the CHARLESTON JAZZ INITIATIVE

Harper, “Geechie” William Emerson (b. 1895)
Entered the Jenkins Orphanage in 1902 and was a music instructor there from 1912-14; played clarinet, oboe and alto saxophone; worked with the LeRoy Smith Society Orchestra in New York from 1918-33 and with various big bands including Fletcher Henderson (1944-46) and radio orchestras in the early 1940s; one of the first African American musicians to work at a New York radio station; during the 1950s-1960s, he work numerous gigs in New York, Harlem and Montmartre, Paris; he was the roommate of Langston Hughes whom the author dedicates his autobiography, "The Big Sea"; the two men collaborated on “I’m Marching Down Freedom Road” (1942), words by Hughes and music by Harper made popular as a folk song titled “Freedom Road” by South Carolinian, Josh White and is included in the compilation, That’s Why We’re Marching: WWI and the American Folk Song Movement (Smithsonian/Folkways, 1996).

Henson, Purvis (birth/death dates unknown)
Tenor saxophonist; played and recorded with Buddy Johnson; played on 12 recording sessions during the 1940s, 1950s and early 1960s.

Hill, “Chippie” Bertha (1905-1950)
Born in Charleston, one of 16 children; one of the classic blues singers of the 1920s – Hill’s style is less vaudeville-oriented compared to even many of her contemporaries; she began working, professionally, as a dancer in 1916; toured with Ma Rainey’s Rabbit Foot Minstrels and was a vaudeville performer for many years; in Chicago, where she settled, her first recordings were with Louis Armstrong (1925) – a hit record was the famous 8-bar blues, “Trouble in Mind”; she also recorded “Georgia Man” and several others with Louis Armstrong and pianist, Richard Jones; she performed a seven-month gig at the Palladium dance hall where King Oliver was playing; in late 1946, she recorded “How Long Blues,” “Charleston Blues" (composed by W.C. Handy and others), “Trouble in Mind” and “Careless Love” with Freddie Shayne, Lee Collins and Baby Dodds; she left music in the 1930s to raise seven children and sang intermittently over the next 15 years; she was rediscovered by Rudi Blesh in 1946 working in a bakery and was featured on his radio show, “This is Jazz” and in Time magazine which resulted in her comeback to the music industry; performed at the Village Vanguard, Jimmy Ryan’s with “Hot Lips” Page, at Carnegie Hall in 1948 with Kid Ory, at the Paris Jazz Festival and worked with Art Hodes in Chicago; in 1950, she was run over by a car in New York City at the prime of her musical career.

Holland, “Peanuts” Herbert LeRoy (1910-1979)
A native of Norfolk, Virginia, he was a trumpeter (also a vocalist) with the Jenkins Orphanage bands in the 1920s; played and recorded with the legendary Alphonso Trent Band (1928-33), Stuff Smith, Al Sears (1932), the Jeter-Pillars Orchestra, Lil Armstrong’s Big Band (1935-36), Bud Powell, and Jimmie Lunceford during the 1930s; after starting his own band, he moved to New York City in 1939 and played with Coleman Hawkins, Fletcher Henderson (1941) and is best known from his stint with Charlie Barnet’s Band (1941-46) with whom he frequently recorded; toured Europe with Don Redman’s Band in 1946; remained in Europe performing/recording in Paris and Scandinavia during the mid-1940s and 1950s with 46 titles on European labels; he settled in Sweden and passed away in 1979 in Stockholm.

Jamerson, James (1936-1983)
Born on Edisto Island, one of South Carolina’s barrier islands, and grew up in Charleston; by age 10, he taught himself to play piano and also studied trombone; began playing bass at age 16 in Detroit; in high school, he was a highly sought after jazz bassist playing in Detroit’s jazz and blues clubs with Washboard Willie, Kenny Burrell, Hank Jones, Yusef Lateef, and was Pearl Bailey’s bassist in the early 1970s; joined Berry Gordy and Motown in 1958 and brought to the simple rhythm and blues bass lines, a more complex and inventive style of bass playing -- a jazz sound; Jamerson’s 2-bar vamps has his trademark syncopated chromatic style with walking bass lines, double stops, syncopation and zipping passing tones; he was a bassist with Motown’s studio band, the Funk Brothers (pianist, Earl Van Dyke, drummer Benny Benjamin, guitarists Robert White and Joe Messina and Jamerson) and has a lengthy discography of Motown and non-Motown hits including the multi-platinum, “What’s Going On” – a great example of Jamerson’s brilliant bass playing, “Bernadette,” “My Guy,” “For Once in My Life,” and “I Heard It Through the Grapevine”; Jamerson was so critical to Motown’s hits that recording dates would be postponed until he was available; he was in high demand in the studio and recorded with non-Motown musicians including the Platters, Jackie Wilson, John Lee Hooker, Edwin Starr, the Parliaments, the Capitols, Marvin Gaye, Joan Baez, Maria Muldaur, the Sylvers, Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr., Dionne Warwick, and the Spinners on such hits as “Agent Double-O Soul,” “Stop Her on Sight,” “I Just Wanna Testify,” “Your Love Keeps Lifting Me Higher and Higher,” and “Cool Jerk”; as a composer, Jamerson is credited with “Fever in the Funk House” along with Eddie Willis; he received the Lifetime Achievement Award by Guitar Player, and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as the first bassist under the category, “Sideman”; at a time when many considered the bass a minor instrument, he single-handedly revolutionized bass playing with his innovative style and brought the instrument to the forefront through his playing of the electric Fender bass; chronic depression and alcoholism led to heart failure and pneumonia and Jamerson passed away in Los Angeles on August 2, 1983.

Jenkins, Edmund Thornton (1894-1926)
Seventh son of Reverend Daniel Joseph Jenkins, Avery and Morehouse College graduate; clarinetist and composer of ensemble and orchestral works including Charlestonia, a folk rhapsody which was first performed in London, 1919, then in Belgium, 1925; student of London’s Royal Academy of Music where he won prizes on clarinet, piano, and for voice and composition; he performed, composed and led bands in Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and Portugal; built bridges between jazz, the concert world, Paris, London and the American South; was a member of the London-based African Progress Union with Trinidadian and London-based physician, John Alcindor, Agatha Acham Chen whose husband, Eugene Chen of African and Chinese descent was the Foreign Minister of Nationalist China in the 1930s and whose daughter, Sylvia Chen was a friend of Langston Hughes; he was an associate of South Carolinian, writer and Morehouse graduate, Benjamin Brawley and composer and Hampton Institute music teacher, Robert Nathaniel Dett; was the President of The Coterie of Friends, a London-based club that organized social functions for people of color; organized music for the 1923 meeting of the Pan-African Congress of London which included W.E.B. DuBois as a delegate; led a successful dance band, the Queen’s Dance Orchestra of which several recordings were made; he passed away in a Paris hospital from tuberculosis or from complications from an appendectomy.

Jenkins, Freddy [Freddie] (1906-1978)
Trumpeter; resident at the Jenkins Orphanage and claimed to be related to Reverend Daniel Joseph Jenkins; Freddie was considered a “hot” soloist and crowd pleaser with Duke Ellington’s Orchestra (1928-1934 and 1937-38)) starting a tradition that would later be filled by Rex Stewart, Taft Jordon, Willie Cook, Clark Terry and others – he could be considered the first high-note trumpeter with Ellington, a position that would later be filled by Wallace Jones, Al Killian and Cat Anderson; worked with Luis Russell, Edgar Hayes, Hayes Alvis, Horace Henderson’s Collegians and soloed on “Old Man Blues” in the 1930 film, Check and Double Check; led his own group and recorded for Bluebird in 1935; composed “Stop A-Hoppin’ On Me” made popular by Big Mama Thornton and “Swing Low” with Duke Ellington; in addition to Duke Ellington, he recorded with Johnny Hodges, Barney Bigard and Rex Stewart; but in 1938 with failing lungs, he stopped playing permanently becoming a songwriter, press agent, disc jockey and press correspondent; he was one of the last survivors of Duke Ellington’s Cotton Club Orchestra.

Jones, “Speedy” Rufus (1936-1990)
Born in Charleston; though not a resident, he studied and played with the Jenkins Orphanage Bands; a multi-instrumentalist, he began playing trumpet, and at age 13, started playing drums; also played clarinet, violin, and saxophone; credited with being a great technical and fast (hence his nickname) drummer; played a regular gig with Sol Yaged at the Metropole (1959), a Times Square Club; recorded and played with Lionel Hampton (1954), Buddy Johnson, Henry “Red” Allen (1959-63), Maynard Ferguson (1959-1963), Oscar Peterson, Count Basie (1964-66) with whom he became noticed, Woody Herman, and most notably with Duke Ellington (1966-70); led his own quintet from 1963-64 and recorded his only album, Five on Eight (1964) as a band leader; credited with being a brilliant and explosive soloist; he passed away in Las Vegas.

Livingston, “Fud” Joseph Anthony (1906-1957)

A native of Charleston, Livingston was a songwriter and professional musician who played accordion and piano in his early years, and later worked as a reed man (saxophone and clarinet); in Charleston, he attended The Citadel briefly and followed his brother Walter (called “Toots” who played for Ted Weems and roomed with Bing Crosby) into the itinerant world of jazz and dance bands; between 1923 and 1927, Livingston worked as a reed man with Tal Henry in Greensboro, NC, Ben Pollack in California, the California Ramblers, Jean Goldkette; in the fall of 1927 and for several years, he became a primary arranger for big bands in New York including those of Nat Shilkret, Don Voorhees, and Jan Garber; after another brief stint with Pollack, he went to London in March 1929 and worked with Fred Elizalde at the Savoy Hotel; he returned to New York later that year, and freelanced until June 1930, when he joined Paul Whiteman; in 1931, he produced, along with Matt Malneck, what would become perhaps his most durable composition: the music for the hit ballad, “I’m Through with Love”; Livingston remained with Whiteman as sideman and arranger until 1933, also arranging for Pollack and Al Goodman during these years; in 1935, he began two years of full-time performing with the Jimmy Dorsey band while also working as an arranger from 1935-1940 for Benny Goodman, Bing Crosby, Andre Kostelanetz, Fred Rich, Frankie Trumbauer, Bob Zurke, and Pinky Tomlin; in the 1940s, Livingston went to Hollywood and did arranging for movies and radio; among Livington’s compositions are “Feelin’ No Pain,” “Humpty Dumpty,” “Harlem Twist,” “Au Rest,” “Inside on the Southside,” “Lorraine,” “Without a Penny in Your Pocket,” “Pasa ‘Qui Ba-Bee,” “Any Old Time,” and “There You Go”; of special interest to South Carolinians is the musical collaboration with his friend Robert S. Cathcart, Jr., also of Charleston; together, they wrote several popular ballads relating to their hometown -- “Easter Bells” and “Springtime in Charleston”; one of Livingston’s compositions, “Bullally,” has Gullah roots; he can also be heard on several long-playing records with the Charleston Chasers in the Vintage Jazz Mart series (English), on Columbia’s 1966 three-record volume, Thesaurus of Classic Jazz, and with Ben Pollack on a couple of Victor reissues; among the recordings of Livingston’s own compositions, Charlie Spivak’s 1948 rendition of “Springtime in Charleston” is notable; Livingston was married to Evelyn Sheffield of Chicago - they were later divorced; he spent his last years working occasionally as a pianist in New York City bars and died in New York on March 25, 1957.

Mikell, Francis Eugene, Sr. (1880-1932)
Charlestonian and multi-instrumentalist; graduated from Avery Normal Institute, Tuskegee Institute, Alabama, and South Carolina State College at Orangeburg (now South Carolina State University); graduated from the Aeolian School for Musical Research in New York; a resident of, and taught music at Jenkins Orphanage in late 1890s (Arthur Briggs and cousin Pete Briggs were his students at the orphanage – he also taught Russell Procope, Rudy Powell and Freddy Jenkins); Mikell and music-teacher colleague at the orphanage, P.M. “Hatsie” Logan taught group (rather than private sessions) musicianship classes in traditional reading skills and instrumentation techniques resulting in students and faculty who were skilled as multi-instrumentalists like Mikell himself; he is regarded as one of the most important teachers of music in Who’s Who in Jazz alongside Fess Whatley of Birmingham and Manuel Manetta of New Orleans – in fact, his musical instruction at the Jenkins Orphanage is said to have pre-dated the use of the word jazz at least by a decade; leader of the orphanage bands when they performed at the 1914 Anglo American Exposition in London; prolific composer and cornetist; bandmaster for James Reese Europe and his famous 369th Regimental Band that went to France in 1917 – the band included Jenkins Orphanage Band members Amos Gilliard, Herb Flemming, and Herbert and Stephen Wright; conductor of New York Clef Club Orchestra; sons, Otto and Eugene, Jr. were also professional musicians.

Morant, “Joey” Joseph
Charlestonian and brass instrumentalist; quintessential player from the Jenkins Orphanage band tradition of the 1950s; trumpeter with Harlem Blues and Jazz Band; has played, recorded and performed for and with hundreds of musicians including Paul McCartney, Merv Griffin and Jabbo Smith; made his first recording, Better Late Than Never in 1998; 2003 Harlem Jazz and Music Festival Instrumentalist of the Year.

Charlestonian and multi-instrumentalist; received early musical training with Lonnie Hamilton, III of Charleston and later studied drums with Bobby Thomas; played in the pit band of the Broadway show, Promises, Promises; along with Joe Zawinul and Wayne Shorter, he helped form the group, Weather Report, and with guitarist, Larry Coryell, he co-founded and recorded with The Eleventh House, the seminal fusion band of the 1970s which enjoyed a reunion in the late 1990s; he has played and/or recorded with numerous musicians including Stevie Wonder, Eric Clapton, Jeff Beck, Carlos Santana, Chubby Checker, Gil Evans, George Benson, Norman Connors, Teruo Nakamura, Herbie Hancock, Dizzy Gillespie, Stanley Clarke, Jaco Pastorius, Ron Carter, Freddie Hubbard, Donald Byrd, Chet Baker, Sonny Rollins, Arturo Sandoval, Christian McBride, Kenny Barron, Cedar Walton, Joanne Brackeen, and Robin Kenyatta; his solo albums include 1970’s releases, The Essence of Mystery, Funky Snakefoot; and his best release in 1974, Mind Transplant; other solo releases include The Survivor, Back to Jazz, Love, Fantasy, Morning Sun, and The Sky Is the Limit; in 1991, Mouzon performed with Miles Davis on the movie soundtrack entitled “Dingo”; Mouzon has also acted alongside Tom Hanks in the 1996 film, That Thing You Do!; he was voted the #2 Best Multi-Instrumentalist in the 1995 Jazziz Magazine Annual Readers Poll; he currently runs his own label, Tenacious Records, teaches drums at his private school in California, and regularly performs, tours and records in the U.S. and Europe.