大象传媒

Donald Macleod is joined by Wynton Marsalis, as he discovers how the poetry of Langston Hughes inspired the music of the Harlem Renaissance.

The northern Manhattan neighbourhood of Harlem was meant to be an upper-class white neighbourhood, but rapid overdevelopment led to empty buildings and desperate landlords seeking to fill them. In the early 1900s, in what became known as the Great Migration, African Americans from the south moved north to New York in droves, searching for work after the war, and hoping to escape the racial violence tearing through America. Harlem became a centre for Black culture, drawing in poets like Langston Hughes, thinkers like W. E. B. Du Bois and musicians. These musicians pioneered new forms of jazz and blues, subverted the expectations of Black performers and broke through into the mainstream. This week, Donald Macleod is joined by jazz trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis, as he traces the rise and fall of the Harlem Renaissance, transporting us from rent parties to nightclubs to Broadway, as we hear a joyful, soulful explosion of sound.

As a young man, Langston Hughes dreamed of being a poet in Harlem, a place he had come to think of as 鈥渢he greatest Black city in the world鈥� - but his father had other ideas. He wanted Langston to pursue engineering, not believing an African American man could succeed as a writer. Despite his father鈥檚 wishes, Langston did make it to Harlem, where he would become one of the defining voices of the renaissance and his writing would inspire a generation of musicians.

Good Morning/Harlem
Langston Hughes, Composer and Vocals
Charles Mingus and the Horace Parlan Quintet

Mamie鈥檚 Blues
Jelly Roll Morton, Composer and Piano

Dippermouth Blues
King Oliver, Composer
Fletcher Henderson, Arranger
Louis Armstrong, Cornet
Lil Hardin Armstrong, Piano
Bill Johnson, Banjo
Baby Dodds, Drums
Johnny Dodds, Clarinet
Honore Dutrey, Trombone

Good Morning Blues
Count Basie, Composer and Piano
Jimmy Rushing, Vocals
Buck Clayton, Trumpet

Motto/Dead in There
Langston Hughes, Composer and Vocals
Charles Mingus and the Horace Parlan Quintet

Same in Blues/Comment on Curb
Langston Hughes, Composer and Vocals
Charles Mingus and the Horace Parlan Quintet

The Weary Blues
Langston Hughes, Composer and Vocals
Leonard Feather鈥檚 All-Star Sextet

Boogie: 1.AM
Langston Hughes, Composer and Vocals
Charles Mingus and the Horace Parlan Quintet

Could Be/Bad Luck Card/Bad Man
Langston Hughes, Composer and Vocals
Leonard Feather鈥檚 All-Star Sextet

Consider Me
Langston Hughes, Composer and Vocals
Charles Mingus and the Horace Parlan Quintet

Minstrel Man/Dream Variation/I, Too
Margaret Bonds, Composer
Malcolm J. Merriweather, Vocals
Ashley Jackson, Harp
The Dessoff Orchestra

Produced in Cardiff by Alice McKee