Tyehimba Jess – Olio

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In Olio Live—a very special one-night performance recorded live at the Minetta Lane Theater in February, 2019—poet Tyehimba Jess introduces listeners to his 2017 Pulitzer Prize-winning collection, Olio.

A stellar cast of actors, accompanied by pianist Jeremy Gill, performs a selection of poems from the collection, all of which reinterpret the lived experience of real historical figures. You’ll meet William “Blind” Boone, who testifies to Scott Joplin’s greatness at a time when “Alexander’s Ragtime Band” by Irving Berlin used uncredited sections of Joplin’s work; Sissieretta Jones, an operatic star who elevates what a “revue” show could be; and other African American musical stars of the early 20th century. Despite the Emancipation of African Americans and the rise of Tin Pan Alley, these gifted composers and musicians continued to experience appropriation of their work and, often, lack of remuneration.

In this context, the word “olio” also means a hodgepodge, or a miscellaneous collection of literary or musical selections; taken as a whole, the triumphant performances of Olio Live ask listeners to consider the nature of identity, performance, and ever-present history. Tyehimba Jess and Yahdon Israel immortalize and embody a long tradition of African American “citizenship through musicianship” in this timeless live audio.
CAPTION: Blind Tom Wiggins was born on the Wiley Edward Jones Plantation in Harris County, Georgia. Blind at birth, he was sold in 1850 along with his enslaved parents, Domingo and Charity Wiggins, to a Columbus, Georgia, lawyer, General James Neil Bethune. Bethune was “almost the pioneer free trader” in the United States and “the first newspaper editor in the south to openly advocate secession”.

General Bethune renamed the child Thomas Greene Bethune or Thomas Wiggins Bethune (according to different sources). Bethune hired out “Blind Tom” from the age of eight years to concert promoter Perry Oliver, who toured him extensively in the US, performing as often as four times a day and earning Oliver and Bethune up to $100,000 a year, an enormous sum for the time,”equivalent to $1.5 million/year [in 2004], making Blind Tom undoubtedly the nineteenth century’s most highly compensated pianist”. General Bethune’s family eventually made a fortune estimated at $750,000 at the hands of Blind Tom.

In 1875, General Bethune transferred management of Blind Tom’s professional affairs to his son John Bethune, who accompanied Tom on tour around the U.S. for the next eight years. In 1882, John Bethune married his landlady, Eliza Stutzbach, who had demonstrated a knack for mollifying Tom’s sometimes volatile temperament. However, shortly after their marriage, John Bethune embarked on an extended tour of the U.S. with Tom, in effect abandoning Eliza Bethune. When Bethune returned home eight months later, his wife filed for divorce. The couple split up—John took Tom—but a bitter legal squabble ensued, with Eliza hounding John for financial support, a claim that the courts usually adjudicated in John’s favor. After John Bethune died in a railway accident in 1884, Tom was returned—over Eliza’s objections—to the care of General Bethune (now living in Virginia). Eliza sued General Bethune for custody, with Tom’s elderly mother Charity enjoined by Eliza’s attorney as a party in the plaintiff’s suit. After a protracted custody battle in several courts, in August 1887 Tom was awarded to Eliza, who moved Tom back to New York. Charity accompanied them with the understanding that she would benefit financially from Tom’s earnings. However, after it became apparent that Eliza did not intend to honor any financial obligations to Charity, Tom’s mother returned to Georgia.
CAPTION: Thomas “Blind Tom” Wiggins (May 25, 1849 – June 14, 1908) was an African American musical prodigy on the piano. He had numerous original compositions published and had a lengthy and largely successful performing career throughout the United States. During the 19th century, he was one of the best-known American performing pianists. Although he lived and died before autism was described, he is now regarded as an autistic savant.
CAPTION: Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910), known by his pen name Mark Twain, was an American writer, humorist, entrepreneur, publisher, and lecturer. He was lauded as the “greatest humorist this country has produced”, and William Faulkner called him “the father of American literature”. His novels include The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) and its sequel, the Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (1884), the latter often called “The Great American Novel”.
CAPTION: John William “Blind” Boone (May 17, 1864 – October 4, 1927) was an American pianist and composer of ragtime music. Boone played thousands of concerts in the United States and Canada. His best-known composition, “The Marshfield Tornado”, was never recorded or written down because it was too complex. Between January 18, 1880 (his first concert) and 1913 John William Boone had given 7,200 concerts, traveled 144,000 miles (sometimes traveling 20 miles a day) slept in around 7,000 beds, and given $180,000 to charities, churches, halls, opera houses, etc.
CAPTION: Matilda Sissieretta Joyner Jones, known as Sissieretta Jones, (January 5, 1868 or 1869 – June 24, 1933) was an American soprano. She sometimes was called “The Black Patti” in reference to Italian opera singer Adelina Patti. Jones’ repertoire included grand opera, light opera, and popular music. Trained at the Providence Academy of Music and the New England Conservatory of Music, Jones made her New York debut in 1888 at Steinway Hall, and four years later she performed at the White House for President Benjamin Harrison. She eventually sang for four consecutive presidents and the British royal family, and met with international success. The highest-paid African-American performer of her time, later in her career she founded the Black Patti Troubadours (later renamed the Black Patti Musical Comedy Company), a musical and acrobatic act made up of 40 jugglers, comedians, dancers and a chorus of 40 trained singers.
CAPTION: Millie McCoy and Christine McCoy (July 11, 1851 – October 8, 1912) were American conjoined twins who went by the stage names “The Carolina Twins”, “The Two-Headed Nightingale” and “The Eighth Wonder of the World”. The Twins traveled throughout the world performing song and dance for entertainment. The twins were born into slavery in 1851 on the plantation of Jabez McKoy near Whiteville. The young twins were sold several times before their first successful promoter purchased them in Boston when they were four. Their last legal owner was Joseph Smith even though they were abducted twice by men who sought to exploit them. Smith toured with the girls throughout the United States, Canada, and Europe before the start of the Civil War. During the war, Smith hid the twins near Spartanburg, South Carolina, to prevent their capture. Freed after the war, Millie-Christine again traveled and performed in practically every state, and were seen by European royalty. Queen Victoria of England enjoyed their performances and presented them with jewelry. Many of their appearances were with P.T. Barnum’s circus troupe.

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