Scope and Contents

Transcript of interview conducted in 1977 for Maryland Historical Society.

Abstract Pianist Howard E. "Church" Anderson (1911-2001) studied music with Llewellyn Wilson in the 1920s and graduated from Douglass High School in 1929. He later studied arranging with A. Jack Thomas. He worked as an accompanist at many of the AME churches in Baltimore, earning the nickname "Church." In the 1930s he performed in jazz bands with musicians such as A. Jack Thomas, Ike Dixon, River Chambers, and Dizzy Gillespie. Anderson performed in Atlantic City with the Grooveneers and toured with...

Abstract Active as a performer and club owner, Henry Baker (1921-2008) ran a haberdashery on Pennsylvania Avenue that was a meeting place for jazz greats performing at the Royal Theater and the clubs on the Avenue. He also operated jazz clubs: Peyton Place on Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1960s and, later, The Closet on Franklin Street. Reppard Stone (1930-2019) came to Baltimore in 1949 from Macon, Georgia, to study at Morgan College. He became deeply involved with the Baltimore music...

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Ruth Binsky was one of the early members of the Left Bank Jazz Society, an organization that presented jazz concerts in Baltimore from 1964 until the 1980s. Her husband, Michael Binsky, managed a jazz club called the Bandstand. In this interview, Ruth Binsky discusses the Left Bank Jazz Society and various jazz clubs in the Baltimore/Washington area.

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Lucille M/ Brooks (1912-2014) was an organist, music educator, and choral conductor. She was educated at Dunbar High School, Morgan State University, and the Peabody Conservatory. She studied with organist John Dungee, who was for many years an organist at Bethel Church. Brooks organized the boys' choir at Dunbar High School and taught music at Carver High School.

Abstract Anne Wiggins Brown (1912-2009) was a soprano who is best known for creating the role of Bess in George Gershwin's folk opera Porgy and Bess and starring in its initial stage run in 1935. Born in Baltimore in 1912, Brown attended Frederick Douglass High School and studied music with W. Llewellyn Wilson. After being denied entry to the Peabody Conservatory of Music because it did not admit African-American students at the time, Brown enrolled at the Juilliard...

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After graduating from Douglass High School, David Burton (b. 1949) went on to study at Baltimore City Community College, Morgan State University and Towson State University. Burton joined the faculty at Douglass High School in 1985 as Director of Bands. He is the organizer and leader of the Douglass Jazz Combo. In the interview, Russell Frisby and Burton discuss jazz, growing up in Baltimore, Douglass High, and the state of music education.

Abstract Hugh Carey (1945-) is a pianist, organist, and choral conductor who studied at Morgan State College and Boston University. Carey taught at Patterson High School and Dunbar High School, then worked for Citizens Celebrating Baltimore, under the sponsorship of the Mayor of Baltimore. He joined the faculty at Coppin State in 1998. He has served as Minister of Music for Christ United Methodist, St. Katherine's of Alexandria Episcopal, Madison Avenue Presbyterian, Metropolitan United Methodist and...

Abstract Shirley Hennigan Carter (1942-) is a singer. Her talent as a musician emerged when she was in middle school, when she was encouraged by her teacher, Alice Hershaw, to begin vocal studies. She trained with Goldie Green before going on to the Peabody Preparatory Department where she studied with Josephine McLaughlin. Active as a church musician, she also sings with the Heritage Signature Chorale in Washington, D.C., and the Baltimore Municipal Opera. In this interview, Carter describes her...

Abstract Cyrus Chestnut is a jazz pianist. A Baltimore native, Chestnut began piano studies with his father, the pianist at Mount Calvary Baptist Church. At age nine, he began piano theory and musicianship classes at the Peabody Preparatory Division, where he studied for twelve years. He accompanied the choir at the Israel Baptist Church in East Baltimore. He attended Baltimore City and Harford County public schools, then Berklee College of Music, where he studied jazz composition and arranging....

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Daniel Comegys is a singer. Educated at Douglass High School and Morgan State University, Comegys began his musical studies with Ruth McAbee and Marion Smith. He studied voice with Frank Whitmore, Igor Chichagov and Roland Hayes. In Paris he worked with Nadia Boulanger and Pierre Bernac. Comegys has concertized throughout the United States, Africa, and Europe.

Abstract James Crockett (1925-2019) was a jazz supporter, realtor, and businessman. Raised in Baltimore, Crockett attended Douglass High School, where he was inspired by the school's music teacher, W. Llewellyn Wilson. As a young man, he frequented the Royal Theater and the clubs on Pennsylvania Avenue, where he heard Fats Waller, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine, and many other jazz greats. Crockett was influential in creating and supporting Baltimore's musical institutions, including the Eubie Blake...

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Oral history interview of Suzanne Davis, daughter of musician Harrison Watts. Watts played violin, flute, and saxophone in ensembles led by A. Jack Thomas and Charles Harris, and he taught at Howard University. Davis studied music at Frederick Douglass High School with W. Llewellyn Wilson. In this interview, Davis recounts her memories of the musical life of Baltimore's Black community from approximately the 1930s to 1960s.

Abstract Elizabeth Day (1920-2012) was a pianist, organist, and music educator. She played with the United Service Organization (USO) entertaining military personnel during World War II. Day studied at the Juilliard School of Music and earned a degree in music theory at what is now Morgan State University. She taught in Baltimore County Public Schools, including Bear Creek Elementary and Sollers Point Senior High. She founded and ran the Betty Day Trio, a musical ensemble that performed at social...

Abstract Isaiah Dixon Jr. (1922-2013) was a jazz fan, world traveler, and four-term state delegate from Baltimore City whose accomplishments included introducing a bill that made cross burnings a felony in Maryland. In 1976, he introduced a bill giving the mayor of Baltimore the power to appoint the city police commissioner. He was the son of Isaiah (Ike) Dixon Sr., a jazz bandleader and owner of the Comedy Club on Pennsylvania Avenue.In this interview, Dixon Jr. recounts his memories of...

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James T. Dorsey (1908-2010) is interviewed about his friendship and work with Isaiah (Ike) Dixon Sr., owner of the Comedy Club on Pennsylvania Avenue, and about other music clubs on the Avenue and his encounters with touring musicians such as Lionel Hampton and Dusty Fletcher. Dorsey owned a gas station on Pennsylvania Avenue for 31 years and was well known in the community.

Abstract Myrtle Mack Dutton (1940-2008) was a singer, pianist, and organist. As a child she played for her father's church in Lynchburg, Virginia. Dutton performed with the Treblettes and the Concert Choir at Western High School. In 1957 she entered Peabody Conservatory on a Senatorial Scholarship, where she studied voice with Elsa Baklor and received her Bachelor of Music (1961) and Master of Music degrees. She was twice a finalist in the Met Regional Auditions. She taught for the Anne Arundel...

Abstract Interview with Ethel Ennis (1932-2019), a Baltimore-based jazz singer. Ennis describes her family's musical influences on her as a young girl and her training in piano with Lovey Husketh. Ennis began performing as a pianist and singer at the age of 15 with a group called Abe Riley's Octet, which performed around Baltimore in the 1940s and early 1950s. She began touring and recording as a singer in the 1950s, working with musicians such as Louis Armstrong, Benny Goodman, Count Basie, Stephane...

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Joseph S. Eubanks (1925-2013) was a bass-baritone who performed in the 1950s with the first American company of Porgy and Bess to tour the world. He studied with Lotte Lehmann, Herta Glatz, John Brownlee, Todd Duncan, William Ray. Eubanks taught at Morgan State University from 1962 to 1985. He performed regularly as a soloist with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and with many local musical groups.

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Muriel Fulton (1912-2012) studied dance with Ellsworth Toomey as a child. She graduated from Douglass High School in 1928 (Anne Wiggins Brown, Eugene Prettyman and Avon Long were classmates) and continued dance studies in Boston. She appeared on Broadway in "Memphis Bound," with Bill Robinson and Avon Long.

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Charles Funn is a trombonist and music educator. He moved to Baltimore in 1970 and earned a degree from Morgan State University in 1975. As a performer, he has played with the Temptations, Aretha Franklin, Hank Jones, Billy Eckstine, and Gene Walker. Funn discusses the Baltimore jazz scene and his association with several notable local musicians. He also describes his experience teaching jazz at Dunbar High School and Baltimore Polytechnic High School.

Abstract Arthur "Pigmeat" Garner (1920-2011) was a saxophonist and member of the Royal Theater Orchestra. He played in the band at Douglass High School under the direction of W. Llewellyn Wilson. After graduating in 1939, he began playing with Tracy McCleary's Kentuckians at the Ritz and the Strand. During World War II, Garner performed with the 325th Army Band at Aberdeen Proving Grounds. In 1946, after his discharge from the Army, he returned to the band at the Royal Theater. He played with bands...

Abstract Ruby Glover (1929-2007) was a singer. As a student at Dunbar High School in Baltimore, Glover was already singing professionally. She performed regularly at jazz clubs on Pennsylvania Avenue in the 1940s and 1950s, with groups such as the Parrish Sextet, Doug's Blue Notes, and King Draper. Glover taught jazz history at Sojourner-Douglass College. She was one of the organizers of the Billie Holiday Vocal Competition and regularly participated in Baltimore's major annual arts festival,...

Abstract Louisa Lara Gross was born in Baltimore in 1926 to Cuban parents. While a student at Douglass High School, she won a talent search contest at the Royal Theater and began touring with Lionel Hampton shortly after her sixteenth birthday. After leaving the Hampton band, she performed as a soloist throughout the mid-Atlantic states and in Miami and Jamaica. She toured as a soloist and with vocal groups including the Cats and Fiddles, and Three B's and a Honey. After returning to Baltimore in the...

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Spencer Hammond (1931-2019) was a minister of music, organist, and choir director at Douglas Memorial Community Church. Hammond taught music in Baltimore City Public Schools for 31 years until retiring in the early 1990s, taught a course on African-American music at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and taught piano.