Ravinia 2026 Issue 2

on my present vocation as a songwriter.” Foster returned to the parlor song with “Hard Times Come Again No More,” which Firth Pond & Company in New York City published within its collection of Foster Melodies in 1855. One of the composer’s most enduring songs, “Hard Times” offers a clear, compassionate appeal for listeners to recognize the hardship around them and to share in a collective hope that “hard times come again no more.” “California, Here I Come” began life as an in- terpolation in Al Jolson’s 1923 West Coast tour of the “musical extravaganza” Bombo , a fantastical story about a man named Gus living in Genoa, Italy in 1921, who finds himself transported back to Spain in 1492. Gus assumes the identity of “Bombo” and joins Christopher Columbus’s ex- pedition to the New World. Veteran Tin Pan Alley songwriter Joseph Meyer (1894-1987) grew up in California and studied classical mu- sic before enlisting in the military during World War I. Following his discharge, Meyer worked in the mercantile business before devoting himself to music in 1921. Songwriter Buddy DeSylva (1895-1950), another Californian, provided the lyrics with contributions by Al Jolson (1886- 1950). The song was copyrighted on January 7, 1924, the day it was incorporated into the score. Jolson issued a commercial recording with the Isham Jones Orchestra on January 17, 1924, but his disc was not the first. The Lucky Strike Dance Orchestra garnered that recognition with its January 8 release. Nonetheless, it was Jolson’s recording that achieved the greatest commer- cial success, sitting 12 weeks at the top of the Billboard charts and earning pop song of the year honors. California experienced rapid ex- pansion—demographic, economic, industrial, and cultural—during the 1920s as cities grew and Hollywood gained a foothold. The lyrics and music of “California, Here I Come” capture the optimism of the era, even if it was projected through a 15th-century lens. Spencer Williams (1886 or 1889-1965) devel- oped a wide-ranging career as a pianist, com- poser, and singer of jazz and popular music. Sources differ on the location of his birth: some identify Vidalia, LA, near the Mississippi bor- der, while others mention Selma, AL, which appears more likely. Williams left home in his teens and moved to New Orleans to live with his Aunt Lulu White, whose ostentatious broth- el—known as Mahogany Hall on Basin Street in Storyville—reportedly made her one of the first Black millionaires. Later in life, Williams memorialized his aunt’s mansion in Mahogany Hall Stomp (1929). Mahogany Hall’s primary in- fluence came from the jazz musicians who per- formed in the parlor and at the adjacent saloon, built and owned by his Lulu White, pioneers such as Jelly Roll Morton and Joe “King” Oliver. There is no evidence that Williams received a formal music education, though he reported- ly attended St. Charles University, a name that does not correspond to any known school. Like many other Southern musicians, Williams mi- grated to Chicago in 1907 or 1908 in search of opportunities, especially publishers for his com- positions. Lured by Tin Pan Alley, he relocated to New York City in 1921 for what became the most fruitful period of his career as a compos- er and performer. Three years later, Williams joined an up-and-coming vaudeville star, Jo- sephine Baker, on tour in Europe. Returning to New York City in February 1928, Williams picked up the pen again and composed anoth- er signature “New Orleans” piece, Basin Street Blues , a tribute to Mahogany Hall and the Sto- ryville District that were forced to shut down on November 12, 1917. Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five released their classis jazz recording later that year. Dozens of artists released their own versions over the next few decades. Jack Teagarden and Glenn Miller added lyrics. Curtis Mayfield (1942-1999) penned his Gos- pel-infused anthem of salvation, social justice, and inclusiveness, “People Get Ready,” in 1964 during a time of national unrest and racial di- vision. His lyrics evoke the language and imag- ery of the Traveling Soul Spiritualists’ Church, founded by his grandmother, the Reverend An- nabelle Mayfield. All believers can board this train crossing the River Jordan to the Promised Land. Faith, not belongings, is all that is needed. There is no room for selfish, harmful sinners on this journey toward the Kingdom. Grow- ing up in Chicago in the 1950s, Curtis joined the Northern Jubilee Gospel Singers, a group founded by Jerry Butler, who would later be- come the original lead singer of the R&B group The Roosters, later renamed The Impressions. The Impressions, with Mayfield as lead vocalist, released their recording of “People Get Ready” in 1965, a cut that reached #3 on Billboard ’s Hot Rhythm & Blues Singles and #14 on Billboard’s Hot 100. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., often played this recording at his rallies and speeches, solidifying the song’s association with the Civil Rights Movement. “People Get Ready” has been named to several “top song” lists: The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll (1995); induction into the Grammy Hall of Fame (1998); #20 on Rolling Stones mag- azine’s 100 Greatest Guitar Songs of All Time (2008); induction into the National Recording Registry (2015); Mojo magazine’s Top 10 Best Songs of All Time (2020); and #122 on Rolling Stone magazine’s Top 500 Songs of All-Time (2021). Mayfield left The Impressions in 1970 to pursue a solo career, which produced 22 pio- neering albums, among them the soundtrack to the blaxploitation crime film, Super Fly (1972). Mayfield moved from Chicago to Atlanta in 1980, scaling back his recording operations. An accident during a live outdoor concert on Au- gust 13, 1990, in Brooklyn, NY—a gust of wind blew over a lighting truss, which struck Mayfield on the back of his head and neck—left him a quadriplegic. Mayfield received the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1994. Despite mounting health concerns, he remained active musically, releasing his final studio album, New World Order , in 1996. Mayfield was inducted posthumously into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999. Few works merit immediate “classic” status, but the folk opera Porgy and Bess is surely one. In it, George Gershwin (1898-1937) tore down barriers between American musical theater and opera, popular and formal musical styles, social classes and races. “However, because Porgy and Bess deals with Negro life in America it brings to the operatic form elements that have never ap- peared in opera and I have adapted my method to utilize the drama, the humor, the supersti- tion, the religious fervor, the dancing, and the irrepressible high spirits of the race.” Gershwin set his sights on the best-selling novel Porgy by Southern writer DuBose Heyward, which por- trayed life among the Gullah (formerly enslaved people from Angola) of Charleston, South Car- olina. The basis of Heyward’s novel was a series of Charleston newspaper reports about the crip- pled Samuel Smalls, who was drawn by a goat through the impoverished Cabbage Row district on a cart. Heyward named his tragic hero Por- go (eventually Porgy) and changed the setting slightly to the fictitious Catfish Row. Gershwin threw himself whole-heartedly into the project, spending several weeks during June and July 1934 in a crude cottage on Folly Island. “I shall never forget the night when at a Negro meeting on a remote sea-island George started ‘shouting’ with them,” wrote Heyward. “And eventually to their huge delight stole the show from their champion ‘shouter.’ I think that he is probably the only white man in America who could have done it.” Porgy and Bess opened at New York’s Alvin Theatre on October 10, 1935. “Summer- time” emerged as the opera’s most memorable number, appearing in all three acts. Clara, the wife of the fisherman Jake, first sings this mel- ody as a lullaby to her child while the men set up a game of craps. In the second act, Clara des- perately tries to comfort her baby during a vio- lent hurricane that capsizes Jake’s boat. Frantic, Clara hands the child to Bess and runs to her husband’s rescue. Both drown in the storm. Now the baby’s custodian, Bess sings a melancholy version of “Summertime” in the final act. The life of Albert E. Brumley (1905-1977) traces a path from material poverty to spiritual rich- ness. Born into a family of sharecroppers near Spiro, OK, his early years were defined by hard manual labor, picking cotton and chopping wood. Brumley entered the Hartford (AK) Mu- sic Institute in 1926. This school was the educa- tional wing of Hartford Music Company, a pub- lishing firm founded in 1918 by gospel singer, songwriter, and entrepreneur Eugene Monroe Bartlett, Sr, who is best known for his inspiring gospel song, “Victory in Jesus.” While at HMI, Brumley sang bass and played piano with the RAVINIA.ORG • RAVINIAMAGAZINE 99