Introducing 36Keys
by Samantha Ege
36Keyes illuminates the kaleidoscopic output of African-descended composer-pianists who inspired and galvanized the Black Renaissance era. With an initial offering comprising works by Florence Price, Louis Moreau Gottschalk, Irene Britton Smith, Hazel Scott, Ludovic Lamothe, Mary Lou Williams, Jelly Roll Morton and Fats Waller, this dynamic musical era in American history is wondrously brought to life. From rhapsodic classical movements to rollicking jazz, 36 Keys captures the vibrancy of the Harlem Renaissance and beyond.
The Black Renaissance at large unfolded through the first half of the twentieth century. Growing out of urban centers such as New York’s Harlem and Chicago’s South Side and reverberating across the African diaspora, the Black Renaissance saw thinkers and visionaries of African descent bring about a rebirth in all aspects of life and identity. Whether it was through music, art, dance, literature, or theatre, the expressive arts were important vehicles for cultural reinvigoration and social transformation.
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Composers used their craft to articulate their power as creative intellectuals. From “Spirituals to Symphonies” (to quote the composer, activist, and Black Renaissance woman Shirley Graham DuBois), Black musicians demonstrated their talent and authority in a wide range of genres. There were many composer-pianists during this time who were classically trained, either through the musical networks in their communities or at prominent conservatories in the United States and abroad. Their musical foundations were often a mix of European techniques and African American folk and popular music influences. With Black vernacular styles and the multiple genres they birthed being so heavily disparaged in mainstream American culture, a number of composers operating during this time sought to affirm that the Black American folk tradition was a vital history that still spoke to the hopes and dreams of every generation that followed.
The presence of Haitian composer Ludovic Lamothe connects the Black Renaissance to broader cultural movements across the African diaspora. Lamothe, like his counterparts in the United States, found rich inspiration in the folkloric cultures of his home country and in the nineteenth-century piano tradition. Parallels can further be drawn between him and the nineteenth-century Romanticist Louis Moreau Gottschalk, who wowed audiences with his virtuosic renditions. While Gottschalk, by virtue of his much earlier birth date, is an outlier with regard to the Black Renaissance era, his influence was felt throughout.
Gottschalk took Creole themes and other folk influences as inspiration for his craft. Many Black Renaissance composers later did the same, drawing upon the melodic contours of the Negro Spirituals and the rhythmic patterns of plantation dances for inspiration, or innovating new popular music genres based on earlier African American folk styles. No more is this blend of the virtuosic and vernacular more evident than in the featured piano music on this program. Gottschalk is therefore a necessary reminder of how long the history and legacy of African-descended composers run.
A program capturing the expansiveness of the Black Renaissance would be incomplete without the voices of jazz pioneers Jelly Roll Morton, Mary Lou Williams, Fats Waller and Hazel Scott. They blurred musical boundaries with their boldly chromatic and strikingly syncopated soundscapes. They broke racial barriers and, in the case of Williams and Scott, empowered female voices. With each improvisation, they pushed jazz into new realms of sonic creativity and political expression. The transcriptions of their much-loved compositions featured in this program allow today’s audiences to experience the excitement of their live performances.
Florence Price, Jelly Roll Morton and Ludovic Lamothe—all born toward the end of the nineteenth century—represent a distinct generation of composer-pianists whose artistry flourished during the Black Renaissance era. The next generation of composer-pianists (born in the first few decades of the twentieth century)—Fats Waller, Irene Britton Smith, Mary Lou Williams and Hazel Scott—were sons and daughters of the Black Renaissance. They expanded the sound worlds of their predecessors as they ventured toward new, expressive heights. 36 Keys thus proudly celebrates more than a century of Black pianistic voices.