Legends of the Apollo
For more than 75 years, some of the world’s greatest entertainers have performed at the famous Harlem theater
- By Lucinda Moore
- Smithsonian.com, May 10, 2010
(Courtesy Smtihsonian Books)
Sam Cooke, a handsome gospel singer who made girls swoon at the Apollo, crossed over to secular music in the 1950s and soon became one of the architects of soul, a gospel-infused style of rhythm and blues. “Cooke was also a visionary who understood how to market black music to white audiences, while grounding it in the African-American tradition,” says music scholar Craig Werner. “He took the sex out of it,” and he allayed the fears of white parents concerned about interracial relationships.
Werner believes the crooner and songwriter was equally astute at marketing a black political agenda. Cooke refused to play segregated venues, fought injustices within the music industry and established his own publishing and recording firms. His timeless hit “A Change Is Gonna Come” was recorded in 1964, the year the Civil Rights Act was signed. “It is performed in an unabashedly gospel style, and its content may be interpreted as a reflection of Cooke’s social consciousness and his expression of faith,” says musicologist Portia Maultsby.
Additional Sources
“Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing: How the Apollo Theater Shaped American Entertainment,” co-sponsored by the National Museum of African American History and Culture (NMAAHC) and the Apollo Theater Foundation, is on view through August 29 at the NMAAHC exhibition space in the National Museum of American History. It begins a national tour in October.
A book of the same name is available through Smithsonian Books.
Comments (3)
FIRST TIME ON THIS SITE....BUT I THINK IT IS SO INFORMATIVE AND EDUCARIONAL...
THANK YOU, I WILL RETURN
Posted by Victoria Lang on November 2,2010 | 08:49 AM
in 1949 i saw ella fitsgerald and billy eckstine at "jazz at the philharmonic at Lake merrit, Oakland Calif.
B
in 1949 I saw Ella Fitzgerald and Billy Eckstein at "jazz at the philharmonic" in oakland, calif. I fell in love at 17. for years I sang like Ella and danced to Eckstein..."you sigh, a song begins, you speak, and I hear violins...it's magic" wow! what a swooner. 20 years later again I saw Ella at Rbt. Mondavi winery in Napa Valley. She still had the voice of a 17 year old. Later, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespe, Oscar Peterson, Lena Horn...if there is a heaven, I want to go where they are...I don't want to listen to any old harps...just give me a horn, a piano, and a black voice
Posted by barbara ciapponi on October 28,2010 | 09:34 PM
It has bee a very long time ago when I, as a young woman from a small town in Rhode Island, was one of the many fans of Ella who sat in the great Appollo Theater and listend to her magnificent voice. A thrill I'll never forget--even now, at age 84.
Posted by Lucille Davis on May 14,2010 | 01:19 PM