Steppin' Out Live!; Excerpts; Part 1

Hi, I'm Eric Jackson, host of Eric in the Evening on WGBH Radio. And I'm Ron Della Chiesa, a host of Music America on WGBH. We'd like to thank you. Thank you. We'd like to welcome you to Dimock Community Health Centers Jazz Extravaganza, Steppin' Out Live, recreating Boston's jazz club, scene of the 40s, 50s and 60s from the Hynes Convention Center. Eric, we're here at a place that I used to hang out a lot at. And you, too. Yes, the jazz workshop with some great musicians, Stan Strickland and Company, featuring wonderful vocalist Tanya Hart and Juanita Jackson. And, you know, later on on this stage, we will be hearing from nationally renowned drummer Roy Haynes from right here in Boston, along with Roy's quartet. For those of you here tonight, you'll have the opportunity to club up, visit various clubs like we used to in Boston's jazz past. And for those of you listening at home on WGBH radio, we'll also be taking you live to Louie's Lounge, the Pioneer Club, and bringing you on the spot interviews. It's going to be a great evening. Stay tuned.

So are you ready to hear some music right now from the jazz workshop? Here is Boston's own Stan Strickland and company. Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom. The.

People go to. This is members supported WGBH eighty nine point seven FM in Boston, and

you're listening to Stepping Out Live, a benefit for Dimock Community Health Center from the Hynde's Auditorium. I'm Margot Stage. And with me is Rhonda Kiiza. And you know, I'm out of breath. This place is unbelievable. You happen? Yeah. You get walking around here and you meet people who are all tuned into this music through the years old friends and listening to it again. And really, we've captured the ambiance of what it was like in Boston in the 30s, 40s and 50s. Club hopping was where it's at. And some marvelous music making the rounds is Sabby Lewis said, making the rounds. Hi, Eric. I just was club hopping myself. I just stopped in a number of the different rooms and was listening to the music. It's a lot of good music. A lot of people and people seem to be in real good spirits tonight. Everybody seems up and having a good time, too, as you walk around and talk to people. But the music is excellent that that we're hearing throughout the rooms and what's being broadcast over the air and what's being heard right here in Hynde's Auditorium to we'll be bringing a sampling of all that music and of all those clubs to our WGBH listeners.

But let's remind folks to come on down. We're at the Heinz Convention Center right in downtown Boston, right on Boylston Street. And there are still tickets available to stepping out. So if you if you have the inclination to get up and come on down, please do. We'd love to have you join us. If not, we'd love to have you stay with us here at eighty nine point seven FM. It's interesting coming around at these different clubs, Eric, and it reminds me and Michael of 50 Second Street in New York, what it used to be like where you could hear nonstop music 24 hours a day. Art Tatum will be playing at the three Deuces. Coleman Hawkins would be across the street. Charlie Parker would jump in and jam. And I'm sure it's going to turn into that in Boston tonight. We have re created not only what Boston was like, but a picture of the whole New York jazz scene in the in the in the 50s and 40s and before that city's urban centers where great, great incubation melting pots for jazz in Boston was right there at the top. Please welcome your hostess for the evening, Miss Mehana. Thank you, Fred.

I'm going to love you like nobody's loved you, come free, oh, come shining from high as a mountain, deep as a river, come rain or shine. I guess when you met me, it was just one of those things. But all have abandoned me cause I'm going to feet if you let me. And you're gonna love me like nobody's loved. Come rain or shine, happy together, unhappy together, and won't it be five days may be cloudy or sunny, we're hearing now we're out of money time with you always.

I'm with you. Rain or shine. We'd like to take the time to introduce all the.

Jay Talbot of. Mr. Malcolm Jarvis on Tubic.

I'm gonna love you like nobody's covering up comes down the mountain in defense of the guy who raised. I guess when you met me, it was just one of those the foot of the bed for me cause I thought you left me and you're going to love me like, no, but every guy happy together, unhappy together and all my. They may be flooding sunny, and we all have our money. But I'm with you always, I'm with you, Leneen,

ushe. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen, thank you so much. Now we want to get on down into the festivities and bring on some of the old gang. That used to keep the Pioneer Club alive. Fred told you earlier this club. At one time was a Republican political club, and it evolved into the Pioneer Club in the early 40s. I came here in 1952. I'm a late comer as far as the Pioneer Club is concerned, and it was well in full swing when I got here. At this particular nightclub, it started at 11:00 in the evening, and we met

the son the following morning. Quite often. Tonight, we would like to sort of give you an idea. What the entertainment was like. After everybody got off from work and their prescription perspective clubs, we all congregated to the Pioneer Club to let our hair down, learn new tunes. Find out the latest gossip. Oh, yeah. When you're working, there's only what you can do. You have to network, find out who's doing what, why, with whom, where and how often. So tonight, we'd like to start off with the lady that I must say that she's like a big sister to me. When I first came here, we worked the old Levene's Club together en masse and Trayvon Martin, Columbus, cute little lounge. And when I arrived, she accepted me in the fold of singers.

Knowing I was green and new and young. Very eager. They kept the reins on me, didn't let the bad guys get me, and I'm so grateful today. To be able to stand here and introduce you to his nobility. Oh, you were meant for me. I was meant for you. A knee jerk fashion you and when she was

done, gave you a sweet thing. Rolled into one. Your line of plaintive melody. That never, ever sets me free, so I content. Angels must have sent you and they meant you. You just spoke to. You said you were meant for me. I guess I was meant for you. A nature fashion designer. And when she was done, you were, oh, sweet things rolled into one. You're like a year did

that never. That's me free, but I'm content. Oh, the angels must have. Nice to dream that I feel, but you can always make it real if you go.

So you go to every apartment can be round as sunlight, if you listen to the song inside of you, not the light in your heart, the darkness, Judy, that the love in your soul cast your troubles far away and. You see that life could be a sharing of a moment by moment by moment. Great moments, great moments, moments right now. All of.

Don't follow that on. Let little hope that a little bit of fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, fun, no. Deep down, I feel you can always make it real if you go with your heart and your soul seemed to go. Every moment can be bright and sunlight. If you listen to the song inside

of you, let the love in your heart and the darkness, Judy. In your soul travels far away. You see, that line could be a sharing of a moment by moment, by moment by moment by moment by moment by moment by moment by moment by moment. We hope that this is going to be a great moment for us here. You've been listening to Bobby Tienes on saxophone. Pervy king on drums. Wesley work on Bass and Javier Perez Sakho on piano. You've been listening to the lovely voice of Semenya McChord.

This is Members Supported WGBH eighty nine point seven FM in Boston. And you're listening to Stepping Out Live, a benefit for Dimock Community Health Center from the Hynde's Auditorium. I'ma go stage and with me is Rhonda Laksa and we're here at the Heinz Convention Center, where they have recreated the jazz clubs of the 40s, 50s and 60s. I must say, Michael, also, this is one of Boston's most fashionable crowds. The fashions here tonight are absolutely extraordinary. As you go from one club to the next club, you see a certain style. You see a certain outfit that is in keeping with the mood of the evening and the music that's being presented because, you know, jazz is very fashionable and always will be fashionable. It's a style kind of thing, different styles of jazz, different styles of fashion. We're experiencing that as well. Tonight, we're seeing folks in high style at the high hat at Storyville, at the Pioneer Club, at Louie's Lounge and at the Jazz Workshop, all very well known and well renowned clubs in Boston from the 40s, 50s and 60s. So let's take a look now at what jazz meant to Boston

and what Boston meant to jazz. I think people in Boston were the first to observe and become attached to jazz. I think at that period, white and black, all races of people used to come and it was like a melting pot. And it was just so wonderful to see people, you know, getting along the way. They were. Orchestra leader Sappi Lewis was a fixture on the Boston jazz scene in the early 1940s. So was tap dancer Norman Wallace. Boston was where most places broke in. They broke the shows in here. They said to Boston audience, like you, you're in. And we first came up here, we can go to a club called the Little Harlem that was off Columbus, Columbus Avenue and a mass we call a Wallace Brothers. And it is very stylish, kind of like me on that. She came up from New York and played various clubs around the town.

I came to Boston the first time, in fact, to work with the savvy Louis to the show. And Etta James was a singer with the show and she couldn't make it. So I was sent for to replace her and I came in green. Is this hat man with my total gowns of New York one one one was a little eyelet job that I had one. I had one. When I won the Apollo Havertown, I was sixteen with the ball and the hole. And when I came in Boston, I took a turn the bow around and made a real sexy back. And I had a little lace job that they had on sale in every color I had, I had enough sense to buy a black one. Vocalized Maisonette describes herself not only as a jazz singer but as an entertainer in the image of her idol, Josephine Baker, Josephine Baker. This woman, honey, to me was the epitome of class statue.

And you don't see performers like her anymore. In fact, you didn't see that many then. But if I would emulate anyone, that would be the one that made her look. I saw some old clips of her when I was a young girl, and I couldn't believe that a black women were treated like that. And in Paris, when she went to get all exaggeration, I said, hey, this is wrong for us. It's a black woman acting in a room. We never had a problem, never had problems. I worked in a lot of a lot of, you know, small clubs. I never had problems that way. I tell you, it was so great at working those years that I could see the difference. Now, I don't know. I have to go back to the old days. It was no problem. I have problems. As a black working pianist and vocalist, Mabel Robinson, another prominent singer, was Novela Taylor.

At that time, a lot of Harvard College kids would come in to jam. And, you know, they do the thing. They're engrossed in jazz music, their heads, the Bobin, and they love the jazz. And it was always the mix Odoms. In fact, it was more white and black many times. Many, many times. And I've been interested in those days in race and all that. But they didn't want to hear good music and they think it would help want to hear it. And they happened to be that it was in the black area that the best music was being played. So we did a comrade and this was. On anyway, whether, you know, when you rubbing elbows with somebody and feeling good, you to think about the other foolishness and the negative negativities of the world. May Arnet sentiments are echoed by Fred Taylor, who operated the Jazz Workshop and Pall Mall. And there was another thing I'll tell you that I enjoyed about that era. There was an incredibly good feeling about everybody that attended those places because there was only one reason you were there, and that was to enjoy the music.

So there was a camaraderie of interest and there was no such thing as walking around the city at that time and being worried about something is liable to happen to you, you know, a street incident or something. I do look back in those days with fond memories as being a much kinder time in life. And we are recreating those kind of times tonight at the Hinds Auditorium. This is members supported WGBH eighty nine point seven FM in Boston. And you're listening to Stepping Out Live, a benefit for Dimock Community Health Center. We are here going from jazz club to jazz club. And we'll be going soon to hear international drum star Roy Haynes. He was a drummer with Sarah Vaughan, Stan Getz and Chick Corea, Roy Haynes. He started his career here in Boston when he was 16.