TITLE:  WC HANDY’S BLUES 
OPENING MUSIC: Wish I was in Heaven Sitting Down, Fred McDowell

1.WC HANDY (#27)   
	When my old teacher down in Florence, Alabama  began to question us as to what we intended to do and be in life.  I said I want to be a musician.  
He  said music would lead me to the gutter. Musicians were idlers, dissipated characters. -- He wrote my father a note which when he read, he said “sonny  I’d rather follow you to your grave than see you be a musician.”

2.BARNWELL:
HE LOVED MUSIC FROM THE FIRST. AND EVEN THOUGH IT WAS 
PROHIBITED AT HOME, WHEN HE SAW A GUITAR IN A STORE WINDOW, HE WORKED—PICKING BERRIES AND MAKING LYE SOAP—TO GET THE MONEY TO BUY IT. 

MUSIC: 

WHEN THE DAY CAME, HE BOUGHT THE GUITAR AND BROUGHT IT HOME--TO FACE HIS FUNDAMENTALIST FATHER.
‘WHATEVER POSSESSED YOU TO BRING A SINFUL THING LIKE THAT INTO OUR CHRISTIAN HOME?”

MUSIC:  Guitar Music  
HE MADE W.C. HANDY SWAP THAT ‘SINFUL’ THING FOR A DICTIONARY AND SENT HIM OFF TO LEARN A DECENT INSTRUMENT—
THE ORGAN.

2. Barnwell: (continues)
WELL, THE MUSIC WASN’T QUASHED. AND PERHAPS THE DICTIONARY EVEN DID SOME GOOD—BECAUSE HANDY WOULD WRITE SOME OF THE MOST DURABLE LYRICS AND ONE OF THE BEST REMEMBERED MELODIES IN AMERICAN MUSIC.
2(a).  MUSIC: St Louis Blues , Ray Bryant	

3.	FROM ARTEMIS MEDIA PROJECT, MURRAY STREET PRODUCTIONS -- AND PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL THIS IS W.C. HANDY’S BLUES. I’M YSAYE MARIA BARNWELL.
4.WC HANDY: (#17)
	My old teacher told me once that i have a good memory. And when i was a youngster in school we studied music by the old tonic sol fa system. Do re mi fa sol la ti do.. 

MUSIC: Yellow Dog  Blues, Sam Collins		 

4A. WC HANDY
 	And in that way I 
could a notice the peculiarities of music. These things that we call folk music. I noticed it then and kept it in mind and utilized it._

5. BARNWELL:  
WC HANDY DIDN’T INVENT THE BLUES. BUT HE HEARD THEM IN A DEEP AND UNDERSTANDING WAY. HE FIGURED OUT HOW THEY WORKED. HE WROTE THEM DOWN, ARRANGED THEM AND DID THE BUSINESS OF BRINGING THEM TO THE WORLD.
5a. MUSIC  
	4(a).MUSIC: 
		Paul Robison  “I hate to see”
		Chuck Berry  “-I hate to see that  evening sun go down”
		Stevie Wonder – St Louis Woman  with her diamond strings
		Isley Brothers – She pulls her man around by her apron strings If I  		 it wasn’t for powder 
		Duke Ellington / Bing Crosby –and for her store bought hair  -	That gal I love she wouldn’t go so far from here.
		Bessie Smith: I got the st louis blues, just as blue as i can be
		Pete Seeger: That gal got a heart like a rock cast in the sea
		WC Handy:  Or else he wouldn’t have gone so far from me.

6a. WC HANDY: 
	 “I had a feeling that it would just work its way into people’s hearts. 
6b, MUSIC: St. Louis Blues, Wycliffe Gordon
7. BARNWELL:  
	SINCE ST LOUIS BLUES WAS PUBLISHED IN 1914 IT HAS BEEN PLAYED …BY EVERYONE FROM DOWN AND OUT STREET SINGERS TO
HOLLYWOOD LEGENDS.  

8. MUSIC 
8a.BARNWELL: 
	THE MAN BEHIND IT, WILLIAM CHRISTOPHER HANDY, WOULD BECOME KNOWN AS THE “FATHER OF THE BLUES” FOR BRINGING THE BLUES IDIOM TO POPULARITY AND RESPECT AROUND THE WORLD.
WHAT IS THE BLUES?
9.MARSALIS: (actuality from JALC by permission)
	Blues music is a dialogue with life. Things happen, you don’t cry about them. You sing about them. And when someone is singing the blues, there’s always a lot of space left for an instrument to respond. 	

10.BARNWELL:
	JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER ARTISTIC DIRECTOR WYNTON MARSALIS

11.MARSALIS (CONT’D)
	The blues has three sections of four bars. Each section feature one vocal stanza. Generally, the words pose some type of problem.

13.BARNWELL: 
	MEMPHIS HISTORIAN RICHARD RAICHELSON 
13a. MUSIC: Piano chords   c7 G7 F7 

14).RAICHELSON:  
	What really makes blues a blues is the use of  minor chords like minor 3rds and 7ths, and anything between major and minor that gives you that blue effect.

14a) MUSIC:  Steel laying song 
33. HURWITT:
	Blues was a melding together of the work songs that were sung by field hands, railroad gangs, fellows that worked as longshoremen, or worked on steamboats…   
34.BARNWELL:
	MUSICOLOGIST ELLIOTT HURWITT 
MUSIC: Staggerlee,  Lucious Curtis and Willie Ford 
35.HURWITT:
	Building blocks for blues would include the bad man ballads that were popular in the 1890s, songs like Staggerlee 

MUSIC

35b.HURWITT:
	Talking about mostly murder ballads and ballads having to do with low life. Often these stories like the Staggerlee story, the Frankie and Johnny story are about real people.     

MUSIC:   Trouble in Mind, Big Charlie Butler

15.BARNWELL: 
	“THE BLUES WERE CONCEIVED IN ACHING HEARTS.” THAT WAS HOW W.C. HANDY WOULD DESCRIBE THE MUSIC IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY ‘FATHER OF THE BLUES.’ BUT HE MIGHT HAVE BEEN FEELING SOMETHING DIFFERENT THE FIRST TIME HE HEARD IT

16. MORGENSTERN:
	He tells a story on himself (which is very revealing) in his autobiography. 
BARNWELL:  
	FROM THE INSTITUTE OF JAZZ STUDIES AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY,  DAN MORGENSTERN:
	He says, ‘my own enlightenment came in Cleveland Mississippi. I was leading the orchestra  in a dance program when somebody  sent up an odd request… Would we object if a local collard (sic) band played a few dances? 
	So, three guys came in – their band consisted of a battered guitar, a mandolin and a worn out bass  

MUSIC: - primitive blues    

MORGENSTERN
	 The music they played was an over and over strain…that didn’t seem to have a very clear beginning and no ending.  But he says, all through there was a little agonizing strain that was not really annoying or unpleasant, but just haunting…But he just wondered whether anybody besides small town rounders and their running mates would go for it.     

MUSIC:

MORGENSTERN
	The answer was not long in coming. A rain of silver dollars began to form around the outlandish stomping feet. -- the dancers went wild. There before the boys lay more money than my nine musicians were being paid for the entire engagement.  Then I saw the beauty of primitive music.

MUSIC:   Hooking Cow Blues 

7(a) MUSIC– Old Jaw Bone-
17. BARNWELL: 
         HANDY HAD BEEN TOURING WITH HIS BRASS ENSEMBLE THROUGH THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA, PLAYING A MIX OF POPULAR  RAGTIME 
AND MINSTREL SONGS.

18.          THEY PLAYED WHEREEVER THERE WAS WORK:  PICNICS, 
WEDDINGS, DANCES OF ALL SORTS --INCLUDING SOME OF THE LIVELIER GATHERINGS IN THE RED LIGHT DISTRICT OF CLARKSDALE, 
MISSISSIPPI.

18a.  MUSIC :    Old Jaw Bone
BARNWELL:          IT WAS JUST WHAT HIS FATHER HAD FEARED
18(b) MUSIC:  Birth of Their Prayer

19.BARNWELL: 
	W.C. HANDY WAS BORN IN 1873 IN FLORENCE, ALABAMA, INTO A RELIGIOUS FAMILY WHO TAUGHT THAT ANY MUSIC—OTHER THAN CHURCH MUSIC—WAS THE WORK OF THE DEVIL.

18(a)MUSIC: 

20  .W.C. HANDY (WC #27)
My father was a African Methodist minister and he was against my study of music. Only he did pay for organ lessons for me to play , not a pipe organ, but one of those Esty church organs. Only he didn’t want me playing in a band…

21.BARNWELL:     THOUGH HIS FAMILY WOULDN’T HAVE APPROVED, HANDY FOUND MUSIC EVERYWHERE.   IN THE 1880’S HE WOULD HAVE HEARD ALL SORTS OF MUSIC AROUND HIS ALABAMA HOME
   	WORK SONGS  -------
21a)  MUSIC: Wild Ox Moan  

	MINSTREL SONGS—
	
21b) MUSIC: Old Uncle Ned 

21(c) MUSIC: Wayfaring Stranger—Almeda Riddle 

AND EVEN THE ROOTS OF THE BLUES 

21(d) MUSIC:   Diamond Joe,  Big Charlie Butler 

21e) MUSIC: steamboat whistle.  
22. BARNWELL:
	BY THE TIME HE WAS TEN, HE COULD TELL THE MUSICAL NOTES OF BIRD SONGS AND STEAMBOAT WHISTLES ON THE TENNESSEE RIVER.	
	HANDY’S INDISCRIMINATE LOVE OF MUSIC BEGAN GETTING HIM IN TROUBLE AT AN EARLY AGE AT THE FLORENCE DISTRICT SCHOOL FOR NEGROES:
23.WC HANDY:
	When my old teacher down in Florence, Alabama (called us together and instead of hearing our lessons) began to question us as to what we wanted to do and be in life. Some wanted to be doctors, lawyers, teachers, merchants and so forth. And when it came to me i said I wanted to be a musician.  He read me a lecture, said music would lead me to the gutter. Musicians were idlers, dissipated characters, He wrote my father a note which when he read, he said “Sonny  I’d rather follow you to your grave than see you be a musician.”

BARNWELL       
	THE ONLY STRIDENCY IN  HANDY’S YOUTH WAS THE TENSION BETWEEN HIM AND HIS PARENTS. THE STRUGGLE BETWEEN A TRADITIONAL RELIGIOUS FAMILY AND A YOUNG MAN ENCHANTED WITH THE SOUNDS AND EXPERIENCES THAT THE WORLD HAD TO OFFER.
	      AS A TEENAGER, HE SECRETLY ACQUIRED A CORNET FROM A STRANDED CIRCUS MUSICIAN AND TOOK MUSIC LESSONS IN A BARBERSHOP. AND HE BEGAN HANGING AROUND WITH JIM TURNER, A TALENTED VIOLIN PLAYER WHO HAD STAGGERED INTO TOWN FROM MEMPHIS.

MUSIC : 

30.BARNWELL:
HIS FATHER WOULD HAVE BEEN HORRIFIED TO FIND HIS SON SPENDING TIME WITH THIS DRUNK, BUT HANDY WAS ENCHANTED BY HIS TALES OF BEALE STREET AND THE GLIMMER OF SYNCOPATION IN HIS MUSIC. HE ABSORBED IT ALL. BUT HE STILL WANTED HIS FATHER’S APPROVAL.  
HE GRADUATED FROM SCHOOL AND SET HIS SIGHTS ON STUDYING FOR THE MINISTRY. HE BEGAN TEACHING IN BIRMINGHAM, THEN FOUND OUT THAT HIS PAY—ABOUT A DOLLAR A DAY—WAS LESS THAN THAT OF A LABORER. HE QUIT AND WENT TO WORK IN A STEEL MILL. 

EFX Steel mill sounds

Cross to early wind band music 
30a.BARNWELL:
IN HIS SPARE TIME, HANDY ORGANIZED A BRASS BAND AND LED A VOCAL QUARTET. PEOPLE BEGAN CALLING HIM PROFESSOR. HIS COLLEGE FUND WAS GROWING, BUT ECONOMIC CLOUDS WERE GATHERING TOO. BY THE EARLY 1890S THE DEPRESSION THAT HAD SPREAD OVER AMERICA ROLLED INTO BIRMINGHAM’S STEEL INDUSTRY, AND HANDY WAS LAID OFF.

Music:  Gulf Coast Blues, WC Handy and his Brass Band

BUT HE HEARD THE FUTURE CALLING AND HE CONVINCED HIS QUARTET TO FOLLOW HIM TO THE CHICAGO WORLDS FAIR.
	OVER SEVERAL WEEKS, HANDY AND THE LAUZETTA  QUARTET WORKED THEIR WAY UP THE RIVER  TO ILLINOIS, ONLY TO FIND THE FAIR HAD BEEN POSTPONED. 
THEY RETREATED TO ST LOUIS. STILL UNABLE TO FIND WORK, THEY DISBANDED. THE OTHERS DRIFTED AWAY. 
	HANDY FOUND HIMSELF LIVING OUT HIS OLD TEACHER’S PROPHECY—SLEEPING ON THE COBBLESTONES OF THE LEVEE. 

31(a)MUSIC:  Workin on the Levee Sleepin on the Ground, 

BARNWELL:

32.W.C. HANDY (From Father Of The Blues)
	“Music did bring me to the gutter. It brought me to sleep on the levee of the Mississippi river. On the cobblestones broke and hungry. I could have returned to my hometown Florence. But I decided on the levee to fight it out with two Handys. One that says go back home get ready to go back to Wilberforce. The other said fight it out and stick to your music, which I did.”

32(a), 32(b)MUSIC—Come Here Dog and Get Your Bone, 
Walkin Billy, Bill Bailey

36. BARNWELL:
 DESPITE HIS DIRE SITUATION, HANDY’S DETERMINATION HELPED HIM GET ALONG..
MUSIC: Storms are on the Ocean 
ONE NIGHT, HUNGRY AND BROKE, HE STOOD OUTSIDE A WHITES-ONLY SALOON, LISTENING TO THE SAD SONG OF A MAN WITH A GUITAR. AGAINST HIS BETTER JUDGMENT, HE LET THE MUSIC PULL HIM INSIDE.

Music: WC Handy singing with guitar  
Barnwell:
	AFTER A FEW TENSE MOMENTS, THE BARTENDER LET HIM SING,AFTER WHICH THE ADMIRING BAR CROWD TOOK UP A COLLECTION FOR HIM. 
Music: 	cross to string band  
Barnwell:
	HANDY NEVER LOST HIS FAITH IN MUSIC. HIS LUCK FINALLY CHANGED WHEN HE HOPPED A FREIGHT TRAIN TO HENDERSON,
KENTUCKY.  AT A BARBECUE THERE, HE MET HIS FUTURE WIFE, ELIZABETH PRICE, AND ARRANGED TO JOIN A LOCAL BAND.
 HE’D ARRIVED AT THAT PICNIC A HOBO. HE LEFT PROUDLY, AS A PROFESSIONAL MUSICIAN. 
36(a) MUSIC— Soldiers Joy: 
37.BARNWELL: 
HANDY AND THE BAND PLAYED POPULAR FAVORITES INCLUDING OLD FOLK TUNES. 
MUSIC:  Arkansas Traveler  
HE HAD HEARD THIS MUSIC ALL HIS LIFE, BUT NOW HE BEGAN HEARING IT AS A MUSICIAN AND COMPOSER.
	IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, HE COMPARED THE EXPERIENCE TO “GETTING RELIGION.” 
 “THE DOVE DESCENDED ON MY HEAD JUST AS IT DESCENDED ON THOSE WHO GOT HAPPY AT CAMP MEETING. THE ONLY DIFFERENCE WAS THAT INSTEAD OF SINGING ABOUT THE NEW JERUSALEM, MY DOVE BEGAN TO MOAN ABOUT HIGH-BROWN WOMEN AND THE MEN THEY TIED TO THEIR APRON STRINGS.”
HE BEGAN COLLECTING OLD SONGS TO PRESERVE THEM. SOME OF THESE WOULD LATER BE CALLED THE BLUES.  	MUSICOLOGIST  ELIOTT HURWITT

38(a)MUSIC—It’s Better to Be Born Lucky
		
39.HURWITT:
It is probably an art form that came not so much from a geographical location but from a cultural nexus that had to do with river culture and the interaction of working people who travel and traded stories and songs.

39(a)MUSIC—Old Jawbone  
40.BARNWELL:
IN AUGUST, 1896, HANDY ACCEPTED AN INVITATION TO JOIN A MINSTREL SHOW.   THIS WAS A BOLD DECISION. POLITE BLACK SOCIETY HAD NO USE FOR THE DISREPUTABLE MINSTRELS, BUT HANDY KNEW THAT THE BEST MUSICIANS OF HIS DAY COULD BE FOUND IN THOSE SHOWS.   THEY ENTERTAINED BOTH WHITE AND BLACK AUDIENCES. BUT FOR BLACK MUSICIANS THIS WAS THE SIGNIFICANT SHOW BIZ OPPORTUNITY.
THE MAHARA MINSTRELS TOOK HANDY ALL OVER THE UNITED STATES AND AS FAR AFIELD AS HAVANA.

40a. MUSIC:	Luz Verde 

42.CARLOS HANDY:
 	He and my grandmother – his wife -- they actually went to Cuba. And this was in 1900 

43.BARNWELL:  
	 DR. CARLOS HANDY
44.CARLOS HANDY:  
	You know my grandfather went through this intellectual evolution where he began to really appreciate the black songs, the blues the slave songs. but also down in Cuba he began to appreciate the importance of indigenous Afro American and Afro Cuban versions of the music 

Music: 
e44a) EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA:

 His love for the tango came out of being able to tour Cuba in 1900.

44b) BARNWELL:
 GREAT GRANDDAUGHTER EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA:

44c) EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA:
	He was intrigued by the melody and the melodic sounds.
 
47.BARNWELL: 
	WHEN THE MINSTRELS FINISHED THEIR ENGAGEMENT IN CUBA, THEY PLAYED NORTH ALABAMA. 
MUSIC:  Ole Miss Rag
BARNWELL: 
	IN HUNTSVILLE, THERE WAS A SPECIAL VISITOR AT THE SHOW. AFTERWARDS HANDY REPORTED HIS FATHER SAID “SONNY, I HAVEN’T BEEN IN A SHOW SINCE I PROFESSED RELIGION. I ENJOYED IT. I AM VERY PROUD OF YOU. I FORGIVE YOU FOR BECOMING A MUSICIAN.”
47(a)MUSIC fades
48.BARNWELL:
BACK IN HIS FATHER’S GOOD GRACES AND HAVING RECENTLY BECOME A FATHER HIMSELF, HANDY QUIT THE MINSTREL SHOW. HE AND ELIZABETH INTENDED TO SETTLING IN FLORENCE. FOR A WHILE, IT LOOKED AS IF HIS OLD NICKNAME OF PROFESSOR WOULD BECOME A PERMANENT TITLE.
48(a)  MUSIC: Purcell Trumpet Sonata   
49. Barnwell
IN 1900 HE WAS HIRED TO TEACH MUSIC AT THE ALABAMA AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGE FOR NEGROES, ON THE OUTSKIRTS OF HUNTSVILLE.  THE COLLEGE PRESIDENT, W. H. COUNCILL, LOVED SACRED MUSIC, BUT HE BELIEVED STRONGLY THAT EUROPEAN MUSIC WAS SUPERIOR TO AMERICAN. 
AFTER A YEAR,  HANDY WAS GROWING TIRED OF HEARING AMERICAN MUSIC DISMISSED, AND HE ALSO REALIZED THAT AT $10 A WEEK HE WAS NEVER GOING TO MAKE A LIVING AS A COLLEGE PROFESSOR.
49(a) MUSIC: De Ole Jawbone 
		
50.BARNWELL:
 	WHEN MAHARA’S  MINSTRELS OFFERED HIM $50 PER WEEK TO REJOIN THE TROOP, THAT WAS THE END OF HANDY’S COLLEGE CAREER, BUT IT WAS ALSO THE END OF THE MINSTREL ERA. HANDY WAS WITH THE SHOW ONLY ONE MORE YEAR. 
IN 1903, HE RECEIVED TWO JOB OFFERS: ONE FROM A TOWN IN MICHIGAN TO DIRECT ITS MUNICIPAL BAND, AND ONE FROM CLARKSDALE, IN THE HEART OF THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA, TO DIRECT THE COLORED KNIGHTS OF PYTHIAS’  BRASS AND WIND ENSEMBLE. THE MICHIGAN OFFER WAS BY FAR THE BEST, BUT HANDY  AGREED TO MOVE TO MISSISSIPPI. 
YEARS LATER HE SAID “I TURNED MY FACE SOUTHWARD AND DOWN THE ROAD THAT LED INEVITABLY TO THE BLUES.”
Music:  Yellow Dog Blues, Sam Collins
54.BARNWELL: 
 HISTORIAN RICHARD RAICHELSON  SAYS A CHANCE ENCOUNTER IN A RAILWAY STATION POINTED HANDY TO THE MUSIC THAT MADE HIM FAMOUS.
54(a)MUSIC: Yellow Dog Blues, Sam Collins
55.ACTUALITY:  RAICHELSON:
He hears a guitar player playing in the corner of a train station, playing this  weird song, that Handy was not familiar with and he said what the heck. He walked over him and he said “Wow, what is this stuff”
And the guy was sliding this bottle on his finger, sliding it up and down the frets. And he was singing “where the southern cross the yellow dog”.

56.BARNWELL: 
 	LATER HANDY SAID,  “THE EFFECT WAS UNFORGETTABLE. 
HIS SONG, TOO, STRUCK ME INSTANTLY: “GOIN’ WHERE THE SOUTHERN CROSS THE DOG.” THE SINGER REPEATED THE LINE THREE TIMES, ACCOMPANYING HIMSELF ON THE GUITAR WITH THE WEIRDEST MUSIC I EVER HEARD.”
57.BARNWELL:
HANDY WAS HEARING THE BLUES ON THEIR NATIVE SOIL. AND NOW HE WAS LISTENING WITH THE EAR OF A COMPOSER—AN AMERICAN COMPOSER.
57(a)MUSIC: Yellow Dog Blues, Sam Collins
58.BARNWELL:
AROUND THIS TIME HANDY WAS TRAVELING BACK AND FORTH BETWEEN THE MISSISSIPPI DELTA AND MEMPHIS.
THERE HE  GOT TO KNOW HIS WAY AROUND BEALE AVENUE, BACK BEFORE IT BECAME A STREET.  
MUSIC: Barrelhouse piano  
Barnwell:
BEALE WAS A HAVEN FOR COLORFUL CHARACTERS (TO SAY THE LEAST)  FROM ALL OVER. THEY DRANK AND DANCED IN  THE LIVELY BARS THEY CALLED BARRELHOUSES
Actuality:   RAICHELSON  
	He knew both classics and he knew folk level  and so when he came into Memphis around 1907 1908, He started hanging out in Peewees. This was a black musicians union. A lot of the musicians there played pool, etc. etc. But if someone wanted to hire a band you could call in and ask for a bandleader. And usually they called in for Handy. 

	He dressed well, presented himself well   Because he got reputation of having good musicians, providing a good program, he became very very welcome in the white houses which a were mansions lining vance street. 
	So Handy was hired in these places, and he would get musicians from Peewees -- he had a closet back there that was packed with instruments and arrangements 

60(a)MUSIC—Memphis Blues
60.BARNWELL: 
 IN 1909,  INTO THIS HIGH-ROLLING PARADISE CAME MR. E.H. CRUMP, A REFORM CANDIDATE FOR MAYOR. HE PROMISED TO CLOSE DOWN ALL THE BARRELHOUSE BARS.
IN AN UNLIKELY MOVE, SOME OF CRUMP’S SUPPORTERS HIRED HANDY AND HIS BAND TO BRING IN VOTES. HANDY COMPOSED A CAMPAIGN SONG WITHOUT WORDS. THEN, BASED UPON THE CROWD’S REACTION TO CRUMP’S PLANNED REFORMS HE ADDED THESE LYRICS:
60(b) MUSIC:  Handy sings Crump lyrics 	
Music: x under Memphis instrumental / band 
61. BARNWELL (continues) THE CROWDS WENT WILD, AND AS HANDY NOTED LATER, MR. CRUMP WOULD UNDOUBTEDLY HAVE GONE WILD HIMSELF, HAD HE EVER HEARD THE WORDS. 
WE DON’T CARE WHAT MR. CRUMP DON’T ALLOW
WE GONNA BARRELHOUSE ANYHOW
MR. CRUMP CAN GO AND CATCH HISSELF SOME AIR.
MUSIC: Memphis Blues - 
62c) WC HANDY (from Avakian interview)
We played that at the corner of Maine and Madison and it stopped the traffic. I put 67 musicians to work playing Mr Crump. 

Barnwell:
DESPITE, OR BECAUSE OF HANDY’S SASSY TUNE, MR. CRUMP WAS ELECTED.  HE NEVER DID CLOSE DOWN THE BARRELHOUSES OR CLEAN UP BEALE STREET.   
HANDY WAS ENJOYING INCREASING SUCCESS AS A LEADER, ARRANGER AND WRITER.    BUT HIS GIFT TO AMERICAN MUSIC WOULD BE TO POLISH THE WEIRD, MOURNFUL MUSIC HE’D HEARD ALL HIS LIFE AND GIVE IT TIN PAN ALLEY STYLE.
63b) MUSIC: 	Yellow Dog Blues, Sam Collins 	

64.ACTUALITY RAICHELSON:
 	The public was not ready in the early part of the 20th century to take into their hearts that train station singer.  It was too wild. you had to have it tamed. 

65a.BARNWELL:	HISTORIAN RICHARD RAICHELSON.   
Vox: Raichelson
	He was an entrepreneur  in being able to take it from its original setting and put it together in a compositional form which of course was his own way of composing, his own arrangements – and make it palatable to the rest of the world.    So people in the USSR of old could take the Memphis blues in sheet music, put it on their piano and play it. 

MUSIC:  Memphis Blues, 	Eubie Blake 

Barnwell:
	YOU’RE LISTENING TO “WC HANDY’S BLUES” FROM ARTEMIS MEDIA PROJECT AND MURRAY STREET PRODUCTIONS. 
I’M YSAYE MARIA BARNWELL. THIS IS PRI, PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL..
65(a)MUSIC:  Memphis Blues, Don Byron 
Music:   Joe Turner 

69.BARNWELL: 
WC HANDY’S TIME IN THE DELTA  EXPOSED HIM TO THE MELODRAMATIC, SOMETIMES TRAGIC, STORIES OF THE AREA.   AMONG THE SONGS HANDY HEARD WAS THE LARGER-THAN LIFE TALE OF JOE TURNER, WHO KIDNAPPED BLACK MEN INTO DEBT SLAVERY.

70.WC HANDY VOICE: from Father of the Blues :	Joe Turney was the brother of Pete Turney, governor of the state of Tennessee  who pressed Negroes into peonage and took them down the Mississippi river to the farms. Women looking for their husbands who were late coming home would ask where my husband is, and they’d be told haven’t you heard about Joe Turner. He’s been here and gone.

MUSIC:  Joe Turner 
71.BARNWELL: 
THE FOLK TUNE JOE TURNER WAS THE STORY OF AN EVIL MAN WHO KIDNAPPED POOR PEOPLE.  IT WASN’T THE SORT OF THING MAINSTREAM AMERICA WANTED TO DANCE TO. BUT HANDY’S GENIUS LAY IN MAKING THE BLUES ACCESSIBLE. 
HANDY COLLECTED THAT FOLK SONG  “JOE TURNER.” THEN HE CHANGED THE STORY ABOUT A VILLAIN TO AN UPBEAT BLUES ABOUT LEAVING AN UNAPPRECIATIVE LOVER.
THOSE LYRICS MADE JOE TURNER  A STANDARD SO DURABLE THAT IT WAS A HIT MORE THAN 40 YEARS LATER FOR NAT KING COLE. 

71 (a) MUSIC:  JOE TURNER BLUES,  Nat King Cole
72.BARNWELL: 
WC HANDY’S SUCCESS AS A SONGWRITER IS NOTABLE IN ITSELF.  TAKING THE BLUES AND FOLK TUNES FROM RURAL ROOTS MUSIC TO POPULAR ACCLAIM WAS VISIONARY.  BUT MORE REMARKABLY, HANDY THE CREATOR, ARRANGER AND BANDLEADER WAS ONE OF THE FIRST BLACK MUSICIANS TO HOLD ONTO THE RIGHTS TO HIS MUSIC AND PUBLISH IT ON HIS OWN.
Music: 	Memphis Blues 
74.BARNWELL:
WC HANDY’S FIRST REAL HIT WAS THAT CAMPAIGN SONG HE HAD WRITTEN FOR E.H. CRUMP.  IT WAS PLAYED BY ALMOST EVERY BAND IN MEMPHIS, AND BECAME SUCH A POPULAR TUNE THAT HE REALIZED IT WOULD HAVE A LIFE AFTER THE ELECTION. 
UNABLE TO FIND A PUBLISHER AMONG THE WHITE OWNED ESTABLISHMENTS, HANDY TOOK A PARTNER, A BANKER AND SOMETIMES LYRICIST NAMED HARRY PACE. IN 1912 THEY PUBLISHED HIS INSTRUMENTAL AS “THE MEMPHIS BLUES” 
BARNWELL:   
	 WC HANDY’S GRAND DAUGHTER, EDWINA HANDY DE COSTA

98a) VOICE: EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA
Times were so different then. That  a man born 8 years after emancipation to two former slaves, could not have his music published – which was another reason for those initials WC, because was ‘the way to go in order to have his music published. 

BARNWELL:
THIS FIRST PUBLISHING VENTURE WOULD LAUNCH HANDY INTO NATIONAL PROMINENCE, THOUGH NOT IN THE WAY HE MIGHT HAVE HOPED.  HE WAS WORKING WITH A DISTRIBUTOR NAMED THERON BENNETT.
75.HANDY:  
	He brought it to New York and he told me it was it was not selling. The truth is that I paid for 1000 copies of the first edition of Memphis Blues instrumental but later found out that 2000 were printed. It maybe that the reason that my thousand wasn’t selling was that he was selling his thousand.   

76.Barnwell: BENNETT CONVINCED HANDY THAT HIS SHEET MUSIC WASN’T SELLING.  HANDY AGREED TO PART WITH HIS COPYRIGHT FOR $100.  ACTUALLY THE MEMPHIS BLUES SOLD WELL AND WOULD BECOME HANDY’S FIRST NATIONAL HIT.
MUSIC: Memphis Blues, Eubie Blake  
77.HANDY  from Avakian interview 
I sold my rights to the Memphis blues. I found in life that things a work for good. regardless. Theron C Bennett he went to New York -- had George Norton write a song about Handy and his band.  
 
77a) MUSIC:  Memphis Blues – WC Handy  sings
		From Father of the Blues 
		
MUSIC	Memphis Blues –
			Handy sings
	“Folks have just been down .. down to Memphis town that’s where the 	people smile, smile on you all the while. Hospitality…
		 	Mae West sings
77b) VOX Handy      
	That song went all around the world and made me a reputation even if I didn’t get any particular money out of it.  
  
78.Handy   from Avakian interview
	But after I sold it minstrel bands used to come to Memphis and they’d use it on the stage. I could see the bigness of it.

81(a)MUSIC  MEMPHIS BLUES,  W C Handy’s Orchestra 
78c) BARNWELL:
	WC HANDY’S GRAND DAUGHTER: EDWINA HANDY DE COSTA

78B) VOICE— Edwina Handy Decosta
 	Memphis Blues was his first publication. It was music only—a campaign song. The tune was so popular he had to hire three bands to tour  throughout the country .
There is a controversy whether Memphis Blues was first blues ever published. Dallas Blues had an earlier date. But Handy had to hire three bands and the man who wrote Dallas Blues has never been heard from again. So Memphis Blues was the first blues published.

79.BARNWELL:
HANDY USED  AN UNUSUAL EFFECT IN MEMPHIS BLUES— THE  BLUE NOTE, SLURRING BETWEEN MAJOR AND MINOR.   AND FROM THE RURAL BLUES, HE TOOK A BREAK OR GAP THAT ALLOWED ALLOWED FOR IMPROVISATION BY THE SINGER OR MUSICIANS    
80. BARNWELL:
81.BARNWELL:  (continues)
THIS BLUES BREAK -- ALONG WITH THE 12 OR 16 BAR FRAMEWORK -- MADE HANDYS COMPOSITIONS DISTINCTIVE AND FAMILIAR.  THEY WERE A CHANGE FROM THE MARCHES, RAGTIME AND CLASSICAL MUSIC THAT DOMINATED POPULAR MUSIC SALES.
82.BARNWELL:  
FROM 1923, WC HANDY’S ORCHESTRA -- THE MEMPHIS BLUES.  
Barnwell:
ALTHOUGH HANDY WAS PAID AS THE RECORDING ARTIST ON THAT TRACK, HE HAD SURRENDERED THE RIGHTS TO THE COMPOSITION IN 1912.  NOW HE NEEDED TO WRITE ANOTHER HIT. 
TO GET OUT OF EARSHOT OF HIS FOUR RAMBUNCTIOUS CHILDREN, HE RENTED A ROOM ON BEALE AVENUE (AS IT WAS CALLED THEN).  WHEN HE SAT DOWN TO WORK IN 1914, WHAT CAME BACK TO HIM WAS A STRAIN HE’D HEARD IN ST. LOUIS IN ALMOST TWO DECADES EARLIER.    
Music: St Louis Blues – Louis Armstrong / Bessie Smith
83.HURWITT: 
	He heard a bereft woman moaning    “that man’s got a got a heart like a rock cast in the sea.”   He was supposedly storing that up for decades in his memory bank 

Barnwell: 
	MUSICOLOGIST ELLIOTT HURWITT 
	The Saint Louis Blues is certainly Handy’s greatest composition and most interesting composition in a lot of different of ways. The three strain structure is really brilliant because it has so much variety.    It opens with a kind of slow, mournful sounding intro…

Music:   St Louis Blues,  Ginnie Powell 
Hurwitt: 
	I hate to see that evening’ sun go down… which in itself was revolutionary at the time because it really was the first kind of authentic rural sounding maybe rural sounding blues strain to introduce a published commercial blues.
Hurwitt (continues)
	And then the second strain that Handy put into St Louis Blues –is the ‘tango strain’

Music:  St Louis Blues, Memphis blues band 

Hurwitt continues:
	St Louis Woman with her diamond rings	
Music:

Hurwitt:	
	They would play it at a fast tempo, and it sounded happy and people would dance to it. America was absolutely dance mad,
	So you know you put all these elements together it’s really brilliant. The funny thing about the piece is that it didn’t take off like a rocket 

The song was old before it became the biggest hit in the world. 

84.BARNWELL: 
DURING THESE YEARS, HANDY WAS THE TOAST OF MEMPHIS.
RICHARD RAICHELSEN  
85.Raichelsen: 
	This is bigtime. Here he was hanging out in Beale street, directing an orchestra, teaching music, and he had his publishing company..  and so he was doing pretty well.

86.BARNWELL:
	BUT WHEN  HE TRIED TO WRITE A SONG ABOUT HIS BELOVED BEALE AVENUE, HIS LOVE FOR ITS HIGH-ROLLIN’ LIFE DISTRACTED HIM FROM COMPLETING HIS TRIBUTE.

87.HANDY:  from Father of the Blues   
		I liked the life of Beale street; it was exciting, so much so that I was two years trying to write a number called Beale Street…but I couldn’t’ find words for it. One night after leaving my office I passed by Pewees saloon. Next to it was a barber shop. This barber shop was open say about two o’ clock in the morning --   and I said “come on, let’s go home.” He says “I haven’t closed up cause there aint nobody’got killed.yet, ” And i struck myself and said “that’s it. It’s the Beale Street Blues.”

87(a)music: Beale Street Blues, Handy plays and sings  	
88.BARNWELL:  BEALE STREET BLUES, PUBLISHED IN 1917 BECAME A STANDARD  -- AND BEALE AVENUE BECAME A STREET.
89.VOICE: Hurwitt :The song slowly built popularity, it was performed by Bessie Smith and others as early as 1916. but not recorded.
95.BARNWELL: 

HANDY’S BAND RECORDED ST LOUIS  BLUES  IN 1922. – AND OTHERS SOON FOLLOWED. 
THE HIGHLIFE IN MEMPHIS MIGHT HAVE HAD SPECIAL APPEAL TO A NATION WATCHING OMINOUS EVENTS IN EUROPE APPROACH ITS SHORES.     WHEN AMERICAN SOLDIERS ENTERED WORLD WAR ONE, HANDYS’ MUSIC WENT WITH THEM. IT WAS CARRIED BY JAMES REESE EUROPE’S HELLFIGHTERS – A LEGENDARY BLACK BAND WHICH PLAYED FOR THE TROOPS. AND THE SONG THE TROOPS WANTED TO HEAR WAS THE ST. LOUIS BLUES.      

MUSIC: St Louis Blues, James Reese Europe 

96.HURWITT:
The first recordings were instrumental.

BARNWELL:
ELLIOT HURWITT:

96.HURWITT:

 Eventually a couple of the white pop or vaudeville singers picked it up aournd 1920.…

96(a)MUSIC:  St Louis Blues,  Marion Harris  

97.HANDY:  (from Avakian wc 25)
	There was a girl by the name of Marion Harris, She was from Kentucky And she could sing my music  -- St Louis Blues and there was something that she put in the music what I feel that it‘s  that southern contact and an acquaintance with Negro life that made her singing a little bit different.

91.BARNWELL: 

AFTER NINE YEARS, HANDY HAD BECOME ABOUT AS BIG A SUCCESS AS A BLACK MAN COULD BE IN MEMPHIS. BY 1918 HE WAS READY TO STRIKE OUT FOR NEW YORK.
MUSICALLY, HIS TIMING COULD NOT HAVE BEEN BETTER.
98.BARNWELL:
 	WITH THE ST LOUIS BLUES, W.C.HANDY CREATED THE ENGINE THAT DROVE HIS BLUES TO WORLDWIDE POPULARITY  AND STILL POWERS  HANDY BROTHERS MUSIC COMPANY TODAY.
WC HANDY’S GRAND DAUGHTER MINNIE HANDY HANSON
AND GREAT GRAND DAUGHTER EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA
98b) Vox Minnie Handy Hansen
The Company  was originally founded in Memphis TN known as Pace Handy Music. My grandfather was on a trip to NY to do recording 

98c) VOICE: Edwina Handy
	After the visit to New York, he knew as a music publisher  this was where he needed to be. He hit town with the songs Memphis Blues and St Louis Blues and with a brand new  hit called “A Good Man is Hard to Find”.	

Music: A Good Man is Hard to Find , Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Biederbecke

102.BARNWELL: 
IN 1918 W.C. HANDY MOVED TO NEW YORK CITY INSTALLING  
PACE-HANDY PUBLISHING IN SWANKY OFFICES ON BROADWAY, AND HIS FAMILY IN AN EVEN SWANKIER HOUSE ON HARLEM’S STRIVERS ROW.  
HANDY LOVED HARLEM. HE CALLED IT “BIG OLD GOOD-LOOKING, EASY-GOING, PROUD-WALKING HARLEM.”  THINGS WERE GOOD: 
ST. LOUIS BLUES WAS GROWING EVEN MORE POPULAR.  BEALE STREET BLUES WAS BEING RECORDED AND EVEN THE MEMPHIS BLUES, ON WHICH HE’D HAD SOLD THE COPYRIGHT, WAS SELLING IN HIS OWN ARRANGEMENTS.   THE MONEY POURED IN. 

101.VOICE: 
	CARLOS HANDY
He was a businessman ,a musician, composer,  entertainer, philosopher, lyricist . he was a modern man in every sense of the word,

100.BARNWELL:	
	W.C.HANDY’S GRANDSON, DR. CARLOS HANDY

101.VOICE: CARLOS:
You do all this at a time in American history where lynchings were rampant..
 certainly if you go back 100 plus years ago,for a black man to have that kind of chutzpah, that kind of vision, that kind of professionalism that kind of artistry…. 

102b) BARNWELL: 
BUT THEN THE MONEY BEGAN TO POUR BACK OUT.
THE F. W WOOLWORTH COMPANY, ONE OF HANDY’S BIGGEST CUSTOMERS TOOK OUT THEIR SHEET MUSIC COUNTERS; 
SOME RECORDING COMPANIES WENT OUT OF BUSINESS OWING HANDY MONEY. OTHERS PAID WITH PROMISSORY NOTES, THEN WENT BANKRUPT. 
HANDY’S LONGTIME PARTNER, HARRY PACE WITHDREW FROM THE BUSINESS AND TOOK KEY EMPLOYEES WITH HIM. 
UNDER THE STRAIN HANDY’S HEALTH SUFFERED. FOR A WHILE HE EVEN LOST HIS EYESIGHT.   HE TOOK TO ASKING HIS CHILDREN TO READ TO HIM FROM THE BOOK OF JOB.
ONCE AGAIN HANDY WAS BROKE, BUT ONCE AGAIN HIS COMPELLING COMPOSITION WOULD SAVE HIM.

102(a)music:  St Louis Blues , Archie Shepp saxophone version

103.Vox HURWITT:  
Once people start really a running with the ball in the 1920’s St Louis Blues never stops being on the charts. it was the biggest African American hit between 1900 and 1950 or 60

Music:   St Louis Blues, Merle Haggard 

And it was recorded by everyone including country and western singers, Guy Lombardo, jazz and blues, Big Joe Turner,Fats Waller, Cab Calloway, Glen Miller.

Music:   St Louis Blues  

106.BARNWELL: 
AGAIN, JAZZ SCHOLAR DAN MORGENSTERN
107.MORGENSTERN:
i think statistically in the 78 era it was the most recorded tune, when it comes to different versions It was recorded in japan, in india, on the xylophone, harmonica, on the jews harp, with large orchestras, solos, with and without vocals. Wonderful recordings by Duke Ellingtons band  with Bing Crosby, doing the vocal and Bing scats his butt off.  

107(a)MUSIC—St Louis Blues, Bing Crosby with Louis Armstrong
108(a)MUSIC:  St Louis Blues, Bessie Smith 
109.BARNWELL: 
THE ST. LOUIS BLUES BECAME ONE OF THE MOST RECORDED SONGS EVER, AND BESSIE SMITH’S 1925 VERSION WITH LOUIS ARMSTRONG PASSED INTO LEGEND AS ONE OF THE GREATEST BLUES PERFORMANCES OF ALL TIME.

110.HANDY: 20:08 

Many years ago when we were on our uppers and had lost our “in “ with the phonograph companies, every new number they’d stick it on the other side of St Louis blues. it kept my doors open.

111.MORGENSTERN:  
During the swing era every band had St Louis Blues 

Music 
113(a)MUSIC: Handy’s Hail to the Spirit of Freedom
114.HANDY:  (Father of the Blues cd) 
In nineteen and fifteen my race held an exhibition at the Coliseum in Chicago called The Lincoln Jubilee. I was invited to write a number for a march “Hail to the Spirit of Freedom.” 

117.BARNWELL: 
HANDY’S POPULARITY AS A BLUES COMPOSER, IRONICALLY, MEANT THAT HIS OTHER MUSIC, SACRED WORKS IN PARTICULAR, WAS NOT TAKEN SERIOUSLY.

114.HANDY:  (Father of the Blues cd) 

	And I’ve written a lot of sacred music. My own people don’t use it.. because I wrote the blues you see.

120.AVAKIAN:  
He was very fond of all the music that he had done,  he said gee people only want to talk about the St Louis Blues. 

119.BARNWELL:  
PRODUCER GEORGE AVAKIAN INTERVIEWED WC HANDY IN 1956

120.AVAKIAN:  
He thought the research work that he had done in making arrangements of folk music and other melodies  was extremely important but it was glossed over by everybody . He also resented the fact that unless music had a kind of a “classical” quality it was looked down upon.

121.HANDY: 	(from Avakian interview) 
There’s a certain attitude that many of them had taken to the blues. In other words If I had written in imitation of some European opera they would have given me credit for it.
 
	Music:   French Blues   

122.BARNWELL:  
HANDY’S BLUES WERE PHENOMENALLY POPULAR, BUT HE STILL STROVE TO SECURE RESPECT FOR HIMSELF, AND FOR OTHER AFRICAN AMERICAN COMPOSERS.
Music:  Mamie Smith 

123.HANDY (from avakian interview wc 
When Mamie Smith made her records I went over to Chicago and it was interesting to see the people standing out in the streets, on the sidewalks, listening to this Negro voice on records. They didn’t know who she was but there was something in that voice they appreciated and would spend their money for To get that Negro voice -- the pride of race

124.AVAKIAN
	The one thing i remember most of all about watching Mr Handy when he was a talking in his living room. was the moment when he used the words pride of race, he said it in a deliberate way, you can hear it, his voice even had a slight tremble.  I saw the tears start coming out of his eyes when he said it. That meant a great deal to him

125.BARNWELL
BY THE MID-30S, HANDY’S EYESIGHT WAS NEARLY GONE BUT HE  DEDICATED HIMSELF TO EDUCATING YOUNG PEOPLE ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF AMERICAN MUSIC. HE WAS ESPECIALLY EAGER TO INSTRUCT SCHOOL CHILDREN IN THE MUSIC OF THE BLACK RACE AND TO ENCOURAGE THEM TO FOLLOW THEIR OWN MUSICAL LEANINGS. 
125(a) MUSIC: Swing Low Sweet Chariot (sung by Handy) 

IN 1937, HE REVISITED HIS OLD HOME TOWN OF FLORENCE, ALABAMA, WHERE HIS WORDS AND MUSIC CHANGED THE LIFE OF A SIX-YEAR-OLD BOY NAMED WILLIE RUFF.   YEARS LATER IN HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY, “A CALL TO ASSEMBLY”  WILLIE RUFF REMEMBERED HANDY’S WORDS: 
	
Barnwell
 “‘IT IS FROM THE SPIRITUAL’ HE SAID ‘THAT ALL ELSE IN OUR MUSICAL STORY IN AMERICA TOOK ROOT. ’ HE DEMONSTRATED GO DOWN MOSES AND SWING LOW SWEET CHARIOT ON HIS TRUMPET AND SHOWED THOSE QUALITIES THAT OUR SACRED MUSIC SHARES WITH THE BLUES AND JAZZ.  HIS MUSICAL EXAMPLES WERE SO CLEAR AND EASY TO FOLLOW, AND HIS WORDS WERE SO STRONG, THAT I KNEW I WAS ON THE RECEIVING END OF A PRECIOUS GIFT.”

126(a)MUSIC:                    

129.Hurwitt:
Handy’s influence on American popular music is really incalculable. I think the entire course of American culture of American Music would have been radically different if the Memphis blues had not appeared in 1912, if St Louis blues had not appeared in 1914, and along with it the Yellow Dog Blues, Joe Turner Blues and several other very important Handy popular music compositions in that era.

130.BARNWELL:

	ONCE AGAIN, ELLIOT HURWITT
	
131.HURWITT:
. The songs really kind of opened the door for the integration of the southern blues culture and African American into the mainstream far earlier than they could have done. It all starts with Handy. 

MUSIC:  St Louis  Blues
132 Barnwell:
	WC HANDY DID NOT LIVE LONG ENOUGH TO SEE HIMSELF PORTRAYED BY NAT KING COLE IN THE 1958 FILM “ST LOUIS BLUES” 
IT ALSO FEATURED THE SINUOUS EARTHA KITT AND THE PHENOMENAL PEARL BAILEY.
Music: Beale Street Blues , Eartha Kitt 
	ONCE AGAIN, EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA.
132d) EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA
I think by the age of 11, noticing that great-grandfather’s name was in the encyclopedia— That made us know that this man was very special.

132e) BARNWELL
	AFTER YEARS OF WORKING TO GET HIS MUSIC TAKEN SERIOUSLY, HANDY DID HEAR ST LOUIS BLUES PLAYED BY ONE OF THE WORLD’S GREATEST ORCHESTRAS.  IT’S IRONIC THAT THIS TRIUMPH CAME INDIRECTLY AS PART OF A TRIBUTE TO HIS FRIEND LOUIS ARMSTRONG.

132(a)MUSIC: ST LOUIS BLUES, NY PHILHARMONIC  

Vox: (Murrow actuality)  trumpet – armstrong 
	 On the night of July 14, 1956 another of Louis’ dreams came true.   Leonard Bernstein conducted the stadium symphony made up of 88 members of  the New York Philharmonic…

Vox: Murrow 
	“Among the 25 thousand people in the audience was WC Handy, 83 and blind”

135.MORGENSTERN:
.And Handy, is in the audience  sitting near the front.

134.BARNWELL:  
AGAIN, JAZZ SCHOLAR DAN MORGENSTERN 
135.MORGENSTERN:
He was sightless. He was wearing a beautiful white suit and panama hat. And as this version of St. Louis Blues comes to a climax,   

(Music climax)

And Louis is playing beautifully over the massed strings. Handy feels the music and tears start rolling down his cheeks. He takes his hat off—and on top of his head is a folded handkerchief, and he unfolds it and dabs his eyes.

Music: 

136.BARNWELL:  
WC HANDY DIED IN 1958.  HE PASSED HIS GREAT LEGACY AS  COMPOSER AND COLLECTOR OF SONGS FROM THE 19TH CENTURY INTO THE 20TH. 

MUSIC:   

Barnwell: 
HE BROUGHT THE BLUES TO THE WORLD.  NOW HANDY BROTHERS MUSIC COMPANY CARRIES THEM INTO THE 21ST CENTURY.

135a) MUSIC ST LOUIS BLUES to Greg Osby w/ Nicholas Payton.

136a) VOICE: Edwina Handy DeCosta
Handy’s autobiography talks about how he wanted to keep the business in the family. 

136b) BARNWELL:  
EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA:    

136c) Edwina Handy DeCosta
We’ve had Uncle Charlie and grandfather WC Jr, Aunt Lou, Aunt Katherine—all the family members who’ve worked here.
 We handle the licenses for movies, TV book quotes, all the different films  Handy brothers has always been on Broadway,  and we’ve always been here for like 88 years

BARNWELL: 
W C HANDY’S LIFELONG EFFORTS TO WIN RESPECT FOR THE MUSIC OF BLACK AMERICANS LIVE ON AS WELL.  
WILLIE RUFF, WHO FIRST HEARD HANDY AS A SCHOOLBOY, GREW UP TO BE ONE HALF OF THE NOTED JAZZ GROUP THE MITCHELL-RUFF DUO --  AND A PROFESSOR AT YALE.  
IN THE 1980s, HE FOUND HIMSELF SITTING IN AN AIRPORT ON HIS WAY TO ALABAMA AND STRUCK UP A CONVERSATION ABOUT WC HANDY WITH LOCAL MUSICOLOGIST DR. DAVID MUSSELMAN.

137.MUSSELMAN;
He really felt like the community should have something to commemorate Mr. Handy’s  being born here. and the love Mr. Handy had for the Shoals area.

138. BARNWELL: 

THAT “SOMETHING” WOULD BECOME THE  W. C. HANDY MUSIC FESTIVAL.
 
Music:  		

Barnwell:
EACH JULY, IT BRINGS MUSICIANS FROM ALL OVER TO FLORENCE, ALABAMA  FOR A WEEK OF CONCERTS, PERFORMANCES AND SPECIAL EVENTS. 
FOR THE PERFORMERS, HANDY REMAINS AN INSPIRATION.

142.Vox: RAICHELSON:
What handy did, he put it together and I think his recognition as the father of the blues is well put. 	Handy was the man. --- he was the father of the blues.

143.  BARNWELL:
WC HANDY’S BLUES WAS PRODUCED BY ARTEMIS MEDIA PROJECT WITH MURRAY STREET PRODUCTIONS.  EXECUTIVE PRODUCERS KATHIE FARNELL AND STEVE RATHE  ASSOCIATE PRODUCER AND POST PRODUCTION BY , SIMON RENTNER 
WE HAD ADDITIONAL ASSISTANCE FROM DALE SHORT AND JACQUIE GALES WEBB, AND MATTHEW D. PAYNE 
SUPPORT FOR THIS PROGRAM COMES FROM THIS STATION AND PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL STATIONS NATIONWIDE AND IS MADE POSSIBLE IN PART BY THE PRI PROGRAM FUND.  CONTRIBUTORS INCLUDE THE FORD FOUNDATION AND THE JOHN D. AND CATHERINE T. MACARTHUR FOUNDATION.
THIS PROJECT IS SUPPORTED IN PART BY AN AWARD FROM THE NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS, WHICH BELIEVES THAT A GREAT NATION DESERVES GREAT ART -- AND BY GRANTS FROM 
THE ALABAMA STATE COUNCIL ON THE ARTS AND THE ALABAMA BUREAU OF TOURISM AND TRAVEL.
W.C. HANDY’S BLUES IS PART OF THE YEAR OF ALABAMA ARTS

BARNWELL (continues)

OUR THANKS TO THE INTERVIEWEES WHO GAVE US THEIR TIME, PARTICULARLY THE HANDY FAMILY 
DR. CARLOS HANDY, 
DOAL E. HANSON, 
MINNIE HANDY HANSON, 
EDWINA HANDY DECOSTA -- AS WELL AS 
PRODUCER GEORGE AVAKIAN, 
DR. ELLIOTT HURWITT, 
ELLIS MARSALIS, 
WYNTON MARSALIS, 
DAN MORGENSTERN, 
DR. DAVID MUSSLEMAN, AND 
DR. RICHARD REICHELSEN. <Ray-chill-son

THANKS ALSO TO JAZZ AT LINCOLN CENTER’S EDUCATION DEPARTMENT AND JAZZ FOR YOUNG PEOPLE, TO GEORGE AVAKIAN FOR HIS INTERVIEW WITH WC HANDY, AND TO DRG RECORDS FOR MATERIAL FROM THE HANDY MONOLOGS ON THE “FATHER OF THE BLUES” CD

“FATHER OF THE BLUES” – WC HANDY’S AUTOBIOGRAPHY IS WIDELY AVAILABLE AT BOOKSTORES AND THE CD WITH HANDY MONOLOGS AND SONGS IS AVAILABLE THROUGH HANDY BROTHERS MUSIC COMPANY IN NEW YORK.
ADDITIONAL SUPPORT CAME FROM: ROUNDER RECORDS, DOCUMENT RECORDS, AND THE WC HANDY FESTIVAL IN FLORENCE, ALABAMA.  THANKS ALSO TO THE INSTITUTE FOR JAZZ STUDIES AT RUTGERS UNIVERSITY, HUNTSVILLE ALABAMA CITY SCHOOLS; AND KEITH WARD.

FIND MORE ABOUT WC HANDY’S MUSIC at 

www.WCHANDYMUSICFESTIVAL dot org or at

	www.honkytonks dot org

I’M YSAYE MARIA BARNWELL.

THIS IS PRI, PUBLIC RADIO INTERNATIONAL.