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Statesman of the PianoJazz, Race, and History in the Life of Lou Hooper |
eBook Available
The previously unpublished autobiography of a Canadian-born pianist who played with many of the twentieth century’s jazz and blues greats in Detroit, Harlem, and Montreal.
Ontario-born jazz pianist Lou Hooper (1894-1977) began his professional career in Detroit, accompanying blues singers such as Ma Rainey at the legendary Koppin Theatre. In 1921 he moved to Harlem, performing alongside Paul Robeson and recording extensively in and around Tin Pan Alley, before moving to Montreal in the 1930s.
Prolific and influential, Hooper was an early teacher of Oscar Peterson and deeply involved in the jazz community in Montreal. When the Second World War broke out he joined the Canadian Armed Forces and entertained the troops in Europe. Near the end of his life Hooper came to prominence for his exceptional career and place in the history of jazz, inspiring an autobiography that was never published. Statesman of the Piano makes this document widely available for the first time and includes photographs, concert programs, lyrics, and other documents to reconstruct his life and times. Historians, archivists, musicians, and cultural critics provide annotations and commentary, examining some of the themes that emerge from Hooper’s writing and music.
Statesman of the Piano sparks new conversations about Hooper’s legacy while shedding light on the cross-border travels and wartime experiences of Black musicians, the politics of archiving and curating, and the connections between race and music in the twentieth century.
Prolific and influential, Hooper was an early teacher of Oscar Peterson and deeply involved in the jazz community in Montreal. When the Second World War broke out he joined the Canadian Armed Forces and entertained the troops in Europe. Near the end of his life Hooper came to prominence for his exceptional career and place in the history of jazz, inspiring an autobiography that was never published. Statesman of the Piano makes this document widely available for the first time and includes photographs, concert programs, lyrics, and other documents to reconstruct his life and times. Historians, archivists, musicians, and cultural critics provide annotations and commentary, examining some of the themes that emerge from Hooper’s writing and music.
Statesman of the Piano sparks new conversations about Hooper’s legacy while shedding light on the cross-border travels and wartime experiences of Black musicians, the politics of archiving and curating, and the connections between race and music in the twentieth century.
Details
Part of the Carleton Library Series (number 266 in series)
280 Pages, 6 x 9
19 photos, 9 illustrations
ISBN 9780228018803
September 2023
Formats: Cloth, eBook
“Statesman of the Piano provides a fascinating lens, one that corroborates current research and adds new detail and insights. Hooper’s story shows how a Canadian-born Black man was able to thrive in Jim Crow America. Moreover, the breakdown of black nightclubs/venues in the forties and fifties in southwest Montreal brings a new punctuation to the city’s jazz history.” Dorothy W. Williams, author of Blacks in Montreal, 1628-1986: An Urban Demography
“Primary sources for the history of jazz, particularly in Canada, are few and far between and Statesman of the Piano is a welcome and meaningful contribution. Hooper’s autobiography contains much to savour, and the editors are to be commended for presenting his work to a wider audience. Their introduction - thoughtful, illuminating, and comprehensive - provides an inviting basis from which to follow Hooper’s story.” Rob van der Bliek, editor of The Thelonious Monk Reader
“Jazz fans will be most interested by … pages dedicated to Harlem. Hooper relocated to the borough in the 1920s, where he made some of his most famous recordings with the likes of clarinetist Bob Fuller and banjoist Elmer Snowden, accompanying singers and recording instrumentals under group names such as the Three Jolly Miners and The Choo Choo Jazzers.” La Scena Musicale
“Primary sources for the history of jazz, particularly in Canada, are few and far between and Statesman of the Piano is a welcome and meaningful contribution. Hooper’s autobiography contains much to savour, and the editors are to be commended for presenting his work to a wider audience. Their introduction - thoughtful, illuminating, and comprehensive - provides an inviting basis from which to follow Hooper’s story.” Rob van der Bliek, editor of The Thelonious Monk Reader
“Jazz fans will be most interested by … pages dedicated to Harlem. Hooper relocated to the borough in the 1920s, where he made some of his most famous recordings with the likes of clarinetist Bob Fuller and banjoist Elmer Snowden, accompanying singers and recording instrumentals under group names such as the Three Jolly Miners and The Choo Choo Jazzers.” La Scena Musicale
Sean Mills is Canada Research Chair in Canadian and Transnational History at the University of Toronto. He is the author of The Empire Within: Postcolonial Thought and Political Activism in Sixties Montreal and A Place in the Sun: Haiti, Haitians, and the Remaking of Quebec.
Eric Fillion is adjunct professor and Buchanan Postdoctoral Fellow in Canadian history at Queen’s University. He is the author of JAZZ LIBRE et la révolution québécoise: Musique-action, 1967-1975 and Distant Stage: Quebec, Brazil, and the Making of Canada’s Cultural Diplomacy.
Désirée Rochat is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University.
Eric Fillion is adjunct professor and Buchanan Postdoctoral Fellow in Canadian history at Queen’s University. He is the author of JAZZ LIBRE et la révolution québécoise: Musique-action, 1967-1975 and Distant Stage: Quebec, Brazil, and the Making of Canada’s Cultural Diplomacy.
Désirée Rochat is a postdoctoral fellow at the Centre for Oral History and Digital Storytelling at Concordia University.
Figures vii
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction: Lou Hooper’s “Rediscovery” 3
Sean Mills, Eric Fillion, and Désirée Rochat
PART ONE
Co-Editors’ Note 21
1 That Happy Road 23
lou hooper
2 Documents 145
A “Over the Sea to My Soldier” (1918) 145
B Constitution of the Hooper Southern Singers of Canada (1935) 146
C Letter to the Free Lance (1935) 147
D First Anniversary Meeting of the Hooper Southern Singers of Canada (1936) 148
E The Canadians Entertain (1941) 149
F “The RCA Band” (1942) 152
G “Montreal, Our Town” (1966) 154
H Music through the Years (1973) 155
I Concert Programs (1907-1976) 160
PART TWO
Co-Editors’ Note 169
3 Reading Lou Hooper’s Autobiography as an Ecobiography 171
Sunita Nigam
4 Brave Sergeant Hooper and His Bandoliers 184
Jason Wilson
5 To Be “Un/silenced”: The Interplay of Archives, Blackness, and Canadian History in That Happy Road 201
Arshad Suliman Desai
6 Black Community Archives in Practice 211
Kristen Young
7 The Path of Resiliency 222
Julie Richard
Bibliography 231
Contributors 249
Index 251
Preface ix
Acknowledgments xiii
Abbreviations xvii
Introduction: Lou Hooper’s “Rediscovery” 3
Sean Mills, Eric Fillion, and Désirée Rochat
PART ONE
Co-Editors’ Note 21
1 That Happy Road 23
lou hooper
2 Documents 145
A “Over the Sea to My Soldier” (1918) 145
B Constitution of the Hooper Southern Singers of Canada (1935) 146
C Letter to the Free Lance (1935) 147
D First Anniversary Meeting of the Hooper Southern Singers of Canada (1936) 148
E The Canadians Entertain (1941) 149
F “The RCA Band” (1942) 152
G “Montreal, Our Town” (1966) 154
H Music through the Years (1973) 155
I Concert Programs (1907-1976) 160
PART TWO
Co-Editors’ Note 169
3 Reading Lou Hooper’s Autobiography as an Ecobiography 171
Sunita Nigam
4 Brave Sergeant Hooper and His Bandoliers 184
Jason Wilson
5 To Be “Un/silenced”: The Interplay of Archives, Blackness, and Canadian History in That Happy Road 201
Arshad Suliman Desai
6 Black Community Archives in Practice 211
Kristen Young
7 The Path of Resiliency 222
Julie Richard
Bibliography 231
Contributors 249
Index 251
9780773545977
$40.95 CAD
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