Happy Presidents’ Day

In 1964, Dizzy Gillespie threw his beret into the ring and ran for President of the United States.

In a piece for Al Jazeera America, Tom Maxwell wrote:

It started as a joke, as so many serious things do. His booking agency had some “Dizzy Gillespie for president” buttons made around 1960, because, you see, it’s funny. Somebody even asked Gillespie why a black jazzman — a permanent member of the underclass if there ever was one — would even think of trying for the job. “Because we need one,” he said.

“Anybody coulda made a better President than the ones we had in those times, dillydallying about protecting blacks in the exercise of their civil and human rights and carrying on secret wars against people around the world,” Gillespie wrote in his autobiography “To Be, or Not … to Bop.” “I was the only choice for a thinking man.”

This thinking woman would have voted for him. Vote Dizzy! Vote Dizzy!

#TBT Lee Morgan ‘Walking the Bar’

Back in the day, entertainers used to “walk the bar.” Philly native Lee Morgan was “honking and stepping.”

In a Smithsonian jazz oral history interview, National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Jazz Master and Philly native Benny Golson said: “I caught my boy John Coltrane on the bar.” In a 2009 piece, jazz critic Marc Myers also shared the story:

In 1954, Coltrane’s expanding heroin and alcohol addiction cost him playing jobs, most notably a significant one with alto saxophonist Johnny Hodges. After moving back to Philadelphia, Coltrane was forced to play with local R&B bands to make ends meet. In some of these bands, he had to honk away on the tenor while walking along the bar. One night, he saw childhood friend and tenor saxophonist Benny Golson enter the club. Mortified, Coltrane climbed off the bar and walked out for good.

The Smithsonian interviewer asked Golson where that tradition was started:

I don’t know where it started. It didn’t start with the jazz artists, per se. It started with one of the entertainers. An entertainer’s plot is to do or to second-guess what the audience wants to hear. Yeah, I got involved in that. I did some crazy stuff when I was doing all that stuff. You do what you think is going to entertain them. It’s going to bring acclaim to what you’re doing. Yeah, what’s more ridiculous than getting up on the bar where the drinks are and start playing your low B-flats no matter what key you’re in, just honking. We call that honking and stepping. They’re applauding. Ain’t nothing happening. Stepping over those drinks.

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Café Society Swing

In 1987, Congress passed House Concurrent Resolution 57 designating jazz “a rare and valuable national American treasure.” The resolution recognized jazz as a “unifying force, bridging cultural, religious, ethnic and age differences.” Indeed, jazz played an important role in paving the way for the Civil Rights Movement.

The Downbeat, located at 11th and Ludlow streets in Philadelphia, was the first racially integrated club in Center City. The building is still there.

Café Society Swing, written by Alex Webb, tells the story of the legendary Café Society, the first integrated nightclub in New York City. The jazz spot played host to, among others, Fats Navarro, Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Count Basie, Sarah Vaughn, Lena Horne, Sister Rosetta Tharpe and Big Joe Turner. Philly Joe Jones was the house drummer. Café Society is where Billie Holiday first sang “Strange Fruit” in January 1939.

By the way, Philly’s Café Society was located on “The Golden Strip,” Columbia Avenue (now Cecil B. Moore).

All That Philly Jazz, a digital history project, will breathe life into Philadelphia’s jazz heritage. The website will be launched in February. For updates, follow us on Twitter or like us on Facebook.com/AllThatPhillyJazz.

MLK’s Riff on the Importance of Jazz

In remarks to the 1964 Berlin Jazz Festival, Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. spoke about the importance of jazz in paving the way for the Civil Rights Movement.

A Supreme Love for John Coltrane

This month marks the 50th anniversary of John Coltrane’s 1964 masterpiece “A Love Supreme.”

From Boston to San Francisco, Americans are celebrating what many consider the greatest spiritual jazz composition of all time. Sadly, we in Philadelphia are marking the occasion with a commitment to fight to preserve Coltrane’s presence in the city that nurtured and shaped him.

As I previously wrote, the Pennrose Company demolished the “Tribute to John Coltrane” mural.

The company did it with no input from the community and no plan to preserve the presence of an American cultural icon. The loss sparked an outrage on social media. Tweet after tweet asked the same question: WTF?!

Through public subsidies and Low-Income Housing Tax Credits, Pennrose has gotten rich building properties for the poor. The politically-connected company has been sucking on the public teat for more than 20 years. Indeed, it is one of the nation’s top 10 affordable housing developers.

While Pennrose can afford hundreds of thousands in political contributions, primarily to Republicans, it has contributed nothing to replace the tribute to the man that put Philly jazz on the map.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg. The City of Philadelphia’s campaign finance database is a hot mess.

In any case, social media provides a platform to raise awareness of an issue. But to make something happen, one has to agitate offline. So the Avenging The Ancestors Coalition has organized an Arts and Culture Committee, which I chair. Our mission is to preserve African Americans’ cultural heritage – and presence – in Philadelphia by any means necessary (BAMN).

To get involved, come to the next monthly meeting of ATAC, which will be held on Monday, December 15, 2014, at 7:00 p.m. at Zion Baptist Church, Broad and Venango Streets. For more information, call (215) 552-8751.

For updates, follow All That Philly Jazz on Twitter or like us on Facebook.com/AllThatPhillyJazz.

Avenging the Ancestors Philly-Style

The Mural Arts Program began in 1984 as the Philadelphia Anti-Graffiti Network. Thirty years and more than 3,600 murals later, Philly has become the “City of Murals.”

The murals tell the story of Philadelphia, a city of neighborhoods:

But as stunning as the murals are themselves, they are, most importantly, the visual products of a powerful and collaborative grassroots process in communities. The mural-making process gives neighborhood residents a voice to tell their individual and collective stories, a way to pass on culture and tradition, and a vehicle to develop and empower local leaders.

Indeed, the murals tell the stories of those whom W.E.B. DuBois called “The Philadelphia Negro.”

Murals reflect the character, history, activism and people specific to that location. The faces on the wall are family members and neighbors. Understandably, folks are outraged when a mural is torn down or covered up.

I was listening to Attorney Michael Coard’s Radio Courtroom as I wrote this post. One of his guests shared civil rights pioneer Rev. Vernon Johns’ call to action

If you see a good fight, get in it.

Don’t just complain how gentrification. Get in this good fight. Our fight is not to save brick-and-mortar structures. Rather, we want to preserve African Americans’ cultural, civic and educational heritage in Philadelphia.

To get involved, call Avenging the Ancestors Coalition Arts and Culture Committee at (215) 552-8751. With technology, we can recreate better murals. We can make walls talk.

Avenging the Ancestors: If Walls Could Talk

In 2015, Philadelphia will launch the country’s largest land bank. Last week I testified before the Philadelphia Land Bank public hearing on their draft Year One Strategic Plan.

Philadelphia is changing. From the “Lost Our Lease” signs on Market Street to the “For Sale” or “For Rent” signs in gentrifying neighborhoods, the signs of change are everywhere. There is growing concern that gentrification will displace longtime residents.

Black Philadelphians have seen this movie before. African Americans were pushed out of Society Hill. South Street was once chock-a-block with black-owned jazz spots and small businesses. Black business owners were advised to leave because an expressway was going to be built. It wasn’t.

The legendary Gert’s Lounge on South Street was managed by Dorothy “Dottie” Smith.

On the heels of the loss of the “Tribute to John Coltrane” mural, another iconic African American mural is on the chopping block. The Philadelphia Housing Authority plans to tear down the “Women of Jazz” mural in Strawberry Mansion.

The blonde next to Nina Simone is Dorothy “Dottie” Smith. A longtime resident of Strawberry Mansion, Miss Dot died in January 2013. Her family and neighbors are outraged that PHA is doing nothing to preserve the legacy of these jazz divas. Their outrage is shared by the community at large.

If we are not vigilant, gentrification will erase black Philadelphians’ political, civic, educational and cultural presence. A mural could be demolished – or painted over under the cover of darkness.

If walls could talk, our ancestors would say:

Really? What are you doing to preserve your heritage? We did our part. It’s now up to you.

Indeed, Attorney Michael Coard constantly reminds us that if we don’t tell our story, it won’t be told. Coard spearheads the Avenging The Ancestors Coalition (ATAC), which successfully fought to tell the untold story of our ancestors who were enslaved by President George Washington.

When I brought the destruction of the murals to his attention, Michael jumped on it. I will update the community tonight at the monthly meeting of ATAC, which starts at 7:00 p.m. at Zion Baptist Church, located at Broad and Venango Streets.

Let me be clear: The fight is not over brick-and-mortar structures. The fight is over preserving our heritage and avenging the ancestors.

To get involved, call (215) 552-8751.