ARCHIVES OF AFRICAN AMERICAN MUSIC AND CULTURE

liner notesNO. 20 / 2015-2016

A Sound Disciple: The Life and Radio Career of Jacquie Gales Webb From the Desk of the Director aaamc mission The AAAMC is devoted to the collection, preservation, and As I come to the close of my second Initiative, followed by three days of dissemination of materials for year as Director of the Archives stimulating sessions and IU hospitality. the purpose of research and of African American Music and Nelson-Strauss’ organizational efforts study of African American Culture, I pause to reflect on the list of were supported by AAAMC staff, music and culture. accomplishments we have achieved over including Digital Archivist/Project www.indiana.edu/~aaamc the past twelve months. Each day my Manager William Vanden Dries, and appreciation and understanding of the graduate assistants Matthew Alley and very vital roles that the Archives can Douglas Peach, both Ph.D. students in Table of Contents play in our individual and collective lives ethnomusicology at IU. Peach’s talents increases. With a mission of collection, were showcased as a presenter in a panel From the Desk preservation, dissemination and which highlighted the contents of his of the Director...... 2 analysis, archives can help in making the co-authored book, Ola Belle Reed and difference in whose story gets told and Southern Mountain Music on the Mason- In the Vault: how. Dixon Line (2015). Recent Donations...... 3 In December 2015, a panel comprised Brenda Nelson-Strauss represented of Drs. Alisha Jones and Tyron Cooper the AAAMC in Los Angeles in October A Sound Disciple: and I, chaired by Dr. Clara Henderson, 2015 when Logan Westbrooks, a The Life and Radio Career presented the session Hot Buttered past member of our advisory board, of Jacquie Gales Webb...... 4 Soul: The Role of Foodways in Building received the Vanguard Award from and Sustaining African American the Living Legends Foundation in Jacquie Gales Webb Communities at the annual meeting recognition of his distinguished career Visits Indiana University...... 10 of the Society for Ethnomusicology in the music industry. We were thrilled meeting in Austin, Texas. Both Jones that Westbrooks chose to remark on One on One: Interview and Cooper are valued AAAMC his ongoing relationship with IU and with Ericka Blount Danois.....12 research associates, who had presented the AAAMC during his acceptance Featured Collection: earlier versions of their papers to an speech at the awards banquet, Behind the Scenes of enthusiastic audience at an AAAMC encouraging other Black music industry Soul Train: The Ericka event sponsored in conjunction with the executives to consider the importance Blount Danois Collection...... 17 College of Arts and Sciences at Indiana of preserving history. The Logan University in 2014. The SEM panel was Westbrooks Collection holds a position One on One: Interview well attended, especially for the early of prominence in the AAAMC, and his with Opal Louis Nations...... 18 8:00 a.m. start time. Musical examples visit and public presentations at IU in in the presentations featured items from 2013 made an indelible impression on Online Exhibit: The Golden the AAAMC broadly representative of the broad range of students who heard Age of Black Radio...... 23 African American musical practices, his riveting stories as a pioneering rural and urban, sacred and secular, past executive at CBS Records, who advanced Sound Bytes: and present. The subsequent spirited the careers of the likes of Harold Melvin Digital Initiatives...... 26 exchange which the panelists generated & the Blue Notes, Billy Paul, and the was sufficiently stimulating to prompt O’Jays. the audience to continue the discussion Memorabilia from the Logan On the Cover: for a full 30-minutes after the session Westbrooks Collection was displayed officially ended. Our long term objective as part of the fall 2015 exhibit, The for this AAAMC-inspired project is to Wunderkammer: The Curiosities in expand and translate this important Indiana University Collections, at content into print. the Grunwald Gallery of Art on the The AAAMC was also strongly in IU campus. Douglas Peach curated evidence at the 50th annual ARSC the AAAMC portion of the exhibit (Association for Recorded Sound which included a lunchbox given to Collections) conference held at Indiana Westbrooks to “create a buzz” for Diana University during May 2016. Through Ross’ 1989 album, Workin’ Overtime; a the vision of the AAAMC’s Head of key to the City of Memphis, Tennessee, Collections Brenda Nelson-Strauss, presented to Westbrooks in 1991; and a who served as conference organizer, Soul Train jacket Westbrooks received Jacquie Gales Webb, host of Sunday the group of nearly 300 attendees during his tenure as Vice President for Afternoon Gospel on Washington, D.C.’s was welcomed to a two-day pre- Marketing at Soul Train Records. WHUR. conference workshop featuring IU’s new Another AAAMC 2015-16 highlight Media Digitization and Preservation was the invitation from Google to curate

2 an online juried exhibit for publication This account provides a glimpse of the during Black History Month. As one of breadth of the AAAMC’s educational the 54 cultural organizations selected to mission and the richness of its impact participate, our four-part virtual exhibit, on our ever expanding information The Golden Age of Black Radio,was culture. The staff of the AAAMC added to the Google Cultural Institute cultivates and values opportunities to site in February 2016. The exhibit document and foreground accounts of garnered the attention of National African American presence, innovation Public Radio, which prompted an on-air and excellence in the field of music. We interview regarding its conception and welcome your feedback as a measure of content with Brenda Nelson-Strauss. our success in this effort. — Mellonee Burnim, Ph.D.

In the Vault: Recent Donations

Special Collections: Angela Brown: Additional programs and Teresa Hairston: Gospel music magazines, press clippings from 2013-2015. CDs, DVDs, videos, media press kits, artist Deborah Smith Pollard: Gospel music publicity, and event photographs. magazines, interviews with gospel Michael Nixon: Hip hop magazines musicians, and radio airchecks. and images related to the marketing and Opal Louis Nations: Pewburner CD series promotion of hip hop artists and music in and recent articles. Carl Tancredi: Limited circulation Los Angeles, CA. magazines from the 1970s with a focus on Prince Rogers Nelson Commemorative vocal harmony groups. Logan Westbrooks: Additional personal Publications: Collection of posthumously papers from 2013-2015. published magazines compiled by AAAMC staff.

CD/DVD/Book Donors:

4Entertainment Daptone Records Killer B3 Resonance Records Akousa Gyebi Delmark Records Legacy Recordings Resonate Media Alison M Loggins-Hill DL Media Luaka Bop Rock Paper Scissors Alligator Records Dorado Lydia Liebman Promotions Sacks and Co Armadillo Music Effective Immediately PR M.C. Records Secretly Canadian Audio Preservation Fund Entertainment One Mack Avenue Records Shanachie Entertainment Avie Records Ethan Alapatt Mariea Antoinette Shout! Factory Basin Street Records Fat Possum Records Mark Pucci Media Slingshot Bellamy Group Fernando Orejuela Michael Woods Sony Legacy Black Diet Flipswitch PR Living Legends Foundation SSR PR Blind Pig Records Forced Exposure MCG Records Sugar Qube Records Blind Raccoon Fully Altered Media Miles High Productions Sugar Shack Blue Engine Records Gathier Music Montema Tá Records Blue Note Get On Down MVD Terri Hinte Blues Images Girlie Action Naxos of America Thirsty Ear Braithwaite & Katz Good Road PR New Community Thompkins Media Group Communications Hard Head Nonesuch Tomás Doncker Bryant Scott Harmonia Mundi Numero Group Tyscot Records Capitol Entertainment HighNote Records Okeh Ubiquity Records Chart Room Media illPhonics PELO Music Universal Music Cherry Red Records Indra Rios-Moore Portia Maultsby University of Chicago Press Cleopatra Records Jatta Press Junkie Wacken Records Computer Ugly Jazz Promo Services Propeller Media Group Warner Music Group Concord Music Group Jazz Village Rahim Muhammad Wolf Records Conqueroo Jensen Communications Real Gone Music Culture Shock Music Joe Douglass Ministries Red Beet Records Cumbancha K7 Records RED Distribution

The AAAMC welcomes donations of photographs, film, video, sound recordings, music, and research materials on all aspects of African American music.

3 A Sound Disciple: The Life and Radio Career of Jacquie Gales Webb

Jacquie Gales Webb is an impactful presence moved to Westbury, Long Island, settling Frankie Crocker, and La Mar Renee—all in the broadcasting industry. As the host of in the neighborhood of New Cassel. At Black radio personalities. The female Sunday Afternoon Gospel, she has become a that time, New Cassel was an important deejays were especially influential to Gales: mainstay on Washington, D.C.’s WHUR-FM working-class suburban area for African “[I was] a little girl hearing these beautiful and, today, is being broadcast throughout Americans. Gales Webb reflects: “. . . I had voices, female voices, [and it] allowed me the world via the web. Gales Webb’s passion a pretty good childhood [among] African to imagine doing the same thing.” And she for music has been expressed through Black American families growing up in one did. radio for over 40 years and she has garnered neighborhood—you know, doctors and Channeling their inspiration, Gales numerous awards for her efforts—most lawyers; and carpenters and blue collar hosted her own afternoon “radio” show at notably the “Lifetime Achievement Award” workers; neighborhood associations, Boys Westbury High School. Broadcasting over from the National Convention of Gospel and Girls Clubs, and cotillions. [W]e didn’t the intercom, her playlists included the hit Choirs and Choruses. The mission of her know we were lower-middle class, we records she heard on WBLS and WWRL. work—bringing listeners closer to God thought we were doing pretty good at the Her passion had become practice. through music—continues to this day. time . . .” While records and radio were Gales’ Despite her distance from the musical connection to Black secular music, she In order to understand the breadth of her hotbed of Harlem, Westbury was the place was exposed to gospel music during visits contributions to Black radio, I interviewed where the young Gales began her life-long to family in South Carolina and Georgia. Gales Webb in September 2015 at her fascination with African American music. Each year, the Gales traveled south by car office in Washington, D.C. Excerpts from Her father, an avid music fan, owned a LP or by train on the “Chicken Bone Express,” this interview are included throughout the collection that included Harry “Sweets” as it was often referenced by Blacks, who profile below. Edison, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, and had to bring their own food on board Harry Belafonte. As a child, Gales would because Jim Crow laws did not allow them Let’s begin where her love for music was spend hours with these records in the family to receive service in the dining car. Gales’ born. basement: “I am an only child, so music was first experience with gospel music was my world. In the evening I would go down during one of these Southern adventures, Early Life and and get into my father’s record collection . . . and several songs of this period still hold a Musical Foundations and I was all three of the Supremes; I was all special place in her memory. For example, Jacqueline Diana Gales was born in 1955 five of the Temptations; I was the entire cast she remembers her introduction to James in Harlem, New York—the year and city of West Side Story. You know? So I got into Cleveland’s “Peace Be Still”—which she calls where Marian Anderson first sang at the music that way.” “a perfect example of an anointed song”— Metropolitan Opera. Her parents, Indiana In addition to records, her love for while visiting her grandmother’s home in Johnson Gales and Wesley David Gales, secular music grew by listening to the Black Athens. were natives of Athens, Georgia, but moved radio stations broadcasting from New York These elements—North and South, from the Jim Crow-era South to Harlem City. Lying in her bed at night, the young sacred and secular, records and radio— during the Great Migration. Gales tuned into WBLS and WWRL to hear became the musical foundation for her In 1958, the young Gales and her family the broadcasts of Alma John, Vy Higginsen, ongoing career in Black radio.

A young Jacqueline Gales with her parents. Jacquie Gales Webb at the microphone. Jacquie Gales on WYCB in Washington, D.C.

4 Jacquie Gales Webb and AAAMC graduate assistant Douglas Peach, who curated the Gales Webb exhibit at Indiana University.

Staff at WYCB: (l to r) Donn Miller, Jacquie Gales, Gales Webb and Stevie Wonder at WYCB. Lou Rawls, Jacquie Gales Webb, and John Tyler, Raynetta Ray, and Mitch Clark. recording for Black Radio: Telling it Like it Was.

5 On the Air “positive message music” into Washington, When Gales left Westbury to attend DC’s first 24-hour gospel music station. Emerson College in 1973, she took an For Gales, the shift in ownership unpaid student position at the College’s presented new professional opportunities. radio station WECB-AM. Fresh out of While she continued her gospel radio high school, Gales’ work was strictly show, her administrative responsibilities administrative, although her ambitions at WYCB expanded to the position of lay behind the microphone. Her first music manager, then to program director. opportunity to broadcast came by She created new ways to connect with surprise—she was thrust onto the air to her listening audiences and increase announce the resignation of Vice President advertising revenue for the station, such of the U.S., Spiro Agnew. as broadcasting live from Black businesses Promoted quickly to Emerson’s more- in Washington, D.C. She was essential Gales Webb and Chuck Brown at Food 2 Feed. prestigious WERS-FM, Gales Webb settled in promoting the careers of artists like into a broadcast position. Her first show, Richard Smallwood and the Winans, The Black Experience, ran from 10:00 p.m. whose recordings she played frequently, to midnight and featured Black artists and who she sometimes interviewed such as Chaka Khan, George Benson, War, on WYCB. These relationships and and Earth, Wind & Fire. Gales’ popularity experiences would serve her future career, spread beyond Emerson when she hosted but, most importantly for this moment, Jazz in the Afternoon on WERS from 1975 they helped WYCB become financially to 1977. The program’s “drive-time” slot, stable. from 3:00–7:00 p.m., made Gales a rising In 1983, Gales decided to shift her star on Boston’s airwaves. career from radio to television. Having Sonny Joe White, the owner of Boston’s studied broadcasting at Emerson, she was WILD-FM and a listener to Jazz in the eager to take on this medium. Working Afternoon, recognized her potential. for W*USA TV, Washington D.C.’s ABC White offered her an audition and she was affiliate, she produced numerous programs, Gales Webb’s induction into the hired for her first professional position: worked closely with television journalist WERS Hall of Fame in 2014. broadcasting gospel music from 6:00–8:00 Maureen Bunyan, and won several Emmy a.m. on WILD-AM, a white-owned station. awards for her productions. Her time This assignment launched Gales’ forty-year at W*USA TV coincided with several professional career in broadcasting. changes in her personal life. She married TV broadcast journalist Clif Webb, WYCB changed her name to Jacquie Gales Webb, With experience in hand, Gales spent and their first daughter was born in 1991. 1978 to 1983 working for WYCB-AM, a Black-owned radio station in Washington, Sunday Afternoon D.C. In its early days, WYCB was led by Gospel on WHUR-FM Black radio entrepreneurs, Dewey Hughes It was this same year that Gales Webb and Cathy Liggins Hughes. Under their returned to her first love: radio. Howard direction, the format of WYCB-FM was University’s WHUR-FM wanted to “positive message music”—the station capitalize on the success of its “Sunday A young Gales with Richard Smallwood. featured Black artists whose recordings Morning Gospel” with Patrick Ellis and conveyed a theme of positivity. This sought familiar on-air personalities format countered genres of Black music who could create and host new gospel that WYCB questioned, such as gangsta programs. The station’s management— rap. Some of WYCB’s most-played songs Jim Watkins (general manager), Bobby during this period included the O’Jays Bennett (program director), and Ellis Terry “Message in Our Music” and “Wake Up (operations manager)—remembered Gales Everybody” by Harold Melvin & the Blue Webb’s work from WYCB and knew that Notes. she would be recognizable to their listening The Hughes left the station in 1978 and audience. She was soon hired to host an were replaced by Howard Sanders. After afternoon gospel program, which quickly taking the helm, Sanders’ primary goal became known as Sunday Afternoon for WYCB was clear: he needed to make Gospel. the station profitable. Recognizing the In the twenty-five years since its popularity of gospel music programming, inception, Sunday Afternoon Gospel has Gales Webb with trumpeter Clark Terry. Sanders shifted WYCB from its format of become a part of the cultural fabric of

6 Washington, D.C. Dedicated listeners tune Webb pays close attention to what and how in each week from 12:15–3:00 p.m. to hear a song communicates before selecting it for the best of contemporary and traditional her show. She elaborates: “[Potential songs gospel music. For her work, Gales Webb have] to grab you, not only sound-wise, has been recognized by the Coalition for but emotionally, because it’s a gospel song. African Americans in the Performing Arts There’s a song now by Travis Greene called (CAAPA) and inducted into the Hall of ‘Intentional.’ And all it says is ‘all things Fame for Emerson College’s WERS. Her are working for my good, it’s intentional.’ I success is built on the pillars of engagement mean it’s over, and over, and over. It’s very with her community, her relationships and repetitive. But because of what he’s saying, promotional work with gospel artists, and and the way he’s presenting it, it doesn’t what she calls “curation”—or the selection seem repetitive enough to annoy people. of music for her show. And it’s becoming a big hit.”

In other words, Gales Webb’s ears are Jacquie Gales Webb with Rufus Thomas. Curation peaked for the “anointing”—what she Counter to the many radio programs defines as, “the ability for a sound, a phrase, that use algorithms to select music, the a feeling, to bring people closer to God.” curation of Sunday Afternoon Gospelis no Songs like “Intentional” are measured simple process. A typical 2016 program against classics like Richard Smallwood’s might include music from contemporary “Total Praise,” which she contends, “has the artists Brian Courtney Wilson and Anthony Spirit.” Brown, mixed with established greats Tonality is another important factor like Shirley Caesar, Walter Hawkins, and in Gales Webb’s curatorial process. As a Andraé Crouch. While gospel represents former gospel choir member, she brings the foundation of her show, popular music a musician’s sensitivity to her curation. If artists such as George Benson and Whitney singers are off-pitch or instruments out- Houston, to name a few, are sometimes of-tune, the recording will not likely get air included in her playlists as well. time on her show. If Gales Webb were to define her Through the principles guiding her Gales Webb and Jim Watkins at Food 2 Feed. curatorial style, it would be “eclectic.” The curation—eclecticism, transcendence, and foundation for her approach lies with her musical quality—she forges a “spiritual childhood hero—radio personality and connection” with her listeners. Yet, music is entrepreneur Frankie Crocker. She shares: not the only vehicle with which Gales Webb “What I did pick up from [Frankie] was connects with her audience. how you can curate music . . . he not only played the O’Jays and the disco hits, but he’d In-tune with the community throw in some Miles Davis. He’d throw in Engagement with the African American some Rolling Stones. He mixed it up, and community has been a core tenet of Black it all fit. And that’s something that I must radio since its beginnings in the 1920s. admit that I do [now] with gospel music.” Although Sunday Afternoon Gospelhas On Sunday Afternoon Gospel, eclecticism a global listening audience, Gales Webb means thinking of musical selections follows this tradition by consciously not simply in terms of genre, but also in connecting with her local listening terms of meaning—what she wants to community in Washington, D.C. Gales Webb and Richard Smallwood at WHUR. communicate through her show. As she When she is not on the air, Gales Webb explains: “When I’m going to different works as an emcee for church programs, churches . . . they play gospel but they fundraisers, music festivals, and other might even sing ‘Reach Out and Touch events in the African American community. Somebody’s Hand,’ the Diana Ross song. In these contexts, she is deeply-respected Or if it’s a special anniversary for the pastor for her professionalism, ability to engage an and his wife, they might play a beautiful audience, and her musical knowledge. For love song. You know, the gospel experience the on-air personality, these engagements isn’t as one-dimensional as most people are opportunities to hear the songs that are think. I’ve thrown in ‘Happy’ by Pharrell most popular with her audiences. If a gospel [Williams] on Sunday Afternoon Gospel—it song resonates in the community, there is just seemed to fit.” a good chance it will appear on her Sunday Her brand of eclecticism is not based Afternoon Gospel playlist. solely on how a song fits into a playlist, but Gales Webb’s audience engagement is also how it will impact her listeners. Gales also maintained through the aesthetics she Gales Webb with Emerson College President, Lee Pelton.

7 uses while broadcasting Sunday Afternoon people said, ‘Oh, that’s not gospel music.’ Gospel. Speaking about Black deejays, But I went to a Kirk Franklin performance, aesthetics, and their connection to their and at the end, where he brought young communities, AAAMC founding director people up ... they were crying and ... giving and IU Professor Emeritus Dr. Portia K. their life to Christ, and he was leading them Maultsby says: “In spite of the microphones, to church ... I said this—you know—this is deejays were committed to having a right!” personal conversation with their audiences . Since her earliest encounter with . . the oral tradition of storytelling, speaking Franklin’s music, his recordings have been in rhythm and rhyme, speaking in an a constant presence on Sunday Afternoon improvised style, as well as an animated Gospel. Furthermore, Franklin makes delivery, was a cultural expression that was frequent visits to the WHUR studio for familiar to the [Black] masses.” interviews with Gales Webb. In 2015, they Gales Webb with Dottie Peoples, Juanita Every Sunday, Gales Webb stays in-tune reflected on their mutual admiration and Jackson, and Bill Cole at WHUR. with her community through her on air respect during a studio broadcast: delivery style. Her commentary is seasoned with rhythmic cadences as she glides Jacquie Gales Webb: Kirk Franklin, through her notes with an improvised thank you for joining me here at confidence. Inspired by the spirit of the WHUR. songs she plays, her animated interludes are celebrations of life that keep her listeners Kirk Franklin: Are you kidding engaged and energized for the coming me? I will walk from Texas up here week. Through reading announcements to see you. You are the quintessential from local churches and community legend in radio and broadcast groups, she provides a highly valued journalism . . . I really admire and public service and simultaneously forges appreciate you. You’ve done so a personal relationship with her listening much for my career throughout the audience. years. You’ve always supported me Gales Webb and Stacy Lattisaw at WHUR. Gales Webb also works with WHUR- and you’ve always been honest— FM to host Food 2 Feed—a “radiothon” when you did not like a song, you that collects non-perishable food items and would let me know! I think artists monetary contributions on behalf of the need more people letting them Capitol Area Food Bank for Thanksgiving. know when [the music is] not ready Begun in 2008, the event collected 170,000 . . . I appreciate you for that type of meals during its 2014 program. She is just coaching, pushing, and challenging one of the many WHUR personalities who that you’ve given me for over twenty volunteer to participate in live Food 2 Feed years. broadcasts. JGW: Well, that’s just because I love Artists you. Gales Webb’s success is also based on the relationships she has developed with gospel KF: I love you, too, Momma [term music professionals during her tenures at of endearment and respect]. WHUR staff atFood 2 Feed. WYCB and WHUR. Deep respect for her work is widespread in the gospel music JGW: And I appreciate your industry, and many recording artists are ministry. indebted to her for the promotion and support she has provided throughout her Distinguished gospel music icon career. Richard Smallwood is another artist whom One such performer is gospel superstar Gales Webb has promoted throughout her Kirk Franklin. At the start of his career, career. Smallwood’s music is a mainstay on the now multi-platinum selling artist was Sunday Afternoon Gospeljust like it is in considered highly controversial among churches across Washington, D.C. Gales many segments of the gospel community. Webb championed Smallwood’s music, While his music was often labelled “too even when she did not personally share secular,” Gales Webb embraced Franklin’s her audience’s fervor for a particular song. music as well as his ministry, commenting: She explains: “. . . there’s a song of Richard “I love Kirk Franklin. I was one of the first Smallwood’s that I have played for 25 Gales Webb interviews Kirk Franklin on [to do so] because when he first came years—‘I’ll See You Again.’ People love it . Sunday Afternoon Gospel, Dec. 2015.

8 . . [and] it didn’t hit me until last month. have been digitized and are accessible to I mean, I play the song because it’s a nice researchers. Audio from this collection was song. But it hit me because my cousin had used in the AAAMC’s 2016 online exhibit just died. And I was listening to it and it “The Golden Age of Black Radio” (see really got to me. So . . . even though I didn’t related story). relate to it that much in the beginning, The second Jacquie Gales Webb [once] I related to it, I really understood Collection (SC 81) is her personal archive, why people requested it all the time . . .” comprised of professional photos, family portraits, and numerous awards for Jacquie Gales Webb her work in radio and television. Also Collections at the AAAMC included are production materials for Gales Webb’s ongoing relationship with other programs she produced, including the AAAMC is built on years of personal two radio series—Remembering Slavery interaction with the Archives’ staff; this and Jazz Singers—and the award-winning Gales Webb with Smokie Norful at WHUR. connection grows stronger through the public television documentary, Melodies acquisition of her two archival collections. from Heaven, which explored African In the early 1990s, Gales Webb took a American gospel radio in Washington, position with Smithsonian Productions— D.C. Much of this collection is featured an organization designed to disseminate in the AAAMC’s newest online exhibit, the curatorial work of the Smithsonian’s “Jacquie Gales Webb: Radio DJ and museums and programs through multi- Producer” (see “Sound Bytes” article). media projects. One of her most important These two collections paint a vivid productions was Black Radio: Telling It portrait of Gales Webb’s contributions Like It Was—a thirteen-part public radio to Black music and radio, while also documentary that details the history of documenting her very important personal Black radio in the United States. Produced history. in conjunction with Lex Gillespie and Sonya Williams, “Black Radio” received the Signing Off prestigious Alfred I. DuPont Award from From humble beginnings in Westbury Gales Webb and Marvin Sapp at WHUR. Columbia University and the Peabody to the heights of gospel radio stardom, Award from the University of Georgia. the life and career of Jacquie Gales Webb During the production, Gales Webb is characterized by deep commitments to reached out to Dr. Portia K. Maultsby, African American music, her community, founding Director of the AAAMC, for and her faith. As Sunday Afternoon consultation on important historical, Gospel enters its 26th year, she remains an theoretical and musical perspectives which arbiter of sacred music, showcasing the were incorporated into the production of songs that create a spiritual bond between “Black Radio.” This strategic professional the gospel announcer, her listeners, and partnership, supported by the expertise the recording artists who translate their of Brenda Nelson-Strauss, Head of Christian belief through music. Steadfast Collections, created the “perfect storm” in her commitment and recognized for for the on-air personality’s legacy to be her contributions to Black radio over the preserved at Indiana University. past forty years, Gales Webb has continued The first of Gales Webb’s two a powerful legacy of Black gospel radio Gales Webb and Tye Tribbett at WHUR. collections, Black Radio: Telling It Like It announcers, while also leaving her own Was (SC 39, donated in 1996), includes distinguished footprints that many music research and production materials enthusiasts—perhaps themselves listening documenting the thirteen-part radio to Black radio in their beds at night—will series. The collection features interviews follow. from over 160 disc jockeys, artists, radio Each week, Gales Webb signs off industry professionals, and scholars Sunday Afternoon Gospel with her who provided the “raw material” for trademark phrase: “May the grace of God the production. Promotional materials, save you; May the will of God guide you production notes, and awards received and May the love of God shine through by the program represent some of you until we meet again. You be blessed!” the additional items in the collection. It seems appropriate to end her story in Importantly, the AAAMC also holds all just the same way. thirteen episodes of “Black Radio,” which — Douglas Dowling Peach Gales Webb and Jonathan Nelson at WHUR.

9 Jacquie Gales Webb with past and present AAAMC staff. Front row (L-R): Thomas D. Jordan (Gales Webb’s cousin), Raynetta Wiggins. Back row (L-R): Matthew Alley, William Vanden Dries, Jacquie Gales Webb, Brenda Nelson-Strauss, Dorothy Berry, and Mellonee Burnim. Jacquie Gales Webb Visits Indiana University On March 9, 2016, Jacquie Gales Webb the role that Black radio stations have announcer and producer, highlighting the visited Indiana University’s Bloomington historically played in their communities, radio and television stations that she worked campus as part of the celebration Gales Webb’s approach to programming for, and showcasing several key projects that surrounding the establishment of the music on her radio shows, and the state she spearheaded. Gales Webb emphasized Jacquie Gales Webb Collection (SC 81) in of the gospel music industry today. This how her career has been informed by her the Archives of African American Music conversation provided students with faith as well as by her business acumen, and Culture. This deposit supplements her historical perspective on the dissemination noting the responsibility of broadcasters to previous donation of Black Radio: Telling It and representation of gospel music via radio engage in public service, making a strong Like It Was (SC 39)—the most frequently broadcasting and offered a rare look into the case for the production of high quality accessed and utilized collection at the day-to day operations of broadcasting units. educational programs in public media AAAMC. Following this informal in-class as essential to cultivating well-informed During her visit, Gales Webb toured the discussion, Gales Webb presented a citizens. AAAMC and IU’s new Media Digitization public lecture in the Neal-Marshall Black The afternoon concluded with and Preservation Initiative facilities, both of Culture Center, after an official university a reception honoring Gales Webb’s which are playing a key role in preserving welcome from Professor Martin McCrory, distinguished career and the establishment her valuable materials. She also had an Associate Vice President for Diversity, of the Jacquie Gales Webb Collection, opportunity to see audio items from her Equity and Multicultural Affairs. Gales where she also had an opportunity to collections being transferred at the MDPI Webb’s lecture highlighted her career in see the AAAMC’s exhibit on her life and facility. radio and television broadcasting, her work in the Bridgwaters Lounge. Students, After working with AAAMC staff to deeply personal relationship with gospel faculty and staff in attendance responded to document the components of her collection music, and the importance of transmitting Gales Webb’s account of her distinguished in greater detail, Gales Webb spoke with high quality media over the radio and career in radio and television broadcasting graduate students in Dr. Mellonee Burnim’s television airwaves. She spoke candidly and with tremendous enthusiasm and great African American Religious Music course. passionately about the role of her family appreciation. The class discussed various topics including life in preparing her for a career as an — Matthew Alley

10 Gales Webb stands in front of the AAAMC’s exhibit celebrating her career in Black radio (Bridgwaters Lounge, Neal-Marshall Black Culture Center).

Gales Webb meeting with Dr. Mellonee Burnim’s class. Gales Webb lecturing at Indiana University, March 9, 2016.

Gales Webb lecturing at Indiana University as part of the public launch and celebration of the Jacquie Gales Webb Collection at the AAAMC.

11 one-on-one

12 An Interview with Ericka Blount Danois

Ericka Blount Danois, an award- newspaper and I just was really excited EBD: Well, you know it’s funny—The winning author and journalist based about the feedback I got from writing Wire just happened accidentally. I was in Baltimore, Maryland, was trained that article. And I just continued, and at Sundance [Film Festival] and there at Columbia’s graduate school of did stories for the local paper, The were maybe like 20 of us in a cabin and journalism. Her articles about music, Philadelphia Tribune, and decided that I met—his real name is Andre Royo— race, culture, and politics have been journalism is kind of the best of both you know, his character on The Wire is featured in publications ranging from worlds—reading and writing and doing Bubbles. During that weekend he got a The Source, Wax Poetics, to the Wall investigative stuff. I also, as a kid, loved call to be on the show. So, I said, “You Street Journal, and have included Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys mysteries know (at the time I was working for stories on numerous musicians, actors, and all of those—Sherlock Holmes and the Baltimore newspaper), when you athletes, and politicians. For her recent Encyclopedia Brown. It kind of worked come to Baltimore let me know and book, Love, Peace, and Soul—Behind itself out. I’ll see what the show is all about.” And the Scenes of America’s Favorite I had no idea that it was going to be Dance Show (Backbeat Books, 2013), MA: I know you mentioned to me this big phenomenon. So I had started she journeyed back to “the land of last night when we talked that you’re covering it before it even happened, bell-bottoms, afros, and soul power” to covering the Freddie Gray trial right really, because [Andre Royo] was taking chronicle Soul Train—the hit television now. What other stories have you me to their lunches and all the stuff that show dubbed “the hippest trip in covered recently? they did prior to actually recording. I America.” ended up covering it for the entire five EBD: Recently, I just did a piece for series—various stories, from profiles AAAMC graduate assistant Matthew Pitchfork magazine on go-go music. I on some of the characters to a profile Alley interviewed Danois about her grew up in D.C. so go-go was a big part on the character that inspired it. Little career in December 2015. In these of my upbringing. Also, my dad was Melvin Williams was a drug kingpin excerpts, she discusses researching her a deejay so we listened to all kinds of in Baltimore and he had reformed Soul Train book, her musical interests, music, but that was sort of the youth and had been in prison—I don’t know and relates stories of notable interviews music of my time period. So, I just did how long, maybe 30 years or so. And she has conducted during the course of a piece for them which will come out they finally actually hired him to be her career. in the next issue. I’m trying to think on the show after he was released from of what else—mostly culture pieces. I prison because apparently he had this MA: The first thing I’d like to ask did a bunch of stuff onMad Men, the incredible photographic memory and you is a little bit about your personal show, because in addition to music, he was the one that created that wire background. Where are you from? I really, really love TV. Obviously, I code that the show was inspired by. So, guess, Soul Train and music—it all, I ended up interviewing him and… just EBD: So I was born in Washington, again, worked itself out. Mad Men was [writing] a bunch of different stories DC. I lived there until I went to college one of my favorite shows and I had every season on the show. . . . in Philadelphia, PA at University of sort of dissected it and did a bunch of Pennsylvania. I stayed there for four stories. It’s funny, one of the stories I did And then Treme. Oh my God, New years and moved to New York right was on a record exec who created the Orleans music and culture is just after school. I lived in New York maybe Coke jingle that was the ending of the fascinating to me. I was just—it was nine or ten years, got married there, and entire series. He was a Chess Records beyond exciting that he decided to do then we moved to Baltimore. So now alum. That was another piece I’ve done a series on it. Just being able to see all I’ve been in Baltimore 13 years. recently. those musicians on the show and being able to learn even more about New MA: I know that you got your MA: Wow, that’s interesting. You Orleans than I thought I knew. You graduate degree in journalism from mentioned a moment ago about how know, that show was just incredible. I Columbia. Was your undergrad in you’ve written some about TV. One wish that it had gotten a lot more play journalism as well? thing that immediately grabbed me than it did. But I enjoyed it. when I was reading through your EBD: No. In fact, I was an English resume was your articles about the MA: You mentioned a couple of major. As a kid, I loved to read— David Simon shows, The Wire and people that you’ve interviewed who primarily, I loved to read fiction. But, Treme. have really stood out to you. Are there when I got to Penn, [though] I loved any other people that you’ve profiled English, I just didn’t really know what EBD: Yes! Both of them! or that you’ve talked to that you are I was going to do with an English particularly interested in or that your major. I was fortunate enough to have MA: What drew you to those shows? conversations maybe went differently someone ask me to write for the student than you expected?

13 Clockwise from top: Don Cornelius, Johnny Nash and Logan Westbrooks on an episode of Soul Train; Kurtis Blow; Earth, Wind & Fire; Shalamar (Logan H. Westbrooks and Karen Shearer Collections).

14 lives. That was our daily lives. I would MA: I’ve read your book on Soul go to sleep with the radio on, I would Train. You mentioned that you watched wake up to the radio. My dad was always, it growing up, so how did that initial always playing music. We didn’t really interest lead to writing a book about it? know a life without music. You know, Soul Train was obviously a part of that. EBD: Well, it’s sort of the same way I’ve On Saturdays—it was just like we were gotten into these [other] stories. I initially going to a concert. You know, my dad wanted to just find some of the dancers also worked as a stagehand, so we would that we followed as kids and sometimes go to shows and I was helping him with made fun of, sometimes wanted to dance the spotlight for Parliament-Funkadelic like them. So, I looked for Cheryl Song. concerts and as kids me and my sister You know, she was better known back were going to see Prince. All the other then as “the Asian woman with the long kids thought we were all crazy, but it hair.” And so I found her working in the was normal to us. We saw all kinds of airport in Los Angeles, and I didn’t know [musicians]. My parents, also, would go she had a background beyond Soul Train. EBD: Let’s see. Well, I interviewed the to shows regularly. And we would meet She had danced with Michael Jackson RZA— you know, from Wu Tang Clan. people at—they used to have in-store on [his] video and with Rick James. So, signings. My dad worked at a record I just kept finding out more stories as I MA: Oh yeah, I’m a fan. store at one point, too, which is also how interviewed people, [including] some of he got such a great collection. So we the other dancers—obviously Shalamar, EBD: Okay, just checking. But, wow would meet people, artists that would Jody Watley, Jeffrey Daniels. All of those . . . the brilliance, but also, [he’s] really come to do their signings, and we didn’t things just started connecting. just down to earth and really grounded. really think of it as much of anything but He has this sort of otherworldly thing our daily lives. Music was very much just So I started to find out more about the about him that, you know, he sees a thing an everyday kind of thing. show, and The Lockers, and about Don before it happens. I read both of his Cornelius and his various ventures books and he’s also had a very difficult MA: Wow. Getting to go to some of beyond Soul Train—including the Soul childhood but he is most definitely the those shows at such a young age must Train Awards but also the Soul Train brains of Wu Tang, and the things that have been fascinating. nightclub—and he even attempted to they were able to do both musically do a talk show. It just kept growing and and in terms of business in the music EBD: Well, you know, when he was growing. I was like, “This is more than industry was just unprecedented. And younger [Prince’s] shows were just crazy. the story that I started out with about the he’s the reason behind it. I could have He did all kinds of stuff and had bathtubs dancers.” A much bigger cultural legacy talked to him forever. And he’s a funny and all kinds of things that kids should that had not been documented. And it dude, too. He’s hilarious. But he’s got not see ... (laughs). But we did! just so happened that—and I didn’t know all kinds of talent—I’m sure some of this—that the show was the longest- it untapped. So, talking to him was running first-run syndicated show in fascinating. history. I was like, “Wow! How did that happen, and nobody really knows that? I talked to Larry Dunn from Earth, Wind And why did it become so popular?” & Fire. He’s a sweet dude. Him and his And that question just stayed with me, wife, they’re great friends of mine ‘cause so I kept trying to find out [more] from he’s just so easy to talk to and he loves, various people that I interviewed. loves, loves music and he’s another one that was sort of the heart and soul—I I was also just committed to telling the think—of Earth, Wind & Fire. Obviously story in a way that would read—for Maurice White was as well, but I think people who were not there to witness it Larry should be in a category with him ... during its peak—[in a way] they could they are the two that stand out. experience it . . . so that the reader would feel like they were there. I wanted other MA: A lot of your interviews have people to get a sense of what Soul Train been with musicians. Can you talk a meant and its impact, but also just the bit more about your background and story itself. Being there every Saturday experiences with music? I know your dad morning—what that meant to me. What was a deejay and apparently you guys had kind of fun that was. Why we had to some great records in the house. watch it. I thought just telling the story would do that for people who couldn’t EBD: Yes, yes, absolutely. That was our [watch], and [for] people who could,

15 to let them relive [it]. We don’t have A lot of the dancers, and rightfully so, just a class act, and what his motivation was anything like that nowadays. felt like they should be paid for their in terms of getting the show and who he stories and/or that they had been sort of wanted to be and that kind of thing. And MA: What were some of the exploited on the show and they wanted this is before he actually made it big. He challenges you faced when you were to have some agency in terms of telling was great! trying to put the book together? their story, which is fine. I agreed. That included me being able to talk to them MA: What do you consider to be EBD: Ooh, lots. First, I had gotten a in person and making sure that I was some of the most interesting stories you’ve contract and I met Don Cornelius in somebody that was trustworthy in telling worked on? Chicago and we had talked about doing the story and that kind of thing. In the end, interviews for the book. I met his son— that worked out well because they told me EBD: My memory is bad, but the and I think it was maybe two months, things that they have not told anyone [else]. one that stands out to me right now is the three months later [Don] committed one that I’ve just done recently on go-go suicide. That in and of itself was just MA: Was it hard to locate any of music for MTV.com. And that’s because a shock because you would never those people? I’m thinking especially of what is fascinating to me is . . . the genre think that someone as successful and the dancers or some of the other staff you itself. It’s addictive. It’s like watching The someone who would start something as talked to. Wire. You hear about it but you really fun as Soul Train would do that. Then have to actually go there to understand. what was also a problem, in terms of EBD: Not too hard. There were some Since I grew up with it, it was just a part of telling the story, was that [Don] was people that were not in the country, like my life. But when I went to school and I really private about the business end Jeffrey Daniels. He lives in Nigeria now. would play tapes to my roommates, they of Soul Train. So a lot of those secrets But for the most part, the main people were like, “What is this? It all sounds the went with him. That was a challenge. I that were popular from the show were same.” It’s just like, “Aaah, you really have to had to figure out how to work around pretty easy to find. At that time they— experience it.” that by interviewing various people that particularly the dancers—would have could tell some of those stories that he reunions regularly, so I could catch people When I took creative writing, my teacher had kept [to himself]. there, and at the funeral of Don Cornelius. always talked about showing rather I was able to talk to a lot of people at Don’s than telling. I wanted to show what that Then after he passed, interest inSoul funeral that knew him well. So, it was not experience was like for me and what go-go Train grew, which was good, and was that difficult to find people; it was more meant for people in D.C. In the process of also bad. Because then so many other difficult to pin them down. doing that story, I learned so much about people started getting interested in things I didn’t know at the time. The mayor, writing about the show. Initially I had MA: Is there anyone, or are there any Marion Barry, was supportive of the go-go thought about that being competition, interviews from that project that stand out scene but he was also very supportive of but it ended up working itself out. You as being especially memorable to you? the punk scene. He was employing kids know Questlove ended up doing a through this summer job program that picture book, which was actually sort of EBD: Sure. Bobby Womack was one. I were punk rock kids . . . [they] would be a companion book with great pictures. talked to him before he passed and he was able to play and get paid to do it. And the You can’t have Soul Train without really good friends with Don. He had a same for go-go bands. They had this thing having the visuals. In my book, we had bunch of stories—some of them I could not called a “Showmobile” where they would a bunch of visuals because of that, but include (laughs). It was interesting how he be able to play around the city and get paid [Questlove] really had a full range. So, talked about the impact of Soul Train and minimum wage as their summer job. So, that was a challenge. Don as a person. [Womack] really knew to me, it was a genre that didn’t really get him well, so he talked about how he was out of D.C. But for the kids who lived it, it The other challenge was—and I was was a source of pride. It’s almost like New surprised by this— I thought that Orleans music—people enjoy it from all artists, particularly older artists, would around the world. Go-go was really sort be a lot easier to get ahold of. But I of essential to a scene that, for whatever found I had to really massage egos and reason, only folks from D.C. understood. It really sort of court a bunch of people. did get to the U.K., but for the most part it’s At one point, I sublet my house and sort of a D.C. thing that people from that stayed in L.A. a month or two, because era take pride in. So, it was great to be able a lot of people wanted to be interviewed to interview folks—[including] people in in person. A lot of people I had to the jazz scene that preceded it—and just court over several dinners. Damita Jo dissect it. I enjoyed it as a kid, but now I’m Freeman, for instance. We spent a lot able to look at it differently. of time at Roscoe’s Chicken and Waffles — Matthew Alley in L.A., because that’s what she likes. Producer and recording artist, Bobby Womack (Karen Shearer Collection).

16 Top: Run DMC. Bottom left: André Cymone. Bottom middle: Karyn White. Right: Big Daddy Kane (Karen Shearer Collection). Featured Collection Behind the Scenes of Soul Train: The Ericka Blount Danois Collection

Established in 2015, the Ericka “The Bone” Proctor—who provide insights fascinating interviews with artists such Blount Danois Collection (SC 83) on how their choreography influenced as the Roots, Earth, Wind & Fire, Tricky, contains materials documenting Danois’ American culture, as well as musicians Nas, Olu Dara, Quincy Jones, Lenny professional life as a writer, author, and such as Big Daddy Kane and Dennis Kravitz, Bootsy Collins, Al Bell, and Run journalist—including magazine and Coffey who discuss the show’s impact on DMC, to name just a few. Other interviews journal articles as well as items published their careers. Regrettably, the tragic death and articles in this collection reflect the online from the 1990s to the present. The of Soul Train creator, Don Cornelius, knowledge and passion Danois has for collection also includes research materials, occurred just as Danois was beginning television, including the David Simon as well as notes and drafts that she her research, so his personal insights are shows The Wire and Treme, as well as for compiled while preparing her publications. not included. However, she was able to her home regions of New York, Baltimore, The bulk of Danois’ collection relates interview many of his former colleagues, Brooklyn, and Queens—areas about which to Soul Train and documents the show’s whose recollections trace Cornelius’ path she has written extensively. history and its cultural impact. Included to stardom, beginning with his early days A finding aid to the complete collection are audiocassettes featuring interviews she at Chicago radio station WVON through will soon be available via the AAAMC’s conducted with over 100 singers, dancers his later years in Los Angeles. As a whole, website. We’re very grateful to Danois for and music executives affiliated with the these interviews provide a penetrating her generous donation of this material. show. For over thirty years, Soul Train look inside the empire of Don Cornelius, Her insightful pieces on a wide variety exposed all of America to Black artists, “one of the coolest cats on television” in the of subjects, and especially her many Black music, and the latest dance moves 1970s and the man responsible for creating interviews with key artists, are invaluable straight from New York, Chicago, and Los a cultural phenomenon that is revered to primary resources for the study and Angeles. Danois tracked down many of the this day. preservation of African American music show’s most famous dancers—Damito Jo As a journalist, Danois has written and culture. Freeman, Adolfo “Shabba Doo” Quinones, stories about a broad range of musicians, Don “Campbellock” Campbell, Tyrone and her collection includes many —Brenda Nelson-Strauss and Matthew Alley

17 one-on-one An Interview with Opal Louis Nations

In 2011, Opal Louis Nations contacted the listening to Radio Luxembourg, they segue to Sensational Nightingales. That’s why I AAAMC about placing his gospel music his early affinity for gospel music. wrote a book about the group. But he was collection at Indiana University. Since that my idol, Julius Cheeks, and if you listen to time, a digital archive has been established, BNS: So at some point a young teenage Cheeks back in the 1950s, you know, he including over 300 articles and liner notes Opal Nations goes from listening to R&B just gets inside you. I mean, you feel like authored by Nations which shed light on and is struck by gospel music and becomes you’re drifting somewhere off the ground gospel and rhythm and blues artists active fascinated by that genre. How exactly does and he lifts you up. His voice was such a during the 1940s–1960s. More recently, he that happen? Was there a seminal moment? powerful, moving voice. He spoke when donated a complete set of his Pewburner he sang, and he sermonized when he sang. series, consisting of 500 CDs compiled OLN: I am 74 and three-quarters [years It was a mixture of all those things that is primarily from his personal collection of out- old] right now and I grew up listening to the something special in gospel music. But later of-print and rare recordings of early gospel Staple Singers, the Swan Silvertones—you on in the 1960s, when soul music came music. know, all of the golden age gospel groups. up, soul singers adopted the gospel way of All the great, great, great quartets. And singing. They got it from gospel soloists On June 13, 2016, Brenda Nelson-Strauss when you listen to the quartets, when you like Julius Cheeks. Wilson Pickett was the conducted a telephone interview with sit down and listen to that music, there is no embodiment of Cheeks. Opal Nations, a British expat who resides other music! There is no other Black music in Oakland, CA. The following abridged that really sort of sends shivers down your BNS: So at some point you became a excerpts document his multi-faceted career spine, and gives life to your soul, and makes singer? as a musician, writer, artist, deejay, record you feel good. collector, and producer of many notable CD OLN: Well, I was always a singer. I was reissues and compilations. BNS: So you loved the harmonies? always singing in school and when I moved to London I put an ad in the paper and I After discussing Nations’ early years in OLN: Oh boy, did I love them! Claude got with this group who were recording Brighton, England, and his first exposure Jeter and all those guys, and especially for Decca—they were called the Frays. to rhythm and blues music as a teenager my idol, Reverend Julius Cheeks in the They were inspired by all the blues artists

18 Top left: Opal Nations with Paramount Gospel Singers, San Francisco Blues Festival, 1989; Bottom left: Five Blind Boys of Mississippi (courtesy of Opal Nations). that came to England, like Sonny Boy you’re into English blues then you’ll know Gospel Singers] came up in the 1940s; so Williamson, and the Chess gang, as I call that Alexis Korner was one of the founders they were getting on in years at the time. them. The Frays had dropped their lead of the British blues movement. But he From 1947 through to the mid-1950s, they singer. This gave me the chance to steer also had a passion for gospel music. As a had the great Vance Tiny Powell lead them. them into becoming one of the first English quartet, we cut a couple of Staples Singers In between, in 1950, Powell sang briefly soul groups. We went around singing soul covers at the BBC in London. The band with the Five Blind Boys of Mississippi and music—singing the songs of Solomon was composed of Alexis (guitar & vocals), later in his career switched over to soul Burke, Wilson Pickett, and all the soul- his bass player, and his daughter who sang music. statesmen on Atlantic Records. harmonies with me. BNS: Who else was still singing in the BNS: So you were a lead singer? BNS: I understand that later on in your group at that time? career you sang with a gospel group called OLN: Yes, correct. I performed all the the Paramount Gospel Singers? OLN: Well, Archie Reynolds, who was the knee-drops and rendered all the screams founder of the group, was my buddy and one associates with James Brown. OLN: Oh yes, our local Bay Area gospel he got me into the group. The only other group. They recorded for Coral Records original member was lead tenor Joe Dean. BNS: So this was an all-white group? during the ‘50s. I sang with them and did some performances with them in the 1980s BNS : And how did you connect with OLN: Yes, this was an all-white group, while they were still performing. Sadly, Archie? all Brits, all from South London, and they have all passed now. I had written we recorded. The lead guitarist, Johnny their biography, I had taken an interest in OLN: Research—by researching groups. Patto, was with the first significant rock ‘n’ their music, I’d given them some music to Back in the 1980s, there were some group roll group in England—Johnny­ Kidd & perform, and I had done everything except members still alive that you could interview. the Pirates. We would do the whole Otis sing with them. And I said to myself, “Well, And it was Lee Hildebrand who inspired me Redding catalog, when few had even heard I should sing with them if I can.” I really to do that, when we were both working at of Otis Redding. This was in the early ‘60s wanted to find out what it was like to sing Fantasy Records. There we reissued most of So I got with Alexis Korner after that. If with a Black gospel group. [The Paramount the early Specialty gospel catalog. So Lee got

19 “... the Specialty reissue series on Fantasy—I co-produced twenty-two of them with Lee Hildebrand. We shared most of the liner notes. The releases are really a landmark because if you have all of those you have many of the most significant quartet singers and soloists from the period.”

20 me into it. He said, “Why don’t you go out set up for them everywhere we went. I Route 66. Nobody. They were dead and to the survivors and get their stories now?” was really dedicated. Some nights I slept gone. You can see how dead the music was And I thought, “I’d better do it right away on the bus because I couldn’t afford to pay in this country because nobody played it and find as many as I can.” And that’s what for accommodations. I had the time of my on the radio or reissued this stuff. It was I did during the ‘80s. Unfortunately, almost life and I’d do anything to make it last. Big horrible. But Jonas Bernholm and Route 66 all the great gospel quartet soloists from the Henry Johnson, now he was something else. re-enlivened it. People here started buying golden age are gone now. He could scream at a fantastic decibel rate the major founders of R&B again—Jonas when the passion caught him. He would did a marvelous job. So I did that one BNS: So how many of them did you rehearse on the bus and I would be sitting album for them. I became friends with personally interview? next to him. His screaming practice really one of the guys affiliated with the label, made me quite deaf at times. Per Notini, who was the pianist on a lot of OLN: Well, because I don’t drive, I only their Swedish blues releases. I helped him interviewed those people I could get to After discussing Nations’ radio career— put out a handful of gospel CDs in Sweden on the subway or on the bus—mainly including 14 years as a gospel music deejay at on the Gospel Friend label . . . I supplied those who lived in the Bay Area or who KPFA in Berkeley (ending in 1995), followed information and photographs. came to the Bay Area from elsewhere to by one year hosting a Sunday morning gospel give concerts. These included the Dixie show at KUSP Radio station at the University One of my Swedish Gospel Treasures Hummingbirds and the Mighty Clouds of California at Santa Cruz, and occasional releases (issued by Jonas Bernholm) was of Joy. I also conducted extensive phone work as a guest deejay at KPOO in San the Stars of Bethlehem, who were the interviews with gospel singers that I Francisco—the interview turns to Nations’ genesis of the Mighty Clouds of Joy. I managed to track down all around the work as a writer and producer. produced a second compilation by a local country. Bay Area spiritualist who was an extremely BNS: I guess it’s about this time when interesting guy—Bishop Louis Narcisse. BNS: Did you record those interviews? you turn your attention towards gospel and He was amazing! He was another minister R&B reissues and writing liner notes? who sang in a way that really gotcha! He OLN: No, I never did that. I had my started a spiritual temple here in Oakland . own shorthand, a rapid scribble. I just OLN: Well, no, I was doing reissues . . I interviewed him, and his minister, and wanted to mention before I forget that and liner notes in the early ‘80s. The first wrote an extensive article. He was born in during the mid-1960s, English Black music assignment was the liner notes for Faye New Orleans, then he came to Oakland enthusiasts became familiar with gospel Adams’ album for Mr. R&B, a Swedish and founded his grassroots spiritualist music because promoters from Germany, label. Folks in the U.S. lost interest in Faye church. He organized bread giveaways Lippman and Rau, and Willy Leiser from Adams when she returned to gospel music. on the weekends, and helped some of the Switzerland, brought gospel singers to Fans still consider “Shake a Hand” an R&B local people improve their lives, some of Great Britain. These included the Blind record, which it is not. the poor folks who lived in badly managed Boys of Mississippi, the Gospelaires, the tenements. He helped a lot and became Harmonizing Four, the Stars of Faith and an important figure in the community. Inez Andrews. English singers like Dusty He made some wonderful recordings and Springfield and Eric Burden were knocked I gathered them all altogether on a CD. I off their feet by the power and majesty of spoke to his extremely fine pianist who was the music. It was just fantastic! It was mind- alive at the time. The Narcisse collection is blowing, very memorable, for musicians such an important CD to me. It should be who were around in Britain at that time. noted that soul singer Theola Kilgore first recorded with Narcisse. BNS: Were you able to go to many of those concerts? BNS: So you also worked on many reissues for Specialty Records? OLN: On the first Lippmann and Rau tour I traveled on the tour bus! When the Blind OLN: Yes, the Specialty reissue series on Boys of Mississippi visited in 1965, I think it Fantasy—I co-produced twenty-two of was then. I sat with Big Henry Johnson, the BNS: Yes, we have the entire Route 66 them with Lee Hildebrand. We shared most lead singer of the Blind Boys of Mississippi LP collection, including Mr. R&B and the of the liner notes. The releases are really a on the bus. We traveled all over England. different label subsidiaries. landmark because if you have all of those you have many of the most significant BNS: How did that come about? OLN: They were so important, because quartet singers and soloists from the period. they turned the American music enthusiasts OLN: Well, I signed up as the roadie. I on to their own music, like some of the ‘60s BNS: And what were some of these would move all their equipment and all singers. I mean everyone had forgotten reissues? their uniforms and stuff in and out of their artists like Roy Brown and Floyd Dixon hotel rooms. I would run errands and help and many others of the same school before OLN: We reissued work by the Blind

21 Boys of Alabama, the Gospel Harmonettes, with what was left of my family, I tried gospel music, and you’ve written over 160 Detroiters, Chosen Gospel Singers, Bessie saving every penny I could. I would buy liner notes, not to mention your unpublished Griffin (that’s the legendary Bessie Griffin), those few recordings that were issued on articles. So you’ve been very, very busy! Pilgrim Travelers from Los Angeles—all of the English Vogue label and on Columbia. these wonderful artists that few remember They would now and again put something OLN: Yes, I kept at it for about a decade, now. And of course the better-known out that sounded like gospel music. Mahalia and the decade before that I was into Soul Stirrers and Swan Silvertones. Alex Jackson and Sister Rosetta Tharpe were experimental writing. So I went from fiction Bradford—we put a great deal of his the two cornerstones of gospel music in to fact and you just covered the non-fiction, previously unreleased stuff out. He was a Europe during the ‘50s and ‘60s. Because music-related part. For my fiction work I character. While reading his correspondence they always sold a decent amount of tickets, was awarded a couple of prizes, but nothing with Art Rupe (the head man at Specialty), jazz and blues fans invariably came to see that paid the bills. I was quite successful I realized what a multi-faceted character he them. Then I started earning more money, at getting published as a fiction writer, but was! Sister Wynona Carr, she was like the and was able to fly over to France to buy I came to a point where I felt like I wasn’t Lucille Ball of gospel music! She was the the albums I couldn’t find in England on growing, because the people that read my spiritual equivalent of Lucille Ball, a real French Disques Vogue. Much of the Vee-Jay work were the same small coterie of aspiring Calamity Jane. She wrote lengthy letters to and Peacock gospel material was issued in writers. And then I was let down by the Art Rupe at Specialty. She used to get into all France, so I picked up what was to become major publishers who promised contracts, sorts of scrapes and Rupe was always bailing the foundation of my collection. but when it came to actually reading my her out. A truly incredible lady. I wrote a work, they evaluated it in terms of book sales detailed article on her. I said more than I BNS: And then you had to move it all over and not by its literary merit. should’ve said, I expect, about her foibles, here? but she had so much talent. Not only was BNS: Well you have done an incredible job she a great singer, but directed Reverend OLN: No, I had to sell most of it because here in documenting gospel music over the C.L. Franklin’s choir in Detroit. You know, when we came to the States we packed only years. Aretha’s dad. And she could write songs! She a couple of trunks. That was all we could was really great—she transformed the major afford to ship. What I couldn’t bring I sold OLN: Thank you for your interest. I only issues of the day into gospel poetry. to fellow gospel researcher Bob Laughton. I wish I had started earlier when more of only shipped a choice number of albums and the great singers were still with us. But BNS: So what years were you working for singles. So I started re-building my collection fortunately there is a new gospel music Fantasy on the Specialty reissues? when I got to Boston in 1979, while working documentary How They Got Over,coming for Skippy White at his record store in the out in the next month or so, directed OLN: From the late 1980s into the mid-90s. Roxbury neighborhood. He opened a new by Robert Clem, that includes vintage world for me. I ravenously started collecting film clips of such groups as The Dixie BNS: So that must’ve been great fun. singles and albums, and now I have just Hummingbirds, Fairfield Four, Blind Boys about everything by any traditional- of Alabama, Sensational Nightingales, OLN: Oh boy, was it great fun going sounding quartet from the post-war golden Soul Stirrers, Mighty Clouds of Joy, and through the library, especially all of Art age period (between 1945 and 1965). the Highways QCs. Jerry Zolten [author Rupe’s filing cabinets! Going through the of the Dixie Hummingbirds’ biography correspondence with his artists, and being BNS: So I guess this segues into your Great God A’mighty] and I are co-producers able to write articles on all of these people ... Pewburner CD series. [more information can be found at www. Art Rupe’s first love was gospel music ... I howtheygotover.com]. know a personal friend of his, and I know OLN: Well, this was set up to trade with all of the old stories that Art told him about like-minded friends. There are a lot of BNS: And you know we feel incredibly going around to Black churches and peeking elderly African Americans out there who fortunate to have your collection here. So my in the doors just like Johnny Otis did, and want to hear gospel music from this period. final question for you—how do you hope the Elvis Presley. You know, peeking in the door Somehow they hear about Pewburner Opal Nations Collection will be used in the and seeing what was going on and getting Records and they want to buy this music, future? into the spirit of the music. He was with so I make a copy from my collection and I Sterling Records before he set up Specialty send it to them. So this was all about sharing OLN: I want access for the general public and helped issue a lot of great gospel quartet it with a few others now and again. I never as well as for students and professors and music from the a cappella quartet period. He made it a business. It warms my heart to teachers. dearly wished he could have done more to be able to bring back those golden gospel popularize gospel music. memories to those few out there to whom it BNS: And we’re thrilled that you want to means so much. make your collection widely available. BNS: So when did you start your record collection? BNS: We never really talked about your Many of the articles in the Opal Louis Nations career as a writer. I looked at the material in Collection are currently accessible via his OLN: (Laughs) When I had little or no your collection at the AAAMC and you’ve website at http://opalnations.com. money! Back in England, living at home published over 150 articles on R&B and

22 “Groovy George” Nelson in the KYOK studio, Houston, Texas (George Nelson Collection). The AAAMC brings The Golden Age of Black Radio online with the Google Cultural Institute

In recognition of Black History Month, Exhibit details by deejays Jack Gibson, Lucky Cordell, the Google Cultural Institute (GCI) The four-part exhibit traces the birth and Herb Kent. From Chicago, the exhibit recently partnered with 54 cultural heritage of Black-oriented radio programs in travels to Memphis as Jack Gibson and institutions on a Black History and Culture Chicago through its transition to all-Black Martha Steinberg describe how WDIA project that allows virtual access to unique programming by stations around the became the nation’s first station with collections containing thousands of country. Along the way, viewers explore: programming that specifically catered artworks, artifacts and stories related to the 1) the role of radio during the Civil Rights to the Black community. This section African American experience. Each of these Movement; 2) pioneering African American concludes with video footage of Jack Gibson institutions also curated an exhibit utilizing women in radio; 3) personality deejays in an interview with Dr. Portia Maultsby the images and media files in their CGI who rapped and rhymed; and 4) the role discussing the programming impact of the collections. of deejays in breaking hits and promoting country’s first Black-owned station, WERD Black music. in Atlanta. The AAAMC’s contribution is a four- The first segment, “The Early Years, Segment two, “Deejays,” explores part exhibit celebrating the The Golden Age 1920s–1940s,” begins in Chicago with the complicated, yet indispensable role of Black Radio. Drawing upon over 100 America’s first prominent Black radio personality deejays played in popularizing historic photographs from the AAAMC’s announcer, Jack L. Cooper, and Richard Black radio. Beginning in the 1940s, Black collections, as well as audio and video clips Durham’s early radio dramas Here Comes deejays began adopting on-air aliases of interviews with Black radio pioneers, the Tomorrow and Destination Freedom. such as “Dizzy Lizzy” and “Hotsy Totsy.” exhibit offers an interactive multi-media Al Benson, a legendary disc jockey with These monikers often represented a experience, using many materials accessible extensive influence in Chicago’s African deejay’s individual delivery style; some, for to the public for the first time. American communities, is remembered example, utilized rapping and rhyming to

23 Clockwise from top left: Richard Durham; “Jockey Jack” Gibson; George Nelson presenting young girl with record player; WERD celebration of 23rd National Book Week at Clark College (Jack Gibson at microphone); Peggy Mitchell in the WEDR studio; Al Benson holding copies of the Constitution; Vivian Benton in the WERD studio; “Hotsy Totsy” and “Dizzy Lizzy” with KYOK contest winner (AAAMC’s Black Radio Collections).

24 KYOK van in front of civil rights marchers in Houston, Texas, 1967 (Rick Roberts Collection). grab listeners’ attention to both the songs broke through gender barriers to shape Roberts (SC 88), Ed Castleberry (SC 87), they played and commercial products everything from advertisements to Katherine Lewis (SC 86), Jack Gibson (SC they promoted. Many Black radio deejays programming. Through the voices of 14). became celebrities to their listening pioneering deejays Vy Higginsen, Cathy Thanks in large part to Indiana audiences, with star-power that sometimes Hughes, Martha Steinberg, and Hattie University’s Media Digitization and eclipsed the artists they promoted on the Leeper, viewers can learn about the unique Preservation Initiative, a video interview air. Audio and video clips in the exhibit perspective women brought to Black from the Portia K. Maultsby Collection recount how Black radio was the only place radio. The second half of this segment (SC 18) was digitized just in time for recordings by Black artists could be heard demonstrates the crucial supporting role inclusion in this exhibit. This interview outside of the record store and home, and played by Black radio in the Civil Rights with legendary deejay Jack “The Rapper” how deejays were often responsible for Movement. Personal stories about Al Gibson, conducted in 1981 by Maultsby promoting songs and “breaking the hits.” Benson, Martin Luther King, Jr., and the and Alfred Wiggins, weaves together the The third segment, “Community March on Washington highlight how themes running through the four segments. Engagement,” takes a closer look at the ways Black radio served as a networking and in which Black radio connected with and mobilization tool for Black leaders during Impact shaped African American communities. this era. In the first four months (February Entertainment through music and variety The AAAMC staff combed the archives’ to May 2016), The Golden Age of Black shows was one way in which radio engaged special collections for photographic, audio, Radio accrued over 60,000 page views. A communities. Black radio deejays and and video materials to create the rich, significant increase in visitors occurred in announcers also served their listeners multi-media experience made possible by late February, following a feature about the by promoting African American owned Google’s digital exhibit platform. The bulk exhibit on National Public Radio’s Weekend businesses, publicly supporting blue collar of the audio clips are from the collection Edition, which included interviews with workers, holding community events such as Black Radio: Telling It Like It Was, donated Jacquie Gales Webb and AAAMC’s Brenda WDIA’s Goodwill Revues, and broadcasting by Jacquie Gales Webb (see related articles), Nelson-Strauss. The program can be heard breaking news and opinions about current and feature interviews recorded in the early online at: http://tinyurl.com/jl2qth3. events that could not be heard on other 1990s with nearly two dozen personality A feature on the making of The Golden radio stations. In this segment, you will hear deejays and producers. Age of Black Radio exhibition will also be voices such as Martha Jean the “Queen” Historic photographs documenting included in an upcoming issue of Choice Steinberg of Detroit and Novella Smith of Black radio stations and deejays in magazine, a publication of the American Houston recounting this close connection Houston, Atlanta, Louisville, Cincinnati, Library Association. between the stations and their listeners. Detroit, Philadelphia and New York were The fourth and final segment, “Gender drawn from the following collections: To view the exhibit online, visit: Equality and Civil Rights,” begins with Travis Gardner (SC 96), Skipper Lee Frazier http://tinyurl.com/jqp2g8j a look at how Black women in radio (SC 95), George Nelson (SC 89), Rick — William Vanden Dries

25 sound bytes: digital initiatives

Activity surrounding the AAAMC’s an updated public programming digital collections grew significantly section; updated listings of AAAMC during the past year, thanks to many publications; and embedded feeds from new collections and initiatives. The our Facebook page and new Tumblr number of born-digital materials blog (https://aaamc.tumblr.com), arriving at the AAAMC continues to which includes announcements about increase, and the digitization of our new image collections online, newly analog content is expanding as well. published finding aids, upcoming events, Preserving and providing access to these and more. digital materials, both within our reading We hope the new site improves your room and online through websites online experience and your ability to and social media, continues to be a access the AAAMC and our collections. priority. Following is a summary of the We invite you to visit our website (please AAAMC’s recent digital projects, as well note the new URL) at https://aaamc. as Indiana University’s ongoing media indiana.edu. digitization and preservation efforts. Online Exhibit: Jacquie New Website and Blog Gales Webb—Radio DJ The start of 2016 saw the launch and Producer of the AAAMC’s new website! An In honor of Jacquie Gales Webb, the ever-increasing number of collections AAAMC has produced a new online coming to the AAAMC, more collection exhibit exploring Webb’s formative materials accessible online, and the years, her initial exposure to radio, and growing use of mobile devices to access her long and distinguished career in web content were several reasons we broadcasting using photographs, videos, decided on a site make-over. The IU web and audio clips from her collections. team released a new mobile-friendly set Special recognition goes to AAAMC of content guidelines and templates in graduate assistant Douglas Peach for late 2015 which helped our staff redesign curating the exhibit, and the IU Libraries the AAAMC site from top to bottom so IT staff for assistance with the Omeka you can access it at home or on the go. exhibit software. View the exhibit at The new site includes much of the https://aaamc.indiana.edu/omeka/ content of our old site, but it is now exhibits/show/jacquie-gales-webb. organized in a way we hope will be more intuitive and user-friendly. We also made New Video: The Portia K. an effort to increase our site accessibility, Maultsby Collection and hope you will let us know if you In January 2016, the AAAMC encounter navigational challenges of publicly introduced the Portia K. any kind. New content includes forms Maultsby Collection (SC 18) with the that will allow you to easily contact us release of our latest collection video. As with requests or set up an appointment many readers know, Dr. Maultsby was to visit the AAAMC. We also provide the founding director of the AAAMC, more information on parking and which was established in 1991. Her transportation; an updated public collection includes interviews with services section; an expanded special many musicians and music and radio collections area with links out to finding industry executives, which offer critical aids, online image collection content, documentation of the voices of seminal and online media collection content; individuals instrumental in shaping

26 Black music and culture. Image Collections Online Her collection also illuminates Interested in photographs? Since the her activities as an Indiana University last issue, two additional photograph professor, where she developed some collections are now available for viewing of the first courses on post-WWII online. African American popular music The Tom Draper Collection (SC 160) and hip hop in the United States, and consists of 80 publicity photographs served as the founding director of the taken during music industry events, IU Soul Revue. Many of the songs in documenting Draper’s career as a music the video soundtrack were composed executive at RCA Records and Warner by Maultsby and recorded with the IU Bros. Records. Draper was hired as a Soul Revue in 1977. Special recognition salesman by RCA in 1970, worked his goes to graduate student Juan Sebastian way up through the company’s newly Rojas E. for producing the video. Watch established Black music division, and online at https://www.youtube.com/ eventually became vice president of watch?v=0tieyu_zmcI. A&R. In 1975, Warner Bros. hired Draper for marketing and promotion, ushering in a period of growth and success for the label’s Black artist roster. Jacquie Gales Webb visits the MDPI facility, March 2016. The Nelson George Collection (SC 133) contains 138 photographs 2,000 LPs and over 700 45s were selected consisting primarily of materials from our collections for digitization. collected during research for his book, MDPI’s SMARTeam, staffed by Where Did Our Love Go? The Rise and dedicated IU graduate students, boxed Fall of the Motown Sound (St. Martin’s up the selected discs and transported Press, 1985). Press photos of artists from them to the Innovation Center, where the Motown, Stax, Arista, and Curtom they were cleaned, digitized using labels are included, along with many the MDPI team’s high-throughput workflow, and returned to the AAAMC Finding Aids candid shots taken at live performances and music industry events. in better condition than when they left. The AAAMC staff published EAD View these collections and more The SMARTeam also collected the finding aids for seven collections since at: http://webapp1.dlib.indiana.edu/ Betacam SP videos and DATs from our our last issue. Special recognition goes images/splash.htm?scope=aaamc. collections, which are currently making to graduate student Allison Bohm their way through the digitization for her work encoding many of these workflow. Next up, audiocassettes! in preparation for publication to IU’s While the digitization team focuses Archives Online site (http://webapp1. on quality transfers of high-throughput dlib.indiana.edu/findingaids/welcome. items such as LPs, as well as real-time do): transfers of more challenging items • The Black Composer Speaks such as multi-speed open reel tapes, the Collection, 1958-1987, bulk software development team is hard at 1970-1977 work on creating workflows for content access. Earlier this year, IU units were • Charles Coleman Papers, 1929-1991 invited to use an access portal to view (composer) files from digitized items. These files • Tom Draper Collection, 1970-1998 have completed the quality control (music industry executive) process and are now accessible to each • Jack Gibson Collection, 1942-2000 unit from which the item originated. Stephanie Mills eating cookie replica of her Soon, we will be able to import (Black radio) gold record, 1981 (Nelson George Collection). those files directly into IU’s streaming • Jocko Henderson Collection, media site: Media Collections Online. 1980-2003 (Black radio) MDPI update Once that step is reached, we will be • Blondell Hill Gospel Music IU’s Media Digitization and able to provide access to authenticated Collection, 1916-1964, bulk Preservation Initiative (MDPI) is now in users via password protected streaming 1940-1964 full swing and many analog media items to the digitized content preserved from the AAAMC have already made through the MDPI project. • What Must Be Done radio series, the round trip from our vault, to the 1968 (Civil Rights Movement) MDPI facility, and back again. Nearly — William Vanden Dries

27 Archives of African American Music & Culture Nonprofit Organization Smith Research Center, Suite 180-181 U.S. Postage 2805 East Tenth Street PAID Bloomington, IN 47408-2662 Bloomington, IN Permit No. 2 Phone: (812) 855-8547 Web: https://aaamc.indiana.edu E-mail: [email protected]

Black Grooves (www.blackgrooves.org), the music review site hosted by the AAAMC, promotes black music by providing readers and subscribers with monthly updates on interesting new releases and quality reissues in all genres—including gospel, blues, jazz, funk, rock, soul, and hip hop, as well as classical music composed or performed by black artists. To submit material, subscribe, or join our group of volunteer reviewers contact aaamc@ indiana.edu.

Nonprofit Organization U.S. Postage PAID Bloomington, IN Permit No. 2 AAAMC Staff: Mellonee V. Burnim, Ph.D., Director circle of Brenda Nelson-Strauss, Head of Collections Willian Vanden Dries, Digital Collections/ Project Manager friends Matthew Alley, Graduate Assistant Douglas Dowling Peach, Graduate Assistant I would like to join the Circle of Friends of the Archives of African American Music and Culture. My donation will support the activities of the AAAMC. Student Patron Friend ($25-$49) Platinum Circle ($1,000 or more) Assistants: Christina Harrison, Raynetta Wiggins, Supporting Friend ($50-$99) Other Anna Polovick, Allison Bohm Sustaining Friend ($100-$999) Enclosed is my/our contribution of $ to the Archives of African Faculty Research American Music and Culture. All contributions to the AAAMC are tax Associates: deductible. Tyron Cooper, Ph.D. Name______Valerie Grim, Ph.D. Address______Alisha Lola Jones, Ph.D. City______State______Zip______Phone ( )______Portia K. Maultsby, Ph.D. Fernando Orejuela, Ph.D. Please make checks payable to: IU Foundation Charles E. Sykes, Ph.D. and mail completed form to AAAMC • Smith Research Center, Suites 180-181 2805 E. Tenth Street • Bloomington, IN 47408-2601 Newsletter design & layout by Dennis Laffoon

Donate online at https://aaamc.indiana.edu/Giving-To-The-AAAMC