KCR Ensemble Takes Center Stage
- Producing Organization
- WBEZ
- Contributing Organization
- WBEZ (Chicago, Illinois)
- AAPB ID
- cpb-aacip/50-2908ktn7
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- Description
- Description
- " That sound represents the labor of love of nine women. KCR Ensemble actually continues a tradition of women instrumentalists, mostly unknown and-you should pardon the expression-unsung. Fortunately, in 1995 guitarist Rita Hassell encountered another artist interested in this forgotten chapter of history, and KCR was the result. RITA HASSELL: I started to research and read about women in music, and women instrumentalists in particular . I met the lovely actress Regina Taylor. She was doing this play Oobla-di which was about African-American women musicians and their trials and tribulations, I guess it was in the 40s, the 30s-40s era. And I gathered some lady musicians from Chicago to meet with her and she asked us to do the cast party. This chance gathering turned into a permanent group, whose swinging style echoes the work of earlier women's bands, especially the interracial ensemble known as the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. The Sweethearts toured the US and Europe in the decade before the Second World War. RITA HASSELL: During that era they ran into trouble in the South, with the Jim Crow laws and so forth. They had two white ladies who travelled with them, and they had to brown up, and the lightest skinned AA women had to do the same thing. The Sweethearts played at the Apollo in New York and the Regal Theater at 47th and King Drive during the clubs' heyday. But since the big band era came to an end, the venues have shrunk and the groups have had to do the same. While a traditional big band has 16 pieces or more, KCR has only nine. It relies for its big sound on the work of its manager and sound engineer Oliver Hassell, Rita's husband. OLIVER HASSELL: We have the four elements as far as the horns are concerned. We were able to get that big band sound by balancing it across the board, and people when they hear it are shocked to hear the quality of the sound that's coming out. They're also startled by the band's breadth, both in type of music-from jazz to blues to reggae to gospel-and in membership. RITA HASSELL: Judge Blanche Manning of the Federal district court here in Chicago plays tenor with us, and we're delighted. Every time she plays I say, ""Order in the court,"" and ""Here comes the judge."" Judge Manning addresses her saxophone with the same stern concentration she uses on the bench. Co-founder Kristina Brooks-the ""K"" in KCR--serves as conductor, trombonist and vocalist. Music clip Other band members include drummer Gerri Moore and trumpeter Margaret Roseboro, who both played in Moms Mabley's back-up band. Percussionist Debby Jones, like Moore, graduated from Wendell Phillips High School on the South Side. Phillips is to Chicago band music as Notre Dame is to football. Rita Hassell says some people simply cannot believe that music is being produced by a group of women. RITA HASSELL: There was a gentleman, and he stood there in amazement, and he came around and he was looking for wires, somethingthat said karaoke-and he went over to Oliver and he said, ""They're not really playing, are they?"" . . . . OLIVER HASSELL: It was a type of response that we get all the time. Every time the band performs, folks just basically doing a physical examinatRIion of our stage, and saying to me after the fact, ""Man, those were all ladies!"" and I say, ""Yes,"" and then they say, ""Damn, man!"" and I call them the Dammins. The Dammins, on a regular basis. That's women. Those women bring together strands of Chicago music in some unexpected ways. Though most of them come out of jazz and blues, Rita was introduced to music by the co-founders of the Old Town School of Folk Music, Dawn and Nate Greening, who were friends of her parents. Still, despite growing up surrounded by folkies, she didn't start playing guitar until quite a bit later, and then under less-than-ideal conditions. RITA HASSELL: I happened to be rummaging around a thrift store, and came upon a guitar. 50 cents. 50 cents! And a little book. I still have that little book, I don't have the guitar but I have that little book. Apparently that little book-""Teach Yourself Guitar""--did its job. Rita will be leading the band this weekend at the African Festival of the Arts in Washington Park, and then again net weekend at University Park's 40th anniversary celebration. You'll be able to find them-just listen for the kick-ass sound. For Chicago Public Radio, I'm Kelly Kleiman. "
- Media type
- Sound
- Credits
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: WBEZ
Editor: Drew Hill
Producing Organization: WBEZ
- AAPB Contributor Holdings
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Chicago Public Radio (WBEZ-FM) and Vocalo.org
Identifier: (unknown)
Format: audio/mpeg
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- Citations
- Chicago: “KCR Ensemble Takes Center Stage,” WBEZ, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC, accessed July 19, 2025, http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-50-2908ktn7.
- MLA: “KCR Ensemble Takes Center Stage.” WBEZ, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Web. July 19, 2025. <http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-50-2908ktn7>.
- APA: KCR Ensemble Takes Center Stage. Boston, MA: WBEZ, American Archive of Public Broadcasting (GBH and the Library of Congress), Boston, MA and Washington, DC. Retrieved from http://americanarchive.org/catalog/cpb-aacip-50-2908ktn7