#jester hairston

[citizenscreen]

Celebrating the 100th broadcast of CBS Radio’s “The Beulah Show” in 1952: Ernest Whitman, Lillian Randolph, Ruby Dandridge, and Jester Hairston.

[mimi-0007]

Amen. 5 seasons

[lisamarie-vee]

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Jester Hairston

By Life Magazine via Google Images-Photographer Loomis Dean., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28896923

Jester Joseph Hairston (July 9, 1901 – January 18, 2000) was an American composer, songwriter, arranger, choral conductor and actor. He was regarded as a leading expert on black spirituals and choral music. His notable compositions include "Amen," a gospel-tinged theme from the film Lilies of the Field and a 1964 hit for the Impressions, and the Christmas song "Mary's Boy Child."

Hairston was born in Belews Creek, a rural community on the border of Stokes, Forsyth, Rockingham and Guilford counties in North Carolina. His grandparents had been slaves. At an early age, he and his family moved to Homestead, Pennsylvania, just outside Pittsburgh, where he graduated from high school in 1921. Hairston was very young when his father was killed in a job-related accident. Hairston was raised by his grandmother while his mother worked. Hairston heard his grandmother and her friends talking and singing about plantation life and became determined to preserve this history through music.

Hairston initially majored in landscape architecture at Massachusetts Agricultural College in the 1920s. He became involved in various church choirs and choral groups, and accompanist Anna Laura Kidder saw his potential and became his benefactor. Kidder offered Hairston financial assistance to study music at Tufts University. from which he graduated in 1929. He was one of the first black students admitted to Tufts. Later he studied music at the Juilliard School.

Hairston pledged the Chi chapter of the Kappa Alpha Psi fraternity in 1925. He worked as a choir conductor in the early stages of his career. His work with choirs on Broadway eventually led to singing and acting parts in plays, films, radio programs and television shows.

Hairston sang with the Hall Johnson Choir in Harlem for a time but was nearly fired from the all-black choir because he had difficulty with the rural dialects that were used in some of the songs. He had to shed his Boston accent and relearn the country speech of his parents and grandparents. Johnson had told him: "We're singing ain't and cain't and you're singing shahn't and cahn't and they don't mix in a spiritual." The choir performed in many Broadway shows, including The Green Pastures. In 1936, the choir was asked to visit Hollywood to sing for the film The Green Pastures. Russian composer Dimitri Tiomkin heard Hairston and invited him to what would become a 30-year collaboration in which Hairston arranged and collected music for films. In 1939, Hairston married Margaret Swanigan. He wrote and arranged spirituals for Hollywood films as well as for high school and college choirs around the country.

Hairston wrote the song "Mary's Boy Child" in 1956. He also arranged the song "Amen", which he dubbed for the Sidney Poitier film Lilies of the Field, and arranged traditional Negro spirituals.[16] Most of Hairston's film work was in the field of composing, arranging and choral conducting. He also acted in more than 20 films, mostly in small roles, some uncredited. Hairston starred in John Wayne's The Alamo (1960), in which he portrayed "Jethro," a slave owned by Jim Bowie. In 1962’s To Kill a Mockingbird Hairston portrayed the uncredited role of the father of accused rapist Tom Robinson. In 1967’s In the Heat of the Night, Hairston portrayed the butler of a wealthy racist being investigated for murder. In both films, Hairston shot scenes along side men who won an Academy Award for Best Actor in those respective films for portraying white Southerners navigating their jobs through a racially divided culture.

In 1961, the U.S. State Department appointed Hairston as Goodwill Ambassador. He traveled all over the world teaching and performing the folk music of the slaves. In the 1960s, he held choral festivals with public high-school choirs, introducing them to Negro spiritual music, and sometimes led several hundred students in community performances. His banter about the history of the songs along with his engaging personality and sense of humor endeared him to many students.

During his nationwide travels, Hairston checked local phone books for other Hairstons and reunited many people on his family tree, both black and white. He composed more than 300 spirituals. He was the recipient of many honorary doctorates, including a doctorate from the University of Massachusetts in 1972 and a doctorate in music from Tufts in 1977.

In his later years, Hairston served as a cultural ambassador for American music, traveling to numerous countries with choral groups that he had assembled. In 1985, he took the Jester Hairston Chorale, a multiracial group, to sing in China at a time when foreign visitors would rarely appear there.

Hairston died in Los Angeles of natural causes in 2000 at age 98. For his contribution to the television industry, Hairston has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame located at 6201 Hollywood Boulevard. He is interred at Inglewood Park Cemetery, Inglewood, California.

[diceriadelluntore]

Storia Di Musica #306 - The Impressions, Keep On Pushing, 1964

Per alcuni commentatori, i dischi della copertina di Bringing It All Back Home (che sono il filo che sta legando i dischi di questo Dicembre) erano lì per caso. Non si può del tutto escludere, anche perchè la leggenda Dylan ha finito per ingigantire e dare fascino e suggestioni a miriadi di particolari. Ma sulla musica, e lo dimostrerà nella sua infinita carriera, la sua attenzione per la musica degli altri è caratteristica decisiva. Quindi io penso che il disco de The Impressions era lì per un motivo: gli piaceva quella musica. Il disco in questione è Keep On Pushing, del 1964, terzo disco della band e loro più grande successo di vendite. Ma andiamo con ordine.

Il primo nucleo nasce a Chicago, e si chiama The Roosters, formato dai fratelli Richard e Arthur Brooks, Sam Gooden e Fred Cash a metà anni '50. Nel 1957, Cash viene sostituito da Jerry Butler, che proviene dalla realtà gospel della città, e ha cantato in gruppi doo-wop (rhythm and blues che ha avuto origine nelle comunità afroamericane durante gli anni '40, che insegna l'armonia vocale e l'uso della voce preponderante sugli strumenti). Poco dopo entra in formazione Curtis Mayfield, che diventerà figura centrale e carismatica della musica nera negli anni a venire. Nel 1958 il primo successo, For Your Preciuos Love, che già sa di quel suono gospel soul che li renderà inimitabili. Il brano però provocò una certa irritazione nel gruppo perché la ABC Records lo pubblicò a nome Jerry Butler & The Impressions, creando malumori, che scomparvero con la decisione di Butler di uscire dal gruppo per provare la carriera solista, verrà sostituito dal rientrante Cash. La leadership del gruppo viene presa da Mayfield, voce tenorile di notevole raffinatezza, maestro del falsetto e soprattutto penna grandiosa nello scrivere belle canzoni. L'inizio non è semplice e la band dopo una serie di insuccessi è sil punto di sciogliersi, ma nel 1961 si trasferiscono a New York e pubblicano il primo di una serie di singoli che vanno tutti in classifica e li fanno diventare iconici: Gypsy Woman, poi tornati a Chicago, It's All Right, Talking About My Baby (che inaugura il loro filone intimista), Woman's Got Soul.

Keep On Pushing inaugura un nuovo genere: il Chicago soul gospel, per il suono così particolare, gli intrecci vocali perfetti accompagnati da canzoni che non si fermano alle dinamiche affettive e di coppia, ma iniziano ad esplorare altri campi, come l'impegno civile. Trascinato dal singolo omonimo, che verrà usato nelle presidenziali americani del 2004 dallo sconfitto Senatore John Kerry, il disco è uno dei massimi esempi, insieme a quelli degli artisti della Chess Records (altra grande etichetta di Chicago) di un suono nuovo, sebbene ancora alla tradizione, e soprattutto è uno dei massimi esempi della bellezza vocali di questi cantanti, capaci con pochissimi accompagnamenti strumentali di creare melodie giocose e irresistibili. Tra le gemme, Amen, un riarrangiamento del brano di Jester Hairston per il film I Gigli Del Campo con Sydney Poitier del 1963). Il disco raggiunge la posizione numero 8 della classifica Billborad 200 e Keep On Pushing addirittura la numero 1 della classifica Hot R&B.

L'anno successivo, quando uscirà Bringing It All Back Home, gli Impressions sfornano un altro disco. People Get Ready, trascinato dall'omonimo singolo scritto da Curtis Mayfield, diventerà un altro grande successo, ma questa canzone in particolare diventerà un'icona del nascente movimento per i diritti civili: Martin Luther King la designò inno non ufficiale del Movimento, segnerà un passo decisivo nella musica afroamericana nell'impegno civile e diventerà una delle canzoni più famose di tutti i tempi e con maggiori cover. Tra le più belle e sentite, quelle di Dylan, che dal vivo la suonerà centinaia di volte, e su disco due volte: nel 1967 durante le leggendarie registrazioni dei Basement Tapes, nel 1989 per la colonna sonora del film Flashback; una versione dal vivo del 1978 è presente nella colonna sonora del suo film Renaldo E Clara del 1978. Della canzone esistono centinaia di interpretazioni, le più famose: Jeff Beck e Rod Steward, hit internazionale del 1985, Bob Marley, che adorava il gruppo e gli U2, che suoneranno il brano ben 95 volte nei loro concerti (clamorosa la loro esibizione con Bruce Springsteen a Philadelphia durante il Vertigo Tour).

Le ultime due storie del 2023 saranno una versione speciale, senza numero, che però partono da questo disco e soprattutto da questa copertina, per un viaggio insolito e divertente. Sarà anche un modo per ringraziare e per salutarvi con affetto!

[kwebtv]

From the Golden Age of Television

Series Premiere

The Amos 'N Andy Show - Kingfish Gets Drafted - CBS - June 28, 1951

Sitcom

Running Time: 30 minutes

Written by Joe Connelly, Bob Mosher and Bob Ross

Produced by James Fonda

Directed by Charles Barton

Stars:

Alvin Childress as Amos Jones / Narrator

Spencer Williams as Andy Brown

Tim Moore as George "Kingfish" Stevens

Ernestine Wade as Sapphire Stevens

Johnny Lee as Algonquin J. Calhoun

Amanda Randolph as Mama (Ramona Smith)

Nick Stewart  as Lightning (billed as Nick O'Demus)

Jester Hairston as Henry Van Porter

[dianaleaghmatthews]

Christmas Song Story: Mary’s Boy Child

“Mary’s Boy Child” is a Christmas song written by Jester Hariston in 1956. According to Wikipedia, a friend asked Hairston to write a song for a birthday party.  Hairston wrote the song with a calypson rhythm “because the people at the party would be mainly West Indians. The song’s original title was “He Pone and Chocolate Tea”, pone being a type of corn bread.”  This version was never…

[outandaboutnycmag]

10/22/23 O&A NYC GOSPEL SUNDAY: Jester Hairston- Amen- Salt Lake Tabernacle Choir (1994)

This is an excerpt from Jester Hairston’s appearance in 1994 with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, now called the Tabernacle Choir at Temple Square. Here is gets part way through Amen when he realizes it is too high. He is 93 years old in this appearance. Continue reading Untitled

[goalhofer]

John Kefford as Prof. Lute Bone and Jester Hairston as Wellington in Gunsmoke season 1, episode 14 (1956).

[zillaoftheresistance-blog]

Sunday June 18th 2023 A.D. #Sunday #SongZilla #Praise Amen by Jester Hairston

Good morning. Happy Sunday. Happy Father’s Day. Thank you for visiting. Please hear me singing, Amen, by Jester Hairston and also enjoy the classic scene featuring this song in the movie, Lilies of the Field, starring Sidney Poitier. Have a glorious day. God bless you. I love you all. Amen. Amen. Amen! Amen by Jester Hairston sung by Zilla Stevenson at AxZilla.com My FAVORITE! The Revolution…

[tgfpm]

In Celebration of Black History Month A Tribute to Jester Hairston- State musical Goodwill Ambassador July 9, 1901 – January 18, 2000 Dr. Jester Hairston was popularly known for his character acting in the television sitcom Amen, portrayed as “Rolley.” But his contribution to American music is his legacy. He is an historically significant figure in American music. And considered the most prominent authority on arrangements of the Negro spiritual. He has arranged numerous noted a cappella spirituals for chorus including Elijah Rock, Oh Rocka’ My Soul, In Dat Great Gittin’ Up Morning to name a few. His voice was behind the face of Sidney Poitier who instructed the nuns in the singing of Amen in Lillies of the Field. His arrangements are fresh and exciting without being difficult. Some of his film credits include Carmen Jones, Duel in the Sun, and Foxes of Harrow for choral arranging and conducting, and To kill a Mocking Bird and The Alamo for acting. In 1961, the U.S. State Department appointed Hairston as Goodwill Ambassador. He traveled all over the world teaching and performing the folk music of the slaves.[1][17] In the 1960s, he held choral festivals with public high-school choirs, introducing them to Negro spiritual music, and sometimes led several hundred students in community performances. His banter about the history of the songs along with his engaging personality and sense of humor endeared him to many students. More: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jester_Hairston #csadosdexcerpts from open source material https://www.instagram.com/p/CokMpfnOS8x/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[citizenscreen]

Celebrating the 1000th broadcast of the CBS Radio situation comedy, “The Beulah Show” in 1952: Ernest Whitman, Lillian Randolph, Ruby Dandridge, and Jester Hairston.

[lboogie1906]

Jester Joseph Hairston (July 9, 1901 – January 18, 2000) was a composer, songwriter, arranger, choral conductor, and actor. He was regarded as a leading expert on Negro spirituals and choral music. His notable compositions include "Amen," a gospel-tinged theme from the film Lilies of the Field, a hit for The Impressions, and the Christmas song “Mary's Boy Child". While growing up, he heard his grandmother, and her friends talking and singing about life on the plantations of the South. He listened with immense interest and made a promise to himself that he would preserve this history through music. He majored in Landscape Architecture at Massachusetts Agricultural College. While studying landscape architecture, he became involved in various church choirs and choral groups. The accompanist of one, Anna Laura Kidder, saw his potential in music and became his benefactor. Mrs. Kidder offered him financial assistance to study music at Tufts University, from which he graduated. He was one of the first African American students admitted to Tufts. He studied music at the Juilliard School. He pledged Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity. He worked as a choir conductor in the early stages of his career. His work with choirs on Broadway led to his singing and acting in plays, films, radio programs, and television shows. #africanhistory365 #africanexcellence #kappaalphapsi https://www.instagram.com/p/Cfy1FUsLZhP6d_oeflLlYTL1l1FOzKekjTIX0Q0/?igshid=NGJjMDIxMWI=

[strathshepard]

via Michael Bierut

[shewhoworshipscarlin]

Ernestine Wade

By Life Magazine via Google Images-Photographer Loomis Dean., Fair use, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?curid=28885998

Ernestine Wade (August 7, 1906 – April 15, 1983) was an American actress. She was best known for playing the role of Sapphire Stevens on both the radio and TV versions of The Amos 'n' Andy Show.

Born in Jackson, Mississippi, Wade was trained as a singer and organist. Her family had a strong connection to the theater. Her mother, Hazel Wade, worked in vaudeville as a performer, while her maternal grandmother, Mrs. Johnson, worked for the Lincoln Theater in Baltimore, Maryland.

Ernestine grew up in Los Angeles and started her acting career at age four. In 1935, Ernestine was a member of the Four Hot Chocolates singing group. She appeared in bit parts in films and did the voice performance of a butterfly in the 1946 Walt Disney production Song of the South. Wade was a member of the choir organized by actress-singer Anne Brown for the filming of the George Gershwin biographical film Rhapsody in Blue (1945) and appeared in the film as one of the "Catfish Row" residents in the Porgy and Bess segment. She enjoyed the highest level of prominence on Amos 'n Andy by playing the shrewish, demanding and manipulative wife of George "Kingfish" Stevens. Wade, Johnny Lee, and Lillian Randolph, Amanda Randolph, Jester Hairston, Roy Glenn (and several others) were among the Amos 'n' Andy radio cast members to also appear in the TV series.

Ernestine began playing Sapphire Stevens in 1939, but originally came to the Amos 'n' Andy radio show in the role of Valada Green, a lady who believed she had married Andy. In her interview that is part of the documentary Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy, Wade related how she got the job with the radio show. Initially there for a singing role, she was asked if she could "do lines". When the answer was yes, she was first asked to say "I do" and then to scream; the scream got her the role of Valada Green. Ernestine also played the radio roles of The Widow Armbruster, Sara Fletcher, and Mrs. Van Porter.

In a 1979 interview, Ernestine related that she would often be stopped by strangers who recognized her from the television show, saying "I know who you are and I want to ask you, is that your real husband?" At her home, she had framed signed photos from the members of the Amos 'n' Andy television show cast. Tim Moore, her TV husband, wrote the following on his photo: "My Best Wishes to My Darling Battle Ax from the Kingfish Tim Moore".

Wade defended her character against criticism of being a negative stereotype of African American women. In a 1973 interview, she stated "I know there were those who were offended by it, but I still have people stop me on the street to tell me how much they enjoyed it. And many of those people are black members of the NAACP." The documentary Amos 'n' Andy: Anatomy of a Controversy covered the history of the radio and television shows as well as interviews with surviving cast members. Ernestine was among them, and she continued her defense of the show and those with roles in it. She believed that the roles she and her colleagues played made it possible for African-American actors who came later to be cast in a wider variety of roles. She also considered the early typecast roles, where women most often were cast as maids, not to be damaging, seeing them in the sense of someone being either given the role of the hero or the part of the villain.

In later years, she continued as an actress, doing more voice work for radio and cartoons. After Amos 'n' Andy, Wade did voice work in television and radio commercials. Ernestine also did office work and played the organ.

She also appeared in a 1967 episode of TV's Family Affair as a maid working for a stage actress played by Joan Blondell.

Ernestine Wade is buried in Angelus-Rosedale Cemetery in Los Angeles, California. Because she had no headstone, the West Adams Heritage Association marked her grave with a plaque

[cbjustmusic]

Shirley Caesar - “Hold My Mule (I Feel Like Praising Him)” _____________________ Hold My Mule (I Feel Like Praising Him) Songwriters: Shirley Caesar and Jester Hairston

I feel like praising, praising him I feel like praising, praising him I feel like praising, praising him Praise Him in the morning Praise Him all day long I feel like praising, praising Him If you don't wanna praise him don't hinder me If you don't wanna praise him don't hinder me Praise Him in the morning Praise Him all day long I feel like praising, praising Him Come on and praise the Lord while you have a chance Come on and praise the Lord while you have a chance Praise him in the morning Praise him all day long I feel like praising praising him