Oral History of American Music (OHAM): The Struggles and Triumphs of Bessie Jones, Big Mama Thornton, and Ethel Waters
This exhibit highlights the contributions Bessie Jones, Big Mama Thornton, and Ethel Waters have made to American music and performance. In addition, the following pages address the challenges these women faced as African American women living through the Jim Crow era.
Major moments in the lives and careers of Jones, Thornton, and Waters are highlighted through this online exhibition. The materials featured include excerpts of interviews conducted by Willie Ruff, Anthony Connor, and Richard Neff that are held at Yale’s Oral History of American Music (OHAM), which is celebrating its 50th anniversary.
Oral History of American Music celebrates 50 years
Oral History of American Music (OHAM) originated in 1969, when Vivian Perlis, a reference librarian in the Yale School of Music, began recording interviews with friends and colleagues of Charles Ives. Today the collection comprises more than 2,900 audio and video interviews with composers, jazz musicians, and other major musical figures.
The collection resides in Gilmore Music Library and is a key resource for the School of Music as well as for musicians, students, scholars, arts organizations, and the media worldwide. OHAM staff continue to record and preserve new interviews with emerging talents as well as established artists.
Background on OHAM
Musicologist and former director Vivian Perlis (1928 – 2019) founded OHAM in 1969. OHAM has become an ongoing oral history project and archive housed at Yale's Irving S. Gilmore Music Library. OHAM’s holdings include audio and video recordings as well as transcripts of in-depth interviews with composers and musicians across various musical genres, including classical, jazz, and blues. OHAM also holds interviews with music producers, executives, critics, and theorists.
Currently, Libby Van Cleve serves as OHAM’s Director and Anne Rhodes serves as OHAM’s Research Archivist.
Credits:
Daniella Posy, Curator. Special thanks to Libby Van Cleve, Anne Rhodes, and Richard Boursy.
Background on OHAM Interviews with Jones, Thornton, & Waters
Background on Willie Ruff
Renowned jazz musician and Yale alumnus Willie Ruff conducted the interviews with Bessie Jones and Ethel Waters. During the 1950s, Ruff and pianist Dwike Mitchell formed the Mitchell-Ruff Duo after the two men met in the Air Force. He graduated from Yale with a Bachelor’s in Music in 1953 and a Master’s in Music in 1954.
Ruff became a faculty member at the Yale School of Music in 1971. In the following year, he founded Yale’s Duke Ellington Fellowship Program and Ellington Jazz Series. He retired in 2017 after teaching at Yale for forty-six years. In 2018, the Yale School of Music awarded Ruff an honorary doctorate.
More information on Ruff’s life and career is available through the online exhibit titled A Riff on Ruff: Yale’s Jazz Ambassador to the World, curated by the Gilmore Music Library’s Research Archivist Richard Boursy.
Overview of Ruff's Interviews
In 1972, Ruff interviewed Bessie Jones at Yale to discuss various topics including African American folk and gospel songs, children's games, her religious beliefs, and Yale's first Ellington Fellowship Event. Two years later, Ruff interviewed Ethel Waters at her Los Angeles apartment. Waters discussed topics such as her recording career, her performances on Broadway, and her influence on other female performers.
OHAM holds audio recordings of Ruff's interviews with Jones and Waters. Audio clips and written excerpts from the interviews are featured in this exhibit.
Background on Anthony Connor and Robert Neff
In 1974, Anthony Connor and Robert Neff interviewed Big Mama Thornton for their book Blues (1975). The book features excerpts from Connor and Neff’s interviews with fifty-five blues musicians conducted between 1973 and 1974. In addition, Blues includes photographs of the musicians both on and off stage taken by Neff. The full interviews were later donated to OHAM.
Overview of Connor and Neff's Interview
Connor and Neff's interview with Thornton addresses topics including the beginnings of Thornton's career in showbusiness, her recording career, the difficulties she had throughout her life, and her favorite musicians.
There is no audio recording available of Thornton's interview. OHAM holds the typed transcript of the interview conducted by Connor and Neff.
Once You Click The Link Below, HOW TO USE THIS SITE:
Click on any image to see a larger version of the image and the metadata. Click on triangle to play audio clips. Click on video to play embedded YouTube videos.
Source and Link to This Web Site: https://onlineexhibits.library.yale.edu/.../oham.../page/bj1
