In a recent segment on 60 minutes, Lesley Stahl interviewed a retired DJ and
theater producer named Vy Higginson. Ms. Higginson, and her husband, Ken Wydrow,
were trying to put together a musical review that featured singers over the age
of 50. Vy explained to Ms. Stahl that while she was on the radio, she was asked
by fellow DJ's if there was a market for this type of show since the industry
was so dominated by the young rap and hip hop crowd in the Black
community.
Ms. Higginson's reply was simple, yet
profound..................... "The older generation are the only ones left that
can introduce Gospel, Soul, and R & B music to the younger generation, and
when they're gone, so is this wide spectrum of beautiful music."
So, she
and her husband had a plan. Their plan was to conduct auditions to find the
voices and then create stories that the singers could tell about the old days
before they sung their selected song. Approximately 200 people showed up for the
auditions in Harlem and to say the least, Ms. Higginson and Ms. Stahl were blown
away by the richness of these elderly voices.
The first audition featured
Theo Harris, who at age 67, looked, acted, and sounded like he was 50 years old.
He was singing Bill Withers, "Ain't no sunshine when she's gone". On hearing
Theo sing, Vy told Lesley that she would put him in the "do-whop", crooner
section. The next person to audition was 56 year old Debbie Bingham whose voice
was like Whitney Houston's, but a couple octaves lower. Next came 56 year old
Renee Walker, whose story wasn't as hardcore as some of the others and when she
sung, it was without much feeling, but she had the voice.
Then came this
hunched over old man named Matthew Brown who was 75 years old and when he opened
his month, Vy Higginson, who resembles Tina Turner, threw her head back and
almost fell out of her chair while screaming, "my GOD, I must have this man!"
She likened Matthew to Nat King Cole and loved his rich baritone voice. Then
came Matthew Burk who, at 57, also sung with the smoothness of a seasoned
singer. The surprise to Vy Higginson was that all of these people, in their
early years, had singing listed as a potential profession but were redirected by
life. As Vy began to learn more about her singers, she and her husband realized
that they didn't have to create any stories to tell at all. The stories that
needed to be told were already there in the people that she had chosen to
sing.
Theo Harris, due to a serious drug problem, was in and out of
prison for 40 years. While in prison, he started to sing and one night at 10pm
which was declared "quiet time" by the guards, Theo started singing. When
finished, a voice yelled, "who was that person singing"? Theo identified himself
and the voice replied "keep singing". Theo became the prison wing's radio and
sung songs every night and even took some requests. While in prison, Theo went
to college and received a Masters Degree in Playwriting which allowed him to
write and produce a play for his fellow inmates. The play called for Theo, who
played the lead, to have a wife and this is where Theo met his present wife
Phyllis. They were married 7 months, while Theo was still in prison, after she
played Theo's wife in the play. Theo relapsed and spent 7 more years in prison,
but his wife stood by her man and now they both are in Vy Higginson's show.
Theo's song in the show was the Righteous Brothers "Unchained
Melody".
Debbie Bingham's story is a sad one. She is a practicing nurse,
who lost her son at age 34 to cancer. She wanted to sing Whitney Houston's "I
will always love you", but Vy had concerns due to the vocal challenges
associated with the song, but she acquiesced and Debbie did the song justice,
after begging Vy to "just give her a chance".
Renee Walker, who worked
for years as a school clerk didn't have the hardships like the others but she
was a single mom who worked to put two sons through college. She was reluctant
to sing because she didn't want to face the sadness that she experienced when
her sons left for college. Ken coached her enough to when you heard her sing,
you could also hear and feel the sorrow in her voice.
Matthew Brown, the
75 year old hunched over brother with the Nat King Cole voice had been
illiterate all of his life and at age 55, he decided that it was time that he
learned to read. He was also an alcoholic who stopped drinking 28 years ago
because it had begun to affect his voice. He sung "Old Man River" and the
audience went crazy, especially to see a 75 year old man belting out such mellow
notes.
The saddest story of them all was that of 63 year old Matthew
Burk. When he was born his name was "Abandoned 2360" because he was found in the
hallway of an apartment building at 2 weeks old and nobody claimed him. Matthew
also spent time in prison with Theo. He was given his name by a priest that was
affiliated at the foster home where he lived. During his interview with Ms.
Stahl, he was asked; "Psychologist always ask their patients, if they had ever
experienced unconditional love, if so, have you?" Matthew gave a smile created
as a defense mechanism and replied, "no and to this day, I still haven't
received unconditional love from anyone". Matthew sang "Georgia on my mind"
because if he knew his mother, that is the name he wanted her to have.
Vy
Higginson and her husband Ken's show played to a full house in a small theater
in Harlem and the evening could not have been more uplifting. As African
Americans would say, "the audience was taken to church". There was gospel, soul,
and R&B and the mood was uplifting and rich with love, just the way African
Americans lived through segregation and the other hardships that the world has
thrown their way.
Ms. Higginson didn't stop with the senior citizen
group. She introduced them to the youngsters with whom she was working and
conducted a work shop where she tried to get her "Alive and Kickin" cast members
to teach these teenagers to sing some old school music. The session was
sometimes funny and many times very rewarding, for these young teenagers were
awestruck by the richness of the senior's voices and the songs
themselves.
Although this show aired on Sunday, it is definitely
worthwhile reading on "Good Friday". The show is also available on 60 minutes'
website and should be observed by all.
Your comments and observations are
always welcomed.
Mad Man
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