Mr. Kenyada's Neighborhood - A Tribute

Love, Lena Horne

His friends called my Dad... Buddy.
But then, they never got on his baddd side.

I remember my Dad being from the old school of black parenthood. A strict disciplinarian - promoting education, respect for elders and strangers, and a strong work ethic. As the saying goes, Dad would joke around a little,
but he    ...did    ...not     ...Play.

During one of his rare lighter moments, after having demonstrated for his two sons a dance called the Lindy Hop (it looked like what was later called The Hustle), Dad was remembering stories from "back in the day". In one particular story about his military days during WWII, he told us about how entertainer Lena Horne was Da Bomb of the Day, and how he had a crush on her since he met her when she toured military bases. He told us he had danced with Ms. Horne at a servicemen's club at Ft. Lee, Virginia. My brother and I looked at each other, and then back at him. "Yeah, Dad, sure, you danced with Lena Horne, riiiiight."
He just smiled and winked at us.

Several years later, after developing lung cancer, Dad passed away.

Before the funeral, as I sorted through some of his things, I came across his wallet. With an almost childlike curiosity, I started looking through it. It appeared to be full of routine wallet items. And then, in a small hidden pocket, there was a folded 3x5-inch piece of paper. It was somewhat brittle and yellow with age. I carefully unfolded it and, to my surprise, there it was...written in beautiful script : "To Buddy, Save the last dance for Me. Love, Lena Horne"

We buried Dad that day. I had replaced the note back into his wallet, and put it in his hand. As we stood around the gravesite, in the midst of all that sadness and grief, I felt this sudden urge to chuckle, as I remembered my Dad.... the strict disciplinarian........the political activist........the hardworking head of household......the serious Brotha.....

.....the Lena Horne groupie.  

- Kenyada       (this one's for Dad)

"I didn't want to be in show business; I wanted to be a teacher," Horne is quick to reveal. "But it happened to me, and I've been very, very lucky." Horne's extraordinary 60-year career has dazzled stage and screen audiences, spawned numerous chart hits, and earned honors including two Grammy Awards (for the 1982 recording of her Broadway show "LENA HORNE: The Lady and Her Music," and a 1989 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award). Horne's achievements on stage, screen and recording speak of a star for all times, a cultural icon. Perhaps she is, in fact, a teacher as well: her career story is one that is inextricably tied to the development of American society, to changing attitudes about race, sex, and age, and one which played an important role in over a half-century of social change in this country.

Horne admits, "I had to learn how to survive in this business, which isn't always easy, you know." In fact, Horne's career provides a capsule history of the black experience in show business. Born in Brooklyn, New York in 1917, the daughter of an actress and a hotel operator, Horne's childhood was an unsettling one, as her parents divorced when she was just three. The first five years of her life were spent living mostly with her grandmother in Brooklyn. Horne's grandmother, a woman of broad background and education, an early suffragette and civil rights activist, is to this day one of Horne's primary influences. After her early childhood in Brooklyn, Horne was boarded out with families and relatives in the South while her mother toured with acting companies. Horne went to work as a teenager, making her debut at sixteen as a dancer at Harlem's famed Cotton Club, where she formed lasting relationships with such greats as Cab Calloway, Duke Ellington, Jimmy Lunceford and many other notable artists.

Horne eventually left the Cotton Club to join the Nobel Sissle Orchestra, staying until she got married. The marriage produced two children, Ted and Gail Jones, and then ended. Horne went back to New York to support her family. "I've always been a woman who worked," she says. "I was raised poor and people of my generation always wanted to pay their bills. As a woman, I always wanted to be independent." Horne returned to performing, touring with the Charlie Barnet Orchestra before launching a solo act. "The first record I made was called 'Love Me a Little, Little.' After that was one with Charlie Barnet, 'Haunted Town' and 'Good for Nothing Joe.'" After producer John Hammond took her to Columbia Records, Horne recorded with Teddy Wilson's small groups, as well as with Charlie Barnet and Artie Shaw. Her place among the divas of the day is evidenced, for instance, on the CBS recording Billie, Ella, Lena, Sarah.

Horne found her first real professional happiness at the old Cafe Society in Greenwich Village. "It was wonderful. It was the only place with a mixed audience," says Horne, who formed close relationships there with other performers and artists, including the legendary singer Billie Holiday. Those were heady days for these artists, who established something of a family among themselves. "I met Billie Holiday at a time when I needed a friend," Horne recounts. "The man I worked for wanted me to sing the blues and to sing some of the songs Billie made popular. So I sought her out in between shows one night. I went back to her dressing room, and explained the situation. Billie asked, 'Do you have kids? Do you support yourself? Then do whatever you need to do.' From then on we were like sisters."

By this point, Horne enjoyed a fine reputation as a singer and entertainer, which led to numerous opportunities like the Little Troc in Hollywood where Lena was spotted by an MGM talent scout in the early 1940s, who arranged for a screen test. Ever defiant with self-respect Horne eventually wound up in the office of Louis B. Mayer with her father in tow. Horne's father made it clear to Mayer that Lena did not want to play maids, the customary role for black women in those days. "I'd like my daughter to be in your movies," he said, "but not as a maid. It wouldn't be realistic." The reality, however, was that the studio never did find a comfortable role for Lena Horne, one that fit the demands of a strictly segregated audience. She was light-skinned when compared to other black actors, but too dark to be white. "They didn't make me into a maid," she says, "but they didn't make me into anything else either. I became a butterfly pinned to a column, singing away in Movieland." In her first film, "Panama Hattie," Horne was featured briefly in a specialty number -- billed as herself -- singing a rumba song.

Meanwhile, the studios had invented a special makeup for her called "light Egyptian." Though her next role, in "Cabin in the Sky" was a success, she did not receive any other starring assignments from MGM. She was loaned to Century Fox to do a musical revue based on the life of Bill "Bojangles" Robinson, and the title song from that film "Stormy Weather" remains one of Horne's signature standards.

Though Horne appeared in several more films for MGM -- including "As Thousands Cheer," "Swing Fever," "Broadway Rhythm," "Two Girls and a Sailor," "Ziegfeld Follies" and "Till the Clouds Roll By," her roles were limited to guest spots which could be edited out when the films played in Southern theaters. Nevertheless, she became a top nightclub and theater performer, as well as a favored beauty. "I was a pin-up girl for the soldiers," she recalls, "both black and white."

In fact, despite obvious discrimination against her, Horne broke barriers, proving that a black actress could make it in Hollywood. "I was very lonely in Hollywood. The black stars were made to feel very uncomfortable," she says. But it was another man of music, Count Basie, who persuaded her to stay. "They don't give us a chance very often," he told her, "and when they do, we have to take it." Horne continued performing and recording during this time; the period produced what is still one of her favorites, Lena at the Waldorf (on RCA/Victor).

It was in Hollywood that Horne met her second husband, Lennie Hayton, who was also her musical mentor at MGM. He was also white. When the couple announced their marriage in 1950 -- three years after it had actually occurred, they were confronted with angry rejection from the Hollywood community. Despite all the difficulties of a racially mixed marriage, their union flourished, lasting from 1947 until Hayton's death in 1971.

Through the 1950s and '60s, Horne came into her own as a consummate performer and an important fixture of the American cultural landscape. A 1952 Down Beat review states "Horne has rightfully gained a top niche in show business -- one which will stand up for many years to come." She starred in several shows, including the Broadway musical "Jamaica," recorded albums, and was in demand at nightclubs and stages around the world, appearing with such notable talents as Tony Bennett, Billy Eckstine and Harry Belafonte.

"My grandmother was a civil rights activist and a suffragette in the early days," Horne says. True to that spirit, and obviously moved by her own personal struggles, Lena Horne became active in the civil rights movement herself. She worked consistently with the NAACP and toured the South speaking on human rights. "When the sixties happened, when Malcolm X was killed, I changed," she says. "I don't forget the segregated world." Horne points out, "It helped me to survive, but I've also watched America change. I've seen black heroes develop in football and baseball. During the civil rights movement, I saw black and white people working and playing together. It brought out the best in Americans."

In the early 1970s, after her husband, father and son all passed away within the space of 18 months, Horne took some time away from performing. "I felt like two different Lenas," she admits, "the one you looked at on stage, and the one who had to find where she was." Horne traveled to the South, "looking for people who had known me when I was little, people who had taken me in as a child." This very personal search for identity, coupled with the pain of loss affected Horne greatly. "It cracked me open, made me feel compassion."

When Horne returned to performing, it was with renewed vigor and a passionate sense of purpose. Her showstopping number, "If You Believe," from the movie musical "The Wiz" became a popular hit. Then in 1981, after a long hiatus, Horne electrified Broadway with her record-breaking one-woman show, "LENA HORNE: The Lady and Her Music." Newsweek summed up her riveting performance this way: "She slicks up nothing and celebrates nothing but being there. There is precious little razzle-dazzle. Instead...by simply being herself, Lena Horne is a revelation -- or astonishing power and complexity." In addition to Grammy Awards, the show's triumphant run earned Horne (then in her sixties) a steady stream of honors, including a special Tony Award, the Drama Desk Award, a special New York Drama Critics Circle Award and New York's highest cultural award, the Handel Medallion.

For Horne, there were more personal rewards to reap from this ground-breaking show, too. "When people came backstage and said, 'It's so inspirational, I'm not afraid of getting older anymore' I thought, 'How wonderful. If I'm having this effect on people, I'm learning to grow myself..'" For Horne, still radiantly beautiful, the show represented a newfound inner force. "I had literally begun to live at fifty, and I learned to love the audience as much as myself. They believed me."

In 1994, inspired by her performance at a Lincoln Center tribute to the legendary Billy Strayhorn (who had been a close friend of Horne's), Blue Note Records President Bruce Lundvall convinced Lena to return to the studio. In recording We'll Be Together Again, the legendary vocalist was reunited with the music and lyrics of some of her dearest musical friends, most notably Strayhorn and Duke Ellington. A live album, An Evening With Lena Horne, captured a performance at New York's Supper Club. Now, at nearly 81, Lena is back with Being Myself. Being Myself was produced by Hornes longtime musical associate Rodney Jones, who has performed, produced, written and arranged for artists such as R&B legend Ruth Brown, Chaka Kahn, Charles Aznavour and Dolly Parton. He is currently featured as the guitarist on The Rosie ODonnell Show. Being Myself features 10 tracks written by George & Ira Gershwin, Cole Porter, Frankie Lane, and other accomplished songwriters, sung in Hornes distinctive style. Featured are timeless songs such as Autumn in New York, Imagination, Its Alright With Me and more. Lena is accompanied throughout by Jones (guitar), Benjamin Brown (bass) and Akira Tana (drums). Other guests include Mike Renzi (piano, keyboards), Milt Jackson (vibes), George Benson (guitar), Bobby Forrester (organ) and Donald Harrison and Houston Person (saxophones).

Hornes illustrious career spans 60 plus years on the stage, screen, and in the recording studio. She has had numerous chart hits, and earned honors including two Grammy Awards (for the 1982 recording of her Broadway Show Lena Horne: The Lady and Her Music, and a 1989 Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award) and a Kennedy Center Honors Award in 1994. Lena celebrated her 80th birthday last year with a performance at Avery Fisher Hall in New York City. Recently, Horne has lent her sophisticated style to the ultra-hip Gap ads, appearing in their Christmas television campaign.

Horne's stellar career achievements and tireless devotion to civic causes have earned her widespread formal recognition from peers and public alike. For the little girl who always wished to be a teacher, pride is drawn from Horne's Honorary Doctorate Degrees from Howard University and Spelman College. She received the Kennedy Center Honors Award in 1984, the Governor's Arts Award from the State of New York, the Springarn Medal from the NAACP, the 1986 Black Achievement Award from the Johnson Publishing Company, 1987 Pied Piper Award, the 1987 Radcliffe Medal and the 1988 Frederick D. Patterson Award from the United Negro College Fund. In 1989, Horne was honored by the recording industry with a Lifetime Achievement Award at the Grammy ceremonies. That same year, the Parsons School of Design honored her for her contribution to the world of fashion, and New York Newsday presented the first Lena Horne Scholarship Fund for jazz and popular music vocalists in New York schools; the scholarship program is now in its fifth year. This year, Horne received Turner Broadcasting's Trumpet Award, along with honorees including Sidney Poitier, Bill Cosby, Muhammad Ali and Senator Carol Moseley Braun. She will serve as on-air host for the forthcoming Jazz Smithsonian Radio Series. Horne has reflected candidly on her life and times in two autobiographies, In Person: Lena Horne '60 and Lena '66. In another book, The Hornes: An American Family, her daughter Gail Lumet Buckley traces the family history, from their entrance into the black bourgeoisie in the late 1800s (when America was almost color-blind) to the racism later encountered.

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-        - from Bluenote Records