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What if Du Bois’ Talented Tenth Replaced Isolation With Hope?
Theodore R. Johnson is a writer and naval officer who describes himself as an “upper-middle-class black male.” He recently claimed in The Atlantic that an unintended consequence of a burgeoning group of “college-educated, middle-class black folks”—whom W.E.B. Du Bois called the Talented Tenth—has been their break from the wider black community while still not being accepted…
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Audra McDonald Soars as the Legendary Billie Holiday
Audra McDonald’s Tony nomination this week for Best Performance by an Actress in a Leading Role for her work in Lady Day at Emerson’s Bar & Grill isn’t a surprise to anyone who has seen her channel Billie Holiday. I did, closing my eyes during the performance, imagining that I was in Philadelphia in 1959…
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Iconic Jazz Club Is Reborn in Harlem
When restaurateur and executive chef Alexander Smalls and his business partner Richard Parsons, former CEO of Time Warner and retired chairman of Citigroup, began scouting for spots in Harlem to fulfill their vision for fine dining and upscale entertainment about five years ago, they knew it would be an uphill battle. After settling on the…
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3 Reasons Ralph Ellison Still Matters
“ … literature is an affirmative act, but, being specifically concerned with moral values and reality, it has to deal with the possibility of defeat. Underlying it most profoundly is the sense that man dies but his values continue. The mediating role of literature is to leave the successors with the sense of what is…
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Juilliard: More Than Just Classical Music
As artistic director of the Juilliard Jazz department, drummer, record producer and entrepreneur Carl Allen leads a prominent group of instructors to teach the next generation of highly educated jazz instrumentalists. He balances his educational duties with work on the road, with artists such as bassist Christian McBride, saxophonist Benny Golson and his own group,…
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The Root Interview: Michael Fosberg on Being the Incog-Negro
Michael Fosberg is a professional actor who was raised by his biological mother and adoptive father in a working-class white family. At the age of 30, upon hearing the news of his parents’ divorce, Fosberg began a search for his long-lost biological father. Two years later, armed with just a name (John Woods) and a…
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Marsalis Family First Group to Be Honored by NEA Jazz Masters
The National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters fellowship has been, since 1982, the nation’s highest honor bestowed on living jazz artists. Revered musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Abbey Lincoln, Hank Jones, James Moody, Dr. Billy Taylor, Sonny Rollins, Roy Haynes, George Benson, Nancy Wilson, Herbie Hancock and Quincy…
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An Appreciation of Billy Taylor, Jazz Renaissance Man
Dr. Billy Taylor exited the stage of life on Dec. 28, but his legacy as a jazz Renaissance man will most certainly live on. He was perhaps the foremost jazz educator of the past 50 years, sharing the gospel of jazz not only in books and classrooms, but also with millions of people as a…
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Marsalis' Lincoln Center Orchestra in Cuba: More Politics Than Music?
By Greg Thomas The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra‘s (JLCO) residency in Cuba last week at the invitation of the Cuban Institute of Music was significant for reasons historical, cultural and political. This was JLCO’s first time in that country since forming in 1992. But Wynton Marsalis, artistic director of Jazz at Lincoln Center (JALC)…
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The Root Interview: Roy Haynes on the Fountain of Youth
Roy Haynes percolating on drums is like Ali dancing on the tips of his toes, jabbin’, snapping heads back, which is why they call him “Snap Crackle,” for the way Haynes pops the pulse, the groove. He doesn’t just keep time rudimentally — he plays with time, listens oh so closely to his younger band…
Black News and Black Views with a Whole Lotta Attitude
