NWS will transport audiences to an intimate Parisian nightclub inspired by the legendary Chez Bricktop. Proprietress Ada “Bricktop” Smith, an American dancer, jazz singer and Vaudevillian, set the tone for Paris’s “café society” and was known for entertaining royalty, movie stars and writers.  

Wear your best 1920s, 1930s or 2020s partywear and sip a cocktail while sopranos Julia Bullock and Louise Toppin, pianist and NWS alum Christian Reif and NWS Fellows pay homage to Black jazz and blues culture with works by Billie Holiday, Alberta Hunter, Cole Porter, Harold Arlen, Duke Ellington and Bricktop herself. 

This concert is part of the I Dream a World festival. Click here for a full listing of festival events.

I Dream a World: The Harlem Renaissance and Beyond is made possible with support from the NWS Collaborations Fund, the NWS Fund for New Ventures and the Keith and Renata Ward Family Fund. Knight Foundation and New World Symphony: Reimagining Classical Music in the Digital Age.

Festival Exhibition

LE PARIS NOIR: HENRY OSSAWA TANNER & LOÏS MAILOU JONES
February 3-12, 2023
New World Center, Clinton Family Fund Ensemble Room

Christopher Norwood, curator and founder of Hampton Art Lovers at the Historic Ward Rooming House, curates an installation from The Norwood Collection with art and related works of African American painters Henry Ossawa Tanner (1859-1937) & Loïs Mailou Jones (1905-1998). As the first internationally recognized male and female African American artists, they both found human and artistic freedom in France. Ticketholders can view the exhibition throughout the duration of the festival.

I Dream a World Festival Pass

A Festival Pass is your ticket to two weeks of live music, film, art and learning. For $150 or less, attend as many events as you’d like by showing your festival pass at the door. Click here to choose a Festival Pass.

Program

This performance features arrangements by Jeremy Siskind.

WELCOME TO BRICKTOP'S:
HARLEM REIMAGINED IN MONTMARTRE

In the years that immediately followed World War I, Europe became a choice destination for Black musicians, sculptors, painters, and writers seeking creative and personal freedom. No other city embodied this imagined space of freedom more than Paris. The city and its surrounding municipalities had already developed an appetite for Black music by the time musicians like Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet, and Valaida Snow arrived there in the mid-to-late twenties. This was thanks in part to the concertizing of James Reese Europe and the Hellfighters Band during World War I.

However, during the interwar years, culture in all its forms would prove to be the elixir needed to move Parisians beyond the carnage, disillusionment and poverty the war created. Movie houses, cafes, theatres and nightclubs became the spaces of respite that Parisians flocked to. Black instrumentalists and vocalists were all too eager to provide the soundtrack that accompanied this escapism culture.

Although Black artisans settled throughout the 20 arrondissements (municipalities) that defined the geographic identity of Paris, Montmartre became the epicenter of a strong and active Black expatriate community during the interwar years. There the nightclubs, theatres and cafes incubated a cultural movement that mirrored the intellectual, and artistic exchanges that defined the Renaissance movement in Harlem.

Welcome to Bricktop’s is more than a concert surveying the music of Parisian cabarets and nightclubs. It is an immersive experience that recreates the energy that emanated out of Montmartre. Bricktop’s was one of the many Black-owned and managed nightclubs that thrived in Jazz Age Paris and its name is a reference to the woman who became a central figure in its Black expat community—Ada "Bricktop” Smith.

Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith arrived in Paris on May 11, 1924, at the invitation of former boxer turned nightclub manager Eugene Bullard. Like the 369th Infantry or Harlem Hellfighters, Bullard represented how Black soldiers contributed to the Allied Victory during WWI. He was the first Black fighter pilot to serve in the Lafayette Escadrille, the French squadron. His valor in the theatre of war earned him France’s highest military honor, the Croix de Guerre. Following the war, he became part of the developing jazz scene in Paris working first as a jazz drummer. By 1924, he was managing Le Grand Duc, a nightclub that became a central meeting place for Blacks arriving in Paris. During his early months in Europe, a young Langston Hughes worked as a busboy at the club. Hughes and Bricktop maintained a life-long friendship and many of his works referenced the music and frenetic energy of Black Paris.

Ada “Bricktop” Smith was 29 years old when she arrived in the City of Lights and had already garnered an extensive resume as a singer and dancer. Her work history included stints with the Black vaudeville troupes that traversed the U.S. in the first decade of the 20th century and periods in which she performed at the upscale nightclubs of New York that catered to white clientele. Her repertory was diverse, consisting of popular songs drawn from musical theater productions, early jazz tunes and vaudeville blues songs, which were gaining popularity because of the race record market. It was also during those early years that she was given the nickname “Bricktop,” a reference to her red-gold hair and red freckles.

Smith’s transition into Parisian life began as a dancer/singer at Le Grand Duc, but in time she shifted to a more prominent role of managing various nightclubs including her own Chez Bricktop. Her charisma and flair for hospitality attracted not only Parisians to these clubs, but also white American patrons like writers F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway and songwriter Cole Porter. She personally taught Porter the Charleston, which led to a life-long friendship. He commemorated their relationship by writing the song “Miss Otis Regrets” for the singer.

The growing popularity of Black musical theater, jazz and blues in 1920s Paris drew many Black performers to the city including Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, Sidney Bechet, Alberta Hunter and many others. Some made France their home, while others stayed for short stints. All experience a significant amount of success, and freedom from the racial prejudice that permeated all aspects of Black life in America.

However, by the mid-1930s, it was becoming clear that things were changing in Europe. The rise of Nazism in Germany and its advancement across the continent significantly impacted the lives and careers of Black expatriates. Bookings dried up, and nightclubs closed. Many, including Bricktop, returned to the U.S. This did not, however, negate the imprint of Black culture in Europe.

The influence of Black instrumentalists, vocalists and singers continued to resonate throughout Paris and other European cities. Evidence of this began to appear as early as the late 1930s with the emergence of a generation of European musicians, like Django Reinhardt, and Stephane Grappelli, that began promoting a new idiom of jazz that reflected their indigenous, ethnic identities and cultural practices. The music these musicians created instigated a transatlantic dialogue with American jazz musicians and fans that continued well into the years that followed World War II. Most importantly, these sounds pointed audiences back to a moment in history when the energy, culture and flavor of Harlem was reimagined in Montmartre.

— Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle

Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle is University Distinguished Professor at Miami University in Ohio. Her scholarship and teaching have been primarily in the areas of African American music (classical and popular), jazz, and gender and popular music. She served as the Scholar in Residence for the Women in Jazz Initiative at the American Jazz Museum in Kansas City (1999-2001) and has worked closely with a number of educational programs including the Kennedy Center's Mary Lou Williams Women in Jazz Festival, Jazz@Lincoln Center, NPR, Rock `n' Roll Hall of Fame Lecture series and the BBC. She is the author of biography Soul on Soul: The Life and Music of Mary Lou Williams and served as Associate Editor of the three-volume Encyclopedia of African American Music. She holds degrees from The Ohio State University and Virginia State University and is curator of the New World Symphony's annual I Dream a World festival.

Harold Arlen: “It’s Only a Paper Moon” (1933)
Lyrics by Yip Harburg and Billy Rose

Say it's only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me

Yes, it's only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me

Without your love
It's a honky tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in a penny arcade

It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me

Say, it's only a paper moon
Sailing over a cardboard sea
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me

Yes, it's only a canvas sky
Hanging over a muslin tree
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me

Without your love
It's a honky tonk parade
Without your love
It's a melody played in a penny arcade

It's a Barnum and Bailey world
Just as phony as it can be
But it wouldn't be make-believe
If you believed in me

It's phony, it's plain to see
How happy I would be
If you believed in me

Spencer Williams / Pat Castleton: “Driftin’ Tide” (1935)

All alone
I stand and watch the ocean roll to bemoan
Because the blues have got control

All alone
I stand with misery in my soul
Driftin' Tide

All the night
I walk the shore to ease my mind
What a plight
To be the one whose left behind
It's not right
Because no peace at all I'll find
Driftin' Tide

She went away
Without a warning
And now my hearts in pain
I wonder with each day that's dawning
Shall I ever get her back again

I just cry
Whenever morning comes around
I heave a sigh
Whenever evening sun goes down
That is why
Close by the ocean, I'll be found
Driftin' Tide

Cora “Lovie” Austin: “Down Hearted Blues” (1922)
Lyrics by Alberta Hunter

My man mistreated me, and he drove me from his door
Lord he mistreated me, and he drove me from his door
But the Good Book says you've got to reap just what you sow

I got the world in a jug, got the supper? right here in my hand
I got the world in a jug, got the supper? right here in my hand
And if you want me sweet papa you gotta come under my command

Say I ain't never loved but three men in my life
Lord I ain't never loved but three men in my life
It was my father and my brother and a man that wretched my life

Lord it may be a week and it may be a month or two
I said it may be a week and it may be a month or two
All the dirt you're doin' to me sho' comin' home to you

Lord I walked the floor, hang my head and cried
Lord I walked the floor, hang my head and cried
Had the down hearted blues, and I couldn't be satisfied

Billie Holiday / et al.: “Our Love is Different” (1933)

Our love is different, dear
It's like the mighty symphony
I can feel its silver harmony
Oh so tenderly, day by day

Our love is different, dear
To me it's almost heavenly
Let us guard it ever preciously
Even jealously while we may

A love like ours, dear heart
The angels send
And so I know, dear heart
That it won't ever end

For as the years roll by
You'll learn my love for you is true
And I'm sure I'll learn the same from you
For our love is different, dear

A love like ours, dear heart
The angels send
And as I know, dear heart
That is won't ever end

For as the years roll by
You'll learn my love for you is true
And I'm sure I'll learn the same from you
For our love is different dear

Maceo Pinkard: “You Can’t Tell the Difference After Dark” (1930)

Look what the sun has done to me
It seems there's no more fun to me
Why must all the boys act so shy?
I have guessed the reason why

I may be as brown as a berry
But that's only secondary
And you can't tell the difference
After dark

I may not be so appealing
But I've got that certain feeling
And you can't tell the difference
After dark

They say that gentlemen
Prefer the blond haired ladies
Tell me am I out of style
Just because I'm slightly shady?

Wait until I've won you
And my love drops down upon you
You can't tell the difference
After dark

Ah, go for yourself now
Beat it on out there boy
Look out, Fats Waller

Mm, I may be as brown as a berry
But that's only secondary
You can't tell the difference
After dark

I may not be so appealing
Mm, but I've got that certain feeling
And you can't tell the difference
After dark

They say that gentlemen
Prefer the blond haired ladies
Tell me, tell me am I out of style
Just because I'm slightly shady?

Wait until I've won you
And my love drops down upon you
You can't tell the difference
After dark

Yeah, man

Cole Porter: “Love for Sale” (1930)

When the only sound in the empty street
Is the heavy tread of the heavy feet
That belong to a lonesome cop
I open shop

When the moon so long has been gazing down
On the wayward ways of this wayward town
That her smile becomes a smirk
I go to work

Love for sale
Appetizing young love for sale
Love that's fresh and still unspoiled
Love that's only slightly soiled
Love for sale

Who will buy?
Who would like to sample my supply?
Who's prepared to pay the price
For a trip to paradise?
Love for sale

Let the poets pipe of love
In their childish way
I know every type of love
Better far than they

If you want the thrill of love
I've been through the mill of love
Old love, new love
Every love but true love

Love for sale
Appetizing young love for sale
If you want to buy my wares
Follow me and climb the stairs
Love for sale.

George Gershwin:  “Let’s Call the Whole Thing Off” (1937)
Lyrics by Ira Gershwin

Things have come to a pretty pass
Our romance is growing flat
For you like this and the other
While I go for this and that
Goodness knows what the end will be
Oh, I don't know where I'm at
It looks as if we two will never be one
Something must be done

You say either, I say either
You say neither and I say neither
Either, either, neither, neither
Let's call the whole thing off, yes

You like potato and I like potato
You like tomato and I like tomato
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto
Let's call the whole thing off

But oh, if we call the whole thing off
Then we must part
And oh, if we ever part
Then that might break my heart

So if you like pyjamas and I like pyjahmas
I'll wear pyjamas and give up pyajahmas
For we know, we need each other
So we better call the calling off, off
Oh, let's call the whole thing off, yes

You say laughter and I say larfter
You say after and I say arfter
Laughter, larfter, after, arfter
Let's call the whole thing off
You like vanilla and I like vanella
You saspiralla and I saspirella
Vanilla, vanella, chocolate, strawberry
Let's call the whole thing off

But oh, if we call the whole thing off
Then we must part
And, oh, if we ever part
Then that might break my heart

So if you go for oysters and I go for ersters
I'll order oysters and cancel the ersters
For we know, we need each other
So we better call the calling off, off
Let's call the whole thing off

Yes, you say either and you say either
You say neither and you say neither
Either, either, a-neither, a-neither
Let's call the whole thing off, oh, yes
You like potato and you like potahto
You like tomato and you like tomahto
Potato, potahto, tomato, tomahto
Let's call the whole thing off

But oh, if we call the whole thing off
Then we must part
And oh, if we ever part
Then that might break my heart

So if you like pyjamas (I like pyjahmas)
I'll wear pyjamas (you got pyjamas)
For we know, we need each other
So we better call the calling off, off
Let's call the whole thing off
Let's call the whole thing off (yes)

Kay Starr / Henry Nemo / Dudley Brooks: “Tell Me How Long the Train’s Been Gone” (c. 1949)

Tell me how long, how long
How long that old train been gone?

Tell me how long, how long
How long that old train been gone?

Well the peoples keep on comin’ lord
Comin’ but that old train done gone

Can’t you hear that old whistle blowin',
Comin' around that curl. 

Can’t you hear that old whistle blowin', yeah
Comin' around that curl. 

Don’t you know lord, don’t you know
Oh, it’s bringin' back, my love

Tell me how long, how long
Honey, how long that old train been gone?

Tell me how long, how long
How long that old train been gone?

Yes the peoples keep a comin', comin'
But that train done gone
Oh, oh, it’s done gone

Program

BIENVENIDOS A BRICKTOP: HARLEM REINVENTADO EN MONTMARTRE

En los años inmediatamente posteriores a la Primera Guerra Mundial, Europa se convirtió en el destino elegido de músicos, escultores, pintores y escritores de la raza negra,  que buscaban libertad creativa y personal. Ninguna otra ciudad representaba este espacio soñado de libertad mejor que París. La ciudad y sus alrededores ya habían desarrollado un apetito por la música afroamericana cuando músicos como Duke Ellington, Sidney Bechet y Valaida Snow llegaron allí a mediados o finales de los años veinte. Esto se debió en gran parte a los conciertos de James Reese Europe y la Hellfighters Band durante la Primera Guerra Mundial.

Sin embargo, durante los años de entre guerra, la cultura en todas sus manifestaciones probaría ser el elixir necesario para ayudar a los parisinos a sobrellevar la carnicería, desilusión y pobreza que la guerra había creado.  Cines, cafés, teatros y clubes nocturnos se convirtieron en espacios de respiro a los que acudían los parisinos. Los instrumentistas y cantantes afroamericanos estaban ansiosos por proveer la banda sonora que acompañaba esta cultura de escapismo.

Aunque los artesanos de la raza negra se asentaron a través de las 20 arrondissements (municipalidades) que definieron la identidad geográfica de París, Montmartre se convirtió en el epicentro de una activa y fuerte comunidad afroamericana de expatriados durante estos años. Allí los clubes nocturnos, teatros y cafés incubaron un movimiento cultural que reflejaba los intercambios artísticos e intelectuales que definieron el Renacimiento de Harlem.

Bienvenidos a Bricktop es más que un concierto que nos lleva por la música de los cabarets y clubes nocturnos de París, es una experiencia de inmersión que recrea la energía que emanaba de Montmartre. Bricktop fue uno de los muchos clubes de dueños y administradores de raza negra que prosperaron en la Era del Jazz en París y su nombre es una referencia a la mujer que se convirtió en una figura central de la comunidad afroamericana de expatriados – Ada “Bricktop” Smith.

Ada Beatrice Queen Victoria Louise Virginia Smith llegó a París el 11 de mayo de 1924, por invitación del ex boxeador convertido en manager de un club nocturno  Eugene Bullard. Como la Infantería 369 o los Harlem Hellfighters, Bullard representaba como los soldados de color contribuyeron a la Victoria de los Aliados durante la Primera Guerra Mundial. Fue el primer piloto de la raza negra  en servir en el Lafayette Escadrille, el escuadrón francés. Su valor en la teátrica de la guerra le valió el más alto honor militar de Francia, la Croix de Guerre. Después de la guerra, se unió a la escena jazzística que se desarrollaba en París trabajando primero como baterista de jazz. En 1924, ya estaba dirigiendo Le Grand Duc, un club nocturno que se convirtió en un lugar de encuentro de los afroamericanos que arribaban en París. Durante sus primeros meses en esta ciudad, un joven Langston Hughes trabajaba como ayudante de camarero en el club. Hughes and Bricktop mantuvieron una amistad de por vida y muchas de sus obras hicieron referencia a la música y la energía frenética del París Negro.

Ada “Bricktop” Smith tenía 29 años cuando llegó a la Ciudad de la Luz y ya contaba con un extenso currículum como cantante y bailarina. Su historial de trabajo incluía períodos con las compañías de vaudeville que viajaron por los Estados Unidos en la primera década del siglo XX, y temporadas en las que se presentaba en clubes nocturnos de lujo en Nueva York que servían a la clientela blanca. Su repertorio era diverso, consistía en canciones populares salidas de producciones de teatro musical, antiguas melodías de jazz y blues de vaudeville, las cuales estaban ganando popularidad debido al mercado discográfico en rápido desarrollo. Fue también durante esos primeros años que le dieron el sobrenombre de “Bricktop”, una referencia a su cabello rojo-dorado y sus pecas rojas.

La transición de Smith a la vida parisina comenzó como bailarina/cantante en Le Grand Duc, pero con el tiempo cambió a un rol más prominente como gerente de varios clubes nocturnos incluyendo su propio Chez Bricktop. Su carisma y estilo en la industria comercial atraían no solo parisinos a estos clubes, sino también a patrocinadores blancos estadounidenses como los escritores F. Scott Fitzgerald, Ernest Hemingway y el compositor Cole Porter. Ella le enseñó personalmente el Charleston a Porter, lo cual condujo a una amistad de por vida. Porter celebró su relación escribiendo la canción “Miss Otis Regrets” para la cantante.

La creciente popularidad del teatro musical negro, el jazz y el blues en los años veinte en París atrajo a muchos artistas afroamericanos a la ciudad incluyendo a Josephine Baker, Ethel Waters, Sidney Bechet, Alberta Hunter y muchos otros. Algunos hicieron de Francia su hogar, mientras otros solo pasaron breves temporadas. Todos experimentaron un éxito significativo, y libertad de los prejuicios raciales que permeaban todos los aspectos de la vida de los afroamericanos en Estados Unidos.

Sin embargo, hacia mediados de la década de 1930, se hizo evidente que las cosas estaban cambiando en Europa. El surgimiento del nazismo en Alemania y su avance a través del continente impactaron de gran manera las vidas y carreras de los expatriados de color. El trabajo se agotó, y los clubes nocturnos cerraron. Muchos, incluida Bricktop, regresaron a los Estados Unidos. Sin embargo, esto no negó la huella que dejó la cultura afroamericana en Europa.

La influencia de los instrumentistas y cantantes afroamericanos continuó resonando en París y otras ciudades europeas. Las evidencias de esto comenzaron a aparecer desde finales de la década de 1930 con el surgimiento de una generación de músicos europeos como Django Reindhardt, Stephane Grappelli, que comenzaron a promover un nuevo lenguaje de jazz que reflejaba sus identidades indígenas y étnicas así como sus costumbres. La música que estos artistas crearon instigó un diálogo  trasatlántico con los músicos y fanáticos del jazz estadounidense y que continuó hasta años después de la Segunda Guerra Mundial. Lo que es más importante, estas sonoridades le permitieron al público rememorar un momento en la historia cuando la energía, la cultura y el sabor de Harlem fue reinventado en Montmartre.

— Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle

Dr. Tammy L. Kernodle es Profesora Distinguida de la Miami University en Ohio. Sus estudios y su trabajo como pedagoga han sido principalmente en las áreas de música afroamericana, jazz, género y música popular. Participó como Becaria en Residencia en la Iniciativa de Mujeres en el Jazz del Museo de Jazz Americano en Kansas City (1999-2001) y ha trabajado con un número de programas educacionales incluyendo el Festival de Mujeres en el Jazz Mary Lou Williams del Kennedy Center, Jazz@Lincoln Center, NPR, la serie de conferencias del Rock ‘n Roll Hall of Fame y la BBC. Es la autora de la biografía Alma sobre Alma: La vida y música de Mary Lou Williams y se desempeñó como editora asociada de la Enciclopedia de la Música Afroamericana, que cuenta de tres volúmenes.  Es graduada de Ohio State University y de Virginia State University y es curadora del festival anual de  New World Symphony I Dream a World (Yo sueño un Mundo).

Translated by Maria Paulina García