Browse Items (28 total)

J. B. “Jay” Sims. As a student at Alabama State, Sims served as the original singer and emcee of the ‘Bama State Collegians, performing in the frenetic “wildman” style of Cab Calloway; after graduation, he returned to his hometown of Birmingham,…

Jimmy Mitchell (aka Jimmy Mitchelle), saxophonist and vocalist with with the ‘Bama State Collegians / Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. 1940s Publicity photo.

Banjo player Darrell Mogran at the Woodstock, Alabama, Bluegrass Festival, November 1971, photographer unknown.

Attendee Pearl Benson at Birmingham’s Festival of Sacred Music, press photo, 1963. Birmingham’s third annual Festival of Sacred Music opened on November 26, 1963, with an emotional “farewell” to President John F. Kennedy, who had been killed just a…

Birmingham-born Laura Washington joined the Erskine Hawkins Orchestra as a teenager in 1946, scoring a hit that year for the band with her performance of Joe Liggins’ “I’ve Got a Right to Cry.” (The Hawkins/Washington cover reached #2 on the…

Singer J. V. Jenkins performs at the inauguration of Birmingham mayor Richard Arrington, Jr. Press photo, 1979. Jenkins performed “Here Am I, O Lord, Send Me,” at Arrington’s request. “It’s a song that has special meaning for black people,” Rachel…

Singer Lisa Taylor announces her engagement to (former and future) Alabama governor George Wallace, Associated Press photo, 1981. As a teenager, Taylor and her sister had performed as a country music duo, Mona and Lisa, for Wallace’s 1968 campaign…

This undated reel-to-reel recording from the Frank Adams collection includes performances by the following vocalists: Doris “Dot” Adams, “I’ll Be Around” Avery Richardson, “After the Party” Fletcher “Hootie” Myatt, “Poor Butterfly” (partial)…