New Black History Month exhibit spotlights 6 LI jazz greats

Seldon Powell of Hempstead was known as “the musician who was always working.”

The tenor saxophonist and flutist performed on soundtracks for films including “Midnight Cowboy,” worked in house bands for the Merv Griffin and David Frost television shows, did music for 10 Broadway plays, recorded commercial jingles, and played locally at the Westbury Music Fair, the jazz spot Sonny’s Place in Seaford, and NAACP dances.

“He was on the soundtrack of every Spike Lee movie, ” adds Powell’s daughter, Barbara Powell, who still lives in the family’s Saint Paul’s Road home.

Seldon Powell, who also played piano and was among the musicians who performed in Motown’s 25th anniversary special, is one of six Long Island late jazz greats who are spotlighted in a current Black History Month exhibit at the African American Museum of Nassau County in Hempstead.

Museum executive director Joysetta Pearse says the point of the display is to highlight the impressive contributions made to the music world by local men who were not as well known outside the jazz and Long Island communities as perhaps they should have been. The others are John Coltrane of Dix Hills, Buddy Tate of Massapequa, Hale Smith of Freeport,  Billy Mitchell of Rockville Centre and Clark Terry of Glen Cove.   

“We like to focus on Nassau County folks,” explains Pearse. “They [the men in the exhibit] all moved here and really added to the community – they were here where people could hear, touch and feel them, and their families took part in life here.  They were a real part of the community.”  She adds, “Mitchell was a staple at Sonny’s Place for 30 years.”

The exhibit comprises a large wall panel on each musician containing photographs and information about their lives and careers. The display starts with a panel about Hamlet, North Carolina-born Coltrane, who lived in several states before settling in Dix Hills.

“He was known to be the most controversial jazz musician since Charlie Parker because what he did was so far beyond the normal jazz — what he did was brand new,” Pearse says. “A Love Supreme,” released in 1965 and considered Coltrane’s “masterpiece,” was written at the Candlewood Path home he shared with his wife, Alice, who made the first of her five albums in a basement studio.

Tate, a saxophonist and clarinetist born in Sherman, Texas, played with Count Basie’s band until 1948 after getting his start with local bands in the Southwest.  Tate then played with other bands until 1953 when he started his own band at Harlem’s Celebrity Club, where he played for 21 years.

In the late ‘70s Tate worked with Benny Goodman and in the ‘90s, Lionel Hampton. “In 1992 Tate played a part in the movie, ‘Texas Tenor: The Illinois Jacquet Story,’” Pearse adds.

Hale Smith took to the piano at 7 years old and worked as a pianist, composer and arranger for jazz icons including Dizzy Gillespie, Chico Hamilton, Randy Weston and Ahmad Jamal.

“He composed several pieces for the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and lived in a beautiful little home in Freeport and was co-founder of the Freeport Arts Council,” Pearse says. “His music was a blend of Classical and jazz. Both Jessye Norman and Kathleen Battle preferred his spiritual arrangements and performed them.”

“Diverse” is how Pearse describes Mitchell, who during the ‘60s and ‘70s was musical director for Stevie Wonder. Mitchell played flute, clarinet, tenor, alto and soprano saxophone and developed his interest in music as a young boy growing up in Detroit.

“He spent a lot of time in the New York City Schools teaching music” and held jazz seminars at Yale and Hofstra universities, Pearse notes.  The top jazz bandleaders he played with include Basie, Gillespie and Woody Herman.

Terry, who originally hailed from St. Louis and worked in the Tonight Show Band for 12 years, was one of the most recorded musicians in jazz history, Pearse says, with nearly 1,000 records. He played the trumpet and fluegelhorn and was a designer and teacher of both instruments. in addition to being a composer. “Miles Davis and Quincy Jones said Terry had influenced their careers.”