Preview
Creation Date
1976
Description
1 Newsclipping. Attached to the back of photo EV-9-p027a.
"Eva Jessye: Michigan's First Lady of 'Porgy & Bess'
One the wall just past the door of Eva Jessye's apartment is a faded photograph signed:
'For Eva
Great singer
Great coach
Great lady
With admiration
Ira Gershwin'
It was taken in 1935, the year the all-black opera, 'Porgy & Bess,' premiered on Broadway. Ira Gershwin wrote the lyrics. His brother George, sitting at the piano with him in the picture [not seen in clipping], wrote the music. Eva directed the chorus. George died just two years after the opera opened, but not before he made sure Eva understood exactly what he had in mind when he wrote the score.
Eva Jessye, whose energy is undiminished at 81 years of age, is sitting on a low stool in her apartment in a modern, seven-story senior citizens complex in Ann Arbor. She is wearing a floor-length print caftan, a shocking pink turban, lots of jewelty and a rubber band around her wrist. The apartment is decorated wall to wall with aluminum trays and boxes full of show biz memorabilia she's been trying to organize into a book on the history of 'Porgy & Bess' to be called 'Fill Up the Saucer.'
'Nobody else in the world can write it,' says Eva, 'because I know more about what he (George) aimed at and hit, and what he merely suggested.'
Jessye and her 'Original Dixie Jubilee Singers' were passing through New York after barnstorming the south with a series of college concerts when she saw the audition notice in the paper for 'Porgy.'
'We went up on stage and did 'Plenty Good Room.' Gershwin said, 'That's it. That's what I want.''
Jessye and the nucleus of her chorus, whose name she eventually changed to the 'Eva Jessye Choir,' stayed with 'Porgy' for countless productions, including the 1952 overseas tour.
'Robert Breen (the director) wanted to go back to Europe in 1954, but by then the play had deteriorated. He asked me to put it in proper shape to go abroad, but I didn't go with them. They offered me so little (salary), I wouldn't go.'
The last time Jessye did 'Porgy' was in 1970 in Memphis. She wouldn't have anything to do with the recent production at the Music Hall, because she's critical of the director's treatment of the cast.
According to Jessye, 'Porgy's' never been done like it can be done. 'The possibilities in that score have not been fully explored.'
Jessye's claims to fame date earlier than 'Porgy.' She is regarded as the first black women [sic.] to earn international distinction as a choral director. In 1929, MGM called her to Hollywood and appointed her music director of 'Hallelujah,' one of the first all-black films. They still show it on the late show. In 1972, Jessye did 'Paradise Lost and Regained'--Milton's work set against Negro spirituals and classics Jessye wrote and arranged herself—at the Washington Cathedral with chorus and dancers. The chorus has since disbanded, but Jessye says she's going to re-organize soon because 'with all this polluted music, there's a need for beauty.' Jessye's personal Afro-American Music Collection is on display at U-M's Stearns Building."
Object Type
Newspaper
Identifier
EV-9-p027b
Image Format
Text
Location
Michigan -- Washtenaw -- Ann Arbor
Digitization Date
2015-06-01
Publisher Digital
Pittsburg State University, Axe Library, Special Collections
Rights
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Keywords
Eva Jessye (1895-1992), photographs
Notes
The original photo that was used in the newspaper clipping is EV-9-p027a