Traditions: Ohio Heritage Fellows; 202; Baba Jubal Harris interview, part 1 of 7

Q:

BABA: Baba, B-A-B-A Jubal, J-U-B-A-L Harris, H-A-R-R-I-S.

Q:

BABA: Uh, Baba Jubal. I’m a Master Craftsman, Drummer uh, Drum Maker uh, Story Teller.

Q:

BABA: I was born in Cincinnati, Ohio 1948, June 12th. And um, I was born to uh, my parents were staunch missionary Baptists. And um, I—I was born in a Jewish hospital in Cincinnati. And I lived in uh, Walnut Hills. Washington Terrace is where I—that’s my first uh, home. And um, you know, I had a wonderful childhood, actually um, because my parents lived in the same complex with uh, my grandmother, aunts, uncles, and then friends of the family who originally came from Arkansas. And um, the uh, the Gannel’s and uh, we—it-so, you know, I was a baby at the time, but uh, I-I-I do have memories of being in a crib and um, looking out at the sky and I can still remember the uh, picture that was hanging uh, over my... over my crib. It was a, just like a... a scene of um, a renaissance, kind of, painting that uh, it was... it was—it was a very pleasant f-f- scene of rolling hills and uh, greenery. I remember... I r—I have vivid memories of that.

Q:

BABA: Well, I began uh, the experience of uh-uh, of actually, like, of absorbing music that was of African um, influence and origin, although I didn’t know it at the time um, through the church. I went to uh, I grew up in Corinthian Baptist Church in Cincinnati and, of course, the... the order of worship included chants and music that was vocal and we had a... there was a piano accompaniment. Uh, I re-but that was the only instrument allowed in the... in—in-in the church at that time. Um, piano or an organ. Later on, the church was able to afford an organ. But, initially uh, it was vocal. It was, you know, the vocals in the—it was um, the way in which they intoned the um, prayers and the service uh, was later on I would find out uh, was very strongly influenced by African music culture and spiritual expression. And then um, course, as I grew up um, th-the second influence that I had was going to the barbershop, my first haircut. Uh, now my church, Corinthian Baptist Church was on Wittier Avenue in Avondale. At the corner of Rockdale and—no, at the corner of Redding Road and Whittier was the barbershop that my father took—took me to that was uh, Mr. Hughes... his barbershop. He called it Bubbles Barbershop. And um, so, every Saturday, when my father took me from... from the time I got my first haircut, I would sit in the barber chair, and they played nothing but jazz in the barber shop. It was like, only j—jazz. Now, I’m absorbing this music and I really like it, you know uh, uh, you’re sitting there, you’re getting your hair cut, you know, once... once I had learned how to relax and I wasn’t afraid of the clippers and I could hear uh, you know, the—the atmosphere wa—was filled with uh, the music of Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, you know, it goes all the way back... Wes Montgomery um, Dizzy Gillespie. So, as I grew up, I grew up going to that barbershop until I was a s—uh, in college. And um, so, I—I absorbed the music of jazz as a... as the secondary kinda influence that I was able to experience. Now, within the jazz music, I really like uh, Dizzy Gillespie, because, Dizzy Gillespie uh, put out a tune called Montego and it had a lot of heavy African... Afro-Cubin, actually Ac—Afro-Cuban percussion in it. So uh, you know, I wa-I just naturally absorbed um, you know, the mu—the secular music and the sacred music from... from my African-American experience growing up at that time.

Q:

BABA: Um, well actually, I always... I was in the fifth—no, I was in kindergarten, yea, tha-I— Douglas Elementary School, kindergarten, this was my first real memory of uh, of getting involved in percussion. Uh, we had a... a talent show called The Jabberwalk, that was sponsored by Delta Sigma Theta. And my... my kindergarten teacher, Miss Dupriest uh, taught uh, a little routine used in balls, you know, to a rhythm, right. And then, a man came in um, and taught us how to use maracas and... and play rhythms um, and.. and that like, really, galvanized me. I really... I really felt connected to that. I didn’t know how to express it, but now looking back on it, uh, I felt a real strong connection to that music, to that rhythm, uh, to that pulse. And as so um, that would follow me the rest of my life to th—to this day. Including the person um, his name is Julius Flash-Ford uh... he was actually my first drum—African drum teacher. Afri—i—it—it was Af—Afro-Cuban. His fl—his influence came from the Caribbean and from Cuba. And uh, so he was the one who, later on uh, I would um, it’s funny how things, you know, come together in your life when you’re looking back on it um, but in the seventh grade I—I wanted to play trumpet. I wanted to Miles Davis. I wanted to play like Miles Davis, you know, I’ve still got this... So, I’m in the Withrow uh, High School junior band—uh, Withrow Junior High School band. And um, I’m playing trumpet. And in the background are the drummers and I always wanted to, you know, to be back there with those guys. But I-at the same time I’m playing trumpet, so I enjoyed that. Uh, but then, the drum section uh, Jerry Cosby uh, was one of the guys in the drum section um, he uh, he was taking lessons from Flash Ford. This is the same person who sh-who showed—showed us how to um, d—know, play maracas and that type of thing when I was in—in kindergarten a—at Douglas Elementary School. So now, this—you know, the momentum of—of the rhythm is starting to pick up. And my interest in wanting to actually know how to play Afro- Cuban uh, music is starting to really take hold. So, we formed a group um, uh, a percussion group at the time. The Caballeros and we uh, we played um, you know, for school dances and things like that, and uh, we got really good. We went on a... a show called School for Talent um, and won second prize. The—the magician won first prize. We won second prize, you know. So, um, that was all a part of my real early experience with um, with Afro—wha—at—you know, what, it’s funny... we didn’t really... we didn’t know how to connect it to Africa at that time, not directly. It had—we—we connected with uh, the—the Caribbean, you know. We were connected to the Afro- Cuban sound that we heard um, because that was very popular then. Just um, d—d-d Desi Arnez um, you know, Baba Lou, he—he was um, bringing the rhythm of the drum to America at that time from Cuba. Um, and of course, Dizzie Gillespie brought Chano Pozo from Cuba and then that really influenced uh, jazz music. ‘Cause now you had jazz combin—American jazz musicians com-uh, bringing the—the—the—the—the traditional Afro-Cuban drum into the orchestration. And um, that was really exciting, and tha—and that caught my ear. So, I started following that music whenever possible.