The 66-year arc of Wilson’s beloved Monitors postdates Black Wide-Awake ‘s focus, but I don’t need an excuse to recommend John Harris’ brand-new history of this legendary band. The Monitors have been a constant my entire life, and I knew their basic story, but every other page — especially in the narrative of their early years and Sam Lathan‘s tidbits about East Wilson in the 1940s — was a delightful reveal.
Wilson Daily Times,
Hazel Harrison was a groundbreaking African-American concert pianist. After training and performing in Europe, she took teaching jobs at Tuskegee Institute and later Howard University.
Noted soprano Anita Patti Brown criss-crossed the country (and even South America) in the 1910’s, performing in twice in Wilson in 1914.
Wilson Daily Times, 31 March 1914.
Presbyterian minister Halley B. Taylor penned a glowing review of Brown’s March concert, lauding her exemplary styling and voice “peculiarly rich and full and completely under control. He also praised the local talent on the bill, pointedly assigning honorifics to “Miss Barnes and Mrs. Whitted as vocal soloists, Mrs. Forbes as violinist, Messrs. Barnes, Thomas, Tennessee and Whitted as quartette, Miss Shepard as elocutionist and Misses Lander and Fitts and others as pianists ….”
Wilson Daily Times, __ October 1914.
Oak Park (Ill.) Oak Leaves, 15 May 1915.
A fight between band members after a gig in Roanoke Rapids led to the arrest in Wilson of the whole Danny Long orchestra for marijuana possession.
Wilson Daily Times, 14 June 1948.
The next day, band members were freed on bond after a booking agent pointed the finger at his chauffeur as the “real dope peddler.” The band’s “ginger cake” leader, Danny Long, had no comment.
Wilson Daily Times, 15 June 1948.
Clippings courtesy of J. Robert Boykin III.
In 2018, North Carolina welcomed home a native son, renowned jazz drummer Billy Kaye. Born Willie King Seaberry in Wilson in 1932, Kaye performed with Billie Holiday, Thelonious Monk and other luminaries, but had never played in Wilson. Not long after his June performance at Vollis Simpson Whirligig Park, Sandra Davidson interviewed Kaye for North Carolina Arts Council’s “50 for 50: Artists Celebrate North Carolina.”
Below, an excerpt from the interview.
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S.D.: Tell me what you remember about growing up in Wilson.
Kaye: I was born in ‘32 a couple blocks from the train station near the Cherry Hotel, one of the top hotels in Wilson. My grandparents’ home was 517 Church Street which was something like a two-block walk to the train station. It was a block off Nash Street. Most of the employment was done there. Nash Street had [a] drug store, dentist, doctor. There was a Ritz Theater on Nash Street. There were three churches in that area. That was basically it. I grew up running around the yard playing the Lone Ranger with a broomstick between my legs. I used to enjoy coming home in the summers when I was a youngster to play in the dirt, climb the trees, play under the house. That kind of stuff.
…
S.D.: … What is it like to for you to play your first hometown show?
Kaye: It’s hard to explain. It’s the biggest thing that ever happened. Playing at home was something I wasn’t even about when I left here. I had no history. I was just a guy that moved up [North]. I played in Greensboro some years back. It was okay. It was North Carolina, but it wasn’t Wilson. Goldsboro—that was great, but it still wasn’t Wilson. Home is where I was born. So, this thing here, it’s hard to explain. I’m playing at home. I’m seeing things that I didn’t see and appreciating things. I see these trees, the most magnificent things. There’s nothing there but trees. Man, they are the greatest trees I’ve ever seen. It’s like home.
Billy Kaye performs at Whirligig Park. (Photo: Astrid Rieckien for the Washington Post.)
For the full transcript of Kaye’s interview and to watch videos of his performance in Wilson’s Whirligig Park, see here.
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Wilson Daily Times, 27 February 1971.
“Mrs. Wilton Maxwell (Flora Clark) Bethel, church organist of St. Mark’s [Episcopal] Mission since 1930, will be honored Sunday for her faithful years of service during the 5 p.m. concert featuring the St. Augustine’s College choir.
“Mrs. Bethel served as a student organist for the Raleigh school during the worship services at the college chapel.
“From 1932 to 1964, Mrs. Bethel was employed in the Wilson city schools system where she furthered the use of her musical talents. For many years, she was the musical assistant for the Darden School Choir.
“In addition she has taught private classes in piano and organizing for a number of students in the Wilson community, while at the same time serving as organist for the St. Mark’s Mission. Mrs. Bethel’s contribution to music at St. Mark’s Mission will be recognized during the concert by the St. Augustine’s choir, which is said to be a tribute to all the makers of music to the greater glory of God.”
“Billy Rowe’s Note Book” was a regular music column published in the Pittsburgh Courier. In late summer 1943, Edgar T. Rouseau filled in for the vacationing Rowe. Rouseau, with the American Allied Forces “somewhere in the Mediterranean,” shined a spotlight on “sepia bands” whose members were soldiers, including that of the famous Singing Engineers of the all-black 41st Engineer Regiment.
Pittsburgh Courier, 11 September 1943.
“William Coleman, of Wilson, N.C., plays the alto sax. He is an experienced player who was formerly with Snookum Russell’s Min[illegible], the Frank H. Young Shows and the Carolina Stompers.”
Wilson Daily Times, 10 December 1934.
The Carolina Stompers — “ten first class negro musicians rendering the type of music of the Cab Calloway style” — entertained a conference of aviation enthusiasts at Cherry Hotel on 11 December 1934.
Wilson Daily Times, 11 December 1934.
A Dead Man’s Dream
Now that he is safely dead,
Let us praise him.
Build monuments to his glory.
Sing Hosannas to his name.
Dead men make such convenient heroes.
For they cannot rise to challenge the images
That we might fashion from their lives.
It is easier to build monuments
Than to build a better world.
So now that he is safely dead,
We, with eased consciences will
Teach our children that he was a great man,
Knowing that the cause for which he
Lived is still a cause
And the dream for which he died is still a dream.
A dead man’s dream.
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Carl W. Hines Jr. penned this devastating poem in 1965 on the occasion of the assassination of Malcolm X, but it is often, and perhaps more appropriately, associated with the murder of Martin Luther King Jr. Hines was born in Wilson in 1940, son of Carl W. Hines and Ruth Johnson Hines and grandson of Walter Scott Hines and Sarah Dortch Hines.
New York Age, 29 October 1949.