O Say Can You See?

A tribute to David Baker, Smithsonian jazz master

Following the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra's (SJMO) December 1st holiday concert, jazz maestro David Nathaniel Baker, Jr. concluded his tenure as SJMO Artistic and Musical Director to become Maestro Emeritus. The transition ends more than 20 years of leadership that took SJMO from grand idea to global recognition under Bakers' swinging style as bandleader, educator, composer, arranger, and jazz raconteur.

With the shift Baker slows his superman pace to mere musical wunderkind.

 

David Baker conducting the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra at the Kennedy Center

Born December 21, 1931, in Indianapolis, Indiana, Baker played trombone in the bands of jazz luminaries Stan Kenton, Maynard Ferguson, Lionel Hampton, and Quincy Jones, before becoming an educator. He is Distinguished Professor of Music and Chairman of the Jazz Department at the Indiana University-Bloomington School of Music, where he has taught over four decades and has earned a world-wide reputation.

As a doctoral student at Indiana University, John Edward Hasse, the museum's Curator of American Music and founder of the SJMO, came under Baker's mentorship. "Unknown to me at that time was how significant he would turn out to be in my life and career, and how important he would become to the Smithsonian Institution," Hasse said in Monika Herzig's book on Baker, David Baker: A Legacy in Music.

SJMO Founder John Edward Hasse and SJMO Musical and Artistic Director David Baker, following a concert in the Smithsonian’s Baird Auditorium

When the Museum extended an invitation in 1990 for Baker to lead the nation's only jazz repertory orchestra headquartered in a museum, Baker accepted on condition that his friend Gunther Schuller serve as co-director. With a musical capacity that extends from classical music to jazz, sacred music to film scores, song cycles to symphonic works, Baker came to the Smithsonian with stellar tools to help build its stature as a jazz powerhouse and home of "the nation's jazz orchestra."

 

David Baker and Ken Kimery conducting jazz oral history interview with National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Quincy Jones

In 1993, the band performed at the White House Jazz Festival and, in conjunction with the Smithsonian's traveling exhibition Beyond Category at the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York. In 1994, Public Radio International network launched a Smithsonian Jazz radio series narrated by Lena Horne with performances by David Baker and the SJMO. In 1996, Schuller resigned as musical co-director, and Baker forged ahead, conducting the band at the Cultural Olympiad at the Olympic Games in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

David Baker conducting SJMO's 1999 Duke Ellington Sacred Concert at the National Cathedral

Another special night was April 29, 1999, the centennial of Duke Ellington's birth. At Washington National Cathedral, Baker conducted the SJMO, three vocal soloists, a choir, and a tap dancer in Ellington's Sacred Concerts. Also that year, Baker led the band in an Ellington tribute across the U.S., Canada, Europe, and Turkey.

 

James Zimmerman, David Baker, Linda and James Moody, Lida Baker and Ken Kimery

In 2000, Baker became Music Editor for Essential Jazz Editions series, a Smithsonian collaboration with Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Library of Congress, and Warner Bros. Publications. The initiative issued 25 editions—Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Lionel Hampton, et al.

 

SJMO 2008 performance in Cairo, Egypt, at the Pyramids of Giza

Another highlight was Baker and the band's concert tour of Egypt in 2008, sponsored by the U.S. State Department. In 2011, Smithsonian Folkways issued Jazz: The Smithsonian Anthology, a six-CD, 111-track set with 200-page book. Baker authored four track essays and was a member of the five-person executive committee that chose the music.

 

David Baker interviewing Bill Holman during the SJMO's tribute to Bill Russo and Bill Holman

David Baker has inspired audiences with his knowledge of and passion for jazz, showcased its enduring relevance, and captivated audiences globally with the joy and pathos of America’s original art form. But, mostly he invited them to feel the music: "When people just sit there and don't respond, I say, 'No, no! Don't listen to us as though we are an artifact. Listen to us and react.'"

Joann Stevens is program manager, Jazz Appreciation Month Initiatives at the National Museum of American History. More photos highlighting Baker's accomplishments are on Flickr.

It's getting "hot" in here

The 11-day heat wave of summer 2012 that had residents of DC and much of the nation sweltering has finally ended. Interns at the Smithsonian were warned about D.C.’s notorious heat and humidity when we first moved here in June, and having now experienced it, we’ve been officially initiated into a Beltway summer– a baptism by fire if you will.

Dr. Hasse’s jazz interns

However, despite the cooler temperatures, the 4th floor research rooms of NMAH are still hot with the sounds of jazz. Dr. John Hasse’s team of 5 interns have delved into this world, researching the Jazz Wars project, which analyzes controversies and differing perspectives of jazz and its socio-cultural significance. Part of our task has been to read music magazines and other primary publications in order to gather an accurate sense of this music as it existed in historical time, and the stories being uncovered are quite thrilling.

Before the term “jazz” became popular, this music was referred to as simply “hot”, and that word has a long history in jazz culture. Louis Armstrong’s first band, formed in 1925, was the Hot Five, and his infamous Hot Five and Hot Seven Sessions have gone down in jazz history as the first recorded glimpse into the musical genius that would define Armstrong’s career. In 1931 a jazz appreciation society formed in Paris called the Hot Club de France, and Billie Holiday declared in the 1937 Count Basie-backed number “Swing Brother, Swing” that “hot rhythms stimulate me.”

Flyer promoting battle of the bands at the Savoy Ballroom.

That particular song was part of a live radio broadcast recorded at the Savoy Ballroom, birthplace of the Lindy Hop and hotbed of jazz activity in 1920s and ’30s Harlem. The Savoy was one of the few integrated nightclubs in New York at that time, and hordes of jazz enthusiasts from all social backgrounds crowded the hardwood floor to dance the night away to the best jazz and swing performers. Many of these bands faced off in what were called “cutting contests” and on the wintry night of January

Feb 1938 Downbeat article describing the cutting contest.

16, 1938, the Savoy was decidedly the hottest place in Harlem as drummer Chick Webb and his big band battled against Basie and his orchestra. Representing the vocal side of Webb’s band was Ella Fitzgerald, who Downbeat magazine reported as having the “whole crowd rocking with her” when she sang. Basie’s vocalist was Holiday, who “thrilled her fans” with her unique vocal stylings. Adding to the heat of the night was Benny Goodman’s band, including drummer Gene Krupa, who arrived after playing their own concert at Carnegie Hall, and Duke Ellington, who wound up swinging along with Basie on the piano after being persuaded to play impromptu. Both bands dazzled the crowd but Webb’s band emerged on top; however, everyone who experienced this tour de force of jazz left a winner.

Norma Miller, a member of Whitey’s Lindy Hoppers, the Savoy’s resident dance troupe, recalled this battle of the bands in her memoir Swingin’ At The Savoy, stating “everything was jumping, the floor was crowded with dancers.” Those dancers, much like the Smithsonian’s interns, were probably sweaty and knew a thing or two about what was “hot.”

James Padilioni is a Jazz Research Intern at the National Museum of American History.

Self-taught guitarist rises to king of cool jazz

Today, June 25, Johnny Smith celebrates his 90th birthday. In October 2011, Ken Kimery, Executive Producer of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and Program Director of the Jazz Oral History Program, and Randall Kremer, a guitarist and the National Museum of Natural History’s Director of Public Affairs, traveled to Johnny Smith’s home in Colorado Springs to acquire Smith’s Gibson model guitar.  In the museum’s effort to preserve the legacy of jazz, this influential guitarist’s revolutionary instrument has become an important addition to the museum’s collection. This post highlights the life of the legendary self-taught guitarist.

Jazz guitarist Johnny Smith is a leading figure among cool jazz guitarists. He is best known for his number one album in 1952, Moonlight in Vermont, and tunes inspired by the fluidity of piano notes and a unique playing style described as smooth and velvety. A 1998 recipient of the Smithsonian Institution’s James Smithson Bicentennial Medal for his contributions to jazz, Smith’s career and legendary guitar took center stage at the museum April 22 when it was highlighted at the museum’s Embassy Jazz Day concert and discussion co-hosted with the U.S. State Department and webcast worldwide in honor of UNESCO’s first International Jazz Day.

Ken Kimery, Executive Producer, Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra and Program Director, Jazz Oral History Program, with the Johnny Smith guitar he helped acquire for the museum.

A self-taught musician, Johnny Smith got his start in music at age 13. Born in Birmingham, Alabama in 1922, he was introduced to instruments by his father who played the five-string banjo, an instrument of African origin often played in jazz and folk music.

The family moved to Portland, Maine during the Great Depression. Smith struck a deal with a local pawn shop owner. He would tune the shop’s guitars in exchange for being allowed to play them on the side. The guitar quickly became his favorite instrument as Smith taught himself to play by listening to tunes on the radio.

It wasn’t long before he was giving guitar lessons to Portland locals, even though he still didn’t own his own instrument. That came as gift from a student who gave him an old flat-top Kalamazoo by Gibson that he later traded for a Gibson L5.

The first musical group he joined was Uncle Lem and the Mountain Boys, where he earned $4 a night playing dances and fairs around Maine. He eventually left to form his own group, the Airport Boys. The band was short-lived as the military called up young men to serve in World War II.

Mr. Smith tried to enlist in the Army Air Corps but was denied because of poor vision in his left eye. An option was to go to mechanics school or to join the military band. He chose the Army band, but there was a condition: He had two weeks to learn how to read music, and since the band didn’t have guitarists, he’d have to learn to play the cornet, an instrument in the trumpet family. Smith studied relentlessly, earning a spot in the Army band and eventually a promotion to the lead trumpet chair.

In 2005, NAMM, the National Association of Music Merchants, conducted an oral history with Johnny Smith. Listen to him discuss his first guitar and early career here.

In 1947, after leaving the army, he became a respected musician in the NBC Symphony Orchestra in New York City. While working in the orchestra, he played a variety of musical genres along with jazz and composed some of the most inspirational cool jazz works of his time.

In 1952, Smith combined talents with saxophonist Stan Getz, also from the NBC musician staff, to produce his most famous album, Moonlight in Vermont. The album, which featured a jazz rendition of the title song (originally written by John Blackburn and Karl Suessdorf), was well-received and became the number one album of 1952.

This landmark hit further advanced Johnny Smith’s career and earned him the title “King of Cool Jazz Guitar” alongside numerous awards and public recognition, including Down Beat’s Best Jazz Guitarist, Best Jazz Record, and the Jazz Critic’s Awards. His most famous musical composition, “Walk Don’t Run,” was recorded by Chet Atkins and reached #2 on the Billboard charts when recorded by the Ventures. By 1958, Smith had left the swinging New York City nightlife and music scene for a quieter life as a widower raising a four year-old daughter. He moved to Colorado Springs where his mother and two brothers resided. But still music called.

In 1960, the Gibson Guitar Company proposed that Smith endorse a Gibson guitar. Smith liked the idea, but said he would give his approval only if the guitar was designed to his specifications. Gibson sent out a prototype model, and Mr. Smith agreed to endorse the design after suggesting two minor adjustments that Gibson approved and made.

The Gibson Johnny Smith Guitar was marketed in 1961 at $795, the most expensive Gibson guitar of its time, aside from the Super 400CES, according to Vintage Guitar Magazine.

Randall Kremer, a guitarist and Director of Public Affairs at the National Museum of Natural History, sits with Johnny Smith as he plays his guitar.

Johnny Smith poses with his Gibson guitar and Ken Kimery, at his home in Colorado.

Harley Diven was a fall 2011 intern for Jazz Appreciation Month at the National Museum of American History.

Ella Fitzgerald, first lady of humanity

After her death in 1996, curators from this museum worked with caretakers of the Ella Fitzgerald Estate, Richard Rosman and Fran Morris Rosman, to establish an Ella Fitzgerald Collection at the Smithsonian. The museum received items and mementos from Fitzgerald’s career and personal life, including her famous red dress, numerous awards, and 50 cubic feet (39 boxes and 2 oversized folders) of archival material.

On the anniversary of Ella’s death (June 15) and in celebration of her 95th birthday (April 25), here is a lesser known account of the legendary vocalist from Fran Morris Rosman, the Executive Director of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, who determined which items came to the museum and which went to the Library of Congress. All photos are from our collection.

Ella Fitzgerald performs at New York City’s Downbeat Club in 1949. Courtesy of Herman Leonard Photographic Collection, Archives Center.

There are many reasons Ella Fitzgerald is called “The First Lady of Song.” She earned 13 Grammy Awards and sold more than 40 million albums. An artist of the people, she appealed to people of every age, nationality and socio-economic background. Mel Torme declared her “the High Priestess of Song.” American music and theater composer Richard Rodgers said “Whatever she does to my songs, she always makes them sound better.” Duke Ellington loved her “madly.” Such was the gift of Ella Fitzgerald the artist.

A telegram from Duke Ellington to Ella Fitzgerald. Courtesy of Ella Fitzgerald Collection, Archives Center.

But there is another side of Ella Fitzgerald—the humanitarian who came from humble beginnings and never forgot that American experience.

I’ve worked for the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation since Ms. Fitzgerald’s death in 1996. An archivist by profession, I was hired to go through her house and office to try and figure out what the Smithsonian Institution would want, and what the Library of Congress needed, to preserve her place in American cultural history. When the archival work was completed, my familiarity with “all things Ella” led me to the Charitable Foundation that she had established back in 1993, with the help of her personal attorney and my husband of over 30 years, Rich Rosman.

The Foundation exists to enrich the lives of less fortunate people of all backgrounds, cultures and beliefs. It started out small, but has grown over time enabling scores of people to receive what Ms. Fitzgerald regarded as basic human necessities: the right to good food, shelter, health care, education and the arts, especially music.

Much of the Foundation’s work benefits disadvantaged children, providing them with music, education, cultural enrichment, and health and dental care. Funding also helps people afflicted with diabetes and heart disease, illnesses from which Ms. Fitzgerald herself suffered.

Let me brag a little about the Foundation’s “A BOOK JUST FOR ME” program. Annually it places over 100,000 brand-new books into the hands and homes of at-risk kids and families. Ella Fitzgerald loved to read and she loved kids. We think this program is a fitting tribute to that love and the fruits of her music career.

And speaking of her career, I also work surrounded by photographs and archival images of the legendary Ella Fitzgerald, the bright-eyed diva dressed for the spotlight in elegant furs and flowing gowns. I usually go to work in my Dodger tee-shirt. But even there, I’m still in sync with Ella Fitzgerald the huge baseball fan. One of the photos on my office wall is of her singing the Star Spangled Banner at Dodger Stadium. Baseball and Ella = Heaven.

Ella Fitzgerald poses with Willie Mays, who was a player for the San Francisco Giants. Photo courtesy of Ella Fitzgerald Collection, Archives Center.

Downstairs are numerous cookbooks from the star’s house in Beverly Hills. While she never actually cooked, Ella Fitzgerald did like to eat. She read cookbooks the way some people read good novels, with gusto! These food-stained volumes speak to the warmth and friendliness of her kitchen and her hospitality.

Next to my desk are cartons of photographs documenting a fifty-year career in music, film, and television that took Ella Fitzgerald around the world. She traveled by bus, train and plane—and once actually performed on a jumbo jet—Continental Airlines from LA to Denver and back. Pretty cool, huh?

I wonder if she sang “Fly Me to the Moon”…

Fran Morris Rosman is Executive Director of the Ella Fitzgerald Charitable Foundation, and a supporter of Jazz Appreciation Month Initiatives at the National Museum of American History. Click here to see photos from the Foundation’s recent Jazz Appreciation Month poster contest for 4-12 graders in the Los Angeles, California school system.

The girls in the band at the Smithsonian

At the Smithsonian Institution National Museum of American History they’re the girls in the band, instrumentalists in the 18-piece Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra (SJMO) founded in 1990 “as the nation’s jazz orchestra” by Congressional appropriation and the advocacy of jazz-loving Congressman John Conyers (D-MI).

Trombonist Jen Krupa had been living in Washington several years before she began playing with SJMO. “I was ecstatic!” she says about getting that first call. Baritone saxophonist Leigh Pilzer suspects that she owes her position to a recommendation from SJMO lead alto saxophonist Charlie Young. And lead trumpeter Liesl Whitaker says that while she received the call for an SJMO gig right after arriving in town and played with the orchestra for a couple of years, she wasn’t called again for nearly five years. She says she never asked why the call back took so long. “I was scared of what they would say. My Dad was so thrilled that I was in the orchestra.”

Their pathways into music and jazz were as varied as they are. Childhood exposure to pop, classical, and vocal music, and early training on instruments ranging from piano to cello preceded their interests in jazz and big band. But of the many factors that led Jen, Leigh, and Liesl to becoming professional jazzwomen they all count a love of music, supportive family, and community mentors who helped them fulfill their musical passion and steer them past gender biases that might have derailed their dreams as key.

“There’s something about being a girl in a man’s field,” says Liesl. “We work harder to prove ourselves.” Even then, “As the saying goes, a woman has to work twice as hard as a man to be considered half as good,” adds Leigh.

So when SJMO women were asked to perform at the Jazz Appreciation Month 10th Anniversary in April 2011 Launch featuring original members of the International Sweethearts of Rhythm they jumped at the chance to honor the legendary band members and pay homage to the legacy of women and jazz.

Leigh Pilzer (saxophone) and Jen Krupa (trombone) lead the Jen Krupa-Leigh Pilzer Quintet at the JAM 2011 Launch.

The International Sweethearts of Rhythm was the nation’s first integrated, all female big band. Founded at the Piney Woods School in Mississippi in 1937, the band was comprised of African American, mixed race, Latina, Asian, and Native American girls who toured nationwide to promote the school and to raise funds. In 1941, the band split from the school to join the musicians’ local in Washington, D.C. and white musicians were recruited with the understanding that they’d have to “pass” as black women to perform in the segregated Jim Crow South.

“The whole point of the Sweethearts is that the school said, ‘We’re going to train African American women for something other than housekeeping,’” says Leigh, referring to an era when African Americans in the U.S. were fighting for basic civil rights and few job options were open to women, irrespective of race. The Sweethearts’ commitment to jazz and personal independence made them feminist and civil rights symbols. They broke attendance box office records nationwide, played “Battle of the Bands” competitions against men—and won—and were the first all-female big band to tour France and Germany for the USO. In a 2011 NPR interview “America’s Sweethearts: An All-Girl Band that Broke Racial Boundaries” Sweethearts saxophonist Roz Cron described her experience leaving home in Boston at age 18 to join the group.

Even though the SJMO women don’t have Jim Crow laws to evade, or as grueling a travel schedule as the Sweethearts did (like the 60 days of one night performances in half a dozen Southern states in 1943), the women claim they sometimes envy the unity and freedom they believe jazzwomen felt during the World War II years. When the men were away, women could “just be musicians,” and fan appreciation resulted in box office records like the one the Sweethearts set at the Howard Theater in Washington, D.C. in 1941 when they attracted 35,000 patrons in one week.

Times may be better, however, but some battles still die hard. The women say they still find people who consider it unfeminine for girls to play brass or percussion instruments. Jen, a southern California native and the youngest of three girls, still remembers the gender bias she faced in third grade when her mother took her to select her instrument. “I said, ‘I want to play the trombone.’ The music store owner said ‘That’s not a very good instrument for a little girl. What about the flute or a clarinet?’ I said ‘Absolutely not. If I can’t play trombone I will play the trumpet.’”

Even these days it’s typical for middle school music classes to have girls comprise one-third to half of the enrollment, only to have that number drop to two or three individuals in high school. The SJMO women posit that the reason for the decline in the number of girls involved in playing music in high school and college is that by then subtle or overt messages have been communicated that girls get more dates and social acceptance if they’re not outplaying the boys on the bandstand. Nevertheless, Liesl smiles as she recalls stealing her brother’s trumpet in eighth grade to challenge the lone trumpet player in her school band.

She won his spot.

Leisl Whitaker performs with SJMO. Photo courtesy of the Smithsonian Jazz Masterworks Orchestra.

The SJMO women credit loving families and mentors for helping them through the obstacles. They named their parents, childhood music teachers, and musicians like jazz pianist/arranger Bill Potts and SJMO saxophonist Charlie Young, among others, as role models.

Jen and Liesl come from military families where leadership and independence were encouraged. Both serve in the military, performing with the Navy Band Commodores and Army Jazz Ambassadors jazz ensembles, respectively, and both balance their careers with raising a family. (Leigh is a civilian, but she is married to a trumpet player in the Commodores.) Speaking of marriage led the women to address another gender issue in jazz—sexual orientation.

Female instrumentalists, especially brass and percussion players, are often subject to stereotyped speculation about their sexual preference, in a way that male musicians are not. If the female musicians are not assumed to be gay, they’re likely to be hit on. Woman musicians may also receive unwanted attention if they’re pregnant, or be pressured to dress up “like Barbie dolls” for CD covers.

Still, the rewards of playing music are worth the occupational trials, the women declare. “Playing an instrument, for any child, is rewarding,” says Liesl. “It’s developing another skill.” Many younger musicians, male and female, don’t believe they need role models. “But they do,” contends Leigh. “It would be good for them to see more women playing, and not second guessing themselves.”

Jen had these reflections about her early role models, including her mother and her music teachers from kindergarten through high school: “They all pushed me hard and were less lenient with me than others in the group. I think that was my personality. I thrived on being pushed,” she says. “In kindergarten when the music teacher came to our class I relished feeling that she was coming for me. It was my favorite time of the day.”

Jen, Leisl, and Leigh will perform at the SJMO’s sold-out final concert of the season on June 16: Count Basie Sings, Joe Williams Sings.

Joann Stevens is the program director for Jazz Appreciation Month at the National Museum of American History.