Thursday, February 16, 2006

Wendell Hawkins - More from Arnett Howard's Columbus Black and Jazz history archives

Arnette Howard keeps digging up nuggets from his extensive archives. Thanks for sharing with us!

Mardi Gras
season starts Friday. My first party is at First Community Church, First Ave. and Cambridge Blvd., Saturday, Feb. 18th, 3 pm., featuring a second line for displaced New Orleans families. Let the good times roll.
A


Picture captions: Wendell at Club Regal on Long Street at Garfield Ave. Dig those curtins. Early 1950s.
The Sammy Hopkins Trio, Bill Ray, drums, Sammy, alto sax, Wendell, piano. Late 1940s.

The Black History Blog archive is at http://creolefunk.com/historical/blackhistory/blackhistory.html

Wendell would have been born in 1927 or 28 and died in the mid-1980s.
The sound file is three minutes. Sorry if it clogs your browser. Feedback is good.

These days there are reports of British music fans who are writing my jazz research friends, actively interested in Wendell Hawkins, a Columbus pianist who was nearing the end of his long career when I saw him in the early 1980s. He was playing at Engine House Number Five, a very popular steak and seafood house on Columbus' Southside, at Thurman and Fourth Street in trendy German Village. I regret that I never interviewed him because he lived not too long afterwards. I did spend an evening and had a chat with his brother, Wyman, a drummer with The Chuck Henderson Trio at the Gloria Restaurant. And, somewhere, I picked up a record album on the King Label called Mr. Hawkins at the piano: The Wendell Hawkins Trio. So, to fill whatever thirst that our British friends have, here are the notes from the ten song album written by Bill Brabson in 1960.

"Unfortunately, scattered throughout the length and breadth of America are a hand full of musicians who, for one reason or another, be it the case of not being in the right place at the right time or merely the workings of an unpredictable fate, sometimes spend their entire professional lives unknown and unrecognized by anyone save their fellow musicians and a relatively small following of discriminating fans in what area they happen to be working.

Wendell Hawkins has been, up until now, one of those hiding-their-light-under-a-bushel musicians.

Jazz fans around Ohio have been digging Wendell, and his equally talented brother Wyman, for more years than either of them care to remember. But the music business being what it is today, Gabriel himself couldn't get the type of exposure that was almost commonplace in the hey day of bug bands, radio remotes and supper clubs in the 1930s and '40s.

Twenty-five years ago... Wendell Hawkins would have been known coast-to-coast. (He) has as little background worth touting as anyone we've ever run across. He has had no command performances before Queen Elizabeth, he's never played the Newport Jazz festival and he isn't a regular on Jack Parr's nightly (show).

All he does is play good, listenable, clean-cut, imaginative, jazz piano. There's a little Art Tatum here, a smattering of Erroll Garner there, a hunk of Oscar Peterson in spots, but the overall product is pure Wendell Hawkins. A thirty-two year old pianist from Columbus, ohio who we firmly expect to be one of the blazing new stars on the jazz horizon. He is backed up by his brother Wyman on drums and the capable bass work of William Bell.

We hope you like Wendell. We think he plays good. He's a nice guy too."

Kenyon Farrow Signs Books at Monkeys Retreat


Kenyon Farrow will be at the Monkeys Retreat store, Tuesday 2/21/06 from 6-8 pm to promote and sign his book LETTERS FROM YOUNG ACTIVISTS: TODAY'S REBELS SPEAK OUT

Kenyon Farrow is a writer and activist living in Brooklyn, NY. He is the culture editor for Clamor Magazine, and co-editor of Letters from Young Activists: Today's Rebels Speak Out (Nation Books 2005).His essays have appeared in print publications and online, and in the upcoming anthology, Spirited: Affirming the Soul of Black Gay and Lesbian Identity (Red Bone Press 2005). Recently named one of the nations "Movers & Shakers" in HIV/AIDS activism by The Body.com, Kenyon's work as an activist has also included prison and police brutality issues, drug policy, LGBT, youth and homelessness issues. He is currently working on his first solo book.

Goes into it's 2nd Printing in January!!!
www.lettersfromyoungactivists.org
LETTERS FROM YOUNG ACTIVISTS: TODAY'S RE
BELS SPEAK OUT
by Dan Berger, Chesa Boudin & Kenyon Farrow, editors / Preface by Bernardine Dohrn --Who will lead America in the years to come? Letters from Young Activists introduces America's bold, exciting, new generation of activists. These diverse authors challenge the common misconception that today's young people are apathetic, shallow, and materialistic. Aged ten to thirty-one, these atheist, Christian, Jewish, Muslim, pagan, transgender, heterosexual, bisexual, metrosexual Americans are from every type of background and ethnicity, but are united by their struggle toward a common goal. They are the inheritors of their parents' legacy from the sixties, but also have the imagination and courage to embark on new paths and different directions.


In letters addressed to their parents, to past generations, to each other, to the youth of tomorrow and to their future selves, each author articulates his or her vision for the world as they work towards racial, economic, gender, environmental and global justice. As the editors write in their introduction: "From globalization to the war on terrorism and beyond, our generation is compelled to action in the midst of a rapidly changing, and unique political moment Our challenge, and yours, is to live our lives in a way that does not make a mockery of our values."

About the authors:
Dan Berger is the author of Outlaws of America and currently a PhD student at the University of Pennsylvania.

Chesa Boudin was a leader of the Yale Coalition for Peace and is studying issues of Public Policy in Latin America at Oxford University, where he is a Rhodes Scholar. His parents are David Gilbert and Kathy Boudin, who both participated in the 1981 Brinks robbery (his letter to his dad who is still in prison is remarkable).

Kenyon Farrow has been published in City Limits and Black Commentator and on activism websites, and is working on a book.

The preface is by Bernardine Dohrn, former member of the Weather Underground, writer, activist and professor of law at Northwestern University.

"These voices will not be ignored. They will be heard." --Mumia Abu-Jamal, political prisoner and author of We Want Freedom: A Life in the Black Panther Party

"Whether North American or Other you will not regret the hours spent with this inspiring, compassionate and soulful book. It allows a glimpse into the hearts of young activists of today... They are making of themselves an offering to the Goddess of Peace." --Alice Walker, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Color Purple

Trade paperback book (5-1/2" x 8-1/4"), 256 pages. -- $14.95


JAZZ at COLUMBUS MUSIC HALL update 02/16/06

JAZZ at COLUMBUS MUSIC HALL
www.columbusmusichall.com
734 Oak Street 464-0044
One block southeast of Broad & I-71

...an intimate jazz venue featuring local, regional, and national musicians...

Reminder:


Saturday, February 18, 10:00 pm, $7, Bryan Olsheski,

tenor sax, Mark Flugge, piano, Doug Richeson, bass,
Dave Weinstock, drums

And...don't miss this special concert on...


Sunday, February 19, 7:30pm, $10, $5 students, AARON

DIEHL, jazz piano with special guest vocalist,
Jennifer Sanon.
Aaron is a 3rd year student in the jazz program at The
Juilliard School of Music. He is a Columbus native
and returns occasionally to treat us to his keyboard
skills. Jennifer is a student in NYC who has
performed with Wynton Marsalis and promises to be the
next jazz "diva."

Wednesday, February 22, 7:00, $5, Teen Jazz


Friday, February 24, 8pm, $10, $5 students. The Todd

Stoll Septet returns to feature the music of Thelonius
MONK, Jelly Roll MORTON, and Wynton MARSALIS. The
Grandview Heights High School Jazz Band opens the
evening at 8pm.

Wednesday, March 1, 8:30pm $7, Bobby Floyd B3 Trio


The second PBJ & Jazz for Kids and Families is on

Saturday morning March 11 at 11:00am with the Bobby
Floyd trio, Chad Eby on tenor sax and Mary McClendon,
vocals. Kids get PBJ sandwiches, juice and a cookie.
Coffee for parents (and grandparents). It is $5 at the
door with a ceiling of $20 per family.

And, of course,

Every Monday -Vaughn Wiester's Famous Jazz Orchestra,

7:30, $6
Every Tuesday - Yumbambé Latin Salsa Jazz, 8:30, $7


2nd Wednesdays - Larry Cook Trio with college combos

as guests followed by a jam session,
7:30pm, $5, $3 students