Browse Items (16 total)

Bo Berry Tribute Cover.jpeg
Program for a celebration honoring jazz trumpeter Collins "Bo" Berry of Birmingham, Alabama, November 11, 2023. Organized by friends and admirers, the tribute honored Berry's fifty-five years as a professional musician.

Cover photo by Roger…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Bo Berry by RJS.jpg
Trumpeter Collins "Bo" Berry at The Jaybird, Birmingham, Alabama, December 16, 2017. Photo by Roger Stephenson.

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

SKM_C364e23042615340.jpg
Funeral program for bandleader Erskine Ramsey Hawkins (1914-1993), Birmingham, Alabama.

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Richard Clarke School Photo.jpg
Trumpeter Richard ("Dick" / "Dickie") Clarke belonged to Birmingham's musical Clarke family. Clarke performed in the bands of "Fess' Whatley, Baron Lee, Benny Carter, Billie Holiday, and others; performed in the pits of numerous Broadway shows; and…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/563fa9e672068f34dfd299ed6d5efa6c.pdf
In this excerpt, Frank Adams shares memories of trumpeter Joe Guy. In the late 1930s and early 1940s, the Birmingham-born Guy performed in the bands of Cab Calloway, Lucky Millinder, Coleman Hawkins, Cootie Williams, and others—as well as in the…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/a4c9754400505b2d374c945aee463087.jpg
Detail from contact sheet by photographer Skip Aldeman. (For the full sheet of images, see "Billie Holiday and Joe Guy (2 Contact Sheets)." The Birmingham-born Guy, an early bebop pioneer, was widely known as Billie Holiday's husband, though the…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/ac54cf11a4665425611172c63fc8bd52.jpg
Detail from contact sheet by photographer Skip Aldeman. (For the full sheet of images, see "Billie Holiday and Joe Guy (2 Contact Sheets)." The Birmingham-born Guy, an early bebop pioneer, was widely known as Billie Holiday's husband, though the…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/7587f3608ef601a3c8e0420101c05994.jpg
These original contact sheets by photographer Skip Aldeman include images of Billie Holiday and Joe Guy, her musical and romantic partner. Also pictured is their beloved bulldog, Mister.

The Birmingham-born Guy, an early bebop pioneer, was widely…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/4bd682dc32443542a4ade17d527a8f02.jpg
Birmingham trumpeter Joe Guy, an early bebop pioneer, was Billie Holiday's musical and romantic partner. (Known as husband and wife, they likely never formally married.) When the couple was busted for narcotics possession in 1947, Guy returned to…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/1837c81f97e463f8029bf6952c0926fb.jpeg
Erskine Hawkins publicity photo, 1940s

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/d77079c3c3388c9e3999a7b7e8f0b583.jpeg
Birmingham trumpeter Richard Clarke (aka Dick or Dickie Clarke) belonged to a family full of musicians. His own career included work in the bands of Fess Whatley, Baron Lee, Benny Carter, Billie Holiday, and others; in a U. S. Army band; and in…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/7d6d3f72bab2256a6eb6669d80e909a6.jpg
Charles “Chuck” Clarke, Mary Alice Clarke Stollenwerck, Joe Guy, and Jesse Evans perform in a Birmingham club, c. 1950s.

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/efd61951f8529ddeb9f91e58e14ea167.jpeg
Wilbur “Dud” Bascomb (1916-1972), trumpeter with the ‘Bama State Collegians / Erskine Hawkins Orchestra. Bascomb's solo on the 1939 Erskine Hawkins hit "Tuxedo Junction" was closely studied and faithfully reproduced by a generation of up-and-coming…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/7ef8d8e2c75cf5ce98d208c9898be2b0.jpeg
Sammy Lowe (1918-1993), trumpeter and arranger, Erskine Hawkins Orchestra.

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/c71c20317d9bb4a0d356c4c25edc9bd4.jpeg
Erskine Hawkins (1914 – 1993), publicity photo, c. 1939. The Erskine Hawkins Orchestra, begun at Alabama State Teachers’ College as the ‘Bama State Collegians, developed into one of Black America’s leading dance bands. Nearly all the band’s members…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

https://s3.amazonaws.com/omeka-net/69313/archive/files/00cfe66ea146506423bc9d9a1cfb77f3.jpeg
John T. “Fess” Whatley (1885 – 1972), Birmingham’s legendary “Maker of Musicians,” 1968. From 1917 into the 1950s, Whatley’s music program at Industrial / Parker High School produced numerous professional musicians, many of whom performed in the…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

Output Formats

atom, dc-rdf, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2