A Social and Cultural History of Jazz in Pittsburgh's
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“The Crossroads of the World”: A Social and Cultural History of Jazz in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, 1920-1970 by Colter Harper BM, Duquesne University, 2001 MA Ethnomusicology, University of Pittsburgh, 2006 Submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Music in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of PhD in Ethnomusicology University of Pittsburgh 2011 i UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH Department of Music This dissertation was presented by Colter Harper It was defended on March 24, 2011 and approved by Dr. Laurence Glasco, Associate Professor, Department of History Dr. Andrew Weintraub, Associate Professor, Department of Music Dr. Bell Yung, Professor, Department of Music Thesis Director: Dr. Nathan Davis, Professor, Department of Music ii Copyright © by Colter Harper 2011 iii “The Crossroads of the World”: A Social and Cultural History of Jazz in Pittsburgh’s Hill District, 1920-1970 Colter Harper, PhD University of Pittsburgh, 2011 This study examines the social life and cultural history of jazz in Pittsburgh’s Hill District. Comprised of the city’s third and fifth wards, the Hill is located on the upward sloping eastern border of downtown that, in the first half of the twentieth century, fostered a thriving social life marked by the intersection of music, entrepreneurship, and a shifting demographic landscape. The scope of this study includes the decades between WWI and the 1968 riots sparked by the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King—a period that encapsulates the emergence of jazz as an American cultural practice and the development of the urban African American neighborhood. Focusing on the lives of performers, venues, as well as the social contexts of the neighborhood’s nightlife, I examine jazz as spatial practice, i.e., as both born from and a force in constructing the social spaces, physical places, and economic contexts in which it was performed. The lower Hill—particularly the intersection of Wylie and Fullerton— represented for the majority of white society a place of poverty, vice, violence, and crime. For this area to be embraced publicly by black print and radio media as a symbol of the neighborhood’s identity demonstrates the ability of the Hill’s African American community to construct understandings of black lives, social spaces, and places that reflected the black cultural autonomy from white society. Paradoxically, the Lower Hill—the city’s poorest neighborhood— was able to develop a space that, for many, was “the crossroads of world.” This study employs the visual studies methodology known as “photo elicitation,” in which images are used to draw forth data in the context of semi-structured interviews. The images used in my interviews with local musicians and audience members were taken from the Charles “Teenie” Harris archive and depict a range of musical activity in the Hill between the mid-1930s to the late 1960s. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS PREFACE ................................................................................................................................. XVI 1.0 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................ 1 1.1 METHODOLOGY AND SOURCES ............................................................... 12 1.2 PITTSBURGH’S PLACE IN JAZZ HISTORY ............................................. 21 1.3 LITERATURE REVIEW: ANALYTICAL FRAMEWORKS IN JAZZ STUDIES ............................................................................................................................. 25 1.3.1 Spatial Orientations and the Regional Approach .................................... 28 1.4 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK ................................................................... 36 1.4.1 Ideology - Music and the construction of Social Space ........................... 38 1.4.2 Scenes - Music and the Construction of Place .......................................... 45 1.4.3 Identity - Music and the Construction of Race ........................................ 47 1.5 CHAPTER SYNOPSIS ..................................................................................... 51 2.0 1920S: THE BIRTH OF NIGHTLIFE ON THE HILL ......................................... 54 2.1 MIGRANT LABOR, ETHNIC DIVERSITY AND HILL NIGHTLIFE ..... 54 2.2 BLACK AND TAN CLUBS .............................................................................. 62 2.3 ENTERTAINMENT, ENTREPRENEURSHIP, AND CHANGING RACIAL NORMS .............................................................................................................. 68 2.4 EARLY MUSICAL INNOVATORS IN THE HILL ..................................... 72 v 3.0 1930S: SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS, RACKETS, AND NIGHTLIFE IN THE DEPRESSION ERA.................................................................................................................... 77 3.1 THE GREAT DEPRESSION AND SOCIAL ORGANIZATIONS .............. 77 3.2 NUMBERS RUNNING AND THE CRAWFORD GRILL NO.1 ................. 92 4.0 1940S: DANCEHALLS, AFTER-HOURS CLUBS AND THE DILEMMA OF BEBOP ……………………………………………………………………………………….112 4.1 AESTHETICS AND PERFORMANCE NORMS OF THE SWING GENERATION ................................................................................................................. 113 4.2 FINDING A PLACE FOR BEBOP IN AFTER-HOURS CLUBS .............. 128 4.2.1 The Musicians’ Club ................................................................................. 131 4.2.2 The Bambola Social Club ......................................................................... 146 4.3 JAZZ AND ECONOMIC VIABILITY ......................................................... 160 4.3.1 Walt Harper (1926-2006) ......................................................................... 163 5.0 1950S: URBAN REDEVELOPMENT AND THE RISE OF THE JAZZ HOUSE ……………………………………………………………………………………….187 5.1 CLEARING PLACES AND RECONSTRUCTING SPACES .................... 188 5.2 THE BIRTH OF THE JAZZ HOUSE ........................................................... 196 5.2.1 The Crawford Grill No.2 .......................................................................... 202 5.2.2 The Hurricane Bar .................................................................................... 213 5.3 SOCIAL NORMS AND CULTURAL SENSIBILITIES OF THE JAZZ HOUSE …………………………………………………………………………………220 6.0 1960S: JAZZ UNDER FIRE ................................................................................... 247 6.1 DIVERGENT PATHS: FREE JAZZ AND SOUL ....................................... 248 vi 6.1.1 The New Granada ..................................................................................... 252 6.2 DISMANTLING SOCIAL NETWORKS: THE MUSICIANS’ UNION MERGER .......................................................................................................................... 257 6.3 SOCIAL UNREST AND NIGHTLIFE ......................................................... 266 7.0 CONCLUSION: MUSIC IN COMMUNITIES, COMMUNITIES IN MUSIC . 276 APPENDIX A ............................................................................................................................ 286 BIBLIOGRAPHY ..................................................................................................................... 292 vii LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1 “The Crossroads of the World.” Facing south at the intersection of Fullerton Street and Wylie Avenue. The Blue Note Café, Stanley’s Bar, Goode’s Pharmacy, and an Amoco Station occupy the four corners, c. 1945 (Charles “Teenie” Harris, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Heinz Family Fund, 2001.35.3181) ................................................................................................ 3 Figure 2 Pittsburgh's 3rd (Lower Hill) and 5th (Upper Hill) Wards before redevelopment in the 1950s ............................................................................................................................................... 5 Figure 3 Looking north on Fullerton Avenue with the awning for the Washington Club on the right. The Loendi Social Club (not pictured) was directly next door, c. 1944 (Charles “Teenie” Harris, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Heinz Family Fund, 2001.35.10819) ................... 85 Figure 4 The Washington Club (left) and the Loendi Club (right) located at 81 and 83 Fullerton Street, c. 1950 (Charles “Teenie” Harris, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Heinz Family Fund, 2001.35.7847) ..................................................................................................................... 87 Figure 5 Vocalist and actress Lena Horne and William "Woogie" Harris at the Loendi Club, February 1938 (Charles “Teenie” Harris, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Heinz Family Fund, 2001.35.5611) ..................................................................................................................... 89 viii Figure 6 Looking from the Crystal Barber Shop across Wylie Avenue to the Crawford Grill, c. 1938-45 (Charles “Teenie” Harris, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Heinz Family Fund, 2001.35.2238) ............................................................................................................................... 96 Figure 7 Looking East on Wylie Avenue with the Crawford Grill on the left, c. 1945-1952 (Charles “Teenie” Harris, Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh: Heinz Family Fund, 2001.35.2495) ............................................................................................................................... 99 Figure 8 The