Research Catalog

Title

Oral history interview with Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, 5 August 1993.

Publication

1993.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Details

Additional Authors

• Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor
• Owens, Jimmy
• Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project.
• Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Found In

c2gc Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project (CstRLIN)NYGP97-F622.

Description

2 videodiscs (125 min.) : sound, color; 4 3/4 in.

Summary

The oral history interview with Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, composer, conductor and pianist, begins with his childhood in North Carolina. Born June 14, 1932 in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, Perkinson was primarily raised by his Aunt Lenora Johnson until the age of 11 or 12 when he moved to the Bronx where his pianist and teacher mother lived. His mother, born in 1903, had attended Howard University and was the first person to leave the familial environment of N.C. His grandfather was a minister and built a teacher's college. He recalls being in N.Y. at age 7 with his mother, a pianist in the 1939 World's Fair, and names the musicians in the show "Gay New Orleans". Perkinson relates the story of how he located and met his father in Houston while working on the road, and their ensuing relationship that lasted ten years until his father's death. Perkinson elaborates upon his earlier years with regards to: the difficulty friends had with his first name; the ten different elementary schools he attended; the theater troupe he mother had in Williamsbridge (Bronx); studying tap, ballet and African dance with Ismay Brown, and later with Pearl Primus; being tested for the High School of Music and Art where he attended from 1945-49. Perkinson claims he was accepted to the school on account of his ear; the conservatory type training followed. He began conducting in high school as a result of a competition he won for a choral piece; he played in the senior orchestra for three years, wrote compositions for the jazz band, and led a small choral group which performed in concert halls (Perkinson Chorale; incl. Pearl Primus). Perkinson tells about the experience of meeting Stravinsky through his teacher and mentor Hugh Ross; and of confronting him regarding a wrong note in his Cantata. Perkinson graduated from Music and Art with the LaGuardia Prize in music. Perkinson then discusses the disappointments of being a gifted Afro-American composer in a discriminating society. He explains that he always believed in the American dream and found much support and encouragement from a host of Black composers in N.Y.C., but felt at some point that "the bottom had dropped out" alluding to the closed doors he was not prepared to face in his blossoming career. Perkinson tells about the limitations imposed on the career of composer/conductor Hall Johnson whose piece Son of Man he compares to the Messiah, which he saw performed a capella at Carnegie Hall. Jazz was an anomoly Perkinson had to become attuned to he explains. He describes seeing a bebop band at the Kinley Theater with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, and Tommy Potter and feeling bedazzled; he didn't understand the music and could not embrace it immediately. Perkinson describes a ballet piece he composed for Alvin Ailey (For Bird - With Love) which required him to analyze Charlie Parker's music for the first time; consequently, Parker became one of his favorite composers. He says jazz music is the contemporary counterpart to chamber music. After high school, Perkinson spent two years at New York Universityin the School of Education, but felt musically it was the wrong place. He was not accepted at Julliard; decided to study composition at the Manhattan School of Music (1951-53) and received a Master's Degree in composition; some fellow classmates were Max Roach, Julius Watkins, Sam Gill, Herbie Mann, and Randy Weston. During this time he studied under Vittorio Giannini for two years, came back on scholarship to study composition with Charles Mills for one year. Mills sent him to Princeton to meet Roger Session who then referred him to his assistant, Earl Kim. Perkinson ended studying composition formally then, but says Kim tightened up his writing. Perkinson performs an excerpt from a piece he composed based on Calvary for a group he had around 1954 called the Calvary Quartet. The jazz critics referred to it as a jazz piece, he considered it to be folkish; he explains how folk music doesn't allow the use of some compositional rules. He discusses the challenge of making something your own when composing as compared to when playing or singing; he suspects the composer who doesn't play. From 1959-60 Perkinson went to Holland three times for three months(his first experiences in Europe), attended the Mozarteum and entered a competition for composing. Prior to this he had been teaching at Brooklyn College and inquired to Noel DaCosta, a friend working as a composer in Europe (and former roommate), where he might study overseas. He describes this wonderful experience and how afterwards he felt compelled to return to the U.S. to share his knowledge with his own people. He returned to the U.S. during what he describes as the emergence of the Black psyche; he was not interested in being an expatriate in such an important period in history. From 1960-65 Perkinson worked on the Martin Luther King, Jr. film From Montgomery to Memphis as its musical director. He explains how he was not involved with King during his lifetime and did not understand his ideology. While working on the film however, he was face-to-face with King's philosophy and work; the impact Perkinson experienced from this intense involvement was overwhelming.

Donor/Sponsor

The Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project was funded by the Louis Armstrong Educational Foundation, Inc.

Subjects

• Composers, Black > United States > Interviews
• King, Martin Luther, Jr., 1929-1968 > Influence
• African American composers > Interviews
• Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor > Interviews
• Civil rights > United States > History
• Oral histories
• African American musicians
• Discrimination in employment > United States
• Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor > Childhood and youth
• African Americans > Foreign countries
• Ailey, Alvin
• Interviews
• Da Costa, Noel, 1929-2002
• Pianists > United States > Interviews
• Giannini, Vittorio, 1903-1966 > Influence
• Calvary Quartet (Musical group)
• From Montgomery to Memphis (Motion picture)
• Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor > Family
• Parker, Charlie, 1920-1955 > Influence
• Composition (Music) > Instruction and study
• Johnson, Hall, 1888-1970
• Manhattan School of Music (New York, N.Y.)
• High School of Music and Art (New York, N.Y.)
• For Bird - With Love (Choregraphic work : Alvin Ailey)

Genre/Form

• Oral histories.
• Interviews.

Note

• Perkinson performs brief excerpts on piano.

Credits (note)

• Produced and directed by James Briggs Murray.

Performer (note)

• Interviewer, Jimmy Owens.

Event (note)

• Recorded on August 5, 1993, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project.

System Details (note)

• DVD.

Terms of Use (note)

• Permission required to cite, quote and reproduce; contact repository for information.

Biography (note)

• Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson is a pianist, conductor, composer and arranger.

Linking Entry (note)

• Forms part of: Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project.

Call Number

Sc Visual DVD-1077

OCLC

NYPG97-F611

Title

Oral history interview with Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson, 5 August 1993.

Imprint

1993.

Type of Content

two-dimensional moving image

Type of Medium

video

Type of Carrier

videodisc

Performer

Interviewer, Jimmy Owens.

Original Version

Reproduction. Originally produced: New York, N.Y. : Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, The New York Public Library, 1993. 2 videocassettes (MII) ; 1/2 in.

Credits

Produced and directed by James Briggs Murray.

Event

Recorded on August 5, 1993, at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project.

System Details

DVD.

Terms Of Use

Permission required to cite, quote and reproduce; contact repository for information.

Linking Entry

Forms part of: Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project.

Biography

Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson is a pianist, conductor, composer and arranger. Born June 14, 1932 in New York City, Perkinson played piano and trombone in Music and Art High School where he also began conducting and composing. He went on to study composition at the Manhattan School of Music (M.A., 1953), travelled to Holland and attended the Mozarteum (1959-60), led the Calvary Quartet, composed the music for Alvin Ailey's For Bird--With Love, was musical director for the film From Montgomery to Memphis.

Connect to:

Request Access to Schomburg Moving Images and Recorded Sound

Added Author

Perkinson, Coleridge-Taylor, interviewee.

Owens, Jimmy, interviewer.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project.

Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture.

Found In:

c2gc Louis Armstrong Jazz Oral History Project (CstRLIN)NYGP97-F622.

Research Call Number

Sc Visual DVD-1077

Sc Visual VRA-196a-b VHS

Sc Visual VRC-19a-b MII