Barbara Morrison. Photo by Tony Maddox
UPDATED – March 23, 2022
Barbara Morrison died March 16, 2022 in Los Angeles. She was 72.
The first of what are expected to be several events to honor and celebrate Ms. Morrison’s life will be from 11 a.m.-1 p.m. , Saturday, March 26 at The Congregational Church of Christian Fellowship, 2085 S. Hobart Blvd., L.A. Parking is limited.
At 2 p.m. following the public viewing, a celebration of Morrison’s life with live music, eulogies and reminiscences, will take place in and around The Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center, 4305 Degnan Blvd., #101, L.A.
“When Barbara was in the hospital, expecting to recover from cardiovascular disease, I promised her she didn’t to worry about her expenses,” says Cathy Segal-Garcia, memorial organizer. “We started a GoFundMe page, with the goal of covering her expenses until she was back on her feet.” That page has raised more that $16,000.
The campaign is now raising funds to cover Morrison’s funeral and estate expenses. “If you are moved to give back to Barbara some of the joy she has given to you,” says Segal-Garcia, “please consider visiting the page.” – https://www.gofundme.com/f/help-the-incredible-barbara-morrison
By Steve Simmons – published at 5:38 p.m., Sept. 18,2020
Legendary jazz and blues singer Barbara Morrison cares so much about keeping the memory of jazz greats alive, especially those with a connection to the Golden State, that she opened the California Jazz & Blues Museum in Leimert Park to honor them.
To raise funds for the museum’s expansion and move to its new home, she’s presenting the 3rd Annual California Jazz & Blues Museum Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony & Concert as a viral facebook streaming event at 8 p.m., Sunday, Sept. 20 at https://www.facebook.com/barbaramorrisonpac/ from The Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center in Leimert Park.
The event, emceed by Jay Jackson,(Parks & Recreation, former CBS@/KCAL9 reporter) and Albert Edmund Lord III, (deputy, office of Councilmember for District 10, Herb J. Wesson, Jr) was pre-taped earlier this week and will feature performances by Morrison, singer Dante Chambers, the quartet of Charles Small, guitar; Michael Saucier, bass; Peter Buck, drums and Bernie Pearl, guitar all directed and choreographed by Chester Whitmore.
Morrison also will introduce a new song written by Michael Saucier and herself called Put Your Mask On. “I thought it would be something fun to do,” says Morrison. “It has a funky, blues feel.” Some of the lyrics read: “Put your mask on, I’m trying to save my life. Put your mask on if you want me to be your wife. Go get the Lysol so I could love you now, because if I found out you that you cheated, I’ll put you six feet in the ground.”
The L.A. Swing Dance Posse will also perform in the program’s opening. There is a $20 donation.(for details see below).
As president of the California Jazz & Blues Museum, Morrison handpicked the honorees, for their “contributions and dedication to the art, many have been in the business for a long time and never got their due.”
“We’re going to celebrate in the garden,” says Morrison, “complete with a step-and-repeat.”
Most the honorees will be seen at the streaming event, with four joining via Zoom.
Inductees to the museum’s Hall of Fame this year, include: Harmony Project Founding Board Member Howard Banchik, trombonist George Bohanon, jazz vocalist Dante Chambers, “The First Couple of Pop and Soul” Marilyn McCoo and Billy Davis, Jr.; blues guitarist Roy Gaines, actresses Marla Gibbs and Gloria Hendry; songstress Freda Payne (Band of Gold), record producer William “Mickey” Stevenson; singer Blinky Willilams (‘Taint Nobody’s Biz-ness If I Do) and pianist Phil Wright.
Growing And Expanding
The museum has outgrown its current 2,000-square foot home and is moving across the street to a revamped 21,000-square-foot facility as the California Jazz & Blues Museum and Performing Arts Complex, at 4299 Leimert Boulevard at 43rd Street in Leimert Park.
The space that was once an auto repair shop, a dry cleaner and a gas station will now house recording studios, classrooms, a Green Room, an outside Jazz Alley, a 200-seat theatre, and the museum. Given the current pandemic situation, Morrison is hopeful the center can open next year. “We are ready.”
“In our newly expanded museum we will have an interactive digital section which will give visitors an opportunity to learn more about the vast historical collection of jazz and blues available in both the museum, and throughout Los Angeles.
Celebrating California’s Contribution
In front of her Barbara Morrison Performing Arts Center is their own version of the Hollywood Walk of Fame, a half-block long Sankofa Passage, “Instead of stars we have triangles with names of African American stars of jazz and blues born in California and those who came from other places.”
Recalls Morrison: “I said ‘wait a minute, we need a brick and mortar space to let people know what these people were about’, some people didn’t even know who they were, and I’m not even from California. We need a museum so people can put picture with a face, with a name on that walk of fame.”
So, in 2016 she opened the museum on Dengan Blvd. in Leimert Park. “to become a repository of artifacts chronicling the history of legendary jazz and blues.” Among the myriad items, most of which are in storage awaiting a home in the new site, are sheet music, arrangements, event programs, large paintings and photos of artists like Nina Simone and Dizzy Gillespie, a painting of Ella Fitzgerald in a red dress and one of her green pantsuits, postcards, one of Della Reese’s gowns and more. She recently got a donation of a grand piano and organ.
A pediatrician who moved to Seattle donated more than $60,000 worth of pictures and books and 6,000 CDs. “He lived in a mansion in Altadena and every room in his mansion was dedicated to jazz music,” Morrison says.
Some of the artists represented in the museum include: Big band trumpeter Gerald Wilson, guitarist Kenny Burrell, singer and pianist Freddy Cole, singer Ella Fitzgerald,, double bassist, pianist, composer and bandleader Charles Mingus; drummer Frank Capp, singer Anita O’Day, string bass and tuba player George Sylvester “Red” Callender, the Jazz Crusaders, high school friends Joe Sample (piano), Wilton Felder (tenor saxophone) and Nesbert “Stix” Hooper (drums); arranger, pianist and songwriter (Here’s to Life) Arthur “Artie” Butler, singer Ernie Andrews, who Morrison says, ‘created the scene” at L.A’s. famed Parisian Room and countless more.
Also in the collection are the drums of Edwin Thomas “Ed” Shaughnessy, long associated with Doc Severinsen, leader of The Tonight Show Band, and the vibraphone of Johnny Otis, a singer, musician, composer, arranger, bandleader, talent scout and more, credited with discovering singer Etta James, also represented at the museum.
On A Mission
Maintaining the museum and a having a busy career (Morrison celebrated her 71st birthday last week) give her the drive to “make sure people know who these people are and what they did.”
She tells of a boy who approached her at the museum and said, “’Miss Morrison, is this down here because it’s a cemetery for old, dead musicians?’ He was little guy about 7 and he was a drummer. And he said, ‘I don’t see a picture of Max Roach.’” A pioneer of bebop, Roach, who died in 2007 is considered one of the most important drummers in history.
Coincidentally, years earlier, Morrison had been on tour in Edinburgh and encountered a lady cleaning out a jazz club and throwing out pictures. So, Morrison asked if she could have them and while going through a trash can, she found a picture of Roach with famed trumpeter and bandleader Dizzy Gillespie. ‘
“So, when this little boy said we didn’t have a picture of Max Roach I went in the back and made a copy and gave it to him.”
Celebrating her 60th year in the music industry, she also wants people to know about the virtual “Who’s Who” of the jazz and the blues worlds “that I’ve had the great fortune to work with.” The list includes Ray Charles, James Moody, Ron Carter, Etta James, Esther Phillips, David T. Walker, Jimmy Smith, Johnny Otis, Dr. John, Buddy Guy, Kenny Burrell, Terence Blanchard, Joe Sample, Cedar Walton, Nancy Wilson, Mel Tormé, Joe Williams, Tony Bennett, Carlos Santana and Keb’ Mo.
Teaching the next generation
When Morrison came to L.A. in 1973, she says, she told her mother she was in a band and wanted to do a recording. “My mother said, ‘you’re just wasting your time, you’re not educated.’ I sneaked and did it anyway,” Morrison recalls. She went on to record several albums with the Johnny Otis Orchestra between the mid-1970s and early 1990s. She toured Europe and met Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis and Count Basie. “I realized that backstage, I was gathering a wealth of knowledge and doing like mom said.” She saw the world in tours that took her to Canada, Australia, Japan, and the Philippines and met the king of Jordan and President Bill Clinton.
Along with guitarist and composer Kenny Burrell , trumpeter, big band bandleader, composer, arranger and educator Gerald Stanley Wilson; drummer Billy Higgins (coincidentally one of the founders of the World Stage, a storefront performance space and teaching venue in Leimert Park) and singer and owner of The Jazz Bakery Ruth Price, Morrison was instrumental in establishing the jazz studies program at what is now UCLA’s Herb Alpert School of Music.
An adjunct associate professor of Global Jazz Studies, Morrison is now in her 27th year at the university.
Also a firm believer in starting over, Morrison’s center has been an active part of Harmony Project as one of the 16 Community Hubs. The center has hosted an after-school class offering instruments, music lessons, group playing, concert performances, progress and check-ins, field trips, family support and college scholarships. The Los Angeles Harmony project serves 3,500 students across an area of 120 square miles.
Community Support
Knowing she needed a new home in the community for the museum, Morrison called the phone number on the “For Sale” sign on the corner complex she had her eye on. “A guy came out and showed me the place, but then I didn’t hear back”. So she called the owner who apologized. “He told me that he told his associate, ‘when you heard who it was Barbara Morrison why didn’t you give me the phone.’ It turns out his parents used to take him to the Catalina Jazz Club to see me or Shirley Horn.
“He told me to send him my plans and tell him what I want to do and we’ll make that happen. Everybody in this community is a partner.”
The 3rd Annual California Jazz & Blues Museum Hall of Fame Induction Donations may be made at: https://www.facebook.com/barbaramorrisonpac/, https://www.paypal.com/paypalme/BarbaraMorrison
Cash App: $bmorrblues; Zelle: bmorrblues@aol.com
