| Musicologist Irving Kolodin included a quote in his liner notes for the 1950 2-record release of Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall jazz concert. He said: "Someone said to Goodman, "It's too damn bad somebody didn't make a record of this whole thing." [Goodman] smiled and said: 'Somebody did.'" |
Jackie and his wife, Rachel, hosted an audience of 600 privately invited guests that day to raise money for Dr. Martin Luther King Jr's Southern Christian Leadership Conference.
After 1963, the concert became an annual event and quickly outgrew the Robinson's lakefront backyard. It was moved to a park in Norwalk, CT, then became a NYC jazz festival. Now decades later it's still happening: http://www.jackierobinson.org/events/jazz03.htm
This first concert was not broadcast and no recording was made. No official recording, that is. But an unofficial one was. Unknown to all but Robinson who approved it, jazz critic George Simon who volunteered to ride the levels, and my dad and myself, a tape recording was made of the entire 2 PM to 7:30 concert.
Why was I there? My parents were neighbors of the Robinsons and ten years before in 1953 my father, a lawyer, had been instrumental in beating back the racists trying to keep the Robinsons out of the neighborhood. Dad was invited to the concert, phoned his jazz-crazy son in Virginia, and we attended together. When we discovered there was no one there to record it, I drove up the road to get dad's equipment.
Our machine was a professional 6-head Berlant Concertone 2-case portable. At Simon's invitation, the input was linked to the output of his microphone mixer. The tape was brand new Audiotape 1/2-mil Mylar. Nothing at all like studio conditions, in the shade of a tree with the June temperature soaring, but good enough for the mono recording we got.
The tapes have it all: all the music and all the patter, including Robinson's introduction of the Rev Wyatt T. Walker representing Dr. King. The concert raised $14,334 for the SCLC.
Other speakers on the tape are Dizzy Gillespie, Mercer Ellington, NYC DJs Mort Fega and William B. Williams, and the versatile Billy Taylor who volunteered to emcee that day (and for years thereafter.)
The tapes were never copied. There is only one set of eight 7-inch tapes. No one has heard them but me.
I've always cherished the memory of the hours after the concert. The audience had gone home. Only a handful of musicians stayed behind, along with some friends of the Robinsons like bridge buddy Aime Govan (sp), and a few strays like me. Billy Strayhorn played Rachel Robinson's piano into the early morning, occasionally doing songs he wrote that have yet to be recorded even now.
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Set 1 - Duke Ellington Alumni - 7 cuts
Seldon Powell
Set 2 - Joya Sherrill - 5 cuts Same musicians less Jerome Richardson
Set 3 - Dizzy Gillespie - 5 cuts
Diz
Set 4 - Carol Sloan - 5 cuts
Jimmy Jones
Set 5 - Dave Brubeck Quartet - 5 cuts
Dave
Set 6 - Jackie Robinson & Rev. Wyatt T. Walker Pitch for contributions to the Southern Christian Leadership Conference
Set 7 - Cannonball Adderley Quintet - 5 cuts
Cannonball
Set 8 - Billy Taylor Trio - 2 long cuts
Billy
Set 9 - Jimmy Rushing - 10 cuts (last 2 instrumental)
Billy Strayhorn
Set 10 - Randy Weston Quartet - 5 cuts
Weston
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Rey Barry (rey at cstone.net) All rights reserved Page last updated Aug 27, 2010 |
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