Riverwalk, starring The Jim Cullum Jazz Band, celebrates the dazzling music and poetry of The Harlem Renaissance in a special broadcast called, Harlem Rhapsody.
Guests include: From New York----by way of New Orleans--- the star and creator of the hit musical revue, One Mo' Time and the Obie award--winning show, Jelly Roll,Vernel Bagneris. A legend of American stage and film, and a Riverwalk favorite, William Warfield. At the piano, the Emmy award-winning composer, a brilliant pianist, Dick Hyman.
Musical highlights of this hour-long live broadcast tribute to The Harlem Renaissance include: The Jim Cullum Jazz Band's exciting performances of Duke Ellington's Black and Tan Fantasy and W. C. Handy's Harlem Blues; plus Dick Hyman's stunning solo piano performance of James P. Johnson's Snowy Morning Blues , and The Cullum Band's remarkable new arrangement of James P. Johnson's landmark composition, Yamecraw, for two pianos and jazz band.
This special broadcast combines classic jazz compositions of The Harlem Renaissance era----in outstanding new performances captured live at The Landing---with the work of the poet laureate of The Harlem Renaissance---the great Langston Hughes.
Following is an excerpt from the broadcast......
There was a time when, for many, Harlem was the center of the universe. In the early 1920's, in this new suburb of Manhattan---north of Central Park---thousands of African American families found a place to call home. Originally settled by the Dutch, a real estate boom and bust in Harlem, opened the door to a huge black population migrating north. By 1925 there were 200,000 African Americans living in Harlem.
Black churches and political organizations sprang up next door to black theaters, dance halls and dives. This "coming together" of poets and musicians, intellectuals and entrepreneurs, gave rise to the Harlem Renaissance---where, at the time----all things seemed possible.
In the 1920's----all along Harlem's bustling Lenox Avenue--- optimism is in the air, and money jingles in the pockets of (stylish) new suits. It is the world of the "New Negro"---whose ideas and art are at the heart of the Jazz Age----for black and white audiences alike.
It is 1925 and the Reverend Adam Clayton Powell is holding forth in the pulpit at the Abyssinian Baptist Church on 138th Street.....while around the corner the Black political philospher Marcus Garvey draws crowds ----- preaching his "back-to-Africa" philosophy on Lenox Avenue's notorious Speaker's Corner.
On Saturday nights, at Small's Paradise the waiters zoom around the club---serving drinks on roller skates. And, the young bandleader at Barron's posh nightspot is a newcomer by the name of Duke Ellington
At the infamous Cotton Club, mobsters call the shots--- while white celebrities in their diamonds and minks enjoy the glittering floor shows----starring the greatest black entertainers. After hours, the dives come alive along 133rd Street .....joints like THE BUCKET OF BLOOD, BASEMENT BROWNIES and LEROY'S are the places to go for booze and blues after midnight.
Saturday nights mean rent parties, cutting contests (the musical variety, no knives involved), hog jowls, baked ham, barrels of beer....and carrying on til the sun came up. But not far away at the "YMCA", the "father of stride piano" James P. Johnson can be heard performing with the Harlem Symphony. And, just a few blocks away at The New York Public Library on 135th street, Miss Ernestine Rose draws crowds eager for her poetry readings by young African American writers. Out of this rich cultural stew emerged a remarkable young man---Langston Hughes----the poet laureate of the Harlem Renaissance and author of such American anthems as, The Negro Speaks Of Rivers, I, Too Sing America and Montage Of A Dream Deferred.
This special broadcast tribute to The Harlem Renaissance is made possible by See's Candies of California and by our Special Friends Of Riverwalk Jazz.
