Colter Harper hosting book launch for 'Jazz in the Hill'

Colter Harper’s book “Jazz in the Hill” explores the musical genre through the lens of conversation and community as a catalyst for change. Harper provides a direct look at the dialogue between musicians and listeners, as well as the connection between the community and its people.

At a book release at White Whale Bookstore in Bloomfield on Friday at 7 p.m., Harper will read selections from the book and host a discussion with musicology experts Aaron Johnson and Danielle Maggio.

A former member of the Pittsburgh-based band Rusted Root, Harper studied at University of Pittsburgh, receiving a Ph.D. in ethnomusicology. Jazz has taken him around the world, including the West African nation of Ghana, where he spent many years teaching. His areas of research and study focus on ethnomusicology, jazz, popular music and the musical traditions of Africa. Originally from upstate New York, Harper came to Pittsburgh via Tampa, Fla., during high school in pursuit of becoming a better musician.

“The book grew out of my interest in telling the story of how jazz was a community project and continues to be a community project,” Harper said. “It’s an art form often celebrated through individual achievements, but I wanted to pay tribute and dive into jazz as a community process as well.”

The book, published by University Press of Mississippi, spans decades of Hill District jazz history, from the 1920s to the 1970s.

“The commonly held assumptions about these neighborhoods were that they were dangerous places that you shouldn’t go to, so music was opening me up to ways of seeing and experiencing the city that were counter to how media tends to depict the neighborhoods,” Harper said, adding that this depiction is tied to histories of white supremacy, which create economic contexts that make certain neighborhoods thrive while marginalizing others socially and economically.

Harper hopes readers will understand the ongoing impacts of jazz and community, as well as how African American history can be represented in the reimaging of cities.

Aaron Johnson, an associate professor of music and interim director of jazz studies at the University of Pittsburgh, emphasized the importance of Harper’s work in revealing jazz’s close ties to the Black Pittsburgh working-class community.

Harper believes his depiction of venues like the Crawford Grill and Hurricane Bar & Grill will resonate with readers. Both clubs have been closed for decades — the Hurricane closed in 1971 and the Crawford Grill in the early 2000s — but still hold significant memories and love.

“Today, jazz is at arms’ length to the very community that created jazz, African Americans. Jazz is played in clubs, in concerts, in nonprofit spaces, in festivals. Harper’s book shows how jazz was closely bound to the working class community of Black Pittsburgh and how that community created some of the greatest contributors in the field,” Johnson said.

Harper has also created an appendix listing every band that played at both clubs from 1953 to 2003, providing insight into the era’s musical diversity.

“One thing that makes Dr. Harper’s book so important is that his deep dive into the images captured by Teenie Harris and others reveals so much about the relationship between the public, the musicians and the music at places like the Hurricane or Crawford’s Grill,” Johnson said. “The book brings to life a Hill District that can hardly be imagined by the blank and vacant lots between buildings there now and only the seniors can fill in the blanks from their memories. Harris’ photos reveal a Hill District teeming with life and possibilities along with hardship and limited opportunities of the time.”

Harper credits his ability to work with Charlene Foggie-Barnett, the Charles “Teenie” Harris community archivist at the Carnegie Museum of Art. In his book, Harper beautifully solidifies the role of women as architects and sponsors of the jazz genre, including Alyce Brooks, Ruby Young, “Birdie” Simmons Dunlap (owner of Hurricane Bar & Grill), Sarah McLawler, “Lady Byron” Evelyn Childress, Shirley Scott, Dee Dee Ford and Rhoda Scott.

“It’s really remarkable how important women were, not just as performers but as writers, as entrepreneurs, despite how male-centric the history of jazz tends to be,” Harper said.

Harper hopes that his books will continue the conversation and bring the focus to the great work of community leaders like James and Pamela Johnson of the Afro American Music Institute in Homewood and Marimba Milliones of the Hill District CDC.

This event will be part of multiple “Jazz in the Hill” book events throughout the year, including a performance-oriented event on Aug. 1. at City of Asylum.