Page 4
The
Portland Observer Black HistOiy Month
February 16, 2011
Portland’s Jazz Legacies Celebrated
Show honors
rich history of
black musicians
C ari H achmann
T iie P ortland O bserver
Black History Month honors
Portland’s rich history of jazz music
w ith a tw o -w eek en d run o f
“Sherman: A Jazz Opera,” a show
about the post World War II jazz
scene around Broadway and North
by
Thara Memory
Williams Avenue and the reclaimed
talents of jazz musician Sherman
Thomas.
Composed by Portland musician
Thara Memory and produced by S.
Renee Mitchell, an award winning-
journalist, poet and public speaker,
the story is based in the 1940s-
1950s and loosely tells the story of
Thomas, a Portland saxophone
player who died tragically in the 70s,
and also highlights the jazz-themed
art of the late Portland artist Philemon
Reid.
The production, also starring
Janice Scroggins, Reggie Houston
and Rita Marquez, opens Friday,
Feb. 18 at Ethos at the Interstate
Firehouse Cultural Center, 5340 N.
Interstate Ave., with shows con­
tinuing through Feb. 27. The show
is a prelude to a larger production
scheduled in 2012-2013 by Portland
Opera.
“The story of Sherman Thomas
is a story of northeast Portland, but
it's also a story of many countless
musicians throughout the country,”
said Mitchell, who provides the li­
bretto for the show.
As a gifted star among the milky
way of jazz legends, it is said that
when Sherman Thomas wrapped his
full lips around the mouth of his
saxophone, the fierceness of his
notes electrified Portland's smoky
jazz blues, sending brown-skinned
women’s hips to swaying and mar­
ried jazz lovers to make promises
they couldn’t keep.
Though his natural talent pleased
listeners and lovers alike, Sherman
sought a high that only harder drugs
seemed to satisfy. He soon lost
touch of his jazz music and sweet­
heart, Marion, until his life too, faded
in history’s memory like a sweet and
melodic tune.
“No matter whether people knew
about Sherman or not, the appeal is
really in the story and in the lessons
S. Renee Mitchell
his life can teach us about our own.
Like any other art form, this show
reflects the energy, creativity, hopes
and dreams of all of us and can be a
positive force in building commu­
nity,” Mitchell says.
For those who have forgotten
about the rich history of inner north
and northeast Portland, this show
will help people recognize the shoul­
ders they stand on and appreciate
the music that was played and
birthed from the musical geniuses
that lived and died here.
Sixty years ago, before Trail Blaz­
ers bound up and down Rose Gar­
den courts, before the tall glass piers
of the Memorial Coliseum scraped
city skies, and before the 1-5 free­
way carved through Portland’s
eastside over the Willamette River,
post-war era’s most aspiring jazz
legends, Sherman Thomas, Ella
Fitzgerald, Louis Armstrong, Billy
Holiday and many others, jammed
in their favorite Portland hideout
between Los Angeles and Seattle,
two of the most prolific jazz scenes
on the west coast.
S m okey ja z z clu b s lined
Portland's North Williams Avenue
known then as “Black Broadway,” a
ballooning hub of black community
and backyard entertainment. Home
to black-ow ned grocery stores,
black-owned clothing stores, black-
owned restaurants, at least 10 clubs
bellowed jazz music night and day.
During World War II, black musi­
cians from the East Coast arrived by
rail along with tens of thousands of
African Americans travelling west­
ward to build war ships in local
Kaiser Shipyards.
“More people need to recognize
that Jazz unified us, it inspired us, it
is truly an American art form, and it's
always been a powerful bridge that
crosses the boundaries of age, race,
sex, ethnic background, and nation­
ality,” says Mitchell, who inter­
v iew ed v ario u s p eo p le about
Sherman after agreeing to write the
libretto for Memory, the project’s
brainchild.
After meeting Sherman Thomas
decades ago, Memory was stricken
by the jazz artist’s legendary tal­
ents.
An accomplished musician who
has played music professionally for
more 45 years. Memory began work­
ing on a score for the project on and
off for several decades. Later, he
was commissioned by the IFCC to
write the score, but financial prob­
lems stalled the project for almost a
year until the Portland Opera and
Ethos helped bear the weight of the
production, and Sherman: A Jazz
Reggie Houston
Opera was finally bom.
As a teaching, the show will re­
mind viewers of important jazz les­
sons; improvising, group interac­
tion, developing an individual voice,
continued
on page 7
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ati
...think great
Celebrating Black
History Month
Justice Thurgood Marshall
U.S. Supreme Court
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