Jessye, Eva, 1895-1992

Eva Jessye-Director of Music-Writer. b. Coffeyville, Kan.; educated Western University, Kansas City, Kan.; State University for Colored, Langston, OK. Director of Music, Morgan College, Baltimore, Md., 1920; Editorial staff, Afro-American, Baltimore, Md., one year. Won prizes: Essay, Music, Poetry, Interstate Literary Society of Kansas and the West; President Interstate Society, 1924. Director of Music, first all-Negro moving picture, "Hallelujah," produced by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Corporation, directed by King Vidor, 1929. Creator, "Aunt Mamy's chillun," sketches of Negro life, Radio Feature; also "Four dusty travellers," over Station WOR, New York City; appointed choral director by Gershwin for "Porgy and Bess"; founded the Eva Jessye Choir; Artist-in-residence (3 yrs.) at Pittsburg State University, Kansas.

From the description of Papers. 1936-1981, n.d. (Ascension Parish School). WorldCat record id: 19655633

A prominent choral director, composer, arranger, writer, poet, actress and African American music historian. Jessye was conductor for the Original Dixie Jubilee Singers and choral director for the opera Four Saints in Three Acts, and was choral director for the original production of Porgy and Bess, and toured extensively in later performances of Porgy and Bess. Jessye came to the University of Michigan in 1974 and established the Eva Jessye Afro-American Music Collection.

From the description of Eva Jessye collection, 1927-1992. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 491404280

From the description of Eva Jessye photograph series. 1929-1990. (University of Michigan). WorldCat record id: 491420327

Eva Alberta Jessye (b. 1895 d. 1992) was a writer, singer, and civil rights activist. Eva Alberta Jessye was born on January 20, 1895, in Coffeyville, Kansas, a small town bordering Oklahoma. As a small child Eva sang and was an avid reader. She wrote her first poem at the age of seven. She studied choral music and music theory at Western University, graduating in 1914, and received a degree from Langston University in Langston, Oklahoma. In 1926 in New York she joined the Dixie Jubilee Singers. This group became the Eva Jessye Choir that performed spirituals, work songs, ballads, ragtime, jazz and light opera. In 1936 George Gershwin appointed Jessye to be choral director for the original production of "Porgy and Bess". For the next thirty years, Jessye was associated with virtually every production of "Porgy and Bess" worldwide. Eva Jessye was involved in the civil rights movement. In August 1963, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. selected the Eva Jessye Choir as the official chorus of the historic March on Washington. The choir performed "We Shall Overcome" and "Freedom Is The Thing We're Talking About." Dr. Eva Jessye died on February 21, 1992 at the age of 97 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

From the description of Eva Jessye collection, 1951-1981. (Australian National University). WorldCat record id: 314126844

Eva Jessye was born in Coffeyville, Kansas on January 20, 1895. She attended Western University and Langston University, receiving her BA in 1919. After a number of teaching positions in Baltimore (Morgan College, 1919) and Tulahassee (1920-1925), Oklahoma, Jessye worked for the Baltimore newspaper, The Afro-American .

Moving to New York, she formed a small singing group that came to the attention of African American composer Will Marion Cook. Cook became her mentor, tutoring her in music theory and music management. In 1926 Jessye organized the Original Dixie Jubilee Singers, which performed regularly on radio shows such as "The Major Bowes Family Radio Hour" and "The General Motors Hour." In 1929 Jessye and the Original Dixie Jubilee Singers went to Hollywood and appeared in King Vidor's all-black film Hallelujah . Because the name "Dixie Jubilee Singers" was being appropriated by many other choirs, her choir's name was changed to the Eva Jessye Choir.

In 1934 Jessye became the choir director of Gertrude Stein and Virgil Thomson's work Four Saint in Three Acts . In 1935, Jessye became the choral director for the premiere production of George Gershwin's opera Porgy and Bess . Jessye toured the United States, Europe, the Soviet Union and New Zealand performing Porgy and Bess and was associated with countless other productions worldwide. Jessye acted as an adviser for the BBC's For the Children: Huckleberry Finn and Down in the Valley (1952) and performed in the 1959 Hallmark Hall of Fame production of Kiss Me Kate . In 1963, her choir was designated the official chorus of the civil rights march on Washington, DC, organized by Martin Luther King, Jr.

Throughout Jessye's career she appeared in several motion pictures including Hallelujah (1929) (where she was also the Musical Director), Black Like Me (1964) and Slaves (1969) with Stephen Boyd and Ossie Davis.

Jessye came to the University of Michigan in 1974. With the encouragement of Dean Willis Paterson, she established the Eva Jessye Afro-American Music Collection which is the basis for the present collection. From 1977 to 1981 she was an Artist in-Residence at Pittsburg State University in Kansas where she created a similar Eva Jessye Collection (see: http://library.pittstate.edu/spcool/ndxjessye.html). Jessye was honored by many universities, states and cities for her life achievements and received honorary doctorates from the University of Michigan School of Music, Eastern Michigan University and Glassboro State College.

Dr. Eva Jessye died on February 21, 1992, at the age of 97 in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

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Sources Consulted:

http://www.umich.edu/~afroammu/jessye.html (as of April 21, 2009)

The Eva Jessye Collection, AXE-Special Collections . (n.d.) Retrieved April 21, 2005, from: http://library.pittstate.edu/spcool/ndxjessye.html/. Leonard H. Axe Library, Pittsburg State University, Pittsburg, Kansas

From the guide to the Eva Jessye Collection, 1927-1992, 1935-1980, (Bentley Historical Library, University of Michigan)