I’ve been fortunate in Life. Among my blessings I count some extremely important and culturally significant contributions that are inherently “American.” I have been involved in three amazing projects that I view as great American treasures for posterity;
“Bound for the Promised Land: Harriett Tubman”, “Port Chicago”, “Queenie Pie.”
From Marcus Shelby’s website (www.marcusshelby.com):
“Bound for the Promised Land: Harriett Tubman”; A Jazz Oratorio.
Composed and Written by Marcus Shelby, based on a book of the same name by Kate Clifford Larson.
“Marcus Shelby has received support from the Creative Work Fund and the Commmittee for Black Performing Arts at Stanford University to compose a new work on the life of Harriet Tubman. “Bound for the Promised Land: Harriet Tubman” is an original secular oratorio for jazz orchestra and chorus The oratorio and supporting outreach and education materials will tell the compelling story of Harriet Tubman, a genuine American hero.
Shelby’s oratorio will tell the remarkable story of Harriet Tubman, a woman who rose out of humble beginnings, escaped slavery and dedicated her life to challenging the grave injustices in her day. Working on the Underground Railroad, Tubman personally led 70 slaves out of bondage at great risk to her own life, and helped dozens more to freedom. During the Civil War, she led raids for the Union and served as a nurse. After Emancipation, Tubman turned her great energy toward the woman’s suffrage movement, again helping to push our nation to live up to its responsibility to stand for true civil rights for all. Throughout her life, this courageous woman worked to unite American women and men of all colors and classes in a common struggle for liberty.
The “Port Chicago Suite for Jazz Orchestra;”
Composed by Marcus Shelby, Libretto by Val Hendrickson, based on the book “The Port Chicago Mutiny” by Dr. Robert Allen, Commissioned by The Equal Justice Society. Premiered at the African American Museum and Library at Oakland.
Port Chicago is remembered as the northern California naval base where a devastating explosion in July 1944 killed more than 320 men, predominantly African American sailors, and injured 400 others. It was the single worst disaster on U.S. soil during World War II. The sailors objected to the racial discrimination and manifestly unsafe working conditions at the base where only blacks were assigned to loading ammunition on ships. When 258 of the sailors protested in a work stoppage the Navy called it mutiny, setting in motion the largest mutiny trial in U.S. Navy history. In a sensational court martial 50 young black sailors were unjustly convicted. Thurgood Marshall, then special counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, flew to San Francisco to investigate the case. He charged that the young sailors were being made scapegoats for the conditions the Navy allowed at the base. Following the military trial, Marshall filed a strong appeal brief on behalf of the sailors, highlighting the racial discrimination at the base and in the trial. Although his appeal was rejected by the Navy Judge Advocate General, the public pressure generated by a nationwide campaign in support of the sailors compelled the Navy to revamp its policies and begin the process of desegregation—a major civil rights victory. Although the imprisoned sailors were later released under a general amnesty after the war, their mutiny convictions have never been overturned. The injustice of their convictions cries out for redress, and reminds us of the price paid by many unsung heroes in the struggle for civil rights and justice.
According to Marcus Shelby, “The black sailors who lost their lives on July 17th, 1944 in a massive explosion at the Port Chicago Naval Weapon’s Base were true, if unwitting, American heroes. The explosion drew investigation, which revealed Jim Crow-like racial segregation in the naval forces, involving disadvantaged, dangerous, and ultimately deadly working conditions for black sailors. In response to the public exposure of these truths, the Navy quietly desegregated its ranks; in 1948, Harry Truman desegregated all U.S. armed forces. Ironically, the Port Chicago tragedy revealed and corrected a grave injustice, and brought America closer to equal justice for all, the very foundation of true democracy. Indeed, these sailors’ lives were not lost in vain. “Port Chicago” the composition is an abstract representation that chronicles the story of these African American sailors. It pays homage to the men and to the sacrifices they made for the moral development of their country. It also honors the survivors—those who have had to bear the burden of history’s continuing injustice. “Port Chicago” hopes to again shed light on those injustices, and to join the efforts to exonerate the survivors.”
”Queenie Pie.” A Jazz Opera. (OR Folk Opera, OR Street Opera, OR Opera Buffa!)
In May 2008 the Oakland Opera Theater presented Duke Ellington’s comic opera Queenie Pie. Edward “Duke” Ellington’s (1899-1974) last large-scale work and only opera, Queenie Pie, was written as a tribute to Madame C. J. Walker. The daughter of slaves, Madame Walker invented a hair straightener and discovered the virtues of mail order and door-to-door sales, thereby allowing her clients to buy cosmetics and hair products without leaving their homes. For this innovation she became the first female African-American millionaires.
Queenie Pie, the story of a Harlem beauty queen, opens in Harlem, where Queenie Pie’s ten-year reign as top Beautician-Cosmetologist is threatened by newcomer Café Olay. After Café Olay seduces and then kills Queenie Pie’s lover, Queenie Pie leaves New York to journey to an island in search of a plant that will allow her to make the best beauty products available. There are several twists and turns along this journey including a shipwreck, a marriage with island royalty, and Queenie Pie’s discovery that she can make anything she wants on the island. In the end, she must choose between the riches that she has discovered and her desire to return home to New York.
The opera was originally commissioned by Public Television for the WNET Opera program and designed to be an hour-long work, with Ellington as narrator. The idea for the work was not new, Ellington had begun the opera several times, in varying versions, since the 1930’s. Even after the telecast fell through, Ellington continued to work on the piece until his death in 1974 (even on his hospital bed DAYS before his death.) He left the work unfinished.
Oakland Opera’s Skye Atman began a researching quest into the origins of Queenie Pie, which eventually lead to a compilation score based on versions found among the Ellington papers at the University of California, Irvine and the Smithsonian Institute. Oakland Opera assembled an expert team to finish the work and create a version of the Duke’s unfinished opera much like it might have appeared on television in the 1960’s.
The restoration team, was lead by renowned director Michael Mohammed, includes the Bay Area’s leading orchestrator, arranger and interpreter of the Ellington legacy, Marc Bolin. hip-hop theater artist and playwright Tommy Shepherd, and producer Martin Bell.
In May 2008, Bay Area audiences were able to hear this important American work for the first time.
(The published score and PV of Queenie Pie is available for rental directly from Oakland Opera)
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