Tag Archives: Ralph Ellison

Leonidas Berry and the Strength of Black Families

In 1981, after a successful career as an M.D. specializing in gastroenterology, Leonidas Berry wrote I Wouldn’t Take Nothing for My Journey Now: Two Centuries of an Afro-American Minister’s Family.  The title echoes a famous black spiritual, a testament of … Continue reading

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Sterling Plumpp salutes Von Freeman

Von Freeman, one of Chicago’s titanic tenors, passed away this August, and his passing brought to mind the most beautiful lines ever written about him: “Be-Bop is precise clumsiness.       Awkward lyricism       under a feather’s control. A world in a crack. … Continue reading

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A Radio Show on the Blues

“SOMETHING OLD, NEW, BORROWED…BLUE” The blues is America’s most fundamental roots music, still not only the bedrock of most of its popular music—rock, jazz, pop, soul, and more—but continuing to exert an even more powerful influence on world music.  “Something Old, New, … Continue reading

Posted in Jazz History, Music & Meaning, Music & Media Podcasts | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment