Tag: Duke Ellington

Pullman Porter Blues

March 16, 2020 / C R Burgan

“I feel oh, so blue
I really don’t know what to do
I got a brand new job: a tip collector
It’s some job: a car protector” – Pullman Porter Blues (Clifford Ulrich & Burton Hamilton) © Leo Feist, Inc.

On June 29, 2016, the Los Angeles Times reported that Lee Wesley Gibson, a resident of Los Angeles, had “died as he lived – calm, quiet and in control – sitting in a chair at home . . . with family members at his side”. He was 106 years old. What caught my attention in this article was that it was believed that Mr. Gibson was the oldest surviving Pullman porter.

Lee Gibson was born in Keatchie, Louisiana in 1910; married Beatrice Woods – his wife of 76 years – in 1927; and in 1935, during the height of the Great Depression, moved his family to Los Angeles, in search of greater opportunities.

In 1936, a deacon at Gibson’s church who worked for the Union Pacific Railroad as a coach attendant asked his wife Beatrice if her husband would be interested in a job with the railroad. In a 2010 interview with the Times on the occasion of his 100th birthday, Mr. Gibson recalled that this was a golden opportunity.

Mr. Gibson began working for the Union Pacific as a coach attendant, later being promoted to Pullman porter. Porters were the uniformed railway men serving the first-class passengers who travelled in the Pullman Company’s luxurious sleeping cars. It was a sought after position, allowing a certain amount of prestige for African Americans that was difficult to find in other vocations. Having steady work, Mr. Gibson was able to buy a brand-new home for his family in 1945; a home in which he lived until his death.

“It’s, ‘Pullman Porter, draft on my feet’
It’s, ‘Pullman Porter, turn on the heat’
It’s, ‘Pullman Porter’, all the live long day
‘Pullman Porter, bring me water’, that’s all they say

“It’s, ‘Pullman Porter, make up my berth’
It’s, ‘Pullman Porter’, no peace on Earth
‘Oh, Pullman Porter, won’t you shine my shoes’
I got the Pullman Porter blues” – Pullman Porter Blues (Ulrich/Hamilton)

George Pullman founded the Pullman Car Company in 1862. It is said that after spending a night sleeping upright in his seat during a train trip through New York, Mr. Pullman had the idea to design a rail car that contained sleeper berths for every passenger. Although the first cars manufactured included somewhat spartan sleeping arrangements, within a short period of time the company was turning out luxury sleeping cars which featured carpeting, draperies, upholstered chairs, libraries, and card tables. Besides the unparalleled quality of the Pullman car’s accommodations, they became known for the impeccable service provided by the company’s staff of Pullman Porters.

The Pullman Car Company not only built the eponymous rail cars, they also owned & operated them along the nation’s railways. Soon after the American Civil War, George Pullman began seeking out former slaves to staff his sleeping cars. Aware that most Americans did not have servants in their homes, Pullman understood that by allowing passengers to be served by a liveried waiter or butler, he could provide the growing middle class with something they had never before experienced.

In the mid 1920s, during its peak of operations, the Pullman Company’s fleet grew to number 9,800 sleeping cars, staffed by 12,000 porters. A porter was expected to greet passengers, carry baggage, make up the sleeping berths, serve food and drinks brought from the dining car, send & receive telegrams, shine shoes, provide valet service, and keep the cars neat and orderly.

A porter was expected to be available both day & night. The job could be demeaning, and many were subjected to discrimination and abuse. Early on many porters were obligated to answer to the name “George”, as if they were George Pullman’s personal servant; a practice that grew out of slaves often being named after their owner.

Although wages were low, in an era with limited opportunities for African American men, being a Pullman porter was one of the best jobs available. Not being offered a livable wage, porters relied heavily on the tips that they received from passengers. Walter Biggs, son of a Pullman porter, shared memories of being a Pullman porter as told to him by his father:

“One of the most remarkable stories I liked hearing about was how when Jackie Gleason would ride … all the porters wanted to be on that run. The reason why? Not only because he gave every porter $100.00, but it was just the fun, the excitement, the respect that he gave the porters. Instead of their names being George, he called everybody by their first name. He always had like a piano in the car and they sang and danced and had a great time. He was just a fun person to be around.”

In an effort to improve working conditions and wages, A. Philip Randolph began organizing the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters in 1925. Under Randolph’s leadership, the first black union, the Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters, was formed. These unionizing efforts were also crucial in laying the groundwork for the Civil Rights Movement, as labor organizer and former Pullman porter E. D. Nixon was instrumental in organizing the Montgomery Bus Boycott in Alabama in 1955, and was also responsible for bailing Rosa Parks out of jail when she refused to give up her seat on the bus.

“It’s, ‘Pullman Porter, turn on the light’
It’s, ‘Pullman Porter, get me a bite’
It’s, ‘Pullman Porter’ all the whole night thru
It seems to me I’m always wrong, whatever I do

“It’s, ‘Pullman Porter, what town are we at?’
It’s, ‘Pullman Porter, brush off my hat’
‘Now look here, Porter, someone stole my booze’
I got the Pullman Porter blues” – Pullman Porter Blues (Ulrich/Hamilton)

The Pullman Company would eventually become the largest single employer of blacks in America. Many people credit porters as being significant contributors to the development of America’s black middle class. Black historian and civil-rights activist Timuel Black observed in a 2013 interview:

“[The Pullman porters] were good looking, clean and immaculate in their dress. Their style was quite manly; their language was carefully crafted, so that they had a sense of intelligence about them. They were good role models for young men. . . . [B]eing a Pullman porter was a prestigious position because it offered a steady income and an opportunity to travel across the country, which was rare for blacks at that time.”

Brotherhood of Sleeping Car Porters
Pullman Porters

Lyn Hughes, founder of the A. Philip Randolph Pullman Porter Museum in Chicago, which celebrates the contribution of African Americans to the nation’s labor history, states, “For African Americans, it was a middle-class job. It represented a sort of freedom, flexibility and education all in one bundle.”

Thurgood Marshall
Willie Brown
Malcolm X

Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall, a former porter himself, was also a descendant of a Pullman porter, as was former San Francisco Mayor Willie Brown. Malcolm X and photojournalist Gordon Parks were both employed as porters.

“I make their berths up, give ‘em sheets
And put ‘em all to bed
And when they’re feeling bad
Get Bromo Seltzer for their head

“I get’em soap, I get ‘em towels
And even comb their hair
Say, when it comes to giving service
Boss, I am a bear” – Pullman Porter Blues (Ulrich/Hamilton)

Lee Gibson worked on the railroad for 38 yrs. When the Pullman Co. ceased operation of sleeping cars in 1968, Pullman porters were transferred to Union Pacific, and later Amtrak. He retired from the railroad in 1974. In his LA Times interview of 2010 he spoke of rubbing shoulders with celebrities such as bandleader Duke Ellington, jazz singer Cab Calloway, and trumpeter Louis Armstrong, who Gibson recalled was always friendly and willing to talk.

Duke Ellington
Cab Calloway
Louis Armstrong

“He (Armstrong) played Vegas and would catch my train from Vegas many times,” Gibson said. “He was quite interesting.”

Although porters sometimes had to endure humiliation and racism, Gibson says he was always treated with respect; said Gibson of his career serving others on the railroad, “It was hard, but it was fun.”

“I got the Pullman Porter blues” – Pullman Porter Blues (Ulrich/Hamilton)

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_Company

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pullman_porter

https://www.latimes.com/

All photos sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.

The Quickest Way to Harlem

November 25, 2019 / C R Burgan

“You must take the ‘A’ train
To go to Sugar Hill way up in Harlem” – Take the “A” Train (Strayhorn) © EMI Music Publishing

Formally organized as a village in 1658 by Dutch immigrants, Harlem is now a neighborhood that occupies the northern section of the New York City borough of Manhattan. Named for the city of Haarlem in the Netherlands, its history has been defined by a number of socio-economic cycles that have each brought a significant shift in population.

During the American Revolution, the British burned Harlem to the ground. It was slowly rebuilt through the late eighteenth & early nineteenth centuries but experienced a boom shortly following the Civil War, as middle & upper-middle-class families sought to escape the increasing congestion found in lower Manhattan neighborhoods.

In the late nineteenth century, the middle-class Anglo families continued migrating northward as greater numbers of Italian and Jewish immigrants moved into Harlem; while the area’s economic growth was spurred by the New York and Harlem Railroad, the Interborough Rapid Transit and elevated railway lines, which connected Harlem to lower and midtown Manhattan.

The industrialization of the early twentieth century drew people in ever-growing numbers away from rural areas and into cities, lured by the promise of steady work and a better quality of life. Prior to the Civil War, the majority of African-Americans had been enslaved and lived in the south, but as traditional farm work there became increasingly more mechanized, blacks moved north in ever greater numbers to secure jobs and to escape the racism & segregation prevalent in southern states.

World War I brought even greater opportunities for black laborers, as the draft pulled young men into the war in Europe, leaving many industries thinly staffed. Harlem became a destination for migrants from around the country, attracting both people from the South in search of jobs, and an educated class who made the area a center of culture, in turn creating a “Negro” middle class. In 1910, Harlem was about 10% black; by 1930, it had reached 70%.

During the “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s, one area of the neighborhood – its highest point – became a particularly desirable place of residence for wealthy African Americans. Known as Sugar Hill for being reflective of the “sweet life”, the immaculate row houses there were occupied by the likes of W. E. B. Du Bois, Thurgood Marshall, Adam Clayton Powell Jr., Cab Calloway and perhaps the greatest icon of 20th-century American music: Duke Ellington.

Edward Kennedy Ellington was born on April 29, 1899, to James Edward Ellington and Daisy (Kennedy) Ellington in Washington, D.C. Both parents were pianists, with Daisy (the daughter of a former American slave) primarily playing parlor songs and James preferring operatic arias. Edward began piano lessons at the age of seven, and Daisy always strove to surround her son with dignified people to help reinforce his manners, and teach him to live elegantly. His childhood friends, conscious of his refined mien, easy grace, and dapper style of dress, which lent him the bearing of a young nobleman, began referring to him as “Duke”.

In the summer of 1914 Ellington took a job working as a soda jerk at the Poodle Dog Café. It was there that he composed his first tune, “Soda Fountain Rag”. Not yet having learned to read & write music, he created the tune by ear, and would play it as a one-step, two-step, waltz, tango and fox trot. Ellington recalled, “Listeners never knew it was the same piece. I was established as having my own repertoire”. Later in his teens he would begin assembling groups to play for dances, and in 1919 he met drummer Sonny Greer, who encouraged Ellington’s ambition to be a professional musician.

When Sonny Greer was offered a prestigious gig in New York City, Ellington chose to leave Washington, D. C. and followed Greer north. Settling in Harlem, Ellington was soon playing all the major clubs, including the Exclusive Club, the Hollywood Club, the Kentucky Club, and in 1927, after King Oliver turned down an extended booking at the Cotton Club, Ellington was recommended for the spot. With trumpeter Bubber Miley in his band, it was during this period that Ellington & his group would begin experimenting with different sounds – including Miley’s “growling” trumpet – that led contemporaries to refer to their music as “Jungle Style”. A month after accepting the Cotton club engagement Ellington and Orchestra, now eleven pieces, recorded several tunes, one of which, “Creole Love Call”, became a worldwide hit.

Not only had Duke Ellington proved to be an integral figure in the black “Harlem Renaissance” of the 1920s, but after embarking on several European tours with his orchestra during the 1930s, he had become a world-class musical artist, as well. Later in the decade, though, competition was heating up as swing bands began receiving popular attention. While Ellington’s band could certainly swing, it had become known more for its compositional styling. Not one to shrink from a challenge, Ellington remarked, “Jazz is music, swing is business”.

Duke Ellington and the Cotton Club Orchestra

Billy Strayhorn, initially hired as a lyricist in 1939, soon became an indispensable member of the Ellington organization. A classically trained musician, Strayhorn was soon contributing original lyrics & music, as well as arranging & polishing Ellington’s compositions. Ellington would speak glowingly of his collaborative working relationship with Strayhorn, saying, “my right arm, my left arm, all the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head, and his in mine”. After an ASCAP ruling in 1940 made it prohibitive for Ellington to play his old tunes for radio broadcast, he turned to Billy Strayhorn, and his son Mercer Ellington, both associated with licensing organization BMI, to write a whole new book for the band.

Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn — Duke with Billy Strayhorn (l)

One of the many compositions Strayhorn contributed to the new Ellington Orchestra repertoire was “Take the ‘A’ Train”. It was Mercer who discovered a discarded draft of the tune in a wastebasket, where Strayhorn had tossed it, believing it sounded too much like a Fletcher Henderson arrangement. Before long “Take the ‘A’ Train” would become the band’s theme song, replacing “East St. Louis Toodle-oo”. Originally the song had no lyrics, but a young woman from Detroit named Joya Sherrill wrote out words while she listened to the song on the radio. When her words were brought to the attention of Ellington, he adopted her lyrics for the song and offered her a job as vocalist in his band.

“Hurry, get on, now it`s coming
Listen to those rails a-thrumming” – Take the “A” Train (Strayhorn)

The title of the song refers to the “A” subway line that connects Brooklyn to Harlem. When Billy Strayhorn was offered a job by Duke Ellington in 1939, Ellington sent him travel expenses, plus directions to reach his home by subway once he arrived in Manhattan from his home in Philadelphia. The directions began: “Take the ‘A’ Train”. The most well-known version of the song was recorded by the Ellington Orchestra in 1941, with Ray Nance’s trumpet solo becoming so identifiable, that it is often copied note for note when performed by other artists. In 1999, National Public Radio included “Take the ‘A’ Train” in the NPR 100, in which NPR’s music editors sought to compile the one hundred most important American musical works of the 20th century. The song has been recorded and performed by numerous artists.

Duke Ellington died in 1974, shortly after his 75th birthday, from lung cancer & pneumonia. His list of awards & honors is extensive, including 14 Grammy Awards (24 nominations), Pulitzer Prize, Presidential Medal of Freedom (highest US civilian award), Legion of Honor (highest French civilian award), Honorary Ph.D. from Berklee College of Music, as well as numerous others. In 1986 he was honored with a US Postage stamp bearing his likeness, and in 2009 a US quarter was issued honoring Mr. Ellington, making him the first African American to appear by himself on a circulating US coin.

Duke Ellington on US Postal Service 22 cent stamp

In 1989, historian and author, Gunther Schuller wrote:
Ellington composed incessantly to the very last days of his life. Music was indeed his mistress; it was his total life and his commitment to it was incomparable and unalterable. In jazz, he was a giant among giants. And in twentieth-century music, he may yet one day be recognized as one of the half-dozen greatest masters of our time.

“If you miss the ‘A’ train
You`ll find you missed the quickest way to Harlem” – Take the “A” Train (Strayhorn) © EMI Music Publishing

Sources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harlem

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Take_the_%22A%22_Train

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Billy_Strayhorn

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duke_Ellington

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Hill,_Manhattan

https://www.elegran.com/blog/2013/07/in-the-heart-of-harlems-renaissance-sugar-hill

All photos were sourced through internet searches, none belong to the author.