Ravinia 2021 - Issue 4

G. NILEDOFF (PRICE) students privately, among them Margaret Bonds. Price gained worldwide acclaim when her Symphony in E minor won first prize in the 1932 Wanamaker Competition. Frederick Stock and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performed the symphony in 1933 at the Chi- cago World’s Fair, making Price the first Afri- can American woman to have a symphony performed by a major American orchestra. Price composed Sketches in Sepia for solo pi- ano on September 12, 1947, according to one of the two surviving manuscript sources. This compact piece recalls salon music, both in its tender, folk-inflected themes and in its un- complicated three-part form. The Andante con espressione for violin and piano emerged from the prolific composi- tional period following Price’s formal studies. This piece, which Price completed between June 26 and 29, 1929, contrasts a lyrical theme with more dramatically charged chromatic material. The manuscript of Price’s four-movement Piano Quintet in A minor (c.1935) was redis- covered in a ramshackle, abandoned house in Saint Anne, IL, in 2009. Its Allegro non troppo begins dramatically with a folk-like motive vaguely reminiscent of the African American spiritual “Sometimes I Feel like a Motherless Child.” Price sustains a folk at- mosphere throughout this movement, whose structure generally follows sonata form. The Andante con moto continues in a lyrical vein. Juba conjures sounds of the complex African American rhythmic hand patting sometimes called “hambone,” a corruption of the “hand bone” used to makes sounds on the legs, tor- so, and cheeks. The term “juba” apparently originated in West Africa but the practice of “pattin’ juba” emerged in the aftermath of the Stono Rebellion on September 9, 1739, when enslaved Black people living southwest of Charleston, SC, seized firearms and killed 20 white people. In the ensuing crackdown, slaves were forbidden from playing drums for Florence Price fear that they might contain coded messages or signals. This suppressed rhythmic instinct found its way into juba, where the body be- comes a drum. The Scherzo finale is an essay on rhythmic momentum. LIL HARDIN ARMSTRONG (1898–1971) “Just For a Thrill” (arranged by Jeremy Siskind) Chicago emained the center of Lil Hardin’s musical activity for much of her long career, which began modestly in Jones Music Store at 3409½ South State Street. One afternoon, Lil entered the store in search of new sheet mu- sic. After the house pianist fumbled through the music, Lil asked if she could give it a try. Her performance so impressed the pianist that he hired Lil on the spot. The store was a center of musical activity, and an unexpect- ed visit by ragtime and jazz pianist Jelly Roll Morton inspired greater force in Lil’s playing: “I only weighed around 85 pounds, and from then on you could hear all 85 of ’em.”The store owner, Mrs. Jennie Jones, also booked talent at several local clubs and agreed to help Lil find work. Stints with Lawrence Duhe’s New Orleans Jazz Band and King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band followed, and “Hot Miss Lil” quick- ly became a local jazz celebrity. When the second trumpeter left his band in 1922, Joe “King” Oliver summoned a talent- ed but shy young player from New Orleans named Louis Armstrong to join him in Chica- go. Armstrong took the overnight City of New Orleans train, arrived at Illinois Central Rail- road station, and was chauffeured directly to the Royal Gardens Café at 459 East 31st Street for the evening show. Lil was unimpressed by the frumpy musician: “I was very disappoint- ed—I didn’t like anything about him. I didn’t like the way he dressed. I didn’t like the way he talked. I just didn’t like him. I was very disgust- ed.” Louis, on the other hand, was love-struck. The relationship between Lil Hardin and Louis Armstrong developed slowly. Lil in- sisted that Louis change his clothing and hair styles to look less “country.” Eventually, she would take charge of managing his business affairs. They grew closer when King Oliver led the band on tour in 1923, which included a recording session for Starr Piano Company of Richmond, IN, on the Gennett Records la- bel. Later that year, Lil and Louis decided to marry—once they had divorced their current spouses. The wedding ceremony took place on February 4, 1924. A certain tumult and discord alternated with tender moments throughout their marriage. Louie’s first wife, Daisy, never completely dis- appeared from view. Lil demanded that her husband assert himself and no longer play second trumpet, which he eventually did af- ter King Oliver’s band fell apart. Further, Lil was the creative mind behind the Hot Five and Hot Seven recordings for Okeh Records (1925–28) that helped establish jazz as an art form and introduce Louis to a wider audience. At this time, Lil came into her own as an art- ist. She enrolled at the Chicago Musical Col- lege (now part of Roosevelt University) in 1928 to complete the degree she had aban- doned at Fisk University. The following year, Lil received a post-graduate degree from the New York College of Music (now part of New York University) before the stock market crash forced her return to Chicago. Lil formed her own jazz bands, including some of the first all-women ensembles, and focused on songwriting and arranging. Meanwhile, she and Louis steadily drifted apart. Lil Hardin Armstrong and Her Swing Or- chestra entered the Decca Records studio on October 27, 1936, to record several of Lil’s compositions, including “Just For a Thrill,” whose lyrics about heartbreak and one-sid- ed devotion portrayed her relationship with Louis. The song enjoyed a renaissance 23 years later when Ray Charles recorded an or- chestrated version on his The Genius of Ray Charles album. Two years later, the Armstrongs finally di- vorced. Louis soon remarried, but Lil re- mained devoted to him, as promised in the lyrics to “Just For a Thrill”: “Although you’re free and havin’ your fun / To me you’re still the only one.” Louis Armstrong died of a heart attack on July 6, 1971. His funeral took place in New York City, and he was buried in Flush- ing Cemetery. Lil was invited to perform on a memorial concert at Chicago’s Civic Center Plaza (now Daley Plaza) on August 27. She gave a vigorous performance of W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues , hearkening back to her Beale Street days, but also celebrating her saint— Louis. As the final chord resounded and the crowd began to applaud, Lil collapsed onstage and died of a heart attack. Lil Hardin Armstrong SAM COOKE (1931–64) “A Change Is Gonna Come” (arranged by Jeremy Siskind) The Rev. Charles Cook served as minister of the Church of Christ (Holiness) congregation in Clarksdale, MS. He married Annie May Carl on November 15, 1923. The couple adopt- ed an orphaned relative and had seven chil- dren of their own. Samuel Cook, their fifth child, was born on January 22, 1931. Two years later, the growing family moved to Chicago, where Rev. Cook became assistant pastor of Christ Temple Cathedral (Holiness) at East 44th Street and South St. Lawrence Avenue in Bronzeville while working at the stockyards. Their apartment stood across the street from Ellis Park and down the road from Doolittle Elementary School, which Sam attended. Church was the center of life in the Cook family. After one year in Chicago, Rev. Cook became pastor of Christ Temple Church (Ho- liness) in Chicago Heights, a considerable drive from their home in Bronzeville. Annie May and all the children attended services on Sunday and sang in the choir. Around 1939, the Cook siblings formed a gospel group, the Singing Children. On the way home from elementary school, Sam would sometimes sing popular songs at the streetcar exchange or listen to jazz music drifting through the windows of the local tavern. His musical in- terests continued to expand when he entered Wendell Phillips High School. The Singing Children disbanded, and Sam joined another gospel group, The Highway Q.C.’s. When he left to become lead singer of the well-known gospel quartet The Soul Stirrers, another South Sider named Lou Rawls took his place. When his single “You Send Me” became a number-one crossover hit on Billboard ’s R&B Records chart and the Billboard Hot 100 in 1957, Sam’s career shifted direction toward popular music. He marked this transforma- tion by adding an “e” to his family name— Cooke. As producer Bumps Blackwell Sam Cooke RAVINIA MAGAZINE • SEPTEMBER 7 – SEPTEMBER 24, 2021 42