Wordy Birds

Follow Your Heart: Moving with the Giants of Jazz, Swing and Rhythm and Blues

(with Christopher Brooks)

Original airdate: April 11, 2008

The show below took over two hours to record. Mr. Evan’s memories are fantastic. I’m chagrined because the book and our conversation overflowed with stories about the social reality of the time. Unfortunately, to make it fit within a 27 minute format and have a continuous theme,  what life was like for a black man in the 40’s and 50’s traveling in the South had to be left silent on my recording floor.  Of course, those stories and many, many others are in the book.

Mr. Evans is 91 years old and spent nearly 30 years immersed in one of the most exciting times in American music history. He was an alto saxophonist who between 1939 and 1965 performed and toured with some of America’s greatest musicians, including Louis Armstrong, Cab Calloway, Charlie Parker, Billie Holiday, Lionel Hampton, Marvin Gaye, The Supremes, The Temptations, Stevie Wonder, Mahalia Jackson, Diana Ross, Ray Charles… and on and on. Following his retirement from stage performances, Mr. Evans began a record company where he discovered and groomed The Manhattans. Following his career in music he received his undergraduate and Masters degrees from Rutgers University.

I also owe author Christopher Brooks an apology. He contributed much more to the interview than what is represented. Again, to have it all make sense and fit, details were clipped. Mr. Brooks has another book awaiting publication and one almost completed on his computer. He also co-wrote the bestselling book, “I Never Walked Alone: The Autobiography of an American Singer” about the life of Shirley Verrett. Hope you’re well.Liz Humes

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Cooling the South: The Block Ice Era 1875-1975

Original airdate: March 21, 2008

The interview below is with freelance photojournalist and writer Elli Morris. Her book, “Cooling the South: The Block Ice Era 1875 to 1975″ is about her journey back in time to rediscover the evaporated history of the block ice era.

As an unusual resident of her family’s abandoned ice plant, she wandered the factory late at night and witnessed the evaporating beauty of the block ice business. The building, its silenced machines and her desire to capture a family and regional history settled into her soul and compelled her to write the book.

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

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Grace Eventually

Original airdate: March 7, 2008

The interview posted below is with best-selling writer Anne Lamott. Actually, she’s the author of 11 books, five of which were New York Times bestsellers. The book we’re discussing today, “Grace (Eventually),” is proudly Christian and proudly politically progressive. Some of the essays compiled in “Grace (Eventually)” were posts composed while she was a columnist for Salon.com.  In part two of the show, Anne Tells a fantastic story of how she administered a lethal dose of barbiturates to a friend who was dying of stomach cancer.

She was in Richmond to speak as the keynote speaker at an event hosted by the University of Richmond.

Thanks for tuning in.

Liz

Listen to the show:

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