* Today in Black History - September 23 *
1667 - In Williamsburg, Virginia, a law was passed, barring slaves from
obtaining their freedom by converting to Christianity.
1862 - A draft of Lincoln's Emancipation Proclamation is published in
Northern Newspapers.
1863 - Mary Church (later Terrell) is born in Memphis, Tennessee. She
will become an educator, civil and woman's rights advocate, and
U.S. delegate to the International Peace Conference. She will
also be the first African American to serve on the school board
in the District of Columbia.
1926 - John Coltrane, brilliant jazz saxophonist and composer who will
be considered the father of avant-garde jazz, is born in Hamlet,
North Carolina. Even though there are recordings of Coltrane
from as early as 1946, he received little recognition until
1955. "Trane," as he will be called, will freelance in
Philadelphia in the summer of 1955 when he will receive a call
from trumpeter Miles Davis. Davis, whose success during the
late forties will dissipate from several years of heroin abuse,
will clean up, become active, and will be ready to form a
quintet. Tenor man Sonny Rollins, Davis' preferred saxophonist,
will vanish temporarily, which will ensure that Coltrane will
be appointed in his place. With a few absences, Coltrane will
work with Miles from October 1955 through April 1957, a period
which will see influential recordings from Davis and the first
signs of Coltrane's growing ability. Although recordings of his
work from as early as 1946 exist, His recording career will not
begin in earnest until 1955. From 1957 onward, he will record
at an astonishing rate, producing dozens of albums, many of
which will not appear until years after he joins the ancestors.
He will be regarded as one of the most important and influential
jazz musicians, and one of the greatest musicians of the
twentieth century. He will be credited with reshaping modern
jazz and with being the predominant influence on successive
generations of musicians. Along with tenor saxophonists Coleman
Hawkins, Lester Young, and Sonny Rollins, He will fundamentally
alter expectations for the instrument. He will join the
ancestors, succumbing from liver cancer, at Huntington Hospital
in Long Island, New York on July 17, 1967, at the age of 40.
1930 - Ray Charles (Robinson) is born in Albany, Georgia. Blind by the
age of six, he will study music and form his own band at the
age of 24. He will overcome the handicap of blindness to become
a pioneering American pianist and soul musician who will shape
the sound of rhythm and blues and bring a soulful sound to
everything from country music to pop standards to a now-famous
rendition of "America the Beautiful." He will score his first
Atlantic hit in 1953 with the release of the Ahmet Ertegun-
composed "Mess Around." He will have another hit with the
version of "It Should Have Been Me." His career will go into
high gear with the gospel drive of "I Got a Woman" (1955). This
will be followed by "This Little Girl of Mine," "Drown in My Own
Tears," "Hallelujah I Love Her So," and "Lonely Avenue." Much of
his songs at this time were gospel songs converted with secular
lyrics. He also recorded many blues ballads. His landmark album
will be "Modern Sounds in Country and Western Music." The
essence of this phase of his career can be heard on his live
album "Ray Charles In Person," recorded before a mostly African
American audience in Atlanta in 1956. This album will also
feature the first public performance of "What'd I Say." It broke
out as a hit in Atlanta from the tape, months before it will be
recorded in the studio in a two-part version with better
fidelity. Shortly afterward, in an appearance at the Newport
Jazz Festival, he will achieve mainstream success with "The Night
Time (Is The Right Time)" which will appear on "Ray Charles at
Newport" (1959) and his signature song, "What'd I Say". Frank
Sinatra will call him "the only true genius in the business."
One of his last public performances will be in 2003 at a
televised annual electronic media journalist banquet held in
Washington, D.C. He will perform "Georgia On My Mind" and
"America the Beautiful." His final public appearance will come
on April 30, 2004, at the dedication of his music studio as a
historic landmark in the city of Los Angeles. He will join the
ancestors on June 10, 2004 after succumbing to acute liver
disease. His final album, "Genius Loves Company," released two
months after his death, will consist of duets with various
admirers and contemporaries: B.B. King, Van Morrison, Willie
Nelson, James Taylor, Gladys Knight, Michael McDonald, Natalie
Cole, Elton John, Bonnie Raitt, Diana Krall, Norah Jones, Idina
Menzel, and Johnny Mathis. The album will win 8 Grammy Awards,
including 5 for Ray for Best Pop Vocal Album, Album of the Year,
Record of the Year and Best Pop Collaboration with Vocals for
"Here We Go Again" with Norah Jones, and Best Gospel Performance
for "Heaven Help Us All" with Gladys Knight; he will also
receive nods for his duets with Elton John and B.B. King. Out of
all of the songs from his huge catalog of recordings, he will
request Harold Arlen's "Somewhere Over The Rainbow," a duet
recorded with Johnny Mathis, be played at his memorial service.
1952 - Jersey Joe Walcott, loses his heavyweight title in the 13th
round, to Rocky Marciano, in Philadelphia Pennsylvania. Pay
Television for sporting events begins with the Marciano-Walcott
fight, coast to coast, in 49 theatres in 31 cities.
1954 - Playwright George C. Wolfe is born in Frankfort, Kentucky. He
will become critically acclaimed for the controversial plays,
"The Colored Museum", "Jelly's Last Jam", and "Spunk".
1957 - Nine African American students, who had entered Little Rock
Central High School in Arkansas, are forced to leave because
of a white mob outside.
1961 - President Kennedy names Thurgood Marshall to the United States
Circuit Court of Appeals.
1962 - Los Angeles Dodger, Maury Wills, steals record setting base #97
on his way to 104.
1979 - Lou Brock steals record 935th base and becomes the all-time
major league record holder.
______________________________________________________________
Munirah Chronicle is edited by Brother Mosi Hoj
"The TRUTH shall make you free"
E-mail: <[log in to unmask]>
Archives: http://listserv.icors.org/archives/Munirah.html
http://blackagenda.com/cybercolonies/index.htm
_____________________________________________________________
To SUBSCRIBE send E-mail to: <[log in to unmask]>
In the E-mail body place: Subscribe Munirah Your FULL Name
______________________________________________________________
Munirah(TM) is a trademark of Information Man. Copyright 1998 - 2006,
All Rights Reserved by the Information Man in association with
The Black Agenda.
|