwith a Fender Rhodes electric piano md fake book only to
learn that our drummer-an older
gentleman who played with a disarmine
- Cheshire cat-like g r i n 4 a d
fallen out with his girlfriend, and
that she had disappeared in a huff
with her car. His drums were still 1n
the backseat Welcome to the ''jazz
life."
Along with Von Freeman's performance, an important feature of
these jazz (continued on page 5)
A
A
CBMR Staff
Samuel A. Floyd Jr.
Director
Marsha J. Heizer
AssanaleDueeta and Cwrdinabr of PubhcaQom
Morris A. Phibbs
Coerd~narorof Deve1epmentActivilies
Suzanne Flandreau
Librarh md Archivist
Johann 5. Buis
Caordmator of Education
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
Coordinator of Pafomance Programs
Marcos Sueim
Sound Technician and Librar)
Angela Penny
Publications Speciali:
Veronica Rodrigue
AdminisoativeAssistt
Lynette Whitfield
AdminirWtive Assistr
11111
.
5. Gallowav
Project Stop-T~meCmrdrnator and Musrc Dretor
Guthrie Ramsey 11
Editor, Slop-Tim!
Amy Rudersdorf
Axie Breen
01993 Columbia College Chicago
.
Copies of Srop-'Iime~are available free
of charge To receive your issue or to
inform us of a change of address, send
your name and address to
& *
-
Stop-lime!
Center for Black Music Research
Columb~aCollege Chcago
600 South M~ch~gan
Avenue
Chlcago, IL 60605-1996
rd
l (312) 344-7559, fax (312) 344-8029.
or e-mall cbmr@papml calurn.edu.
V~snour home page at
http.llwww eolum eddcbmri
ColumbL College Chlcago
Perkinson Joins CBMR Staff
he studied with Dean Dixon. He was
a co-founder and associate conductor
of the Symphony of the New
cookinator of
World from 1965 until 1975.
Performance
He has composed ballets for
,ctivities. Well-known as a
Arthur Mitchell and Alvin
composer and conductor,
Ailey, incidental music to
Perkinson received his acanumerous stage productions,
demic training in composiand numerous f h and teletion at the Manhattan
vision
scores. Most recently,
School of Music with
during
the 1997-1998 acadVittorio Giannini and
ColeridgeTaylor Perkinson emic year, he was a visiting
Charles Mills and at
lecturer at Indiana
Princeton University with
University
in the Afro-American Arts
Earl Kim, and studied conducting in
Institute and in the department of
this country at the Berkshire Music
wusic. At the CBMR, he will devel:
renter and overseas at the Salzbu*"
~pand supervise expanded perform(ozarteum and the Netherlands
Eivitie
hdio Union in %#v&e
L
oleridge-Taylor Perkinson
has ioined the CBMR as
...-
Bibliography of Gospel and Religious Music
Boyer, Horace Clarence. 1995. How
sweet the sound: The golden age of
gospel. Washington, D.C.: Elliot and
Clark.
Broughton, Viv. 1985. Black gospel:
An illustrated history of the gospel
sound. New York: Blandford Press.
Buchanan, Samuel Carroll. 1987. A
critical analysis of style in four black
jubilee quartets in the United States.
Ph.D. diss., New York University.
Burnim, Mellonee Victoria. 1980. The
black gospel music tradition: Symbol
of ethnicity. Ph.D. diss., Indiana
University.
Carawan, Guy, and Candie Carawan.
1990. Sing for freedom: The s t o ~ yof
the Civil Rights movement through
its songs. Bethlehem, Pa.: Sing Out.
Dargan, William Thomas. 1983.
Congregational gospel songs m a
black holiness church: A musical and
textual analysis. Ph.D. diss.,
Wesleyan University.
Davis, Gary. 1977. The holy blues.
Santa Monica, Calif.: Chandos
Music.
Diehl, Katharine Smith. 1966. Hymns
and tunes: An index. New York:
Scarecrow Press.
DuPree, Sherry Sherrod. 1993. African
American good news (gospel) music.
Washington, D.C.: mddle Atlantic
Regional Press.
Frankliq Marion J., Jr. 1982. The relationship of black preaching to black
gospel music. D.Mi. diss., Drew
University.
Godrich, John, and Robert M. W.
Dixon. 1982. Blues and gospel
records, 1902-1943. 3rd ed. Essex,
England: Storyville.
Goureau, Laurraine. 1975. Just
Mahalia, baby. Waco, Tex.: Word
Books.
Hagan, Chet. 1995. Gospel legends.
New York: Avou Books.
Harrington, Brooksie. 1992. Shirley
Caesar: A woman of words. Ph.D.
diss., Ohio State University.
Hanis, Michael W.1992. The rise of
gospel blues: The music of Thomas
Andrew Dorsey in the urban church.
New Yotk: Oxford Umversity Press.
Hayes, Cedric J., and Robert Laughton.
1992. Gospel records, 1943-1969: A
black music discog-raphy Ln.p.1:
Record Information Services.
Hefele, Bernhard. 1981. Jazz-bibliography: International literature on
j a w blues, spirituals, gospel and
ragtime music with a selected list of
workr on the social and cultural
backgroundfmm the beginning to
the present. New York: K . G. Saur.
Heilbnt, Anthony. 1985. The gospel
sound: Good news and bad times.
New York: Limelight Editions.
Hillsman, Joan R. 1990. Gospel music:
An African American artform.
Washington, D.C.: Middle Atlantic
Regional Press.
Hinson, Glenn D. 1989. When the
words roll and the fire flows: Spirit,
style and experience in African
American gospel performance. Ph.D.
diss., University of Pennsylvania.
Hnrston, Zora Neale. 1981. The
sanctified church. Berkeley: Turtle
Island.
Jackson, Irene V. 1979. Afro-American
religious music: A bibliography and
a catalogue of gospel music.
Westport, Corn: Greenwood Press.
Jackson, Jessie. 1974. Make a joyful
noise unto the Lord! The life of
Mahalia Jackson, queen of gospel
singers. New York: T.Y. Crowell.
Jackson, Joyce Marie. 1988. The performing black sacred quartet; An
expression of cultural values and
aesthetics. Ph.D. diss., Indiana
University.
Johnson, Deborah Jean. 1980.
Arrangements and performance of
spirituals and gospel songs from the
eighteenth century to the twentieth
century. M.A. thesis, Umversity of
California-Long Beach.
Kalil, Timothy M. 1993. The role of
the great migration of AfricanAmericans to Chicago in the development of traditional black gospel
piano by Thomas A. Dorsey, circa
(TOP-TIN!
1930.WD. *.., Knt atk.
I
MamilIanReference.
Uni*&%.
Oliver, Paul. 1984. Songsters a d
~auirsbi
I ~ L~ ,~ ~ m e d c a n sainfs: Vocal traditions on Race
record*. Cambridge, England:
peligicPu.$ ~:&4,@&
@ mrcsimt
d&e&@j -@-l&OMo:
Bym
Cambridge University Press.
Soci&&-.., ~~.
Pirm, Anthony B. 1995. Why,Lord?:
Ma&&yi R&& t$J$'tf..Afr~Sufering and evil in black theology,
Ameri~+~u~"fnirsic~
New York: Codtinurn.
161.9-lBft..PtiD$Ysa,,
Pitts,Walter E 1993. Old ship of Zion:
uniwsi@,@w;~*
The Afro-Boptist rim1 in the Africyue
Madimn!
diarpom. New York: Oxford
Mbanugo, @&memela E 1986.
Umversity b s s .
Music t%%n&sion
pmw8s~s
Reagon, Bemice Johnson. 1992. We'lL
among eHl ~ i n @ l A f r o undergrand it better by a& by:
,.
~ . r o h e k P h . D . diss.,, State
Pioneering A w a n American go@
Univ~sity:&.@&~Yorkat Buffalo.
composers. Washington, D.C.:
M e , Lyn E&a& 1991. A
Smithsonian Institution Press.
tming-:&:p@emce inpwl.
Riedel, Johannw. 1975. Soul m@c,
for bkrek:@s&d~~irs.:Colkge,
b k k a d white: The i@uenoe of
churik:
indpmpassioneb f a c k w i c on the chmhes.
td organg*,
Jefferson City,
Minneapolis, Minn.: Augsbwg.
Mo..."
Pr....
Roberta Martin and the Robma
..
.
. ess,
~ e pwe p s p & a hr m i c : Ess~ys'kr
Ma& Singers: The legacy and the
kondrof@Z@@Sputhem. 11992.
music. 1981. Washington, D-C.:
Warren, Mi&: R a r m o ~ Pafk
e
Smithsonian Institution.
Press.
Sad, Robert. 1993. las negm
Oliveq Paul. 1997..The New.Grove
spirituals et les goapel songs. Park
gospel, blue$'andjaa' With
Presses universitain?s de France,
Schwerin, Jules. 1992. Got to tell Itspirituals and ragtima, London:
MuWia Jwbmqueen of gospat.
New York: Oxford University Press.
Spencer, Jon Michael. 1992. B k k
hymnody: A trymnohgical history of
the African-American chureh
Knoxville, Tenn.: University of
T m s e e Press.
Spencer, Jon Michael. 1990. Pfbtesf
andpmtse: Sac& m i c of black
religion. M ' i e a p o h , Minn.:
Fortress Press,
Steeves, Cynthia Dawn. 1987. The origin of gospel piano: People, events
@ad cifccumstances that contributed to
the devebpment of the style; and
documentation of graduate piano
recitals. D.M.A. diss., University of
Washington.
Tyler, Maty AM L. 1980. The mic
of Charles Henry Pace and its
relationship to the Afro-American
church experience. Ph.D. dies.,
University of Pittsburgh.
Walker, Chasles. 1993. Miss Lucie.
Nashville, Tenn.: Townsend Press.
Walker, Wyatt Tee. 1979. "Somebody's
calling rity ndme": Black s m d
music and secial change. Valley
Forge., Pa.: Judson Press.
The CdebmtTOn Impulse
occupation with and rearticulation of
the musical past is clear evidence of
this cultural memoly. But hearing the
live, historically accurate performances
of the eras should certainly help to
keep that very important past alive in
the eyes and ears of today's audiences.
In the photo essay on pages 6 and 7,
Stop-%! celebrates the cnltural
spaces and performers that fostered and
shaped the musical sensibilities of the
black vernacular heritage.
P ~ L
a&$@-
(confinuedfrompage 3)
nights at the ciubs was the jam session. We all knew its starting signal:
Freeman cmting off a moderately
fast twelve-baf blues, invariably in
the key of F. "It's time to h a from
my ho~~e%'%e'd
statecoyly,
"they've beebeen chomping at the bit all
night." With t h e . wonk still hanging in the &, & palpable excitmmt
would stir through the nightclub as a
chorus of unzipping, unbuckling, and
unsnapping itEstrument cases sounded
from all comers. Although the skill
level among the collective "horses"
was noticeably uneven ou any given
night, all seemed to play their hearts
out.
The litermy treatments above try to
capture the collective emotional and
social energy of a music culture's history. Nevenheless, Project Stop-Time
offers perhaps the besf way to ertperience the excitement of this celebration--through the music itself.
Ensemble Stop-Time's wide repertoire
provides listeners with an opportunity
to feel first-hand the power of black
vernacular music. Each performance
promises to take Iisteum on a hisbrical journey. ,J%mugh their authentic
renditions, Ensemble Stop-Time will
mhulare some of the oultural power
that abounded within the historical cuC
tural venues of the black vernacularat the nightclub, the church, the home
pax@, the loff, the dance h a , the sock
hop, the concert hall, the lounge, the
sbting fink, and many ofher spaces.
Today's young musicians and their
audiences have not completely forgotten their musical heritage-hq hop and
even contempomy jazz musician$' p r e
Endnotas
Angeiou, Maya. 19n. Singin'mul swingin'
and geffin'merry like Chrisbnas. ~ e w
Y o k B a n m Books.
Morrison, Toni. 1992. Jazz New Yo& Alfred
A. Knopf.
Murray. Albert. 1976. Sronrpiag t k blues.
New York McGraw-Hill.
Ramsey Jr., Guthrie. Forihwming. Race
Muaic.Berkeley: University of California
Press and th?Centetfor Black Music
Rmar&,
The Lincoln Gardens (oiginally known as the Royal
Gardend, located on 31st and Cottaae Grove. boasted a danie floor that could hold 1 0 6 dancers. Durlng
the 1910s and the 1920r, both the Original Creole
Band and Kino Oliver's Creole Band obved
residencies
.
in the cavernous dance nall. Photo courtesy of me UlMR
library andkhiver. Centw far Black Murk Rerearch,
.
Columbia College Olirago.
Presumably named after one of the main thoroughfares of Chicago's greater Westside, Jay McShannrs 78
tltled "Garfield Avenue Blues" was recorded for
Mercury, one of the independent recording labels to
aooear r~ohtafter World War II. Mercurv recorded
many black music,ans and had among it.,target audience the black migrants who flooded the ciry during
the war years. photo mumy of the CBMR library and
..
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1
'
Archives, Center for Elark Music Research, Columbia College
chlego.
Shortlv after its opening
. - in 1928, the Reqal Theater
emerged as one of the most important venues for
black musicians in the country. Located in the heart
of the "Bronleville" section of Chicago, the Regal's
the
grand stage has featured the greatest talents if
twentieth century, including Josephine Baker. Duke
Ellington, Count Basre. Jimmie Lunceford. James
Brown, the Temptations, M~lesDavis, Dizzy Giliespie.
and a host of others. Photo courtesy of the nvkn G.
Harsh R-rd,
Collection of AfmAmenen Hi*ry and
bteratum, Carter G Woodron Regronal Library, Chicago
Publir bbrary.
I
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I
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I
Locatedon S&@%atper Avenue on Chicago's
Southstde from 1948 to 1956, the Bee Hive niohtcluh
featured musicians with national reputationr.;ndu&
ing M Hoder. Lester Yobng, and Baby Dodds. In this
photo from the 1950s. Ben Webster qets excellent
support from one of jan's best accompanists,
Chicago's own Xyoung" John Young. Phob mortesy of
the Vwian G. Harsh Rerearch Colleuion 0 f A f r ~ W e W n
History and Literahrre.Carter G. Woodson Regional bbray,
Chbgo Public Library
1
In M
Joe Seoal's Jazz Showcase. which orioinallv ooened
on the-~orthsidein the late 1940s a i d moved to a
downtown location in the 19705, has featured jan's
leadinghamesfor 50 years. photo by Deborah L
Gillaspie, m u m y ofChicago Jazz Amhm C~lleCtlon.
Universrty of chrago
photgssray, Project StbpTime celebrates the
priMllspesofCMcqo
7
..
--
;
Street corners, basements, school bathrooms, nightclubs, and recording studios like this one provided
male vwal groups important cultural spaces in which
to harmonize and hone other aspects of their craft.
Photo by Don Bmnsteb cavmery o f s u m M. Hillman.
I
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U
ou won't want to miss the first
Project Stop-mme concert event,
which will be held at the New
Regal Theater on Friday, May
14, at 7:30 p.m. On this single evening
and on the same stage, you will hear
Ensemble Stop-Time, Ensemble
Kalinda Chicago, and the incomparable
Jerry "The Iceman" Butler in a special
guest star appearance. Get your ticke
early, because this show is sure
to sell out!
The sixteen-member Ensemb
Stop-Time has been impressing
Chicago audiences since its
debut at the South Shore
Cultural Center in October 199
It is the musical component of
the Center's Project Stop-Time
which highlights black musical
forms and styles ranging from
Jelly Roll Morton's 1906 ''Kin!
Porter Stomp" to Grandmaster
Flash's 1982 "The Message."
The ensemble bridges the musi
cal and generational gaps
between traditional and avantgarde jazz; between gospel son
and R&B; and between traditional forms, such as the Negrc
spiritual and twentieth-century soul and
rap. It's unlikely that you will ever hear
another ensemble with the unique ability to perform all of these musical styles
in a single show.
About Ensemble Stop-Time's debut
performance, Howard Reich of the
Chicago Tribune has written
I
Jemy The Iceman" Butler
American cultures. Its last Chicago
performance was at the Viva Chicago
festival in Grant Park in August 1997.
Since then, the ensemble's CD,
Kalinda Kaliente, has been remarkably
successful, with major airplay on radio
stations across the country. And, since
the close of Project Kalinda, Ensemble
Kalinda Chicago, under the auspices of
cean Records and American
lternational f i s t s , has perxmed at Detroit Symphony
all and on tour in Ohio. It is
ith great pleasure that we
elcome back this special
nsemble. Don't miss this
ppottunity-you'll never hear
nother concert quite like this
ue!
We are particularly honored to feature
Jerry Butler as a special guest artist.
Mr. Butler, known as 'The Iceman,"
will perform with Ensemble StopTime
a medley of his hits from the 1950s and
1960s. Mr. Butler is a member of the
Project StopTime Advisory Committee
1~t.phiq h r i ~ hinmanhv
f
nn nave 1 1 1
Stompin' a t the Regal!
Chicago never has lacked for extraordinary talent when it comes to
jazz. blues, gospel and related musical idioms, but worthy institutional
support for that talent has been harder to come by. As if to address that
issue, and many others, a remarkable
ensemble made its debut Monday
night at the South Shore Cultural
Center. The often brilliant performance by Ensemble Stop-Time
augured well for the future of this
versatile band and the glorious cultural hadltions it represents [see the
full aaicle on page 121.
ickets
'he New Regal Theater, 1645
ast 79th Street, Chicago, is
wated at the intersection of
tony Island and 79th. From
ake Shore Drive, exit at 57th
treet (Museum of Science
nd Industry). From 57th, take
tony Island south to 79th.
arking is available.
Tickets are available from
the New Regal Theater Box Office or
from all TicketMaster outlets, including
Carson Pirie Scott; Dominicks;
Blockbuster Music; and Tower
Records. To order tickets from the New
Regal Theater, call (773) 721-9301, or
visit the Box Office at 1665 East 79th
Street, Monday and Sahuday, 10 a.m.
to 4 p.m.; Tuesday through Friday, 10
am. to 6 p.m. To purchase tickets from
TicketMaster, call (312) 902-1500.
Please note that service charges are
added to the price of all tickets purchased through TicketMaster.
,nwrnbleKallnda Chicago
Ensemble Kalinda Chicago was the
Center's perfonnance organization for
Project Kalinda, and entertained and
educated Chicago audiences from 1994
to 1997, playing musical styles and
forms from the West Indies and Latin
America. This unique and critically
acclaimed nine-member ensemble
demonstrates the commonalities among
Afro-Caribbean and Afro-Latin
$35* (Main Floor, Rows DD-X)
$25* (Mezzanine, Rows A-H)
$15* (Balcony, Rows J-S)
$lo* (Balcony, Rows T-Y)
Ensemble Kalinda Ollcago
I
*Ticket price includes a $1 New Regal
Theater restoration fee.
*All tickets bought at the New Regal
Theater Box Office will be assessed an
additional $1 Box Office handling fee.
Ensemble Stop-Time
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Stephen E. Berry is a trombonist and
composer who has performed and
recorded with Lou Rawls, Natalie
Cole, Aretha
Franklin,
Ramsey Lewis,
the Temptations,
Frank Sinaua,
Gladys Knight,
and the New
Horizons
Ensemble. His
Broadway credits include Ain 'r
Misbehavin', A
Chorus Line, and Sophisticated
Ladies. He is a member of the
Chicago Federation of Musicians and
the Association for the Advancement
of Creative Musicians (AACM) and is
an instructor at the AACM School of
Music. He also participates in Jazz
Express, a music education program
co-sponsored by Chicago Public
Schools and Chicago Public Radio
IWBEZ-FM).
Mwata Bowden is director of the
Jazz Ensemble at the University of
Chicago and chair of the Association
for the Advancement of Creative
Musicians (AACM), the oldest musicians' collective in the U.S. He is a
trained classig cal musician,
d
~
playing the
~
~
family of clarinets, tenor and
baritone saxo-phones, as well
as the flute,
zamada, and
the didjeridoo.
Bowden leads
the jazz groups Sound Spectrum, Tritone, and the Black Classical Music
Ensemble, and he conducts music reaidencies for the Chicago Council on
Fine Arts, the Illinois Arts Council, and
Uhan Gateways. He has received
numerous awards for his performances
and compositions, including the 1994
Arts Midwest Jazz Masters award and
the 1990 Outstanding Artists Service
Award, and.he has been recognized on
several occasions in Down Beat magazine's critics poll as a "talent deserving
wider recognition."
Richard "Ari" Brown is an awardwinning tenor and soprano saxophonist, composer, and arranger, who has
toured i d ~kdormedwith Lester
Bowie, the
Elvin Jones
Jazz Machine,
Chicago Jazz
Ensemble,
AACM Large
Ensemble,
Chuck Beny,
the Four Tops,
Billy Eckstine,
and Della
Reese, as well as fronting his own
band, the Ari Brown Quartet. In
1992, Brown performed with the
Chicago Symphony Orchestra in
Suite for Malcolm X. He is a
member of the Association for the
Advancement of Creative
Musicians (AACM) and Phi Mu
Upha Symphonia and is the recipent of four National Endowment
for the Arts awards for composition and performance and a Gold
Record award for the Emotions' 1975
album, Flowers.
Trumpeter Arthur "Art" Hoyle has
toured with the Lionel Hampton
Orchestra, Lloyd Price Orchestra, Lena
Home, Tony Bennett, Ella Fitzgerald,
and Billy Eckstine and has recording
credits with Sun Ra, Sarah Vaughn,
Quincy Jones, Woody Herman,
Ramsey Lewis, and more. Additionally,
Hoyle has recorded for television and
radio and has appeared as a performer
with Curtis Mayfield on the Super Fly
soundtrack. In 1980, he received a
National Endowment for the Arts grant
for his year-long artist residency at the
Lew Wallace High School in Gary,
Indiana.
II
Ensemble Stopfime
Ensemble Stop-Time's
First Season
Lecture-Demonstration
Program
Raclng US. Black
Vernacular Ityks
Introduction to Project Stop-Time
Johann S. Buis
The Stop-Time Device-Jazz Development (1906-1999)
King Porter Stomp
Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Mu
Original Piano Solo
New OrleansIChicago Style Jazz '
New York Style JazzISwing
,:
Late Swing
A divertissement: "Weather Bird': .
(Joe "King" Oliver)
Bebop
Modem Jazz
Avant-Garde
Black Music Forms in the
United States (19th century-1999)
I Been 'Buked (sp~ritual,
late 19th century)
Traditional
Jurer
Traditional
The Ragtime Dance (ragtime, 1902)
Scott Joplin
Search Me Lord (gospel song, 1948)
Thomas A. Dorsey
The Bo Diddley (R&B, 1955)
Bo Diddley
What'd I Say (R&B/soul, 1959)
Ray Charles
Rum and Coca-Cola (calypso, 1943)
Lord Invader
Shining Star (soul, 1975)
Earth, W and Fire
The Message (tap, 1982)
Fle~cher/Glover/Chaseflobinsart
StxeWh
4
nsemble Stop-Time made its
impressive debut appearance in
October 1998 to a near-capacity
crowd at the Chicago Park
District's South Shore Cultural Center.
Since then, the ensemble has performed four more lecture-demonstrations. And, in addition to making presentations to adult audiences at public
venues, the ensemble has made special
presentations to elementary and high
school students at five Chicago public
schools.
The lecture-demonstrations are the
primary way in which the mission of
Project Stop-Time is communicated to
the general public. The project emphasizes a wide range of musical styles
and periods, and the lecture-demonstration and performance events offer the
perfect opportunity for intergenerational enrichment and dialogue. Older
audience members get to revisit music
that was popular during their youth,
and the younger generations get to hear
fust-hand,
and sometimes for
the first
time, the
music from
which con
temporary
styles have
developed.
Young and
old alike
benefit
from hearEnsemble Stop-Tlme guitar and
ing and
banjo. ~ u d d y~ambro
experiencing the intercomections that exist
among the twentieth-century popular
musics of the United States.
These events were made possible
by the generous assistance of several
members of the Project Stop-T~me
Advisory Committee, including
Tabatha Russell-Koylass, center director at the South Shore Cultural Center;
I
Dr. Hazel B. Steward,
education officer for
District 111 of the
Chicago Public
Schools: Fred C.
Matthews ILI, vice president of Community
Relations, YMCA of
Metropolitan Chicago,
and executive director
of the Duncan YMCA;
and Randall M.
Johnson, interim dean
of Career Programs,
Malcolm X College.
We hope that you
and your entire family
can attend one or more
of these special musical
Hoyle. Rodney Clark, and
events! If you are not
I
Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson
Ensemble Stop-Time trumpet section: Art
Derek Cannon
already on the Center's m a h g list for
either CBMR Digest or s t o p - ~ i ~ e !
newsletter, please contact us. Special
mailings are sent out prior to each
Stop-Time event.
Members of the Project Stop-flme
Advisory Committee
October 26.1998
Chicago Park District's South Shore Cultural Center
In each newsletter. several members of
the Project Stop-Time Advisory committee will be featured. In this issue we
introduce Sheila V. Baldwin, Thomas
Bauman, Art Burton, and Jerry Butler.
December 7, 1998
Richard Crane High School
Sheila V. Baldwin has taught English
December 9,1998
Duncan YMCA, Chernin's Center for the Puts
February 11, 1999
John Marshall High School
March 11,1999
Malcolm X College
May 13. 1999
Columbia College Chicago, Concert Theater
1014 South Michigan Avenue
6:00 p.m.
Free and open to the public
May 14, 1999
New Regal Theater
1645 East 79th Street
7 3 0 p.m.
(see additional ~nformationon page 8)
July 9,1999
Chicago Park District's 63rd Street Beach
Time to be announced
Free and open to the public
and African-American Studies at
Columbia College Chicago since 1986.
She is director of the Columbia College
Scholars Program and has served as
consultant to the
Chicago Public
Schools drive to
increase minority
enrollment in
higher education.
She has recently
completed
research on a
Sheila V. Baldwh
'.
two-year joint
study between the
University of Notre Dame, Northern
Kentucky University, and Columbia
College on how students interpret race
and gender issues. Baldwin bas presented papers at the National
Conference on Higher Education, the
National Conference on Race and
Ethnicity in Higher Education, and the
Mid-Atlantic Writers Association.
Thomas Bauman teaches music at
Northwestern University. He has edited
Opera and the Enlightenment
(Cambridge University Press, 1995)
and authored articles on Mozart's
Abduction
Requiem, Verdi's
FalstaSf; eighteenth-eentury German
and Italian opera, and cultural classification in the Progressive Era.
Art Burton is Director of Minority
John Whitfield, bass, and Ken Chaney, keyboard
Affairs at Columbia College Chicago.
He holds a master's degree in cultural
and ethnic studies from Governors
State University and has traveled to
Brazil with GSU' s award-winmng jazz
hand as their percussion~st.A member
I of the AACM since 1973. Burton has
worked with Dizzy Gilespie, Muhal
Richard Ahrams,
Chico Freeman, and
Henry Threadgill, tc
name just a few. He
the author of Black,
Red and Deadly:
Black and Indian
Gunfight-ers of the
Indian Territory,
Art Burton
187S1907 (Eakin
Press, 1991). and his lecture engagements on Native Americans and
African Americans of the W ~ l dWest
include the Smithsouian Institution, the
Gene Autry Museum of Afro-American
History in Los Angeles, and
Northwestern University.
Jerry Butler is an award-winning per-
.
former, producer, and composer. He
has enjoyed a forty-year career in the
music industry, which began in 1958 in
Chicago when he and Curtis Mayfield
formed the Imoressions. He has earned
numerous gold
records and has
been nominated
for three
Grammys, several
ASCAP and BMI
awards for songwriting and publishimg, two
Jerry ~urler
Billboard
Magazine awards
for writing and performing, and a Clio
award. In 1991, he was inducted into
the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and In
1995 was elected chairman of the
Rhythm and Blues Foundation. For the
past fifteen years, Butler has been
involved in Illinois politics and is currently serving his fourth term as Cook
County (Chicago) Commissioner and
his second term as president of the
Northeast Illinois Planning
Commission.
[
Ensemble senres up a remarkable melange of music
C.
hicago never has lacked for extraordinruy talent when it comes to
jazz, blues, gospel and related
usical idioms, but worthy institutional support for that talent has been
harder to come by.
As if to address that issue, and many
others, a remarkable ensemble made its
debut Monday night at the South Shore
Cultural Center, at 71st Street and
South Shore Drive.
Though there were some minor
rough spots, the often brilliant performance by Ensemble Stop-Time
augured well for the future of this versatile band and the glorious cultural
traditions it represents.
Like no other repertory outfit yet
conceived, Ensemble Stop-Time takes
on jazz, spirituals, funk, rhythm-andblues, gospel, ragtime and other facets
of black music in America. But
because Chicago has played pivotal
-
roles in the development of all these
leaders, T. S. Galloway and Coleridgegenres, the city is blessed with
Taylor Perkinson, hut also to the gifted
young vocalist Lucy Smith. Though
uncounted musicians who have mastered them.
still a student, Smith brought majestic
turns of phrase to the 19thThe proof was in the
wide-ranging program that
Century spiritual "I Been
Ensemble Stop-Time pre'Buked" and a snarling,
sented to a capacity audipenetrating
tone to Ray
,
ence and in the listeners'
Charles' "What'd I Say."
enthusiastic response to it
If the f i s t half of the program
was a hit less consisFor the most part, the perENSEMBLE
STOPTIME
tent, perhaps that's because
formances captured the
it took on an even greater
spirit and often the letter of
Swth
everything from ancient
. pbdcmter
challenge, exploring a sin"jurer" (an a cappella callgle jazz work-Jelly Roll
and-response form) to 70s
Morton's
"King Porter
,
soul. The percussive rhythStomp"-as arranged in
mic attacks the band produced in Earth,
various jazz languages. The versions
Wind and Fire's "Shining Star" (of
dating from the first three decades of
1975), the seductive R&B back heats it
the century proved most elusive to
yielded in the "The Bo Diddley"
these musicians, while more recent
(1955) and the idiosyncratic, Lilting
styles-bebop, modem jazz and avantmelodies unspooled in the calypso tune
garde-hardly could have been played
"Rum and Coca-Cola" (1943) made for
more idiomatically.
profoundly satisfying listening.
Yet for a debut performance,
The credit belongs not only to the
Ensemble Stop-Time acquitted itself
f;~~+--.tte
inshumentalists and their
surprisingly well. In fact, with a less
reverberant amplification system and
some fine-tuning in rehearsal, the band
will sound even more striking.
Nevertheless, the Center for Black
Music Research at Columbia College,
which created Ensemble Stop-Time,
already has achieved a great deal simply by launching this band.
Further, the evening's premiere of
Perkinson's "Stretch," an orchestral
showpiece, suggests that Ensemble
Stop-Time has to its credit a gifted
composer-in-residence.
'
-
6 Copyrighted Ch~cagoTribune Company.
AN rights r~served;used with permission.
I
Stompin' at the Regal with Ensemble Stop-Time
Don't miss the first Project Stop-Time concert event, which will be held at the New Regal Theater on Friday, May 14,
1999. On this single evening and on the same stage, you will hear Ensemble Stop-Time, Ensemble Kalinda Chicago,
and the incomparable Jerry Butler in a special guest star appearance. Get your tickets early, b ~ a u r this
e show is
sure to sell out! See page 8 for details!