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John,
You may realize this already, but this programme entitled “The Black Cantor”
was produced by our own David Goren of "Shortwave Shindig" fame(Winter
SWLFest). Henry Sapoznick is a folklorist, klezmer musician, and important
scholar of Jewish/Yiddish culture. I really enjoyed the programme at its
recent original airing.
Saul Broudy
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John Figliozzi wrote:
“The Black Cantor”
SUNDAY FEATURE - BBC Radio 3
Known in Yiddish as Der Schvartze Khazn--the Black Cantor--Thomas LaRue Jones
was an African American tenor who sang Jewish music in the early decades of the
twentieth century. Famed for his soulful voice and perfect Yiddish
pronunciation, he performed in synagogues and theatres across the Eastern
United States and toured Germany, Poland and Palestine. But after his death in
1954, LaRue Jones disappeared from memory, leaving behind only one recording,
made in 1923. Drawing on research by the veteran musician and producer Henry
Sapoznik, Maria Margaronis unpacks the mystery of LaRue Jones' career. What
drew him to this music? What does his life tell us about race, faith and
identity in America a hundred years ago? And why was he so quickly and utterly
forgotten?
LaRue Jones' story is entwined with the history of Newark, New Jersey, where he
spent most of his life. Once known as the City of Opportunity, old Newark drew
migrants from Europe and the American South in flight from persecution and
searching for a new life. Blacks and Jews lived side by side in the city's
poorer districts, absorbing each other's culture and musical traditions. But by
mid-century, Newark's Jews were moving out in search of the suburban dream.
Black people, hemmed in by racism and housing segregation, were left behind in
an increasingly impoverished city. Thirteen years after LaRue Jones' death, the
Newark riots, or rebellion, sealed the division of the two communities. LaRue
Jones, like the world that made him, was consigned to oblivion--until zealous
research by Henry Sapoznik tracked down that one recording and LaRue Jones'
unmarked grave, and raised the curtain on the Black Cantor once more. (44?)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m001l4lh
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