Roland Hayes and the Lost Generation
While reporting the story of Black Swan Records, we spoke with dozens of musicologists, one of whom produced a music compilation called “Black Swans” (plural) about forgotten Black classical singers. Here’s the extraordinary tale of Roland Hayes, another great (and largely forgotten) creator of new cosmologies.
The Vanishing of Harry Pace was created by Jad Abumrad and Shima Oliaee
It was Motown before Motown, FUBU before FUBU: Black Swan Records. The label founded exactly 100 years ago by Harry Pace. Pace launched the career of Ethel Waters, inadvertently invented the term rock n roll, played an important role in W.C. Handy becoming "Father of the Blues," inspired Ebony and Jet magazines, and helped desegregate the South Side of Chicago in an epic Supreme Court battle. Then, he disappeared. The Vanishing of Harry Pace is a series about the phenomenal but forgotten man who changed the American music scene. It's a story about betrayal, family, hidden identities, and a time like no other.
This series was produced in collaboration with author Kiese Laymon, scholar Imani Perry, screenwriter Cord Jefferson, and WQXR’s Terrance McKnight. Jami Floyd is our consulting producer; our fact checker is Natalie Meade. The series features interviews with Pace's descendants and over forty musicians, historians, writers, and musicologists, all of whom grapple with Pace’s enduring legacy.
This episode featured scenes from Christopher Brooks' and Robert Sims' biography, Roland Hayes: The Legacy of an American Tenor. Thank you to actor William Jackson Harper for helping us bring Berlin to life. Also Lillian Xu, Eli Cohen, Theodora Kuslan, Sarah Sandbach, Andrew Golis, and MaryAnne Nesdill.
This episode featured the following music:
Robert Sims Sings the Spirituals of Roland Hayes
Bill Doggett's collection of Black Swan records
Black Swans: The First Recordings of Black Classical Music Performers
Du Bist Die Ruh by Roland Hayes
Were You There by Roland Hayes
Vesti La Giubba by Roland Hayes
Lucy
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Memory and Forgetting
Small Potatoes
The Distance of the Moon
The Moon Itself
Short Cuts: Drawn Onward
Finding Emilie
Throughline: Dare to Dissent
Staph Retreat
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G: The World's Smartest Animal
Cheating Death
Breaking Newsve About Zoozve
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Our Little Stupid Bodies
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