I’d like to send a big thank you to my friends at Pure Jazz Radio for featuring my book “With Stars in my Eyes” on their Partners in Jazz page. Thank you for all your support! My book “With Stars in my Eyes” is an interesting account of the years in which I did promotional work for Billy Taylor and Duke Ellington at the height of the civil rights movement in the United States. The book, audio book and E-book are available at Amazon.com.

http://task.fm/2011/09/what-did-martin-luther-king-jr-do-for-the-business-world/

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You’re probably curious as to why I included photos of a bluetick coonhound in the photo gallery that is filled with photos of famous jazz musicians. Burton is an example of the successful rescue work that I have done with animals in recent years. Without my help or that of other caring individuals, Burton would have been run over and left to die, or even worse he would have starved to death. He is one of dozens of cats and dogs that I have rescued since relocating to the Washington, DC, area in 1984.

Living in upstate New York as a child, I was accustomed to owning and caring for beautiful cats and dogs. So, when I moved to Washington, I was shocked to see hundreds of homeless cats and dogs that literally wander the streets in search of food and shelter. Consequently, through the years, I have adopted as many dogs and cats as possible and found homes for others through the SPCA and the Partnership for Animal Welfare, and Alley Cat Rescue. Burton is one of the lucky ones and he is shown in the photo gallery with his owner or caregiver, Dena Stamos. One evening about ten years ago, Rocky Dickerson, a young neighbor, brought Burton to my house and asked me to find a home for him because the dog had been running loose in the neighborhood for a few days. When I turned the porch light on, I could not believe how beautiful he was–a six month old bluetick coonhound with unusual tri-color markings–not your usual beagle.

After my vet, Dr. Robert DuBois, checked him and gave him his shots, I placed an ad in the Washington Post hoping that someone would adopt Burton. Lucky Burton because a lovely young teacher answered the ad and adopted him almost immediately. Burton now lives in Westchester County, New York, with Dena Stamos and he
vacations in Martha’s Vineyard and Florida. Recently, Dena called me to say that Burton is the most wonderful gift she has ever received. “Thank you, Renatta, for improving my life and Burton’s,” she said.

Recently, I rescued about 30 feral and tame cats and sent them to live at the Good Shepherd Cat Sanctuary in Delmar, Maryland, and decided to keep two as my
own pets, Simba, a beautiful 18 pound gold persian-Maine coon mix with gold eyes, and Mimi, who is also beautiful, a black and white American shorthair who must have been born outside and is now getting used to living in a house. I feel very fortunate to have been able to help so many cats and dogs.

Billy Taylor

I had never even heard of the famous jazz pianist, composer, and educator, Billy Taylor, until I saw him on PBS television one evening in the spring of 1967. There he was, a handsome, erudite, soft-spoken gentleman who was seated behind a beautiful white grand piano and was lecturing to a national audience about such historic jazz legends as Billie Holiday and Bessie Smith. This was the first time I had seen a jazz musician present a lecture about jazz. “Priscilla,” I exclaimed to my college roommate at Rutgers, “Billy Taylor is the jazz world’s equivalent of Leonard Bernstein, and I would like to meet him someday!”

Billy Taylor

I recall asking him if he composed religious music, which was so popular during the late sixties and early seventies because of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Concerts, and Billy replied, “Yes, I do compose religious music, but please don’t get the wrong impression of me–I’m just regular and not a very religious person.” Dr. Taylor was also very impressed with my youthful appearance and desire to help African-Americans gain full equality in all aspects of their lives. I also recall visiting Dr. Taylor at radio station WLIB in New York when he was program director in the late 1960s. One afternoon, I brought Derrick to meet him at the radio station and Billy took us on a tour of the station. He was very impressed with Derrick’s good looks and wonderful attire–he wore a pastel blue checkered sports jacket, a blue botton-down summer shirt, white trousers, and, of course, like the great pianist himself, dark tortoiseshell dark glasses–Derrick was truly a beautiful six-year-old child who transcended race and who could barely talk because of an untreated medical problem. His grandparents had emigrated from Trinidad in the 1930s.

Duke Ellington

Duke Ellington

I will never forget David Frost’s question to Duke when Mr. Ellington was a guest on Frost’s TV show in 1969. “What is your philosophy of life?” to which the great bandleader replied, “Those surprises. I keep watching for those surprises because then I have to reassess my situation and make possible changes,” thus revealing Duke’s flexibility throughout his career and his desire to make changes in order to survive in the difficult world of popular and jazz music. Duke Ellington’s willingness to endure hardships, to accept new challenges, and to continue composing until almost his 75th birthday endear him to me and to millions of Ellington fans worldwide.

Duke was also very modest and appreciative. When I called his office in New York on his 71st birthday, on April 29, 1970, and offered Duke unlimited book proposals on behalf of Simon & Schuster, where I worked, he sent me a message through Billy Taylor and thanked me for the offer.

Music was at the center of Duke Ellington’s life, and his desire to experiment with different musical movements, other than Swing, which made him so popular during the 1930s, to employ the finest jazz musicians in the world, and to never stop composing enabled him to be judged one of the finest musicians in the world whose body of work is truly “beyond category,” as he himself described the type of music he played and composed.

The scope and versatility of Duke’s compositions, many of which are available on newly remastered CDs, is almost limitless. So, if a listener wants to listen to Swing music at its best, he or she can purchase Ellington recordings from the 1930s, and if a listener wants to listen to Duke’s later recordings where the orchestra has improved greatly under Duke’s guidance, he or she can purchase “Ellington Uptown” or “Duke Ellington: Piano Reflections,” both of which were recorded in the 1950s. Duke was also a master pianist, which is revealed in the “Piano Reflections.” And for longer, more serious symphonic works, the listener can purchase “Reminiscing in Tempo,” a tribute to Duke’s mother, Daisy, who passed away much too soon and from which the great musician never recovered, “Black, Brown, and Beige,” and all three of the Sacred Concerts. With such contributions as these, how can Duke Ellington’s music be overlooked or eventully forgotten? The school named in his honor in Washington, D.C. is a living memorial to the great artist and as they graduate, the new graduates are told to carry the spirit of Duke Ellington with them forever. See amazon.com for a complete list of Billy Taylor’s recordings and books as well as those of Duke Ellington.

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Giving Jazz the Respect that It Deserves, Providing Educational Programs All across America, and Sending the Orchestra on National and International Tours.

Jazz at Lincoln Center and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra were founded, I believe, in the late 1980s, with the famous trumpet player and educator, Wynton Marsalis, as one of the leading founders. In contrast with the 1970s, when I began my national jazz project, there are all sorts of jazz projects offered at the Center, including a middle school jazz academy that provides jazz instructions, Essentially Ellington, a high school jazz band program workshop, jazz instructions for children of all ages, festivals, and national radio programs.

In 1970, there was an occasional Jazz at the Philharmonic program featuring jazz legends such as Duke Ellington, but little more. I don’t think Billy Taylor lectured there in the early 1970s. In 1970, I suggested to Mr. Taylor that he give a lecture free of charge in the Lincoln Center library and he replied that he did enough charity work with Jazz Mobile and felt that he should be paid to give a lecture at Lincoln Center.

I believe the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra performs in the Frederick P. Rose Hall and there is also an atrium, Dizzy’s Club Coca-Cola, where jazz bands perform nightly, and an educational center. See the Jazz at Lincoln Center web site, where I got most of this information, jalc.org. The mission of the orchestra, with the help of private donors, is to bring jazz to national and international audiences as it tours the world under the direction of Wynton Marsalis. The musicians are among the finest in the world, and they are performing jazz masterpieces, including those of Duke Ellington, to national and international audiences.

The Nesuhi Ertegun Jazz Hall of Fame is named in honor of Mr. Ertegun, who, along with his brother Ahmet, founded Atlantic Records in about the 1940s. The brothers’ father was the Turkish ambassador to the United States in the 1930s, and because of their love of jazz, Nesuhi and Ahmet invited Duke Ellington and Lester Young and some white musicians to perform jazz concerts at the embassy to integrated audiences.

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Wynton Marsalis was only nine years old and was attending school in Louisiana with his siblings when I started my national music project: to get jazz performed in concert halls throughout America and to try to convince directors of large cultural complexes such as Lincoln Center to establish a jazz repertory orchestra so that the orchestra’s fine playing could be heard all over the world. And it was Wynton Marsalis who successfully brought back pure jazz and established the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra and Repertory Company more than 20 years ago! A Columbia Artists executive told me that such an orchestra was a definite must and that I should encourage Billy Taylor and his jazz colleagues to help form a jazz repertory orchestra–and this was 1972.

I have never met Wynton Marsalis personally but have read some of his books on music, including “Jazz in the Bittersweet Blues of Life” and “Moving to Higher Ground,” a discussion of jazz and democracy. I also gave two copies of “Jazz ABZ” to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts’ library. Wynton is dedicated to keeping jazz alive whether through his teaching, lectures, outreach programs to secondary schools nationwide, concerts, and books, as well as his position as artistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center. Under Wynton’s direction, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra has become one of the finest orchestras in the world that emphasizes Duke Ellington’s compositions. Wynton could be earning millions more by performing rock and pop music, but has chosen instead to play America’s only original art form, jazz, which has its roots in the African American culture, a culture that is not a minority but central to American culture itself, and these are Wynton’s words. He is continuing Billy Taylor and Duke Ellington’s legacy, that is, he is playing, writing about, and composing jazz.

And even Wynton Marsalis’ young people’s concerts at Lincoln Center are reminiscent of Leonard Bernstein’s ease in communicating music theory and harmony to very young children at the philharmonic 50 years ago!

The Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra has many CDs available, including They Came to Swing.

If you have purchased a copy of the audio book or ebook, please let us know what you think. How did the story touch you?

If you have not yet purchased a copy of the audio book or ebook, please get your copy from Amazon.com.

All proceeds from the sale of the audio book and ebook will be donated to the Duke Ellington School of the Arts in Washington, DC.

Thank you for your support.

After hearing the announcement of his death on the news (referred to repeatedly by newscasters as the author of The Best and The Brightest, event though he wrote twenty-one other books and hundreds of magazine articles, especially for Harper’s and Vanity Fair), my thoughts immediately returned to the summer of 1958, when I met Blanche Halberstam, David’s mother, and was a guest at her apartment in Winsted, Connecticut. At that time, my brother Ronald and I had been invited by the owners of the residence (a Connecticut judge and his family) where she lived to spend the weekend at their home and to do some sightseeing, which certainly appealed to me! I was given a guest room in Mrs. Halberstam’s apartment to avoid overcrowding in the main residence, which was a stately New England Mansion.

I remember her vividly, a tall, vivacious, beautiful woman about 50 years of age, with a classic profile that even Hollywood stars would envy, and beautiful white (almost platinum) hair worn in an up-swept style similar to a French twist, which was a popular style during the fifties. She explained that she was a widow (I believe Dr. Halberstam, an army surgeon, died before his 5oth birthday of a sudden heart attack), had raised two wonderful sons, and was so devoted to her husband’s memory that she would never dream of remarrying. She spent her days teaching at an elementary school in Winsted, Connecticut, and returned to her home each night to read and to wait to hear from her sons. Her apartment was beautifully furnished and filled with books and current magazines.

Michael, her oldest son, had recently graduated from medical school, had gotten married, and was practicing medicine in Alaska because he wanted to help indigenous people. Blanche explained that Michael’s marriage must have “been made in heaven” because he and his wife were so devoted to each other. Their marriage wasn’t based on a 50-50 commitment, she emphasized, but a 100% commitment by each party, and Blanche’s observation would prove to be correct in 1980, when Michael was murdered by an intruder in h is Washington home and his wife remained dedicated to his memory.

David, at the time, she continued, had graduated from Harvard and was a journalist covering the civil rights movement in the South for a southern newspaper and was looking forward to a successful career in journalism. Years later, I read that he was one of the principal journalists from the North who covered the Emmett Till murder trial, which, it has been stated, started the civil rights movement in the United States and brought world attention to the problems in the South. There were times during this period when Blanche did not hear from David and feared for his safety, only to learn that he had been busy covering events that proved to be of great historic significance. The rest of David’s career is now an important part of history.

Blanche was very proud of her family’s Jewish heritage, and I read in later years that David’s paternal grandfather had been an orthodox rabbi in New York City. Little did we realize that weekend during the summer of 1958 that David would go on to be one of the New York Times’ finest journalists, would cover Vietnam, and for his courage and talent in writing about the war in Southeast Asia, would receive the Pulitzer prize at the age of 30 and would go on to write twenty-one non-fiction books, each of which is considered peerless.

Following that weekend visit, I exchanged letters with Blanche for a while and through my brother and friends heard that she lived a very long, useful, and enjoyable life. Rest in peace, Mr. Halberstam, we will miss you.

In the spring of 1974, after working steadily in book publishing in New York for four years, I decided to take a break from the pressures of a full-time job, and of commuting to work as a freelance editor for various publishers. The previous year I had worked as a proofreader and copy editor for Unitron Graphics, a New York printing company that had been a pioneer in the use of computerized typesetting and that produced some beautifully written books about Judaic studies for KTAV Publishing House, some of which I copy edited.

So in 1974, realizing that I would enjoy working for KTAV (which translates as “life” in English), I sent a letter to Bernard Scharfstein, the editorial director, in which I explained that I had recently edited and proofread some of his publications at Unitron and would enjoy working for KTAV on a freelance basis. After all, I had a degree plus a few years of graduate work in foreign and comparative literature, which traces the development of literary movements in various European countries, studying the similarities and differences–that is, I was accustomed to studying different cultures, languages, and religions.

In his reply, Mr. Scharfstein offered me a freelance editorial position that would require me to do most of my work at KTAV. This way, if I had any questions about my work, he and the editorial staff at KTAV could answer them readily. Furthermore, because of my previous experience with KTAV publications, I knew that some of the manuscripts would require careful, substantive editing, which I was willing to provide on site.

The following Monday I took a subway to East Broadway, a very old neighborhood that was the location of KTAV at that time and frequently served as the locale for some of Isaac Bashevis Singer’s most memorable stories. Because I was a half hour early, I decided to have breakfast at a nearby cafeteria, and as I sat down to begin to eat, I was joined by a lovely appearing woman who looked no more than fifty. We began to converse and I mentioned that although I did not have a background in Judaic studies, I was on my way to work at KTAV. Sadly, she shook her head and said, “Everyone should be like you. I was in a concentration camp during World War II because of my faith and background and even saw women and children killed. Why children, when they had done nothing wrong?” She then showed me a series of numbers that had been tattooed on her arm as proof of her incarceration.

“But today you have Israel and so much beautiful literature is being written about it, and the world’s most famous conductors including Leonard Bernstein and Zubin Mehta have conducted the Israeli Philharmonic Orchestra. Israel is truly wondrous, with its very strong defense, self-determination, magnificent universities, and respect it has received worldwide,” I countered.

“But we didn’t have Israel then–we had no place to go.” she continued. “In the end the Americans helped us, America always helps everyone.”

I then wished her a good day and continued on my way to KTAV. I soon approached a very old three-story red brick building, which housed KTAV. The layout was very efficient: the warehouse–indeed, a library–which housed thousands of hardcover and some paperback books, was located on the second and third floors.

After meeting Bernard Scharfstein, a handsome six-foot-plus publisher very much like Carly Simon’s father, Richard, who had founded Simon & Schuster, and then his brother, Sol, and his 84-year old father, Asher, I started to edit various manuscripts whose topics would include:

* Zionism and the founding state of Israel
* Religious and cultural Judaic studies written by leading American, Israeli and European scholars
* Shtetl life, a European community for people of the Jewish faith that existed between 1900 and 1941
* European ghetto life in general (enforced between 1938 and 1944)
* Several aspects of the Diaspora

KTAV also publishes books describing various religious customs and holidays. I was able to edit the English texts very carefully, and because I did not know Hebrew, in-house editors corrected both the Hebrew characters and transliterations, as is the case in most publishing houses in their treatment of foreign languages.

One morning Mr. Scharfstein’s brother, Sol, showed me a KTAV textbook depicting student life during the Warsaw ghetto: elementary school children are shown at their desks in mid-January wearing winter coats only because the occupying government would not heat the schools. And the Scharfstein family alone lost more to discuss this topic directly in illustrated textbooks for elementary schoolchildren.

“If your editorial staff, which is comprised of employees of various faiths and backgrounds, can get along, why can’t entire nations?” I asked Mr. Scharfstein.

“Yes,” he replied, “we at KTAV are of different faiths and backgrounds, yet we get along!”

I freelanced for KTAV for two years and was impressed with the optimism and sense of hope that pervaded its textbooks, and upon leaving, the words “never generalize” and “never scapegoat an individual or group of individuals because of problems in our society, economic or otherwise,” came to mind because this kind of negative thinking can lead to disaster.[1]
Surprisingly, my experience at KTAV proved to be very helpful when I began working at Arnold & Porter in Washington in the 1980′s. In a conversation with Harold Luks, Arnold & Porter’s internationl trade specialist as well as a specialist on the Middle East Peace Process, I begin to discuss various publications that I had edited for KTAV. From that time until I left Arnold & Porter’s in 1996, I edited most of his documents pertaining to Israel, especially the ones he drafted following the Peace Accord that was signed in September 1993. Once again, an experience in multiculturalism and diversity proved to be very rewarding.

[1] For anyone interested in learning more about the period 1933-1945, I recommend visiting the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, located at 100 Raoul Wallenberg Place, S.W., Washington, D.C., or call 202-488-0400. Andrew Hollinger, assistant director of communications and media relations for the museum, generously provided the impressive photos that appear in this article.