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While Nashville's contributions to country music have been documented extensively, the city's far-reaching rhythm & blues legacy is not as well known. Nor is the degree to which the two styles of music influenced each other in Music City.
This exhibition offers an opportunity to engage with this rarely told part of Nashville's music history.
Origins of Nashville R&B
The term 'rhythm & blues,' or 'R&B,' came into common usage in the late 1940s to describe an African-American popular music that evolved primarily from pre-war jazz, blues, and gospel. In segregated Nashville, jazz and blues flourished in the black nightclubs and theaters, while the gospel influence took hold in churches. Many who played R&B music learned their craft in the rigorous education programs of the city's black high schools and colleges.
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Brown's Dinner Club and Hotel, located on Jefferson Street, was a hub for black entertainment in Nashville.
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In Nashville's studios, black and white musicians made hit records together in tacit disregard of segregation.
Cecil Gant, seated here at piano, was one of the many stars playing rhythm & blues in the emerging capital of country music.
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In 1946, Gant recorded "Nashville Jumps" for the city's Bullet Records. The record's success earned Gant the cover feature in this 1947 Bullet newsletter.
These Decca catalogs date from 1938 and 1940. Well into the 1950s, the term 'race music' was routinely used as an industry catchall for recordings by black artists.
The Bijou Theater
As part of the Theater Owners Booking Association, or TOBA, circuit during the 1920s and 1930s, the white-owned Bijou brought in legendary African-American performers such as Bessie Smith. Nashville jazz great Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham played in the Bijou's orchestra pit as a teenager, and for many years local impresario Jerrie Jackson hosted a vaudeville-style program at the Bijou, through which passed many of the city's black entertainers.
Bessie Smith sent this handwritten note with a photo attached to Hatch Show Print in 1927, in preparation for her performances at the Bijou.
Jerrie Jackson performed regularly at the Bijou with his Hep Cats, which included singer Willie Mae Patton (pictured here), and a chorus-line of dancers.
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Jerrie Jackson performed regularly at the Bijou with his Hep Cats, which included singer Willie Mae Patton (pictured here), and a chorus-line of dancers.
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Jerrie Jackson performed regularly at the Bijou with his Hep Cats, which included singer Willie Mae Patton, and a chorus-line of dancers (pictured here).
"Looking back on it, I think [the Bijou] did a lot for, I'll say the black community. It gave them something of their own to see and enjoy. And that's what they did. And they really supported it." - Irene Jackson (first on left).
Jazz
Known until 1968 as Tennessee A&I, the historically black Tennessee State University prided itself on having one of the top jazz education programs in the country. Longtime band director Jordan "Chick" Chavis recruited heavily in Memphis and elsewhere for the school's Tennessee State Collegians jazz ensemble. Various members of the ensemble, seen here, were also active in Nashville R&B.
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In 1949, readers of the influential black newspaper the Pittsburgh Courier voted the Collegians the nation's top college dance band.
The honor earned the Collegians a performance spot at Carnegie Hall.
Gospel
Though frequently risque lyrics and the nightclub lifestyle made R&B objectionable to many gospel music listeners, R&B singers borrowed from the vocal techniques of gospel groups.
Nashville's Fairfield Four was renowned within the gospel tradition. This 1947 pamphlet contains the lyrics to songs such as their signature anthem "Don't Let Nobody Turn You Round." The group became nationally prominent when the CBS network picked up their 1940s radio broadcasts for Nashville local station WLAC.
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In many instances, R&B singers emerged from the ranks of gospel choirs, and their repertoire typically included both blues and gospel standards.
Radio, Records, Rhythm & Blues
"Would you play some of our music?" With those words in 1946, several African-American college students are said to have handed WLAC-Nashville disc jockey Gene Nobles, who was white, a stack of R&B and jazz records to play. From that night forward, WLAC's 50,000-watt clear signal bounced across the stratosphere as the most powerful force in American R&B broadcasting.
In the 1950s, Nashville began to assert itself as a major recording center, not only for country music but also for R&B on Excello and other record labels heard on WLAC.
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Located in downtown Nashville, Ernie's Record Mart sold mail-order R&B records to listeners of Ernie's Record Parade.
Pictured here is WSOK/WVOL program director and disc jockey Morgan Babb, who broadcast under his R&B moniker "Happy Jack" from Ernie's. Babb also sang lead in the gospel group the Radio Four.
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In December 1951, WSOK debuted on Nashville radio as one of the nation's first full-time all-black stations. Though white-owned, WSOK featured a staff of African-American announcers and black-oriented programs with names such as Cook's Blues, Cool Rhythms, and Peace in the Valley.
"The station with 'SOK'!" - WSOK promotional cigarette lighter c. 1950s.
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In 1956, WSOK founder Cal Young sold the station, and its call letters changed to WVOL. The station retained its all-black format and its community focus, however.
Nashville radio proliferated the gospel, jazz, and blues influences that came to drive R&B. Performers and listeners alike jumped to the new beat, and when the R&B sound arrived in Music City, it found a ready and raucous audience.