|
|
|
LJAC BOARD OF DIRECTORS & STAFF
Neville Murray,
For more information please call (402) 502-5291 |
|
Welcome to the web site of the Loves Jazz & Arts Center, (LJAC). The center is located at 2510 North 24th Street in Omaha Nebraska. We are a non-profit 501 c3 dedicated to the Arts through exhibition, collection, documentation, preservation, study and the dissemination of the history and culture of African Americans in the arts. As an educational institution, the Loves Jazz & Arts Center features state of the art digital media equipment enabling us to teach the latest media and engage in innovative new initiatives. Through exhibits, workshops, performances, educational programs, and special activities, the Loves Jazz & Arts Center explores the African American experience and celebrates accomplishments of the past and present to further advance the education of the future.
During the 1930s and 40s, Omaha was a booming regional center of jazz. In an era in which every small town had its own dance hall, countless bands toured incessantly to bring live music to every corner of the nation. In the vast territory of the upper plains — from Wyoming to Minnesota — those bands were likely to come from Omaha. Preston Love
This exhibition features photographs from the Loves Jazz & Arts Center's permanent collection. These wonderful photographs chronicle some of the major musical giants who have called Omaha home or were regular performers at Omaha's jazz venues. “All That Omaha Jazz” From the 1920s through the early 1960s the Near North Side neighborhood boasted a vibrant entertainment district featuring African American music. The main artery of North 24th Street was the heart of the city's African-American cultural and business community with a thriving jazz and rhythm and blues scene that attracted top-flight swing, blues and jazz bands from across the country. The most important venue was the storied Dreamland Ballroom, which was opened in the Jewell Building in 1923 at 24th and Grant Streets in the Near North Side neighborhood. Dreamland hosted some of the greatest jazz, blues, and swing performers, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and the original Nat King Cole Trio. Whitney Young spoke there as well.[6] Other venues included Jim Bell's Harlem, opened in 1935 on Lake Street, west of 24th; McGill's Blue Room, located at 24th and Lake, and Allen's Showcase Lounge, which was located at 24th and Lake. Due to racial segregation, musicians such as Cab Calloway stayed at Myrtle Washington's at 22nd and Willis while others stayed at Charlie Trimble's at 22nd and Seward. The intersection of 24th and Lake was the setting of the Big Joe Williams song "Omaha Blues". Notable North Omaha musicians “ North Omaha used to be a hub for black jazz musicians, 'the triple-A league' where national bands would go to find a player to fill out their ensemble. ”
—Preston Love Early North Omaha bands included Dan Desdunes Band, Simon Harrold's Melody Boys, the Sam Turner Orchestra, the Ted Adams Orchestra, and the Omaha Night Owls, as well as Red Perkins and His Original Dixie Ramblers. Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders who became the first Omaha band to record in 1931. A Lloyd Hunter concert poster can be seen on display at the Community Center in nearby Mineola, Iowa.[8] Nat Towles was a renowned territory band leader based in Omaha. The National Orchestra Service was an important company based in Omaha that managed white, black and integrated territorial bands. North Omaha's musical culture also birthed several nationally and internationally reputable African American musicians. International Jazz legend Preston Love, and influential drummer Buddy Miles were all friends while they grew up and played together. They collaborated throughout their lives, and while they were playing with the greatest names in Rock and Roll, Jazz, R&B and Fund. Funk bandleader Lester Abrams is also from North Omaha. Omaha-born Wynonie Harris, one of the founders of rock and roll, got his start at the North Omaha clubs and for a time lived in the now-demolished Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects at 2213 Charles Street. One of Omaha's most notable musicians of the 1940s was Anna Mae Winburn. As the leader of North Omaha's Cotton Club Boys, which included the amazing guitarist Charlie Christian, Winburn traveled the local region as a typical territorial band. However, upon the advice of Jimmie Jewell, owner of the Jewel Building, Winburn left Omaha and hit the "big time" with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm. Loves Jazz & Art Center (LJAC) 402-502-5291 Omaha NE 68110-2219 Copyright © 2007 Love Jazz & Arts Center. All rights reserved. |
|
Now Showing
"Queen Nappy, The Land from which I Come, and the Paper Bag Test” hosted by Loves Jazz and Arts Center, Omaha, NE
Omaha, NE, March 30, 2009: Loves Jazz and Art Gallery in Omaha, Nebraska will host the exhibition "Queen Nappy, The land from which I Come and the Paper bag Test" from April 11th to July 24, 2009 featuring the art of Françoise Duresse . Françoise Duresse is currently working on the paper bag test, a mixed media project that addresses the stratification of social status based upon skin colour differences, which has continued from one generation to another within the African Diaspora. Her artwork combines self-portraiture with images from photographs and drawings of racial stereotypes to explore the assigned roles played out in the media, which serve to reinforce racial stereotypes of colourism that forms a prison of cultural expectation in our society for people of colour. Recent Exhibitions:
Panel of Omaha Elders
Panelists included John Harris Pat Brown, Mercedes Bullard, , Katherine Fletcher and Virgil Chandler. Love’s Jazz and Art Center in collaboration with Metropolitan Community College, presented a Kick-Off Celebration for Black History Month featuring a night to honor African American Social Organizations on Thursday, January 29. The packed house Learned about the history of social, fraternal and community organizations in the African American Community. Elmer Crumbley, Retired Educator, facilitated a discussion by a panel of elders sharing the history of social, fraternal and community organization in the local African American community. History of Social Groups in North Omaha Loves Jazz & Arts Center (LJAC) is featureing this exhibition that chronicles and documents early social groups in the African American community in Omaha. LJAC curated this exhibition and is currently creating a documentary examining the role of these groups and how they affected civil society in the African American community in the 20th century. To this end LJACcontinues to seek oral histories, photographs, uniforms, and other relevant information pertaining to this important time period. If you have any information that you would like to share with the center please contact Neville Murray @ (402) 502-5291 More Recent Exhibitions:
The exhibition opened on June 18th and ran through August 1st, 2008. This exhibition showcased a collection of paintings by Neville Murray & historic photographs showcasing Negro League Baseball. A world existed for a half-century when the best black players were not allowed to play on the same field with the best white players. During this era of separation, there were two parallel major leagues that co-existed until the eradication of baseball's color line when Branch Rickey signed Jackie Robinson to a Brooklyn Dodger contract. The history of the white major leagues has been well chronicled, but only in recent years has the history of the black major leagues started to get the recognition that it deserves. More
A special presentation and discussion of the history of Omaha’s Black Firefighters within the context of Americas history was presented by Humanity Scholar, Dr. Spencer Davis at the Love Jazz Arts Center. This event was free and open to the public and made possible through grant funding from the Nebraska Humanities Council. 3rd Annual African American Art Exhibition and Opening Doors contemporary African American Surgeons OPENING November 7th 2008 5.30p.m. more
|
|
