Last month, I reviewed Hank O’Neal’s remarkable More Than Music book which contains his colorful stories (along with a countless number of photos) of some of the most interesting musicians and personalities who he encountered through his careers as the founder and head of Chiaroscuro Records, photographer, record and concert producer, manager of his own recording studios, organizer of the Floating Jazz Festival, work on documentary films, and other miscellaneous jobs. Reading that highly recommended book led me to his equally rewarding The Ghosts of Harlem.
The large book (12″ x 9″), which is rather heavy to lift, was published in 2009 but certainly not reviewed enough. Fortunately, Hank O’Neal began this project earlier, interviewing 34 swing era musicians during 1986-87, seven during 1991-96, and a final one (Billy Taylor) in 2007. The original plot of the book was documenting what Harlem was like at its artistic height (the 1920s and ‘30s), and discussing why Harlem steadily declined from the 1940s on to the point that, by the mid-1980s, other than the Apollo Theater, there was very little live music to be found.
The introduction, which has a fascinating if sad story about producer John Hammond visiting Harlem in 1985, lets one know that the narrative is going to be quite intriguing, fresh, and often-touching. It discusses the struggle that Hank O’Neal had in originally getting it published (it took 20 years) and the questions that he asked of each of his subjects. While he called the musicians “the ghosts of Harlem” since they had performed there during the city’s prime, in reality they were actually the survivors, at least at that moment. Unfortunately, none are still with us but he did catch them in time to document some of their memories.
While he started out asking each of his subjects similar questions about their memories of performing in Harlem and the reasons that they believe it declined (which can be a bit depressing), O’Neal also let them talk about other things that came to mind. The interviews do not offer readers the complete life stories of these artists but there are many timeless and informative tales about their beginnings, life on the road, their opinions of the swing era bands and their contemporaries (everyone seems to have loved the bands of Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Count Basie and Chick Webb along with the artistry of Benny Carter), and a variety of other topics.
Not all of the “ghosts” were famous although some became household names, but each of these musicians had very interesting stories to tell. Included in the order of their birth are interviews with Andy Kirk, Benny Waters, Greely Walton, Tommy Benford, Doc Cheatham, Gene Prince, Ovie Alston, Eddie Durham, Cab Calloway, Benny Carter, Lawrence Lucie, Jonah Jones, Sammy Price, Johnny Williams, Eddie Barefield, Danny Barker, Milt Hinton, Sy Oliver, Buck Clayton, Bill Dillard, Maxine Sullivan, Franz Jackson, Red Richards, Erskine Hawkins, Bobby Williams, Buddy Tate, Al Casey, Harry “Sweets” Edison, George Kelly, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Hamilton, J.C. Heard, Panama Francis, Sammy Lowe, Joe Williams, Al Cobbs, Clark Terry, Billy Taylor, Illinois Jacquet, Frank Wess, Thelma Carpenter, and Major Holley. How often does one get to read interviews of Ovie Alston, Bill Dillard, and Thelma Carpenter?
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In addition to the consistently fascinating stories and the many photos (vintage ones of the musicians plus quite a few from the 1980s taken by O’Neal), there are photographs of what was left of the clubs in 1996 and 2007, a selected discography of the artists, and a CD of previously released performances from some of the musicians that were made for the Chiaroscuro label.
Books such The Ghosts of Harlem are a must for jazz fans because it allows us to read first-hand accounts of a time period and a music scene that will never be repeated. Hank O’Neal is to be congratulated for this essential work and kudos are deserved by the Vanderbilt University Press for publishing it and keeping this important book in print.
The Ghosts of Harlem:
Sessions with Jazz Legends
By Hank O’Neal
Foreword by Charles Rangel
Hardcover: 496 Pages, $39.95
ISBN: 9780826516275
Vanderbilt University Press
www.vanderbiltuniversitypress.com
Since 1975 Scott Yanow has been a regular reviewer of albums in many jazz styles. He has written for many jazz and arts magazines, including JazzTimes, Jazziz, Down Beat, Cadence, CODA, and the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, and was the jazz editor for Record Review. He has written an in-depth biography on Dizzy Gillespie for AllMusic.com. He has authored 11 books on jazz, over 900 liner notes for CDs and over 20,000 reviews of jazz recordings. Yanow was a contributor to and co-editor of the third edition of the All Music Guide to Jazz. He continues to write for Downbeat, Jazziz, the Los Angeles Jazz Scene, the Jazz Rag, the New York City Jazz Record and other publications.
