Harlem flowers again in Tampa

Pivoting on the music of Duke Ellington, a series of concerts, lectures and exhibits demonstrates the explosion of music, art, photography and literature known as the Harlem Renaissance.

By PHILIP BOOTH

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 14, 2001

TAMPA -- Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington would have turned 100 in 1999, and America celebrated in a big way.

Major and minor biographies of the hugely influential pianist, composer and bandleader were published. Wynton Marsalis and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, plus dozens of other artists, paid tribute, live and in the studio. College ensembles around the country, including at the University of South Florida, presented Ellington-themed concerts. Radio specials proliferated. And more than 50 CD reissues and compilations were released.

Duke and his music were everywhere, to the delight of jazz aficionados and others hoping to spread the word about Ellington's enduring genius.

Now the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center is saluting the master and the other major African-American artists who were his contemporaries, with "Take the "A' Train: Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance."

Borrowing its title from the Billy Strayhorn-penned Ellington hit about the Manhattan subway ride uptown to Harlem, the festival is an ambitious undertaking. More than a dozen music and dance performances, lectures and films, from today through March 29, are slated in the joint effort of the Center, the University of South Florida, the Tampa Museum of Art and Tampa Theatre.

The concerts alone offer jazz fans something to cheer about: a long overdue break from the more commercial fare most often masquerading as jazz on local stages. It's a rare opportunity to catch trombonist Wycliffe Gordon (Feb. 3) and pianist Marcus Roberts (Feb. 25) in the same month at the same venue.

But why stage an Ellington series now? And why here? The short answer is twofold: The Center already had commissioned famed choreographer Donald Byrd, who is from Clearwater, to create "In a Different Light," a work featuring Ellington's lesser-known works. Secondly, it was Ellington's turn to be featured in the Center's American Education Enrichment Program, which has honored Aaron Copland and George Gershwin in previous seasons.

George Thompson, vice president and general manager of the center, contacted the other Tampa arts institutions about a series on the Harlem Renaissance and won an enthusiastic reception.

The Harlem Renaissance flowered during the 1920s and into the 1930s with the creative work of instrumentalists/composers Ellington, Louis Armstrong and Eubie Blake; singers Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters; writers Langston Hughes, Marcus Garvey, W.E.B. Du Bois, Sterling Brown and the Florida-born Zora Neale Hurston and James Weldon Johnson; photographer James VanDerZee; artists Aaron Douglass, William H. Johnson and Palmer Hayden; filmmaker Oscar Micheaux; and performers Paul Robeson and Josephine Baker, among many others.

"Before we knew it, we had a very rich and deep festival that not only explored Duke Ellington, but placed him in the time period of the Harlem Renaissance and went on to look at all the arts and humanities," Thompson said.

Historians say that in many ways, Ellington, who moved to Harlem from his native Washington, D.C., was the heart and the soul of the Harlem Renaissance. Several of his works, including Black Beauty, Black and Tan Fantasy, Drop Me Off in Harlem, Jungle Nights in Harlem, Harlem Speaks and Echoes of Harlem, directly refer to the African-American experience.

"His music kind of epitomized the sounds of that artistic movement," Thompson says. "It really explored important themes. The African-American story was for the first time really taken seriously" by those who thought culture was the domain of whites.

Or, as Langston Hughes noted, "Let the blare of the Negro jazz bands penetrate through the closed ears of the colored near-intellectual until he listens and perhaps understands. We younger artists who create now intend to express our individual dark-skinned selves without fear or shame. The tom-tom cries and the tom-tom laughs."

Sybil Johnson, a poet and educator who uses Hughes' poetry in the theater courses she teaches at St. Petersburg Junior College, finds similar inspiration in Ellington's works. "I think that his music sort of had an uplifting sound -- his big-band concept," says Johnson, moderator for a Feb. 21 lecture and discussion at the center's Off Center Theater. "A lot of what he wrote had a positive attitude, for me," she says. "The blending of the instruments in that type of band is a very ensemble-oriented activity. This is the way that different types of people are learning to work together, like the orchestra."

Ellington, credited with placing the composer front and center in jazz without diminishing the individual players, to this day remains a role model for composers as diverse as Wynton Marsalis, Sam Rivers, Maria Schneider and Toshiko Akiyoshi.

"He paved the way for people like Gil Evans and any number of composers," says longtime USF jazz studies professor Chuck Owen, a noted composer and pianist. "He is the foundation. Everything kind of evolves from out of what he first did."

"Everybody goes back and studies what he did, everything from his use of melodic ideas to coloristic ideas, and use of the band as soloists. He looked at a big band not just as an ensemble, but as a group with a number of individual soloists who have their own voices."

By embracing music, dance, theater and literature in the "Take the "A' Train" festival, organizers hope to attract new audiences to artists they may not know much about.

"Because we brought together community advocates (on an advisory planning board), people are going out there and creating a grass roots kind of excitement," Thompson said. "People are out there talking about it. It's more than just throwing a Marcus Roberts on the stage and saying, "Hey, we have a concert there.' It's part of a larger festival that hopefully entices people and serves as something that expands beyond that traditional "Hey, I've got a show; you want to buy a ticket?' "

Take the 'A' Train: Duke Ellington and the Harlem Renaissance

All events will be in various venues at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, unless otherwise noted. Call the box office at (813) 229-7827 for tickets and information.

TODAY: 4 p.m., Opening reception at Louise Lykes Ferguson Hall lobby, with refreshments and entertainment. Free.

JAN. 17: 7 p.m., lecture/discussion: "Duke Ellington and the Influence of His Music," multimedia presentation by Fred Johnson, choreographer Donald Byrd and others. Free.

JAN. 20: 8 p.m. dance performance: "In a Different Light," by Donald Byrd/the Group. $24.50-$34.50.

FEB. 3: 8 p.m. concert: Wycliffe Gordon Sextet presents "An Evening of Ellington," followed by a talk-back with the artists. $14.50-$24.50.

FEB. 4: 3 p.m. film: Stormy Weather (1943), starring Lena Horne, Fats Waller, Cab Calloway. At Tampa Theatre. $4.

FEB. 11-APRIL 15: Photography exhibit: "James VanDerZee -- The Harlem Years," at Tampa Museum of Art. Call (813) 274-8130 for hours. Admission $3-$5. Opening on Feb. 11 at 2 p.m., features presentation about the photographer and his work.

FEB. 21: 7 p.m., lecture/discussion: "The Harlem Renaissance -- An Unpredictable Outburst of Creativity," expert panel moderated by Sybil Johnson. Free. Followed by 8:15 p.m. poetry reading: "Caroling Dusk," by Tampa poet laureate James Tokley and others.

FEB. 25: 7:30 p.m. concert: pianist Marcus Roberts. $14.50-$24.50.

MARCH 1-18: play: Zora Neale Hurston, an exploration of the writer's life by Laurence Holder, Thur.-Sat. 8 p.m., Sun. 4 p.m., $15.50-$21.50.

MARCH 6: 7:30 p.m. interview: "Duke on the Bandstand," WUSF-FM jazz director Bob Seymour interviews trombonist Buster Cooper and bassist John Lamb, who played with Ellington. Free.

MARCH 21-23: Symposium: "Lessons from the Harlem Renaissance," by the USF Institute on Black Life. Times and venues to be announced. Call the institute at (813) 974-4727 for information.

MARCH 29: 7:30 p.m. concert: Rhythm & Brass plays music of Ellington. $14.50-$24.50.

© St. Petersburg Times. All rights reserved.