Music, "Bring It On Home" courtesy of Chris English ..................................................................................Photo © George LaVarn
Pine Street’s
Musical
Heritage
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lans are in the works for a historic wayside marker to be placed on Pine Street to publicly recognize the great musical heritage of this Cambridge neighborhood.
The marker will include much of the information you see on this web page. It will be placed in front of the Dorchester Elks Lodge 223 at 618 Pine Street so that everyone — young and old, black and white, visitors and locals — can understand and appreciate the vibrancy of the music scene on Pine Street for years to come.
The idea for the historic marker was inspired by Cambridge natives, led by David Henry, author of Up Pine Street, who wanted to find a public way to share the history of the area. Mr. Henry asked Cambridge Main Street to collaborate with him on the project.
While design of the historic marker is in process, construction and installation can’t be finished until enough money is raised. Generous individuals have already contributed to this worthwhile project. Cambridge Main Street, Heart of Chesapeake Country Heritage Area, and the Maryland Heritage Areas Authority have given grants. And now we need your help for the remaining $4,500. For details on how to donate to the Pine Street Historic Marker project, please e-mail office@cambridgemainstreet.com or call 410.228.0020.
Count Basie
One of the most important big bandleaders of his time, Count Basie helped shape the swing era of the jazz scene in the 1930s and 1940s. His Count Basie Orchestra included such jazz greats as Buck Clayton, Herschel Evans, Lester Young, Walter Page, Freddie Green, and Jo Jones. He also played piano and organ and composed songs.
Cab Calloway
With his hit, “Minnie the Moocher,” Cab Calloway was a jazz singer and bandleader whose orchestra was a regular during the 1930s at the Cotton Club in Harlem, the nation’s best jazz venue. His orchestra included trumpeters Dizzy Gillespie and Adolphus “Doc” Cheatam, saxophonists Ben Webster and Leon “Chu” Berry, and bassist Milt Hinton.
Photo © George LaVarn
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n the early 20th century, Pine Street in downtown Cambridge pulsed with the music of the worlds’ greatest jazz and blues musicians. At the time, Pine Street and the surrounding blocks were part of one of the oldest continuously occupied — and most thriving — African-American neighborhoods.
Cambridge was part of the “Chitlin’ Circuit,” a circuit of nightclubs and theaters that African-American performers traveled during segregation. The biggest names in music came to Pine Street — to Greene’s Opera House, Greene’s Savoy, and the Elks Home — to entertain folks who flocked here from all over the Eastern Shore.
They danced to the sounds of such musicians as Ella Fitzgerald, Ray Charles, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, and Billy Eckstine. William C. Handy, considered “Father of the Blues,” performed here. So did bandleaders Duke Ellington and Noble Sissle and clarinetist Sidney Bechet. Later, when rock came on the scene, Cambridge rolled to the sounds of Lloyd Price, Little Richard, Fats Domino, Larry Williams, Bill Doggett, and James Brown.
Cambridge also produced its own talented musicians, including Edward “Buster” Snead, who went on to play with 1940s blues great Jimmy Lunsford, and Corinthian Johnson, lead singer for the 1950s rock group the “Del Vikings.” Their hit song, “Come Go with Me,” stayed on the Hit Parade charts for weeks.
Ella Fitzgerald
Known as “The First Lady of Song,” Ella Fitzgerald was the nation’s most popular female jazz singer during a recording career that lasted more than half a century. Her music reached its critical and commercial peak in the 1950s and 1960s. She sold more than 40 million albums.
Billy Eckstine
Billy Eckstine helped shape modern jazz, especially bebop, in the 1940s. With his smooth and distinctive baritone voice, he had Top Ten hits both in the United States and in Europe. He led a big band that included current and future stars such as Miles Davis and Art Blakely. He also composed the blues classic, “Jelly, Jelly.”
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