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Tanya Bickley Enterprises TBE Book Store - Direct Orders |
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Tanya Bickley Enterprises TBE Book Store - Direct Orders |
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You can order directly from us on this web page the following recordings: the Frederick Douglass's Greatest Speeches audio series and Darryl Tookes' album, Babies &Balloons. In addition, click here to view the list of recordings and writings of people whom TBE represents. When you click on their books, you will enter Amazon.com immediately. |
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Frederick Douglass "Frederick Douglass's Greatest Speeches," a spoken word, audio series produced by TBM Records and delivered by Fred Morsell. For more information, click here. ISBN:1883210003 (audio cassette); 1883210011 (compact disc) TITLE: The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro, also known as Frederick Douglass's Fifth of July Speech ("Frederick Douglass's Greatest Speeches" spoken word series) AUTHOR: Douglass, Frederick EDITED BY: Frederick A. Morsell RECORDING ARTIST: Fred Morsell RECORDING ENGINEER: Eric Garrison PUBLICATION DATE: 01/01/93 DESCRIPTION: July 5, 2002 is the 150th birthday of "The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro," also known as "Frederick Douglass's Fifth of July Speech." Order this album and take part in a recognition of one of Douglass's greatest speeches! Before radio and television, Americans flocked to churches, tents and lecture halls to be entertained and enlightened. In that age of oratory, many judged Frederick Douglass to have had the greatest voice. The Rochester (New York) Ladies Anti-Slavery Society in 1852 invited Frederick Douglass to give a Fourth of July Oration commemorating the United States' 76th birthday. Mr. Douglass agreed to speak, but not on that date, saying, "This Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." Delivered on July 5th, 1852 at Corinthian Hall in Rochester, The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro is considered the greatest anti-slavery speech leading to the Civil War. One can only imagine what a magnificent trial lawyer Frederick Douglass would have been! On that July 5th, speaking to a primarily white audience, Mr. Douglass opens by reminding his listeners of the noble truths upon which their forefathers founded the United States. Having drawn his audience in, he proceeds to delineate the horrors of the slave system. Listen at that point for one of the album's highlights, a poignant and horrifying description of a forced slave march to the New Orleans Slave Auction. Mr. Douglass concludes with a breathtaking call upon all Americans, and especially people of color, to make the freedoms and justice celebrated on the 4th of July a reality for all Americans. PUBCOMMENTS: TBM Records is particularly honored that a short audio segment from The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro is included in an article on Frederick Douglass published in the Microsoft Encarta 2000 Multi-Media Encyclopedia. In a 1993 blurb written for the first two albums in the Frederick Douglass's Greatest Speeches spoken word series, Warren M. Robbins, Founder of the National Museum of African Art and the Frederick Douglass Institute, wrote, "These are truly outstanding recordings of great educational value to teachers and totally inspiring to students. More than any other performer, Fred Morsell becomes Frederick Douglass and is thrilling to listen to." Since 1993, the albums have been regularly available at the Smithsonian; at Frederick Douglass's home, "Cedar Hill" in Anacostia, across the Potomac from Washington, D.C.; at the National Women's Historical Park in Seneca Falls, New York; and at the African American Museum in Wilberforce, Ohio. REVIEW: "These speeches, here re-created by Fred Morsell, are the first releases in an audio series entitled "Frederick Douglass's Greatest Speeches" that seeks to spread awareness of the words of one of the nation's greatest orators and advocates of civil rights for all. Douglass (1818-1895) delivered "The Meaning of the Fourth of July for the Negro"–considered the greatest anti-slavery speech leading to the Civil War–following an 1852 request by the Rochester (New York) Ladies Anti-slavery Society that he speak at an Independence Day rally. The abolitionist and former slave agreed, but insisted that the date be changed to July 5, declaring that "the Fourth of July is yours, not mine. You may rejoice, I must mourn." (American History Illustrated, July/August 1993) "The speeches are powerfully delivered here by Fred Morsell, a stage and television actor, and would be useful to classes in American history as well as black studies." (John E. Miller, Troy City Schools, Ohio, School Library Journal, August 1993) "Ages 14-adult. In 1852, Frederick Douglass was invited to give a patriotic speech commemorating our country's seventy-sixth birthday. The talk, delivered deliberately on July 5, is considered one of the greatest anti-slavery speeches given prior to the Civil War.... Fred Morsell, an actor who often portrays Douglass in a one-man play, superbly delivers these historic speeches. This is first-class, primary-source material that will be of value in school, college, and public libraries." (S. Gilmary Speirs, Booklist, 12/15/93) AUTHORBIO: 19th century America's most famous Afro-American leader, renowned at home and abroad as an orator, abolitionist, organizer and publisher, Frederick Douglass was also a self-proclaimed "woman's rights man." Death has not silenced him and he has taken his place with Lincoln and Jefferson as one of America's greatest citizens. Upon his shoulders stand Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Barbara Jordan, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and millions of private citizens whose thirst and quest for justice and humanity have been inspired by Douglass's life, writings and example. Born a slave near the Wye Plantation on the eastern shore of Maryland, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) knew the personal agony and fury of slavery and escaped the slave system in mind, body and soul. While still in physical bondage, he taught himself to read and write and began to gain an appreciation of the power of the spoken word to bring about change. He escaped north in 1838 and immediately sent for Anna Murray, a free black woman whom he had met and fallen in love with while living in Baltimore. After their marriage in New York City by the famous black preacher James W. Pennington, they traveled to New Bedford, Massachusetts, found work, made their home, and began their family. A voracious reader, Douglass also became a literate man. About Anna Murray Douglass, Frederick Douglass once said, "While it is true that Anna never learned to read and write, she was the source and strength of all my success in the formative and as well as the maturing years of my life, a companion who was truly a helpmate." Anna died in August 1882, one month short of their 44th wedding anniversary. In January 1884, Mr. Douglass married Helen Pitts, a college trained white woman and abolitionist who had been his secretary in the Recorder of Deeds' office in Washington, D.C. Theirs was a happy marriage. After her husband's death, Helen Pitts Douglass fought to keep Frederick Douglass's memory alive and his "Cedar Hill" home in Anacostia, belongings and writing secure for future generations. Having "the heart to conceive, the head to contrive, and the hand to execute," Frederick Douglass gave his first public, anti-slavery speech on August 11, 1841 on the steps of Nantucket Island's public library, the Atheneum, during a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Thus began one of the most remarkable public lives in American history. With an intelligence and eloquence rarely matched, Frederick Douglass in speeches, newspaper pieces and autobiographies, described racial injustice in America. Mr. Douglass achieved international prominence as an abolitionist, publisher of The North Star, advisor to Abraham Lincoln and a defender of women's rights. Considered by many to be the father of the civil rights movement in the United States, Frederick Douglass called upon all Americans, and especially people of color, to struggle and work to make the society envisioned by the Declaration of Independence a reality for Americans of all races, colors, classes and gender. He held several major government jobs as Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C.. Marshall of the District of Washington, and Minister General to the Republic of Haiti. In August 1855, the Liberty Party nominated Douglass for the office of Secretary of State of New York, the first African American to be accorded such an honor. At his death, Frederick Douglass was America's best known and most distinguished African-American leader. Many people are of the opinion that Mr. Douglass's noble head belongs on Mt. Rushmore. Frederick Douglass's three autobiographies are Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, Written by Himself; My Bondage and My Freedom and The Life and Times of Frederick Douglass. Many of his speeches, letters and newspaper pieces are found in Philip Foner's five volume set, The Life and Writings of Frederick Douglass (International Publishers). A scholarly essay by Professor Foner begins each volume. At least thirty-five reels of materials on Frederick Douglass are available on microfilm at the Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. EXCERPTS: "The cause of your fathers grew stronger as it breasted the chilling blasts of kingly displeasure. But, with the blindness which seems to be the unvarying characteristic of tyrants, since Pharaoh and his hosts were drowned in the Red Sea, the British government persisted in the exactions complained of. Oppression makes a wise man mad. Your fathers were wise men, and if they did not go mad, they became restive under this treatment. They felt themselves the victims of grievous wrongs, wholly incurable in their colonial capacity. With brave men there is always a remedy for oppression. Just here, the idea of a total separation of the colonies from the crown was born! It was a startling idea, much more so than we, at this distance of time, regard it. The timid and the prudent of that day were, of course, shocked and alarmed by it. Some people lived then, had lived before, and will, probably, ever have a place on this planet, to hate all change. Their opposition to the then dangerous thought was earnest and powerful; but, amid all their terror and affrighted vociferations against it, the alarming and revolutionary idea moved on, and the country with it." "The coming into being of a nation, in any circumstances, is an interesting event. But, there were peculiar circumstances which make the advent of this republic an event of special attractiveness. The whole scene, as I look back at it, was simple, dignified and sublime. The population of the country, at the time, stood at the insignificant number of three millions; it was weak and scattered. The country was a wilderness unsubdued, and it was poor in the munitions of war. From the Potomac to the Delaware was a journey of many days. Under these, and innumerable other disadvantages, your fathers declared for liberty and independence and triumphed. The signers of the Declaration of Independence were brave men. They were great men, too - great enough to give frame to a great age. It does not often happen to a nation to raise, at one time, such a number of truly great men. The point from which I am compelled to view them is not, certainly, the most favorable; and yet I cannot contemplate their great deeds with less than admiration. They were statesmen and heroes, and for the good they did, and the principles they contended for, I will unite with you to honor their memory." "I am not included within the pale of this glorious anniversary. Your high independence only reveals the immeasurable distance between us. The blessings in which you, this day, rejoice, are not enjoyed in common. The justice, liberty, prosperity and independence, bequeathed by your fathers, is shared by you, not me. This fourth of July is yours, not mine. You my rejoice, I must mourn. To drag a man in fetters into the grand illuminated temple of liberty, and call upon him to join you in joyous anthems, were inhuman mockery and sacrilegious irony. Do you mean, citizens, to mock me, by asking me to speak today? Above your national, tumultuous joy, I hear the mournful wail of millions whose chains, heavy and grievous yesterday, are, today, rendered more intolerable by the jubilee shouts that reach them. If I do forget, if I do not faithfully remember those bleeding children of sorrow this day, and instead chime in with popular theme, I would be a reproach before God and the world. My subject, then, today, fellow-citizens, is American slavery." "What, am I to argue that it is wrong to make men brutes, wrong to rob them of their liberty, wrong to work them without wages, wrong to keep them ignorant of their relations to their fellow men, wrong to beat them with sticks, wrong to flay their flesh with the lash, wrong to load their limbs with irons, wrong to hunt them with dogs, wrong to sell them at auction, wrong to sunder their families, wrong to knock out their teeth, wrong to burn their flesh, wrong to starve them into obedience and submission to their masters? What then remains to be argued? ... At a time like this, light, fire, scorching irony, not convincing argument is needed. Not the gentle shower, but thunder, storm, whirlwind, and earthquake. The feeling of the nation must be quickened; the conscience of the nation must be roused; the propriety of the nation must be startled; the hypocrisy of the nation must be exposed. ISBN:188321002X (audio cassette); 1883210038 (compact disc) TITLE: The Lesson of The Hour, Why The Negro Is Lynched ("Frederick Douglass's Greatest Speeches" spoken word series) AUTHOR: Douglass, Frederick EDITED BY: Frederick A. Morsell RECORDING ARTIST: Fred Morsell RECORDING ENGINEER: Eric Garrison PUBLICATION DATE: 01/01/93 DESCRIPTION: In 1892 Frederick Douglass represented the Republic of Haiti at the Chicago World's Fair, also known as the Columbian Exposition. At this, the first of the great world fairs, the United States' exhibit did not acknowledge the culture, history, contributions, intellect or talent of a single Afro-American man or woman. While in Chicago, Frederick Douglass met Ida B. Wells, the intrepid and courageous, black anti-lynching crusader and journalist, who gave him first hand accounts of the lynchings she had seen throughout the South. Summarily executed, primarily on the charge of rape, hundreds of black men were losing their lives to what Douglass called "mobocrats." That the rights and justice so sorely fought for during the Civil War and aspired to during Reconstruction were being overridden by an epidemic of mob violence, racism and color prejudice had enraged and disheartened the despondent Frederick Douglass. Miss Wells' fervor re-kindled Douglass's fiery spirit to write one last, great speech. Two years later, having refined his thoughts in several newspaper pieces, and, at age 76, Mr. Douglass delivered "The Lesson of the Hour: Why the Negro Is Lynched" at the historic Metropolitan A.M.E. Church in Washington, D.C. The speech describes the persistent causes of racism in America, condemns lynch law, and proposes a solution: justice. PUBCOMMENTS: Mr. Morsell delivered The Lesson of the Hour on Sunday, January 9, 1994, at Washington, D.C.'s historic Metropolitan A.M.E. Church on the speech's exact 100th anniversary. The Washington Post gave the event front page coverage, which resulted in Bill Moyers' reading the story and inviting Mr. Morsell to return to Washington to film the speech for the February 1994 Bill Moyers Journal. TBM Records' producer Tanya Bickley adds, "One of my most powerful memories sees Fred Morsell, in preparation for his performance, quietly walking down the aisle to the pew where Mr. Douglass customarily sat. Fred stood behind the pew, ran his hands over the back of the pew, and remained in repose for several minutes. He then walked back down the aisle, spoke briefly with the director, and Mr. Moyers' crew began to film." Of that performance The New York Times (February 18, 1994) said, "Even 100 years later, sadly enough, the speech goes to the very heart of the black experience in America. The standing ovation given Mr. Morsell is clearly and deservedly heartfelt." REVIEW: "On The Lesson of The Hour, Frederick Douglass's Greatest Speeches (TBM), Fred Morsell ... dramatizes "The Lesson of The Hour," the great speech Douglass delivered in January 1894, the year before his death. Other speeches on this recording presented so convincingly by Morsell include "My Right To Speak," "Why Is The Negro Lynched?', "Goal of Negro Persecution: Disenfranchisement," "Negro Problem: The Final Solution" and "Negro Problem: The True Solution". (Ebony, "Sounding Off," February 1997) "Yesterday actor Fred Morsell stood in costume at the same pulpit of the Metropolitan AME Church where Douglass had stood, and delivered to a modern congregation the great abolitionist's famous speech on "The Lesson of the Hour." And if a hundred years had recast the villains somewhat, his words had a chilling pertinence in the streets of the nation's capital.... Douglass's words were met by loud applause...Hundreds lined the altar rail after the service to meet Morsell and to congratulate DeVeaux on his sermon." (The Washington Post, January 10, 1994) "These speeches, here re-created by Fred Morsell, are the first releases in an audio series entitled "Frederick Douglass's Greatest Speeches" that seeks to spread awareness of the words of one of the nation's greatest orators and advocates of civil rights for all." (American History Illustrated, July/August 1993) "The speeches are powerfully delivered here by Fred Morsell, a stage and television actor, and would be useful to classes in American history as well as black studies." ( John E. Miller, Troy City Schools, Ohio, School Library Journal, August 1993) "Ages 14-adult. ... "The Lesson of the Hour," Douglass's last great speech, written the year before his death in 1895, traces the roots of racism as they developed during Reconstruction; regretfully, they speak of racial attitudes still prevalent in our country. Fred Morsell, an actor who often portrays Douglass in a one-man play, superbly delivers these historic speeches. This is first-class, primary-source material that will be of value in school, college, and public libraries." (S. Gilmary Speirs, Booklist, 12/15/93) AUTHORBIO:19th century America's most famous Afro-American leader, renowned at home and abroad as an orator, abolitionist, organizer and publisher, Frederick Douglass was also a self-proclaimed "woman's rights man." Death has not silenced him and he has taken his place with Lincoln and Jefferson as one of America's greatest citizens. Upon his shoulders stand Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Barbara Jordan, Eleanor Holmes Norton, and millions of private citizens whose thirst and quest for justice and humanity have been inspired by Douglass's life, writings and example. Born a slave near the Wye Plantation on the eastern shore of Maryland, Frederick Douglass (1818-1895) knew the personal agony and fury of slavery and escaped the slave system in mind, body and soul. While still in physical bondage, he taught himself to read and write and began to gain an appreciation of the power of the spoken word to bring about change. He escaped north in 1838 and immediately sent for Anna Murray, a free black woman whom he had met and fallen in love with while living in Baltimore. After their marriage in New York City by the famous black preacher James W. Pennington, they traveled to New Bedford, Massachusetts, found work, made their home, and began their family. A voracious reader, Douglass also became a literate man. About Anna Murray Douglass, Frederick Douglass once said, "While it is true that Anna never learned to read and write, she was the source and strength of all my success in the formative and as well as the maturing years of my life, a companion who was truly a helpmate." Anna died in August 1882, one month short of their 44th wedding anniversary. In January 1884, Mr. Douglass married Helen Pitts, a college trained white woman and abolitionist who had been his secretary in the Recorder of Deeds' office in Washington, D.C. Theirs was a happy marriage. After her husband's death, Helen Pitts Douglass fought to keep Frederick Douglass's memory alive and his "Cedar Hill" home in Anacostia, belongings and writing secure for future generations. Having "the heart to conceive, the head to contrive, and the hand to execute," Frederick Douglass gave his first public, anti-slavery speech on August 11, 1841 on the steps of Nantucket Island's public library, the Atheneum, during a meeting of the Massachusetts Anti-Slavery Society. Thus began one of the most remarkable public lives in American history. With an intelligence and eloquence rarely matched, Frederick Douglass in speeches, newspaper pieces and autobiographies, described racial injustice in America. Mr. Douglass achieved international prominence as an abolitionist, publisher of The North Star, advisor to Abraham Lincoln and a defender of women's rights. Considered by many to be the father of the civil rights movement in the United States, Frederick Douglass called upon all Americans, and especially people of color, to struggle and work to make the society envisioned by the Declaration of Independence a reality for Americans of all races, colors, classes and gender. He held several major government jobs as Recorder of Deeds in Washington, D.C.. Marshall of the District of Washington, and Minister General to the Republic of Haiti. In August 1855, the Liberty Party nominated Douglass for the office of Secretary of State of New York, the first Afro-American to be accorded such an honor. At his death, Frederick Douglass was America's best known and most distinguished Afro-American leader. Many people are of the opinion that Mr. Douglass's noble head belongs on Mt. Rushmore. TOC:
EXCERPTS: "There is a perfect epidemic of mob law and mob persecution now prevailing at the South, and the indications of a speedy end are not hopeful. It is now increasing, not only in the number of its victims, but in its frantic rage and savage extravagance. Lawless vengeance is beginning to be visited upon white men as well as black. Our newspapers are daily disfigured by its ghastly horrors. It is no longer local, but national; no longer confined to the South but has invaded the North. The spreading contagion, if permitted to go on, threatens to destroy all respect for law and order, not only in the South but in all parts of our common country. For certain it is, that crime allowed to go unpunished, unresisted and unarrested, will breed crime. Though it may strike down the weak today, it will strike down the strong tomorrow." "I do not pretend that Negroes are saints and angels. I do not deny that they are capable of committing the crime imputed to them. But I do utterly deny that they are any more addicted to the commission of that crime than is true to any other variety of the human family..." "I know that the moral atmosphere about me is not favorable to my cause. The sentiment left by slavery is still with us. And the moral vision of the American people is still darkened by its presence. It is the misfortune of the colored people of this country that the sins of the few are visited more or less upon the many..." "What is the special charge by which mob law is excused and defended even by good men north and south? It is a charge of recent origin: a charge never brought before: a charge never heard of in the time of slavery or in any other time in our country. It is a charge of assaults by Negroes upon white women. This charge, this new charge, is certain to raise a mob and to subject the accused to immediate torture and death. It is nothing that there may be a mistake as to his identity. It is nothing that the victim pleads "not guilty." It is nothing that the accused is of a fair reputation and his accuser is of an abandoned character. It is nothing that the majesty of the law is defied and insulted; no time is allowed for defense or explanation. The victim is bound with cords, hurried off amid the frantic yells and curses of the mob to the scaffold, and there, under its shadow, he is tortured, till by pain or promises, he is made to think that he can possibly gain time or save his life by confession. He does confess and then, whether guilty or innocent, shot, hanged, stabbed or burned to death. When the will of the mob is accomplished, the world, hearing only the testimony of the mob, generally approves its verdict." "A fierce and frenzied mob is not and ought not be deemed a competent witness against any man accused of any crime whatever. Blinded by its own fury, the mob is moved by impulses utterly unfavorable to a clear impartial perception of facts...." "Slavery itself you will remember was a system of unmitigated legalized outrage upon black women of the South. And no white man was ever shot, ever burned or ever hanged for availing himself of all the power that slavery gave him over the black woman..." "This term, "Negro Problem," is a formula of southern origin and has a strong bias against the Negro. It is a crafty invention. It handicaps his cause with all the prejudice known to exist. It springs out of a desire to throw off responsibility. Its natural effect and purpose is to divert attention from the true issue now before the American people. It does this by taking that which is really a great national problem and which ought to be so considered by the American people and dwarfing it into the "Negro Problem." The device is not new. It is an old trick. For truth, it gives us falsehood. For innocence, it gives us guilt. It removes the burden of proof from the old master class and imposes it upon the Negro.....Now, the real problem involves the question, whether after all our boasted civilization;, our sublime Christianity, our wise statesmanship, we as a people possess virtue enough to solve this problem in accordance with wisdom and justice, and to the advantage of both races." "Do not ask me what will be the final result of the so-called Negro problem. I cannot tell you. I have sometimes thought the American people are too great to be small. Too just and magnanimous to oppress the weak...I have fondly hoped that this estimate of American character would soon cease to be contradicted or put in doubt. But events have made me doubtful..." "[This national problem] cannot be solved by keeping the Negro poor, degraded, ignorant and half-starved...It can be done and very easily done...Let the white people of the North and the South conquer their prejudices...." "The real question is can the Negro be a citizen in the United States of America...Well, can the Negro be educated? Can the Negro be induced to work for himself without a master? Can the Negro be a soldier? Time and events have answered these and all other like questions in the affirmative...Yet, we are all called a problem." The Meaning of the 4th of July for the Negro by Frederick Douglass Audio CD edition $14.00 plus $4.50 shipping and handling. The Meaning of the 4th of July for the Negro by Frederick Douglass - Audio Cassette edition $12.00 plus $4.50 shipping and handling. The Lesson of the Hour by Frederick Douglass - Audio CD edition $14.00 plus $4.50 shipping and handling. The Lesson of the Hour by Frederick Douglass - Audio Cassette edition $12.00 plus $4.50 shipping and handling. (shipping and handling U. S. Postal Service Priority Mail & Delivery Confirmation.)
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New England Morning TBM Records 2002, released April 2003 UPC: 659057-519128 $14.95 plus postage Songs:
Recording Engineer: Mark Conese, Ambient Recording Company NEW ENGLAND MORNING The Album New England Morning is Darryl Tookes’ sixth solo album. Culminating Mr. Tookes’ and Joseph Joubert’s ten-year partnership as singer/composer and arranger/ accompanist, the album is arranged with the color and palette of a full orchestra in mind and contains a cornucopia of twelve love songs, seven Tookes originals and five cover songs. Darryl Tookes’ voice and Joseph Joubert’s piano pour out together, an elixir of liquid gold. Released by TBM Records in April 2003, the album was nominated for seven Grammy’s: Record of the Year, Album of the Year, Song of the Year (“New England Morning”), Best Pop Duo or Group with Vocal (“Tomorrow’s Never Promised”), Best Pop Vocal Album, Best Instrumental Composition (“New England Morning”), and Best Producer. Freshly painted by the Tookes/Joubert musical imagination, the album’s dozen songs are expressive and conversational, vulnerable and honest, personal and intimate. They include “Perfect One,” an ode to long, loyal love; the beloved “The King of Love;” Sting’s “Fields of Gold;” and the Sherwin/ Maschwitz classic “A Nightingale Sang in Berkeley Square.” On the last track, Darryl Tookes sings the album’s title song, “New England Morning,” accompanied by Joseph Joubert and a live 65-piece orchestra performing Mr. Joubert’s soaring, lyrical arrangement. About, New England Morning, the song, Tookes says, “It is a painting in which one sees through metaphor one’s deepest passions, one’s real self, one’s distant dream. It’s the acceptance that life is what you make it, that life can be beautiful, if only we are willing to see it that way. It’s the paen of a very tired man who awakens from a dream and trusts that his life is yet worthwhile. And, isn’t that the real point?” Recorded on an entirely new digital audio technology invented by Sony and Philips called Direct Stream Digital (DSD), New England Morning’s warm and natural sound draws listeners into the music in the same way as does a timeless LP played on a fine turntable. Mark Conese recorded Darryl Tookes with a Brauner microphone, custom designed and modified by Klaus Heyne, while Joseph Joubert performed on a Steinway D Concert Grand and was recorded using two Shure microphones. Ambient Audio Labs 1070A microphone pre-amplifiers were used exclusively throughout the recording. Because New England Morning was manufactured as a Hybrid SACD, it can be played on either a standard CD player or on a Super Audio CD (SACD) player. (See www.newenglandmorning.com for a more in-depth explanation of the album’s technology.) However heard, the music is gloriously romantic, the album, an acoustic jewel. Says TBM’s Tanya Bickley, “Like listening to radio late at night, like a soaring arrow sheathed in melody, Darryl’s and Joseph’s music goes straight to the heart, mellow, inspiring, just for you.”
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DARRYL TOOKES
Performing Artist, Composer and Arranger
Darryl Tookes composes, arranges, and performs music in the tradition of his heroes, the grand masters Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Michel LeGrand, Henry Mancini, Burt Bacharach and Duke Ellington. He composes and sings songs about the things that matter: love, pain, joy, and loyalty. Wrapped in soaring melody and lyrics that go straight to the heart. Uplifting songs that make the spirit soar, romantic songs of loyalty between a man and a woman, haunting songs for the broken hearted, sexy songs that set the feet to dancing, peaceful songs that reassure the spirit, and gentle songs that bring men and women, boys and girls home to the goodness in their hearts. Mr. Tookes is available for public or private performances with Joseph Joubert, his chamber trio, or his larger band. He is also available as a guest artist with symphonies, accompanied by Mr. Joubert, who has arranged all of the songs on New England Morning for full orchestra. Tookes & Joubert are also available to compose and arrange scores for film, television and theatre. With more than twenty years’ experience as a singer, pianist, composer and arranger, Mr. Tookes worked on Sting’s multiple Grammy award winning release Brand New Day and performed with its Europe 2000 tour. He has also worked with Elton John, Leonard Bernstein, Aretha Franklin, Carly Simon, Ray Charles, Michael Jackson, Barry Manilow, Quincy Jones, Diana Ross, Roberta Flack, Vanessa Williams, Cristina Aquilera, Dave Grusin, Natalie Cole, Peter, Paul & Mary, George Benson, Gerry Mulligan, Nancy Wilson, Burt Bacharach, Dave Valentin, Vaneese Thomas, Korn, Luther Vandross, Toninho Horta, Darlene Love, Lionel Ritchie, Maya Angelou, Maxi Priest, Dionne Warwick, Carmen McRae, Hubert Laws, Laurie Anderson, Al Jarreau, Jewel, Teddy Pendergrass, Deniece Williams and many others. Mr. Tookes was the pianist and musical director for In Performance at the White House-The Singer and the Song, a PBS Special. President Clinton personally congratulated him on the new life his arrangement brought to George and Ira Gershwin’s “Fascinatin’ Rhythm.” That same year, he toured and recorded with Nile Rogers and Chic and recorded the sacred gospel epic Revelation with Judith Jameson for the Alvin Ailey Dance Company. Darryl has sung in Spanish with Mexico’s legendary Juan Gabriel, in French with superstar Patricia Kaas, and in Japanese with jazz great Katsumi Horii. His television credits include the theme from The Guiding Light, his duet with Diva Gray, “Hold On To Love.” He has appeared on The David Letterman Show, Live with Regis and Kathy Lee, Saturday Night Live, The Rosie O’Donnell Show, and a variety of television entertainment programs. His voice is also a favorite among Sesame Street fans. He also has the distinction of singing on both Grammy Award winning West Side Story albums, one, the last produced by Leonard Bernstein; the other produced by Dave Grusin. An award winning composer and performer of vocal solos for ad campaigns, he has sung on literally thousands of spots for companies including AT&T, the U.S. Army, McDonald’s, Chrysler, Continental Airlines, Olive Garden, Miller Brewing, The NBA, New York Mets, Major League Baseball, Mobil Oil, Waldbaum’s, A&P, Hershey’s, Kellogg’s, and Proctor and Gamble. Darryl Tookes’ ancestry mingles Cherokee, African and European roots, and his musical talent comes from his maternal side. His grandmother Benveneta Washington was a star on Broadway, a Warner Bros. signee for film, and a vocal soloist with the Hall Johnson Choir, while his mother Leona Washington was a classical, jazz and sacred chanteuse, who left the stage for her family. Born in the Bronx, Darryl and his brother Hansel moved to Tallahassee with their parents when they were young boys. Their father, Hansel Tookes, is the legendary Florida A&M golf and football coach. After graduating from Florida A&M magna cum laude in physics, Darryl forsook MIT and medical school for his musical career. Mr. Tookes lives in Connecticut with his wife and four children. |
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Salute! The World War II Tribute Album, 2005,
Curb Records New England Morning, 2002, released April 2003, TMB Records Babies and Balloons, 2000, Lifeguard Inc. Red Bird, 2000, MCA Universal, the Philippines. Travels of An Ordinary Man, 1996, Dondido Music, Five Star rated independent record. Rendezvous, 1994, Capitol Records. Darryl Tookes, 1989, SBK Records, featuring Billboard hit “Lifeguard”. Darryl Tookes has recorded six solo albums since 1989. As the flagship of its newly-formed label, SBK SBK Records released his debut album, Darryl Tookes. An instant success on the Billboard charts, the record featured “Lifeguard,” which Darryl wrote in dedication to his grandfather; “Rio,” visions of Brazil; and “Mama,” a joyous remembrance of his beloved mother. Capitol Records’ Rendezvous, released in 1994, highlights Tookes’ smooth, jazz-oriented “Joyce, the Australian,” “Paradise,” and “If I Could Just Hold Her Again.” Mr. Tookes’ Five Star rated independent record Travels of An Ordinary Man was released by Dondido Music in 1996 with musicians Omar Hakim, Howard Levy, Chuck Loeb, Mark Feldman, Eugene Friesen, Dennis Collins, Jerry Brooks, Bashiri Johnson, and Joseph Joubert. The album features Tookes classics “Back to the Garden,” “Brighter Day,” “Nazareth,” and “Africans in the Diaspora.” Released in 2000 by MCA Universal in the Philippines, Red Bird features the hauntingly beautiful title song, as well as the jaunty “Breathless, Restless, Helpless,” and the joyous “God Blest.” With thanks “to the One who loves us all,” Babies and Balloons, also 2000, reflects the artistic collaboration of Darryl Tookes, Joseph Joubert, and Frank DeMaio. The first three tracks are the products of Darryl’s composing collaboration with Frank Floyd’s poetic verse. Of special note, through the wizardry of modern technology, Darryl sings a duet of “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” with the voice of his late mother, Leona Washington. |
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JOSEPH JOUBERT Accompanist and Orchestrator Joseph Joubert was the conductor for the original Three Mo’ Tenors tour and is also the arranger/conductor of BMG’s Three Mo’ Tenors recording. He was nominated for a Grammy in 2000 as producer/ arranger/ keyboardist for the Centurymen’s Beautiful Star CD in the category of Best Classical Cross-Over Album, the same year he recorded Red Bird with Darryl Tookes. Joseph Joubert was born in New York City. At the age of eight he began playing the piano. More serious study with Dora Zaslavsky commenced at age fifteen and within one year Mr. Joubert made his Town Hall debut with full orchestra. After advanced study and graduation from the Manhattan School of Music with Bachelor of Music and Master of Music degrees, Mr. Joubert began to enjoy wider recognition as a solo pianist. He won the nation-wide competition of the National Association of Negro Musicians while success in other competitions resulted in performances of concerti with full orchestra and participation in master classes offered by such virtuosos as Andre Watts, John Browning, and Eugene Istomin. Joseph Joubert’s accomplishments are wide ranging and his talent has taken him not only across the continent, but also throughout the world. Mr. Joubert has appeared in New York City’s major concert halls, including Carnegie Hall, Avery Fisher Hall, and Alice Tully Hall. He has performed with the Manhattan Symphony, the Bronx Arts Ensemble, the New Philharmonia, and the West Palm Beach Symphony. For two seasons, he served as staff pianist for the Metropolitan Opera Company’s revival of Porgy and Bess. In that production, the company opened featuring Mr. Joubert as pianist “Jasbo Brown.” Abroad, Mr. Joubert has performed at the Pushkin Museum of Arts in Moscow, Russia and with the Hinds Trio at the International Festival of Two Worlds in Spoleto, Italy and in Nice, France. He received a Drama Desk Award nomination for his work as orchestrator for the Off-Broadway show Violet and is also credited as conductor and pianist on the Revelations CD for the Alvin Ailey American Dance Theatre. Mr. Joubert has performed Duke Ellington’s “New World A-Comin’” and Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm Variations” with the Marin Symphony. Lauded by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel for his “brawny orchestrations,” Mr. Joubert orchestrated in 1996 “Sisters of Freedom,” a 40-minute work which was premiered by the Milwaukee Symphony and featured The Harlem Spiritual Ensemble. As an accompanist, critics have hailed Mr. Joubert’s “sensitive and supportive” performances as well as the “uncommon tonal beauty” of his playing. He has collaborated with Kathleen Battle, Florence Quivar, Wilhelmenia Fernandez, Marvis Martin, Simon Estes, Hilda Harris, William Brown, Esther Hinds and Barbara Conrad, to name a few. With Ms. Battle he appeared in concert at the White House for President Bill Clinton and President Boris Yeltsin. At that performance, Mr. Joubert performed his arrangement of “Amazing Grace.” Afterwards President Yeltsin requested the sheet music to take back with him to Russia. Mr. Joubert has since transcribed that performance, which is published with Hinshaw Music. Mr. Joubert has enjoyed success in musical direction. For five years (1988-1993) he was Musical Director for Judy Collins. Together they performed with the London Symphony and in the United States with the symphony orchestras of Atlanta, Charleston, Chicago, Dallas, Dayton, Houston, Kansas City, Louisville, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh, and Portland, Oregon. Joseph Joubert served as Assistant Musical Director of the Broadway show Five Guys Named Moe and was assistant conductor/pianist for the award-winning Big River. In Kobe, Japan he was Musical Director for the Harlem Kid Symphony. As Musical Director for the Gala of New York’s Shakespeare Festival, Mr. Joubert worked with Kathleen Battle, Kevin Kline, Wynton Marsalis, Melba Moore, Mandy Patinkin, Ben Vereen, and Christopher Walken. Mr. Joubert is also a record producer and arranger/orchestrator. He has successfully produced and arranged for Sony Records Tremaine Hawkins’ CD To A Higher Place and The Promised Land. His other recording collaborations include those with Ashford and Simpson, Diana Ross, George Benson, Patti LaBelle, Whitney Houston, Cissy Houston, Dionne Warwick, Luther Vandross, Patti Austin, Diane Reeves, Wintley Phipps, O.C. Smith, Chuck Jackson, Cuba Gooding, Florence Quivar, Barbara Conrad, and the Boys Choir of Harlem. Mr. Joubert also provided specialized arrangements and orchestrations for the huge CD collection entitled The Music Connection, released by Silver Burdett Ginn. Mr. Joubert resides in New Jersey with his wife, the opera singer Renay Peters Joubert. |
P. O. Box 1656 249 Old Stamford Road (for express deliveries) New Canaan, CT 06840 (800) 965-3347. FAX 203 966-6340 tbickley@optonline.net
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