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

Listen to the show:

Buy the book:

Follow Your Heart: Moving with the Giants of Jazz, Swing, and Rhythm and Blues (African Amer Music in Global Perspective)