Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Concert to honor uplifting bluesman

By JON WILSON
Published October 12, 2005

	[Times photo: Joseph Garnett Jr.]
	Ernie Calhoun, 80, of Tampa, played tenor sax in segregation-era nightclubs throughout Tampa Bay with the likes of Ray Charles, the Inkspots and many others over the years.

ST. PETERSBURG - Ernie Calhoun leaned against a door casing and smiled as if about to reveal a sly secret. He put his lips to an old tenor saxophone and began to blow, his fingers fast as spider legs as he keyed a descending scale.

Calhoun, 80, is one of the bay area's last old-time jazz men. He played with Ray Charles. Back in the day, he sparred with heavyweight contender Tampa Tommy Gomez. He knew Korean War horrors and Jim Crow blues and big-name band men in small-club venues.

For what he is and what he was, Calhoun is being honored Oct. 23 at St. Peter's Cathedral. Belinda Womack, Theo Valentine and a host of othe r jazz artists will play from 2 to 5 p.m. It costs $20, with proceeds going to college scholarships. A reception follows.

"Our tribute will allow us to thank Ernie for his many contributions to jazz," said Vincent Sims, president of the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association Inc. "It is long overdue."

On Monday, in his century-old Ybor City house, Calhoun put down his Arturo Fuente cigar. He picked up his faded 1961 Yamaha tenor and poured out notes. If you could see them, they would look like diamonds sharp and clear, tumbling down a stair.

A photographer made Calhoun's image as he played. It was noon; the shotgun house's high ceiling and its lazy overhead fan wouldn't draw off the heat.

"I'm shining," Calhoun said. "You want me to wipe up?" He pulled a white hanky and mopped his forehead so the camera wouldn't record a reflection.

"I'm hip to it," the musician said.

Still hip, still the man with the sound, still playing gigs, Calhoun links a musical golden age to a moment right now.

Calhoun crossed Tampa Bay through segregation-era nightclubs. He played St. Petersburg's Manhattan Casino on 22nd Street S, the city's African-American cultural center.

Among his musical colleagues there were Manzy Harris and Al Downing. Downing, who died in 2000, is the musician for whom the Tampa Bay jazz association is named.

Calhoun played the Blue Room and the Apollo in Tampa's counterpart district along Central Avenue.

Entertainers like Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway and Louis Jordan played there.

"This city was wide open," he said. "Dance halls all over. All the bands could play all night."

Local musicians from both cities opened for the big names or backed them up. Calhoun's bands backed, among others, the Inkspots, Arthur Prysock, Little Willie John and the Mills Brothers.

"We had a whole lot of talent then. We had a Rolodex of people coming out. Black schools manufactured a lot of musicians. When they came out of school, (bands) would recruit these different guys," Calhoun said.

He got his musical start while working at Joe Pullara's grocery store in Ybor City. Upstairs was the Central Hotel, where a lot of musicians stayed. Calhoun made them baskets of salami sandwiches, juice and milk. Maybe he'd throw in a pint of Early Times.

"All of it started at the grocery store," Calhoun said. "Those guys'd eat like hell and teach you from then on."

His first sax mentor was Bill Harvey, a tenor sax man who played Texas blues with Clarence "Gatemouth" Brown.

Calhoun says his horn still sounds "like the tenors who came out of Texas," he said.

But at first, he squealed a lot.

He taught himself to read music. He learned to hear chord changes. Eventually, he began practicing outside on the Port of Tampa docks, believing the open air encouraged a big sound.

"I could hear what I wanted to play and I could feel it," he said.

"Music comes from yourself. ... You play from your heart. Playing music and playing a solo is just like painting a picture. Playing the blues is playing some of the things you been through. Like you got lima beans and collard greens, you want a steak but you can't get it. You got the blues for that steak," Calhoun said.

He said he feels a bit self-conscious about the tributes in store for him on Oct. 23.

"I'm not flamboyant. I don't know what I'm going to say. To honor me, it's not necessary. What I've done in the music world, what I've done for my community or the people of the world, all races, I don't need any award, any plaques."

A few already hang on his old-fashioned, tongue-in-groove walls. One is from former Gov. Lawton Chiles. Others are from city and county government. One cites Calhoun's leadership.

Outside the music world, Calhoun worked with the Tampa Comprehensive Employment Training Program, which helped young people get jobs or an education.

He said it remains among his finer accomplishments.

"It was not throwing away good money," he said. "It was getting our people trained to compete with other nations of the world."

In his bookcase are law volumes and what would constitute a good start to an African-American studies library: biographies of W.E.B. DuBois, Hannibal and Malcolm X, The Origins and History of Islam, The Poetry of Black America and scores of other titles. Calhoun will chat for hours about history, world affairs and social philosophy.

"Every man leaves his mark. You've got to do your duty in this world," he said.

WHAT: The Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association Inc. is hosting a scholarship benefit honoring jazz saxophonist Ernie Calhoun. The group annually awards two $1,000 scholarships to Pinellas high school seniors who plan to study jazz in college.

WHEN: 2 to 5 p.m. Oct. 23, with a reception to follow.

WHERE: St. Peter's Cathedral, 140 Fourth St. NE

COST: $20, tax deductible.

For information or to buy tickets, call 894-4718. Tickets will also be available at the door.

[Last modified October 12, 2005, 16:54:18]