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AN OPEN LETTER TO THE NESHUI ERTEGUN JAZZ HALL OF FAME
March 19, 2012
Mr. Wynton Marsalis
c/o Selection Committee Jazz Hall of Fame at Lincoln Center 33 West 60th Street, 11th Floor New York, N.Y. 10023
Dear Mr. Marsalis and fellow Selection Committee Members:
My name is Julia Keefe, and I am a student
at the Frost School of Music at the University of Miami in Coral Gables,
FL, studying vocal jazz performance. I am also a member of the Nez
Perce Indian Tribe. Shortly after I first became interested in jazz over
ten years ago, I began researching the life of Bing Crosby, who also
attended my high school, Gonzaga Prep, in Spokane, WA. I was surprised
and happy to learn that Bing Crosby gave credit for his early success to
a Native American woman from the Coeur d'Alene Tribe named Mildred
Rinker Bailey who had, like me, lived her formative childhood years on
her Idaho tribal reservation before moving to Spokane and discovering
jazz. I am writing to urge that Mildred Bailey be considered for
induction into the Neshui Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame in recognition of
her groundbreaking role in jazz history.
To say that Mildred Bailey inspired me in
my chosen vocation as a jazz singer would be a great understatement. But
I am not alone. Bing Crosby once said, "I was lucky in knowing the
great jazz and blues singer Mildred Bailey so early in life. I learned a
lot from her. She made records which are still vocal classics, and she
taught me much about singing and interpreting popular songs." And a
sideman from her husband Red Norvo's band, trumpeter Lyle "Rusty"
Dedrick once wrote, "She had a magic. So many people down the line, so
many singers, benefited from her, owe debts to her - and they don't even
know it. Mildred Bailey probably never made a bad record; she made many
that were excellent, and quite a few considerably better, even, than
that."
As the very first female big band singer in
America, Mildred was a role model and inspiration for contemporaries
including Billie Holiday, Helen Ward and Ella Fitzgerald. She opened the
door of opportunity for every female lead singer who followed the trail
she blazed. Her singing style and phrasing caught the ear of aspiring
young singers of that era including Tony Bennett and Rosemary Clooney,
and still, much later, Linda Ronstadt. She was respected and admired by
performers including Frank Sinatra, the Dorsey brothers, Coleman Hawkins
and Artie Shaw. A 1944 Time Magazine review of her show at the Café
Society in New York called Mildred, "just about the greatest songbird in
the U.S."
Recognition of Mildred Bailey in the Jazz
Hall of Fame would, I believe, open a door to a largely neglected and
ignored chapter in the history of this All-American art form known as
jazz: the involvement of First Americans. When I was living on my own
reservation in Kamiah, ID, I came across old photographs of tribal
members in small ensembles and quartets, playing jazz. One group, the
Lollipop Six, was made up of young Nez Perce men who had learned to play
their instruments while attending Indian boarding schools in the early
20th century. I can still recall how proud Lionel Hampton was when he
visited our reservation to be honored while attending the international
jazz festival at the University of Idaho that still bears his name.
On too many reservations in modern America
there are not enough inspirational stories of successful native women
who rose above the challenges they faced and helped to change history.
But Mildred Rinker Bailey, did just that. Though widely thought to have
been a white singer, Mildred was, in fact, a member of the Coeur d'Alene
Tribe. Mildred once called traditional Indian singing, "a remarkable
training and background" for a singer. "It takes a squeaky soprano and
straightens out the clinkers that make it squeak; it removes the bass
boom from the contralto's voice," she said. "This Indian singing does
this because you have to sing a lot of notes to get by, and you've got
to cover a lot of range." Every Native American who has ever attended a
tribal ceremony, whether a feast, a memorial, or a modern pow-wow, knows
exactly what Mildred Bailey was talking about here. I believe that
Mildred Bailey's success as a jazz vocalist is grounded in her early
vocal training and development from singing traditional tribal songs as a
young girl on the Coeur d'Alene Indian Reservation.
I would deeply appreciate the chance to
provide you and the other selection committee members, and your entire
international voting panel, with a complete packet of information that I
have collected while researching the remarkable career of the first
female vocalist in America to sing with a big band. Recognizing Mildred
Bailey's pioneering, ground breaking accomplishment, would do honor to
the Neshui Ertegun Hall of Fame, and provide Indian tribes from across
this country a symbol of their own contribution to the rich cultural
heritage of a uniquely American art form that I have come to love,
thanks in large part to Mildred Bailey.
Respectfully, Julia Keefe Nez Perce Tribal member #4152 Frost School of Music, Class of 2012 www.whereismildred.com www.juliakeefe.com |
SIGN THE PETITION HERE |
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Read the article in The Spokesman-Review
Coeur d’Alene Tribe celebrates jazz great’s reservation roots |
| This E Mail is being sent for Julia Keefe by: Jim Eigo Jazz Promo Services T: 845-986-1677 E-Mail: jim@jazzpromoservices.com http://www.jazzpromoservices. HAVE A JAZZ EVENT, NEW CD OR IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENT FOR THE JAZZ COMMUNITY YOU WANT TO PROMOTE? CONTACT JAZZ PROMO SERVICES FOR PRICE QUOTE. CHECK OUT OUR NEW YOUTUBE VIDEO |
