Pete's Pantheon: John Hammond, An Uncanny Ear for America

Has anyone ever listened to the chorus of American voices more sensitively, carefully and passionately than John Hammond? Let's look at the record (sorry). Mr. Hammond is generally credited with discovering or at least being crucial to the careers of...

• Billie Holiday
• Charlie Christian
• Benny Goodman
• Count Basie
• Pete Seeger
• Aretha Franklin
• Bob Dylan
• Leonard Cohen
• George Benson
• Bruce Springsteen
• Stevie Ray Vaughn


Not only that, Hammond brought the iconic Delta Blues recordings of Mr. Robert Johnson to their first national recognition.  To his further glory, he is accorded no involvement whatsoever in the careers of Kenny G, Justin Beiber or Wayne Newton.

His love of music was coupled with bold commitment to Civil Rights. This Yale blueblood invested in the first integrated nightclub, Cafe Society, and arranged legendary concerts at Carnegie Hall that featured African-American music played for an integrated audience. These were watershed events in the late 1930s called "From Spirituals to Swing". Hammond wanted Robert Johnson to feature as the representative performer of the Country Blues. By then Johnson had passed out of this world but not yet into history. One of his 45rpm recordings was played instead, through a gramophone on stage. The slumbering giant of Rock and Roll stirred in its sleep as the thin, haunted sound of the dead man's guitar drifted over the audience.  

Hammond found at least one other way to contribute to the music world. He and his wife were the parents of Bluesman John Hammond, a talented guitarist and blues interpreter.

Hammond, played by Herbert Anderson, appears as a character in The Benny Goodman Story. It's a biopic about the great clarinettist who was married to Hammond's sister. But Hollywood missed a bet in not making a companion flick based on the life of this unlikely genius. The soundtrack alone would have been a blockbuster.

Pete's Pantheon: Sister Rosetta Tharpe, God's Gift to Rock and Roll

Midway through the French movie "Amelie",  archival footage rolls across the screen of a gospel performer who is tearing the roof off the studio.  She and a choir have perfected what is, if not the first sound of Rock and Roll, at least one of its earliest incarnations. Then the woman digs her thumbpick into the strings of her white Gibson SG and plays leads that smoke off the fretboard while she moves like Pete Townshend in full manic fury. Who the Hell was that? Who else but Sister Rosetta Tharpe?

Rock and Roll, like the Blues, gets most interesting when the sacred smacks up against the profane. Sister Rosetta (1915-1973) was playing Gospel music on stage from the time she was four. By the time she was a young woman she, unlike most other Gospel performers, was as happy to play the Cotton Club as a church down the street. The money was better, and besides, she might reach a sinner there who wouldn't show at church.

She was well-known in her heyday, played with Benny Goodman, toured Europe, and was featured in the first of John Hammond's famous "Spirituals to Swing" concerts. Johnny Cash said she was his favorite singer. Mention her today and be prepared for blank stares. But turn on your radio, and she is there whether you know it or not. She took the Church into the barrooms with full revival joy and intensity. You can call it what you want, it sure sounds like Rock and Roll to me.
(Hat tip to Wikipedia)