INTERVIEW: NYFOS set to remember gay entertainers from 20th-century Harlem
Photo: Joshua Blue performs with the New York Festival of Song for their program W.C. Handy: Birth of the Blues. He will be featured on the new program about songs and singers from the gay community in Harlem. Photo courtesy of Curtis Brown Photography / Provided by Aleba & Co. with permission.
The New York Festival of Song has explored various time periods and composers throughout their illustrious existence in the Big Apple, and now they are ready to look back to tunes that were part of Harlem’s underground gay community. On Thursday, Dec. 12, they will present songs by the likes of Bessie Smith, Gladys Bentley, Billy Strayhorn and Porter Grainger, among others.
Some of the songs featured in Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do: Songs From Gay Harlem have subtle references to gay relationships, while others are more open and free with their lyrical narratives. Almost all of the material is quite rare, in particular the selections from Bentley, the most popular gay entertainer in 1920s Harlem, according to press notes.
Elliott Hurwitt, an early blues scholar who provided programming assistance for the special event, actually rediscovered Bentley’s records just last month. Now the tunes will be dusted off and given a 21st-century premiere. It is believed that this concert will be the first time in 90 years these songs will be performed.
Bringing life to these compositions will be soprano Bryonha Marie, mezzo-soprano Lucia Bradford, tenor Joshua Blue, baritone Justin Austin and pianists Steven Blier (NYFOS artistic director) and Joseph Li. On bass and tuba will be special guest Brian Nalepka, and Scott Robinson will be on brass and reeds. Their collective talents will play out at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center in Manhattan.
Some of the selections on the program include “Prove It on Me” by Ma Rainey, “My Castle’s Rockin'” by Alberta Hunter, “Sittin’ and a-Rockin'” by Strayhorn and “The Boy in the Boot” by George Hannah, among others.
Recently Hollywood Soapbox exchanged emails with Hurwitt about the program of music. Questions and answers have been slightly edited for style.
What went into the selection of songs for this unique program? Where did you start?
I started with a general proposal to music director Steven Blier for a gay Harlem show, knowing he was already an expert in the songs of Billy Strayhorn, the gay composer and pianist from Pittsburgh who was Duke Ellington’s key creative partner for decades. (Strayhorn actually wrote Ellington’s theme song, ‘Take the A Train.’)
Steve could select from Strayhorn’s rich catalogue without my help. Even before I raised the idea, I was conscious of the existence of a considerable gay subculture in Harlem. In particular, I was interested in a man named Porter Grainger, now quite obscure, who was the chief accompanist to Bessie Smith, the Empress of the Blues. Grainger was a busy pianist in the 1920s — writing and arranging from folk sources, many songs, including ‘T’Ain’t Nobody’s Bizness If I Do,’ the theme song of the Dec. 12 concert.
I was interested in Grainger as a musical figure, not a gay (more likely bisexual) man, but what little we knew about his personal life, based on interviews with Smith’s niece, emphasized his sexuality. When I wrote the first-ever encyclopedia article on Grainger I had to take that into account.
Are these songs explicitly about gay culture, or are the lyrics more general, perhaps with hidden meanings?
Most of the songs are more general, but were written by gay creators and sung by straight ones, or vice versa; in some cases they were gay-created from the ground up. There are explicitly gay references in five of our songs, including the two by Ma Rainey, the great early blues singer, who was openly gay. We are less fortunate in the case of an earlier openly gay musical genius, Tony Jackson, whose original lyrics, with the exception of a single couplet recalled by Jackson’s protégé Jelly Roll Morton, are lost to us. Other of the songs are rich in double entendre or even outright raunch. And others simply have connections with gay or bi musicians. No gender is suggested in Bessie Smith’s ‘It Makes My Love Come Down;’ it’s just a beautiful song.
How excited are you to present songs by Gladys Bentley? Why was she largely forgotten about throughout history?
It’s wonderful to be presenting Gladys Bentley in her first 21st-century revival. She was a very vivid, wildly popular entertainer in 1920s Harlem, with a universal appeal beyond the confines of either gay or black society. She was totally out of the closet, which was unusual then (and far more recently, for that matter). Bentley is emerging from the sarcophagus of historical amnesia now, but primarily as a novelty item, a funny little fat woman dressed up in a man’s white tuxedo. That’s a hoot, but we’re bringing her back as a creative person with a brain. She was a tremendous pianist as well as a great entertainer. Time to give her her due, in the round, as it were.
How do these songs provide lessons to modern-day audiences?
There’s no message inherent in the songs or the concert. They’re their own rewards, as art and entertainment.
When did you start developing an interest and expertise in the early blues era?
My parents had the Bessie Smith records in their first LP re-releases. I studied classical music as a child, but also had a jazz band in high school. Years later, in graduate school, I gradually left European music behind except as a lifelong pleasure, and migrated by way of studies in American music to the study of pre-blues folk music and the earliest known blues. I’ve now immersed myself in folklore and other areas that I had not intended to investigate, but I began reading the latest research results and realized blues origins was an exciting area, one in which there is still much work to be done.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
Tain’t Nobody’s Business If I Do: Songs From Gay Harlem will be presented Thursday, Dec. 12 at 8 p.m. at Merkin Hall at Kaufman Music Center in New York City. Click here for more information and tickets.
