(ENTERTAINMENT--MUSIC.) Papers of bebop drummer Kenny Clarke from his first years in France. 45 items: 16 letters and telegrams to Clarke from various parties, many with envelopes, 1948-1951 and undated; 12 photographs, most mounted on two album leaves, circa 1948-1950; 7 pieces of printed ephemera including programs and clippings; and 10 other manuscript or typescript items. Various places, 1948-1951
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (1914-1985), known to the world as Kenny Clarke, was one of the leading jazz drummers of the bop era. He toured Europe with Dizzy Gillespie in early 1948, resided in Paris from May 1949 into 1951, and then made Paris his permanent home from 1956 onward, becoming a leading member of the city's community of African-American expatriate musicians. These papers are all from the 1948-1951 period when he was mostly in Paris.
This archive includes a manuscript article titled "There Must be a Bopera House in Paris," the English translation of an article Clarke wrote for the January 1950 issue of the French-language Jazz Hot Magazine, "Paris doit avoir son Bopera House par Kenny Clarke." It describes the launch of a short-lived French nightclub which took its inspiration from New York's bop haven, the Metropolitan Bopera House. "The opening of the Bopera House was really an important event in the musical lives of American musicians in Europe, for at last we were to be the American ambassadors of a new American trend in jazz. . . . They are with the progressive movement 100%. . . . The new trend, affectionately known as Be Bop, will live as long as youth lives."
Two royalties statements from Clarke's record sales and music publishing are dated 1948 and 1949; three of his performance and publishing contracts are dated 1949 and 1954.
Highlights from the correspondence include a personal letter from a group of Danish fans in February 1948, observing that "Kenny, you're a flirt, you'll find fun everywhere, and you're also a very charming person," and sending regards to several other Gillespie band members such as Lamar Wright, Elman Wright, and Chano Pozo. Albert Della Porta of Premier Drums solicited his personal opinion of their new product line on 30 March 1948. A long 29 October 1951 letter in French is from Clarke's French pianist Jack Denjean. His manager Billy Shaw wrote on 19 August 1949 with distressing news: "I understand your brother Frank was killed in San Francisco, over a silly argument about war." The accompanying clipping from the San Francisco Sun-Reporter explains that the argument was with a neighbor about hot WATER usage, not war.
One of the wilder letters we've seen is apparently from jazz-pop singer Billy Eckstine, who signs only as "Beezy." Eckstine and Clarke were the same age and both from Pittsburgh. The letter mentions gigs in Syracuse and Buffalo, NY which coincide with Eckstine's tour schedule, mentions his wife June, and mentions his 126th Street Harlem address. He addresses Clarke as "Klooteee," a variant of his usual nickname "Klook." He complains of the white club circuit: "I have been on a tour of ofay theaters for about two months. . . . These ofay house bands sound like my most out of tune fart." He brags of his recent success: "I bought a crazeeee house in L.A. with 4½ acres, a swimming pool, tennis courts, and stables with three horses. I haven't moved in yet because the decorators aren't finished as of yet. Juney don't even know." He adds comments on Louis Armstrong, then touring Europe: "How is 'Pops & Louie'? Tell little Louie, a little black motherfucker, that one of these days I will be able to get my shit together and come over there and see what the different tastes are in those French girls . . . that keeps him over there so long."
Most of the photos show Clarke's early French quartet; he sits behind a bass drum emblazoned "Jazz Hot 49 50 Faivre." One is an inscribed portrait of fellow drummer Freddie Crump performing his signature move, drumming on his own teeth(!).
