Happy Birthday Miles Davis!May 26, 1926

Miles Dewey Davis III
American Jazz Trumpeter, Bandleader, & Composer
(1926 - 1991)

“For me,
music and life are all about style.”











“Do not fear
mistakes.

There are none.”



“Sometimes
you have to play a
long time
to be able to play like

yourself” "Music is as much about the silence
as it is about the notes.

Without silence, music is just noise."







"If you understood everything I say,
you'd be
me!"












“A legend is an old man with a cane
known for what he used to do.
I'm still doing it.”


"I know what I've done for music,
but don't call me a legend.

Just call me Miles Davis."


Miles Davis & John Coltrane 1958
Preforming: So What


Miles Davis Live in Montreal 1985
Performing: Human Nature

Harlem Sites Associated with Miles Davis:

Miles Davis Birthday Celebration
Friday, May 30 through Saturday, May 31
@ SMOKE

LENOX LOUNGE
288 Lenox Avenue
near 125th Street
Phone: 212-427-0253





MINTON'S PLAYHOUSE
206 West 118th Street
near St Nicholas Avenue
Phone: 212-864-8346





APOLLO Theater
253 W 125th Street
between 7th and Lenox Avenues
Phone: 212-531-5300

"Baby Mama" Drama...From Your Mouth, To Their Wallets!

http://www.babymamamovie.net/

"... you done taken my Blues
and gone." - Langston Hughes

From Jerry Springer to Maury Povich the drama of "Baby Mamas" has served as a dollar generating, bottom-line staple of daytime television "reality" talk shows. Introduced with "earnest concern" by the program host, the typically teary or vengeful teenage Mama tells her tale of love and loss. The Daddies follow. With Hip Hop swagger, these Romeos dis' even the most genteel of baby mamas... to the point where you wonder why these women choose to publicly broadcast their connection with such mean spirited and juvenile men.

At best, these Mamas and Daddies enjoy a trip to the big city, a night in a hotel and maybe a limousine ride to the studio. Their most realistic "reality" however, is based in a tug-o-war of allocation and resources. The baby Daddies are battling, until DNA proof and beyond, any obligation to trade their limited dollars for pampers over the purchase of the latest Nikes. With each damning accusation and "bleeped" curse, the diminished value of the child in question becomes more cripplingly obvious. While this debate will continue off camera, the networks, Mr. Springer and Mr. Povich are headed to the bank.

All this brings me to the recently released film, "Baby Mama" where despite its Tyler Perry-esque title, the movie is about a monetarily comfortable white female, with a Baby Daddy and a $100,000 to buy off a surrogate Baby Mama at her disposal. Unlike her TV counterpart, she gets to call all the shots... baby gain, no pain, spared even the worry of stretch marks!

That this film got produced, and its leads Tina Fey and Amy Poehlar get described as "edgy" and "hip" comic talents, served to remind me of the kudos lavished on John Belushi and Dan Ackroyd for the film, "Blues Brother's." They too, mined African American language and culture, to the enhancement of their "hipness" and enrichment of their careers. In that film, we were at least treated to the impressively natural cinematic skills of Aretha Franklin and the well honed talents of James Brown, Ray Charles and Cab Calloway.

Even as I marveled at all the African American talent on screen, I was haunted by the realization that Aretha Franklin could never have proposed the exact same script and talent, called it, "Blues Sisters" and gotten it produced (25 years later, she has yet to star in another film). For me, the film, "Baby Mama" goes one insulting step further, it employs just a single African American actor as doorman and ever-ready "Baby Mama" language coach.

Like the white, mousy, suburban office worker in the movie, "Office Space," who, while driving his car and groovin' to the blast of the radio's rap music, suddenly rolls up the car window at the approach of a Black man, "Baby Mama," also takes, enjoys and withholds, offering no acknowledgement or empathy for the people or culture of its title's source.

The Harlem Eye -HarlemOneStop

Harlem's Social Diary

A Completely Biased,

Entirely Opinionated Hot Pick ...

Thelma Golden & Duro Olowu

Thelma Golden, Director & Curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, and Nigerian born designer Duro Olowu got married on January 2nd. Golden told Vogue, "I always imagined I would spend ages planning my wedding, yet this felt perfect." Olowu, proposed to Golden just before Christmas and soon after the couple with friends, Artist Glen Ligon and Paper's editor Kim Hastreiter as witnesses headed to New York's City Hall, where they were married. According to Vogue, celebratory parties are being planned in New York, London and Nigeria.

And the bride's dress?

Duro Olowu!


A HarlemOneStop introduction to
duro olowu
Mr. Olowu is a fashion designer based in London, UK

POWER, ART & MOSAICS TO THE PEOPLE!!!

Who’s buried in Grant’s Tomb?
The answer’s pretty obvious!...


Ask, what’s behind Grant’s Tomb? ...and it’s a mystery question to most.

For the curious among you I encourage a trip to Riverside Drive and 122nd Street. Just slip by the Tomb’s monumental entry stairs to the shady plaza that lies behind, there, you’ll come upon a delightful surprise.


Mosaics!


Wrapping the plaza’s perimeter wall, like an extended Chinese dragon, is a 400 ft long serpentine bench, covered with colorful mosaic images ranging from General Grant and Smoky the Bear to flowers, serpents and Flamenco dancers.

Executed as a project of CITYarts, the benches were commissioned in 1972 by the National Park Service to commemorate the centennial of Grant’s signing the legislation designating Yellowstone as the world’s first national park. Construction continued over three summers under the design direction of artist Pedro Silva, working with artists Nelson Mercardo, Warren Fox and Alan Okada, and ably assisted by the labor of hundreds of community participants. Silva, a teacher in Harlem's 1960’s HARYOU-ACT Art program, which fostered community self-help and included artists Norman Lewis and John Steptoe, saw the park site and its mosaic project as an opportunity for community empowerment through art.

Reminiscent of Spanish architect Antonio Gaudi’s work, the benches also represent a unique architectural manifestation of 1970s rebellion and confrontation, with their vivid contrast in form and color to the tomb’s neo-classical architecture. With each mosaic image one can sense the hand of neighborhood “folks” and the empowering energy those 1970s summers must have offered!






Article First Published in
The Studio Museum in Harlem Magazine / Summer 2006
Text and Photographs
by John T. Reddick

John T. Reddick works on architectural preservation, planning and public art in New York City. He has served on Community Board #9 in Manhattan and is the Associate Vice President for Education & Programming at The Central Park Conservancy.

Ed Koch's $20,000 Uptown Plot....Plans To Sleep With Aububon & Ellison!

Ed Koch's
Swan Song






Above:
Detail, American Swan
John James Audubon, 1843

Left:
Mayor Edward I. Koch

Koch, Resolved to Spend Eternity in Manhattan, Buys a Cemetery Plot

By SAM ROBERTS
Published: April 22, 2008/New York Times

Former Mayor Edward I. Koch said on Monday that he planned to stay in Manhattan — for good.

Mr. Koch, who turned 83 in December, said that he had purchased a burial plot in Trinity Church Cemetery.

“The idea of leaving Manhattan permanently irritates me,” said Mr. Koch, who represented the East Side in the City Council and
in Congress before being elected to the first of three terms as mayor in 1977.

Trinity Church, part of the
Episcopal Diocese of New York, operates a nondenominational cemetery at Broadway and
155th Street.

Trinity describes the uptown cemetery as the only active cemetery in Manhattan that is still accepting burials.

Mr. Koch also said he had ordered a tombstone to “adorn my grave upon my death, which I hope won’t be for another 8 to 10 years.”

Carved on the tombstone is the most important prayer in Judaism, “Hear O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is One,” in English, Hebrew and a transliteration, and the last words of the journalist Daniel Pearl before he was murdered by Islamic terrorists: “My father is Jewish; my mother is Jewish; I am Jewish.”

Mr. Koch wrote about the inscriptions in his regular online commentary on Monday and elaborated about his burial plans in an interview.

He said he had recently paid $20,000 for the plot, a good investment, he explained, because the stock market, unlike the price of cemetery space, had since gone down.

The cemetery is on the site of one of the fiercest battles of the American Revolution. Trinity describes it as a grassy retreat, dotted by century-old elms and oaks, and “a special place of peace and tranquillity far from the chrome and glass towers of central Manhattan.”

Those buried include Clement Clarke Moore, who wrote “A Visit From St. Nicholas”; the artist and naturalist John James Audubon; the actor Jerry Orbach; and Mayor Fernando Wood, who proposed that the city secede from the Union during the Civil War and was later elected to Congress, where his colleagues censured him for intemperate remarks.

Trinity also operated the burial grounds of Trinity Church and St. Paul’s Chapel downtown, which include the graves of many historic figures.

Mr. Koch said he learned that space was available from Carl Weisbrod, who worked in his administration and is now president of Trinity Church’s real estate division.

A mausoleum at the cemetery offers above-ground niches and crypts, but only a few below-ground burial plots remain vacant. Cemetery officials said they were reserved for special citizens.

Mr. Koch chose a plot on what he described as a “small mountain” overlooking Amsterdam Avenue, and he researched the propriety of being buried in a non-Jewish cemetery.

“I called a number of rabbis to see if this was doable,” he said. “I was going to do it anyway, but it would be nice if it were doable traditionally.”

He said he had been advised to request that the gate nearest his plot be inscribed as “the gate for the Jews,” and the cemetery agreed.

He was also instructed to have rails installed around his plot, so he ordered them.

Being buried in Manhattan, Mr. Koch said, would also make it easier for former constituents to visit.

“I’m extending an open invitation,” he said.

The Beat on the Street: Harlem, A Pedestrian's Life ....

This week has seen not only the blossoming of nature in New York City, but also a blossoming of public life and activity, particularly in Harlem.

Flesh, energy and vibrant self-expression are returning to public view after months of hibernation. HarlemOneStop has collected a cross-section of online footage in an effort to present a flowering glimpse of Harlem's of pedestrian vitality.

Enjoy!

The Rhythm of the Street...


Night View, Central Harlem and Morningside Heights


Elevated Station, Broadway IRT at 125th Street


On Broadway, 125th Street below Elevated Broadway IRT


Street Preacher, Lenox Avenue

"God gave Noah the rainbow sign,
No more water, the fire next time!"


Hydrant Spray, LaSalle Street and Broadway


Harlem Fire, Malcolm X Boulevard at 116th Street

The Dance of the Street...


Swing, Jazzmobile - 135th Street


Drum Circle, Marcus Garvey Park


Harlem DJ, Wagner Houses


Wagner Day, Wagner House Dance Party


Sunday Jazz, Harlem Meer, Central Park
The Sons of Thunder

S. C. Madison, Charismatic Clergyman, Dies at 86

Bishop S. C. Madison at a mass baptism in 2000 in New York

SERVICES:
Public Viewing of Bishop Madison

• Saturday, April 12
  United House of Prayer for All People
  2320 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY
  7:00 pm – 9:00 pm
  

Final Public Viewing of Bishop Madison

• Sunday, April 13
  United House of Prayer for All People
  601 M Street, NW, Washington, DC
  5:00 pm – 9:00 pm

HOMECOMING SERVICES

• Monday, April 14
  601 M Street, NW, Washington, DC
  12:00 Noon
  

By DOUGLAS MARTIN
Published: April 9, 2008/New York Times

Bishop S. C. Madison, who was known to the faithful of the United House of Prayer for All People as Daddy and who was the driving force in expanding his church’s influence over the last decade, partly through a sweeping building program, died on Saturday at his home in Washington. He was 86.

Apostle Wilbert Swaringer, a church spokesman, confirmed the death.

Bishop Madison’s achievements included building or renovating 123 houses of prayer, as well as many apartment buildings, homes for the elderly, parsonages, houses and stores. He borrowed no money to do all this, relying entirely on members’ contributions.

He started a scholarship program for youths and rejuvenated the church’s spiritual practices, including healing rituals.

The House of Prayer emerged in the 1920s and 30s as part of what came to be called black holiness churches, characterized by their energetic services and charismatic leaders. As rural blacks moved to cities, these churches became refuges not only from white racism, but also from discrimination by urban black denominations put off by the newcomers’ country ways.

Services at House of Prayer congregations include speaking in tongues, music from exuberant brass bands and baptisms of thousands of people at once, sometimes with fire hoses. The church has also become known for the high-quality soul food and low prices of its cafeterias. It has 1.2 million active members at 150 branches in 24 states. (Estimates of the number of people attending services range far higher.)

Bishop Madison was the third charismatic leader of the church, all of whom had shoulder-length gray hair. Charles Manuel Grace, an immigrant from the Cape Verde Islands, was the first. A railroad cook and cranberry picker, he built the denomination’s first church in 1919 in West Wareham, Mass., with his own hands; he incorporated his new denomination in Washington in 1927.

He became known to his followers as a miraculous healer and adopted the name Sweet Daddy Grace. The New York Times reported in 1995 that he often told parishioners: “Salvation is by Grace only. Grace has given God a vacation.”

His followers showered him with love offerings as he paraded into churches, a phalanx of women waving large fans as he took his place on a red throne.

When Bishop Grace died in 1960, he left $25 million and a major fight over succession. After a court fight and two elections, Walter McCollough became the new Daddy.

After Bishop McCollough’s death in 1991, another succession fight erupted, pitting his son, Charles, against Bishop Madison, then a senior pastor. Again, there were lawsuits, and some dissidents noisily left the church after Bishop Madison won the job.

Bishop Madison prevailed in the suits, with judges generally ruling that the courts should not get involved in church affairs.

The new bishop became known as Precious Daddy, or just Daddy, and at a service described by The Washington City Paper in 2003, was hailed as “C.E.O., prophet and king.” In 1996, an article in The Daily Press of Newport News, Va., quoted a church official saying that members did not equate Bishop Madison with Jesus when they called him “savior.”

“The bishop is a savior in that he preaches the Gospel of Jesus Christ,” Apostle Stanley Guy said.

Samuel C. Madison was born on Feb. 24, 1922 in Greenville, S.C., and attended local public schools. He joined the United House of Prayer at 8, and in his youth was a boy scout, musician and deacon. In 1939, he had a profound religious experience, a church biography said.

He was ordained as a minister at 17. He served in a variety of churches before being assigned to God’s White House, the denomination’s headquarters in Washington, in 1969. At 23, be joined the church’s highest ecclesiastical body, the General Council. He was promoted to higher posts until being named bishop in 1991.

Bishop Madison’s first wife, the former Lucille Wynn, died in 1975. The next year, he married Elizabeth D. Beal of Washington, who is his only survivor.

When Bishop McCollough died, many followers were reluctant to accept his mortality, The Washington Post reported in 1996. Bishop Madison’s death will probably have the same effect.