Eva Jessye (1895-1992)

Dr. Jessye was born in Coffeyville, Kansas on January 20, 1895. She attended Western University and Langston University, receiving her BA in 1919. After a number of teaching positions in Baltimore and Tulahassee, OK, Dr. Jessye worked for the Baltimore newspaper The Afro-American.

Moving to New York she formed a small singing group and came to the attention of African American composer Will Marion Cook. Cook became her mentor tutoring her in music theory and the ways of the music business, challenging her to "be the best" that she could be. In 1926 Jessye organized the Original Dixie Jubilee Singers and performed regularly on radio shows such as "The Major Bowes Family Radio Hour" and "The General Motors Hour." In 1929 Jessye and the Original Dixie Jubilee Singers went to Hollywood and appeared in King Vidor's all-black film "Hallelujah." It was then because the name "Dixie Jubilee Singers" was being appropriated by many other choirs, that her choir's name was changed to the Eva Jessye Choir.

In 1933 she became the choir director of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson's work "Four Saint in Three Acts." Although there are a few photographs of this production, Jessye talks extensively about it in a videotaped interview with Professor James A. Standifer.

Most of Jessye's materials center on her work in George Gershwin's opera "Porgy and Bess." Being selected the unofficial music director, Jessye talks with Professor Standifer about how she got the job, and how she help authenticate the Afro-Americanism in the choral work of the productions. Included in her materials are correspondences with George and Ira Gershwin, Kay Swift, Todd Duncan, Anne Brown and other principles over the many revivals she participated in.

Dr. Jessye acted as an adviser for the BBC's For the Children: Huckleberry Finn and Down in the Valley (1952) and performed in the 1959 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of "Kiss Me Kate." In 1963, her choir was designated the official chorus of Martin Luther King's civil rights march on Washington, DC.

Throughout Jessye career she appeared in several motion pictures including "Hallelujah" (1929), "Black Like Me" (1964) and "Slaves" (1969) with Stephen Boyd and Ossie Davis. Materials from these productions including photographs and correspondences are also included in the holdings.

There is also a large cache of Jessye materials connected with her choral-conducting career. There are many photographs of the Jessye choir over the years, ranging from the 1929 Original Dixie Jubilee Singers through her choir in the 1960s. Besides photographs of her choir members, Jessye collected many photographs, generally 8x10, of African American social activists and people in the Arts. Some of those included are Alvin Ailey, Eddie Anderson, Marian Anderson, James Baldwin, Howlin' Wolf, Ray Charles, Gloria Davy, Katherine Dunham, Lionel Hampton, The Nicolas Brothers, Leontyne Price, Billy Taylor, Stevie Wonder. With these photographs are files contacting biographical materials, articles about the people's careers and ancillary support material. Also included in the Collection are 20 replicas of Hirschfeld caricatures featuring African American artists, such as Ethel Waters, Hazel Scott, Harry Belafonte, Bill "Bojangles" Robinson and others.

There are over 850 copies of sheet music, scores and choral arrangements in the Collection. Included is an extensive collection of Thomas Dorsey compositions (125 pieces), and spiritual arrangements by Burleigh, Hall and Rosamond Johnson, Goreau, William Dawson and Eva Jessye. Also in the Collection are 43 score of blues and rags composed by Little Brother Montgomery, many art holographic. There are many popular tunes, show tunes and contemporary hit arrangements also on hand. Of special note is a handwritten spiritual score arranged by HT Burleigh with the signed notation, "This copy specially made by my hand for Eva Jessye."

One very important piece of music in the Collection is a choral arrangement for the James P. Johnson Langston Hughes collaborative "De Organizer." According to UM Music Professor James Dapogny, a choral part for this music piece was unknown until it was found in Jessye's material.

During in lifetime, she received many honorary doctorates and was a member of ASCAP and the Negro Actors' Guild.

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Jessye Collection