David and Art - The Jules Bledsoe Documentary

The Saturday before Thanksgiving I took part in a discussion at the Art Center Waco, organized by the Deep in the Heart Film Festival. With me was my colleague Horace Maxile from the Baylor School of Music and we screened a documentary about Waco native Jules Bledsoe that was made back in the year 2000. We talked about his life and his music and the age in which he lived. I'm on the record as saying repeatedly that Bledsoe needs a statue here in Waco to honor him in the way that Red Bank, New Jersey has a memorial to Count Basie or New Orleans has one for Louis Armstrong. He deserves it. He was a significant figure in American music.

But if you've not heard of Bledsoe, however, you're far from alone He was born Julius Lorenzo Cobb Bledsoe on December 29, 1897 (although his headstone in Greenwood Cemetery here in town says 1899). His grandfather was the first pastor of the New Hope Baptist Church which was formed in 1866, and he grew up singing in the church. (When he was young, he learned from his mother and aunt how to play piano He graduated as valedictorian in 1914 from the Central Texas Academy, a school formed by African American Baptists, then went to Marshall, Texas to attend Bishop College, getting a BA in 1918. He gave his first recital during a visit back home to Waco in 1916. In it, he played piano only-he didn't sing.

Though he had it in mind to be a doctor, and to that end wound up at Columbia University in New York City, his overwhelming musical ability led him in a different direction. (He studied voice and gave his first vocal recital in New York in 1924. Just three years later he landed the role of Joe in the groundbreaking musical Showboat.

It opened at the Ziegfeld Theatre just after Christmas in 1927 and played for almost 600 performances. It was one of the biggest hits of the decade, and Bledsoe's performance of "Ol' Man River" became his signature song and a vivid part of American musical culture. But for him, music didn't just mean popular show tunes. The recitals he gave-and he gave recitals from Waco to Amsterdam-were replete with classics of the European tradition.

But he often included a section of spirituals with which he grew up in his recitals. Those tunes went way back into his past, learned from his mother and grandfather. They also went deep into past of the United States. They were songs of the enslaved in the south.

Let's talk more about this soon.

RECENT EPISODES OF DAVID AND ART

David & Art - The Glasgow Boys

Host David Smith introduces us to an under-the-radar group of 19th-century painters who challenged the artistic norms of their time and pushed back against the gatekeepers of the art world.

David and Art - The Surrealist and the Celebrity, Part 2

This week on David and Art, host David Smith Smith looks at how celebrity can cloud our view of real achievement—especially when the artist becomes more famous than the art.

David and Art - The Surrealist and the Celebrity

From a creative youth and the influence of dreams to showmanship and celebrity, on this weeks David and Art, host David Smith digs into the fascinating trajectory of an iconic Spanish painter.

David and Art - Taking Care of the Public's Art

In this week's edition of David and Art, host David Smith dives into the fascinating story of how New Deal art—some of the most significant cultural creations of the 20th century—disappeared, and the ongoing efforts to track it down and return it to the public.

David and Art - Caravaggio

In this week’s episode of David and Art, host David Smith takes a closer look at a painter whose life was as dramatic as his art. From gripping realism to a life marked by violence and mystery, his story continues to intrigue centuries later.

David and Art - Culture and Place, Part 2

In this week's edition of David and Art, we continue to explore how culture shapes the identity of place, in particular the social value and impact of public art. Here's your host, David Smith

David and Art - Culture and Place

In this week's edition of David and Art, we’ll explore how culture shapes the very identity of a place—from the highways of Texas to a pub in Scotland—and how art fits into all of it. Here's your host, David Smith.

David and Art - A Space for Contemplation

What if a painting didn’t just capture a moment of action—but instead asked you to slow down and simply be? With this week's edition of David and Art on 103.3, Waco Public Radio, here's David Smith.

David and Art - Public Support

In this week's edition of David and Art, we hear a story that is a reminder that public arts funding has a lasting impact—one that might be shaping the next great artist right now. Host David Smith takes a look at the latest round of NEA grants and the communities they’re helping to inspire.

David and Art - David Hockney and His iPad

An English artist has always pushed the boundaries of art, and now, at 88, he's doing it with something you might not expect. In this week's edition of David and Art, host David Smith explores the artist's latest work and how technology is changing the way he creates.