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Jazz Singer Ruby Glover—The
Little Giant of Pennsylvania Avenue—Passes
By Alvin Kirby Brunson
Ruby stood only 5 feet tall. She
was small in size but a“giant in eyes of the Baltimore
jazz community.
I remember the first time I met
Ruby. It was February 2003. I was hired to teach an
African American Studies course at Sojourner-Douglass
College in East Baltimore. At our faculty meeting, I
immediately noticed that Ruby was surrounded by faculty
and staff. So many people inside the school wanted a
piece of Ruby. She was just that type of person. When
I finally got “my turn” to talk with her, I saw a woman
of great strength, character, and intellect. We became
friends from that day on.
Ruby was a guest professor in my
classroom regularly during the 3 years that I taught at
the college. I was a guest speaker in her class for 4
years. She was surprised of my knowledge about
Baltimore’s African American musicians and recording
artists (past and present) and insisted that I visit her
class on a continuous basis. She also demanded that her
students (who loved her dearly) attend our Center’s
cultural events throughout the year.
Ruby was a warm, giving and caring
Sista. She knew that it was more of a blessing to give
than to receive. Ruby had a kind heart and a giving
spirit. She always had a kind word to say. She gave
people the assurance that in tough times, things would
be okay and she would be there if it wasn’t. Ruby
encouraged me to continue to “do what I do,” which is
educate people about Baltimore’s African American music,
history, and culture. She reminded me on many
occasions, that my work was important and that it had a
positive impact on many people.
When I think about Ruby, I will
always remember the time that she visited my house and
vice versa. It was truly an honor. We talked about so
much. She was a great person to talk too. Ruby loved
people and people loved her, I do know that.
One of my fondest memories of Ruby
is when she performed at the 40th Anniversary Tribute to
the Left Bank Jazz Society in 2004. That night, she was
so upbeat; so energetic. Her performance as well as her
students’ performance was nothing short of marvelous.
She was surrounded by some of
Baltimore’s best jazz musicians which included the late
Chico Johnson on keyboard and Harold Adams on tenor
saxophone. We all marveled at her passion for singing
that music she/we love so much called jazz. That night
we also presented Ruby with an outstanding performance
award/plaque in recognition of 50 years of outstanding
service in the Baltimore jazz community. It was an
enriching experience for all who attended. Ruby’s
daughter, Ira, told me later, that her mom was on “Cloud
9” for 2 days.
Ruby enjoyed reminiscing about
Pennsylvania Avenue as documented by Carl Schuetter in
the Baltimore Sun paper, Art & Society section, December
8, 2002, an article entitled “When Jazz Still Echoes.”
In this full-page article, Ruby speaks passionately
about Pennsylvania Avenue in its heyday and the jazz
clubs that surrounded it. Two nightspots that brought
back a lot of memories for her was the old Royal Theater
and the Tijuana Club. During Ruby’s time, the Tijuana
Club was a top-rated jazz club on the upper part of “the
Avenue” where she performed. People always wanted to
hear Ruby sing and scat as evident on her rendition of
“God Bless the Child” which she recorded in 2000, as a
tribute to her idols, the late Billie Holiday.
On the eve of Ruby’s passing, a
good friend called to share the sad news with me. She
said that she “felt cheated” that Ruby was gone & no
longer with us. I reminded her that Ruby was a blessing
to everyone who crossed her path. She passed away doing
exactly what she loved—singing jazz.
Ruby would have turned 78 on
December 6th. Let’s thank the creator for allowing Ruby
to be a part of our life.
The Center for Cultural Education is dedicated to
educating, promoting and preserving Baltimore’s African
American music, history and cultural heritage.
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Other View of
Ms. Ruby Glover
Jazz singer Ruby Glover died Saturday
(20 October 2007), a day after collapsing onstage during
a performance at the Creative Alliance in East
Baltimore. The house was packed and the 77-year-old was
thrilled at the turnout for the House of Ruth Benefit.
She was introduced by local TV personality Stan Stovall.
The audience gave her a
thrilling welcome. With her silver cropped hair she was her
usually radiant and polished self on stage. Ruby sang
two standards, backed by the Tom Reyes Trio, and was
unable to make it through a third. Confused she turned
her back to the audience and collapsed
She died the next afternoon at Johns
Hopkins Bayview Medical Center of a stroke.
Her mother and her
mother’s friends who filled her house in the early
mornings influenced Ruby to become a jazz singer. She
was well-known in the jazz clubs on Pennsylvania Avenue
in the 1940s and 1950s, when the 24-block center of
Black Baltimore pulsed with the vibrancy of jazz life.
She was a wondrous musical element of
Baltimore jazz for more than 50 years as a
performer, organizer, and lecturer.
Ms. Glover was a resident of
Stirling Street in the Oldtown neighborhood and lived
not too far from where she was born at Dallas and
Monument streets. She helped for many years to stage the
annual Billie Holiday competition for young vocalists.
Her own voice has been described as smoky with
bluesy overtones, and compared favorably to the vocals of
Billie Holiday.
Growing up in East
Baltimore, she attended Dunbar High School, where she
began singing at dances and talent contests, after which
she became a local favorite in Pennsylvania Avenue's jazz
clubs.
An evening of
celebration of Ruby Glover's life will be held from 6
p.m. to 10 p.m. Thursday at Sojourner- Douglass College,
200 N. Central Ave. in Baltimore. For more information,
call 410-276-0306.
Source:
Baltimore Sun
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Ms.
Glover shared the stage with many of
Baltimore's and the nation's top jazz
musicians including Art Blakey, Sonny Stitt,
Keter Betts, Andy Ennis, Doug Cane, Vernon
Wolst, Charles Covington, Carlos Johnson,
Sir Thomas Hurley, Fuzzy Kane, Whit
Williams, Charlie Etzel, Dennis Chambers,
Gaynell Colburn, Moe Daniels, Dave Ross and
Mickey Fields just to name a few. Some of
the local "sister" vocalists as she would
call them; Ethel Ennis, Nikki Cooper, Ruby
Dawson, Shirley Fields, Liz Figueroa,
Earlene Reed, Lady Rebecca, Brenda Alford,
Cathy Dorsey, Damita Jo] and brother
vocalists, Tiny Tim Harris and Judd Watkins.
Source:
Rosa Pryor-Trusty, “Ruby Glover, Baltimore's
sweet, sweet Godmother of Jazz.”
Afro-American. 22 October 2007. |
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Alvin K. Brunson Passes Over
Alvin K. Brunson
(Nov. 14, 1958-March 30, 2008)—Brunson died in a
building collapse on March 30. . . . he founded his
Center for Cultural Education, a nonprofit organization
formed to educate people about Baltimore's
African-American history and culture, Brunson was a ray
of hope for people living in the Pennsylvania Avenue
community. Brunson took hundreds of people on his
Thurgood Marshall/Billie Holiday Walking Heritage Tours
of Pennsylvania Avenue, during which he would stop at
famous attractions, like 1632 Division St., where
Thurgood Marshall grew up, or the former site of the
Royal Theatre at 1329 Pennsylvania Ave., one of the only
places where performers of color, like Holiday and Cab
Calloway, could perform in Baltimore during the Jim Crow
era. Brunson also took African-American history to local
schools, libraries, churches, civic
organizations--anywhere he could find an audience with
which to share the message that this history should be
preserved and that Pennsylvania Avenue should be
revitalized.
Sadly, his message was cut
short when Brunson was working to revitalize a building across the
street from his Center for Cultural Education at 541 Wilson St. His
plan for the building was to use it to expand his center into a
cultural museum. . . .
At community events, sometimes
Brunson would exhibit his traveling museum aside a display of
Pryor-Trusty's book African American Entertainment in Baltimore. He
wanted to remind people in a neighborhood long challenged by urban
blight, lack of resources, and poverty that the Avenue's historic
legacy is that it was once the center of black life and
entertainment in Baltimore. In a City Paper story about Pennsylvania
Avenue ("Street of Dreams," Feb. 2, 2005), Brunson provided
historical context for Pennsylvania Avenue, which was first called
Wagon Road back in 1818, and then Hookstown Road, and then
Pennsylvania Road because it took travelers all the way to the state
with the same name. He asserted that the first black slaves from
Haiti settled near the first block of the Avenue at Pennsylvania
Street to help build St. Mary's Seminary. "Theater owners saw the
influx of blacks into this area as a means by which to make money,"
Brunson said in "Street of Dreams."
Over the years Brunson served
as an expert on Pennsylvania Avenue for several newspapers and he
provided a wealth of history on the area in self-published books. He
also wrote editorial content about the subject for online media like
Doni Glover's "The Glover Report" column at BmoreNews.com and
Chicken Bones: A Journal. His hope was that one day someone—elected
officials, development corporations, anyone with the power to do
so—would finally revitalize Pennsylvania Avenue. In the years since
the decline of the Avenue in the 1970s there have been partial
revitalization efforts, but the Avenue is far from what it could be.
Brunson's older sister Aletha
"Brenda" Brunson, who lives in Richmond, Va., says her family is
still mourning the loss of her brother. She says there were six
siblings in the family that grew up on Dukeland Street in Baltimore.
She says Alvin was very studious, and that his interest in the
Pennsylvania Avenue may have been ignited by his love of jazz. When
he was a student at Coppin State University earlier this decade, she
says, he did a project on the Avenue. "He had a great interest in
the contributions of blacks in Baltimore, especially those who had a
significant influence and impact on Pennsylvania Avenue and
Baltimore in general," she says. "He had me and everyone else in my
family on the lookout for books, albums, magazines—anything anybody
could find of historical significance."
City Paper
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posted 23 October 2007 / updated 19
May 2008 |
