Wednesday, May 13, 2009
Education It's So Sad to See Work Go Underappreciated
Posted by Betsy Phillips on Wed, May 13, 2009 at 6:14 PM
Who's John Work, you ask? And why should anyone care if his house is refurbished?
If you look to The Tennessean for answers, you learn, "Down the street at Fisk University, the windows of the John Wesley Work House, which belonged to the former director of the Jubilee Singers, are boarded up."
Saying that John Work was the former director of the Jubilee Singers is like saying that Hooters is a place you can go for food. It's true, but it's not the whole story.
Lucky for y'all, I am here to fill you in.
The first Nashville John Work organized and trained an African American choir at the First Baptist Church back before the Civil War. In the choir were three people who would go on to be among the original Fisk Jubilee Singers. His sons, John and Frederick, attended Fisk and this son John reorganized the Fisk Jubilee Singers, taught history, Latin, and music, and led Fisk's male quartet, which made early recordings for Victor, Edison, and Columbia.
And these were not even the most awesome John Works to live in our city. No, I believe that distinction must go to John Work the third, who, after he went to work at Fisk, lived in the house up for possible renovation. Not only did Work direct the Jubilee singers, he transcribed a great deal of rural African American folk music (though, sadly, large parts of that collection appear to have been lost) and he made some of the earliest field recordings of black Nashvillians.
And, as Bruce Nemerov and Robert Gordon tell us in Lost Delta Found, "Work also is the first academic trained in the European tradition to express appreciation for the purely musical values displayed in the accompaniments to blues song." In other words, even though he was a smartypants at a time when smartypantses believed the blues to be the purview of low talent hacks and uneducated rural folks who were just making noise, Work saw it for the amazing art form it is.
And then... And then, folks, John Work was there the very first time McKinley "Muddy Waters" Morganfield ever recorded. How do you leave that out? John Work is there the first time Muddy Waters ever hears his own voice played back to him and you don't even mention it?
But that's not even the end of the Works' ties with Nashville. John Work the third had a couple of sons, who you will be unsurprised to learn are named John and Frederick, who were raised in that house.
You may know this Frederick Work. He desegregated the Vanderbilt Law School.
Years ago, I had the pleasure of chatting with this John and Frederick Work who have a casually graceful way of teasing each other that surely comes from having a brother you deeply love for six or seven decades. And they told me that house was always full of people, famous musicians and authors and artists, and not so famous, but interesting people, professors, students, neighborhood folks, and that there was always food and music and good times.
I love the idea of that house being refurbished and preserved for future generations, being filled with music and people again. So much of our history here in Nashville gets told by what used to be. That's where the Vine Street Temple used to be. That's where the streetcar used to go. That's where the fort was.
It'd be so nice to have one cool thing that still is.
Comments (22)
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So much of our history here in Nashville gets told by what used to be. That's where the Vine Street Temple used to be. That's where the streetcar used to go. That's where the fort was.
It'd be so nice to have one cool thing that still is.
Well put..
like
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Dammit B, this is why I campaigned against putting you on the Pith staff. Two posts in and you're already showing the rest of us up with thoughtful crap about Nashville's rich history.
QUIT SHOWING OFF.
Well, I left out the part where I was driving past Fisk University and it flagged me down and claimed its car was out of gas and I totally gave it $30 only to find it back on that same street the next day, if it makes you feel better.
*wiping 'puter screen* Two posts and a comment in and she's already making me spit water out of my nose.
The Tennessean really is a bland newspaper.
It sits in the middle of at great city, with a rich history and diverse culture, yet it seems unaware.It has the state's legislature under its nose, but only reports surface stuff, no investigative reporting whatsoever. Thank you, Nashville Scene. I find myself going more and more to your website for Nashville news. The Tennessean has become an ad supported tabloid of sorts. It makes me shiver.
Taking more stimulus funding, eh? Look out, unborns, grandchildren! We're digging deeper into your pockets. Here we come, hands out, as usual. Grease our palms. Gimme, gimme, gimme, not matter how or when (or if) it gets paid back.
Why not conduct a private fundraiser; if the structure is so important, they will come to save it. Otherwise...
The building looks like a termite trap. Best to raze it and construct a nice, modern, East German - Socialist-looking structure in it's place.
For to symbolize the funding, of course.
Oh, hell no, serr8d. Hell no. This is only my second post here and you can't even do me the courtesy of writing an actually funny and biting rebuke? No, I'm sorry. That is not going to cut it.
You can pull out this half-assed, barely trying "blah blah blah we're robbing from our children blah blah blah socialist" crap when I've been here a while and I slouch into mediocrity. Until then, I expect you to bring your A-game.
I thought the whole "If the house is so important, why aren't folks willing to put up the money for it?" was a nice line of attack. It shines some light onto the hypocrisy of liberal Nashvillians and it's a good question. One I have no good answer for. But you let it drop in order to get your "socialist" dig, which everyone could see coming from a mile away, in.
I've been around the block a time or two. I deserve better than right wing talking points dressed up as original comments.
Really good story. I hadn't noticed the place and knew nothing about the Work family, even though I spend hours every weekend driving to every corner of Nashville to look for stuff like this. Love the background, love the story, even love your total takedown of the usual suspects trying to change the subject to their pet wingnut causes.
serr8d says:
Taking more stimulus funding, eh? Look out, unborns, grandchildren!
Wait, I thought we were going to abort all of those.
QUIT SHOWING OFF.
LOL! Don't! Stop! DON'T STOP!!!!
I said this in an email but I just want to say here that your love letter is beautiful.
:)
So, the concept of preservation never occurred to anyone until "stimulus money" came along, huh?
That's demonstrably untrue if you've been by Fisk at any time in the last ten years. But that's definitely a better try than Serr8d's effort.
So, who prioritized the preservation decisions and if this is such a significant structure, how has it be bypassed so long?
It's articles/columns like these that helped make the Scene's reputation -- Nashvilliana that other local media wouldn't take the time or have the sense to cover. And it's questions like Mr. Flatus's that will move the story forward.
My hat's off to y'all for returning to your fine tradition. My hat's always off, and I'm always in a deep curtsey, to Miss B.
Wow. I thought I knew Nashville history, but I missed this little gem. Great one.
the Vine Street Temple collapsed in a storm. Hard to blame shortsighted town fathers for that one
Ha, see! I was just thinking that. You can count on Brian to bring it, all balls out, angry, and putting his shots right where they should go. Can't you just aspire to be like him instead of carrying his water to the wrong post? Complaints about my commie liberal love of people who vaguely resemble cop killers belong at the posts about people who share some characteristic in common with cop killers. See? It goes "topic"--"on topic pissing and moaning." Not "topic"--"regurgitate Brian's points on another topic."
I will give you credit. At least this comment was wicked. You had to bring in Brian to do the heavy lifting, but at least it indicates some respect for me, that you think some heavy lifting should be done.
So, thanks for that.
And you, Auntie dear, can take solace in the fact that you've managed to secure quite a few more 'hits' for this here otherwise unpalatable venue's website. Exactly management's intent, I'm sure. Good for both, really.
Now, off to wash my hands. Something about the unrefined stench, the raw barely-covered smell of unwashed underground that's leaching though the thin coat of 'respectability' someone tried to slap on here, ummm, recently?
Oh, here's a freebie. Your new nick can be "Auntie Whitewash"~!
