The Night in Birmingham
A twenty seven year old singer from France wins fifty thousand dollars in Paris, the first time in nearly four decades that the Hancock vocals competition has been held outside the United States. Then Nat King Cole's "After Midnight" at seventy and complete, four rooms from Seattle to New Orleans, and the night in 1956 when white men knocked Cole to the floor of a Birmingham stage and the crowd called him back out.
LioraIn Paris, a twenty seven year old sings a tune with no words in it and wins fifty thousand dollars. Today's record is Nat King Cole after midnight, all of it this time. Later, Birmingham, 1956, and a crowd that called him back out. It's Tuesday. Let's go.
LioraIt's Tuesday, October 13th. This is The Daily Quintet. I'm Liora. Five stories from the world of jazz, in about ten minutes. Here we go.
One. The Lead: The Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz names Malou Oheix of France, age twenty seven
LioraThe Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz handed out fifty thousand dollars in Paris this weekend. On Monday it said who won.
Malou Oheix, age twenty seven, from France. By the Institute's own release, she took first place in its 2026 international jazz vocals competition, and the weekend was the first time in nearly four decades of the contest that it has been held outside the United States.
The money goes fifty thousand for first, twenty five for second, ten for third. And here is the part the Institute prints and nobody repeats. Half of each prize is paid directly to the winner. The rest is applied toward the winner's future musical education.
Now what she sang. Two contrasting performances, in the Institute's words. "I'm Glad There Is You," and Michael Brecker's "Madame Toulouse."
LioraNate Chinen was in the room for WRTI, and he starts on the second one. Nobody, he writes, would confuse "Madame Toulouse" for a readymade vocal feature. The tune has no lyrics. It is a contraption full of harmonic and rhythmic twists folded into an aerodynamic frame, like a Formula 1 race car.
She ended it, he says, with a sharp and satisfying jolt.
Two. Listen to This: Nat King Cole's "After Midnight" turns seventy
LioraToday's record is the man tonight's story is about.
Nat King Cole, "After Midnight." Blue Note says the album turns seventy this year, and on November thirteenth it reissues the complete sessions in its Tone Poet vinyl series. Two LPs.
Four sessions at Capitol Studios, August and September of 1956. Cole singing and playing piano, with his trio: John Collins on guitar, Charlie Harris on bass, Lee Young on drums. Then the guests. Willie Smith on alto. Harry "Sweets" Edison on trumpet. Stuff Smith on violin. Juan Tizol on valve trombone.
LioraHere is the tip. Side one, track two is "Sweet Lorraine," which the Library of Congress says Cole sang at the first Jazz at the Philharmonic in 1944. And "You're Looking At Me" is on this record twice, at the top of side two and again as an alternate take at the very end. Play those two against each other.
One more. Blue Note has Joshua Redman's Sonny Rollins tribute on November twentieth, with Cecile McLorin Salvant singing on it.
Now go back seventy years. Tonight on The Bridge: Birmingham, April 1956. White men rush the stage and knock Nat King Cole to the floor in the middle of a song. Then the crowd calls him back out. Silas has the story.
Three. The Bridge: Birmingham, April 1956: white men rush the stage and knock Nat King Cole to the floor in
LioraOne true story from this music's history, every day. Silas tells it, I ask the questions. Silas, where are we?
SilasBirmingham, Alabama. Tuesday night, April 10th, 1956. The Municipal Auditorium, and a crowd of nearly 4,000. Birmingham's segregation laws mean two concerts tonight. The first is "for white patrons only." The second is "before a Negro audience." The star of both is Nat King Cole. He's 37, and he was born in Alabama.
LioraWho's on the stage with him?
SilasTed Heath and his orchestra, the Four Freshmen, June Christy. Cole told the AP they "are all white." The stage is mixed. The seats are not. Police "had been alerted to watch for any indication of trouble." Then, historian Brian Ward writes, a racist shout comes from the crowd while Cole sings a romantic ballad, and white men run down the center aisle. The song is usually named as "Little Girl," but that title is lightly sourced. The AP says the men "climbed across the floodlights." Cole said afterward, "This fellow lunged up, below the stage, and hit the microphone and it hit me under the chin. I fell over the piano stool, on my back."
LioraHow many men?
SilasThe sources don't agree. The AP says police seized three on stage. Time says five attacked. Ward says four ran down the aisle. Police swarm from the wings. Three more men are picked up later, six in all. Outside, police find a car with two .22 rifles, a homemade blackjack and brass knuckles. One of the six, Kenneth Adams, ran a filling station in Anniston, sixty miles away, and sat on the board of the Anniston Citizens' Council. As for the plan, there are two versions. Detectives said the men told them they "intended to seize the microphone and make a speech for segregation." Time reported that police described something bigger: "a mob of 150, led by an officer of the North Alabama Citizens' Council, was to have stormed the auditorium and kidnaped Cole." Time says only six showed up.
LioraAnd Cole?
SilasThe crowd calls for him. One man yells, "Tell him to come back out so we can apologize for what happened." Cole comes back out. The ovation runs nearly ten minutes by the AP's count, five by Time's. Then, "in a wavering voice," he speaks: "I just came here to entertain you. That was what I thought you wanted. I was born in Alabama. Those folks hurt my back. I cannot continue, because I have to go to a doctor." Later that night, the AP says, he "gave a second performance for the Negro patrons."
LioraWhat came after?
SilasIn Chicago, he said, "I was a guinea pig for some hoodlums who thought they could hurt me and frighten me and that way keep other Negro entertainers from the South." The Black press was not all kind. The Boston Guardian ran a headline, "Nat King Cole Won't Fight Back." It said it "kind of hurts" readers that he "won't become a current member of the NAACP." On April 18th, a city judge gave four of the men 180 days in jail and a $100 fine each. That same night in Louisville, Cole played to "a deafening roar of applause from 10,000 white and Negro fans." By early May, the same paper reported he had bought a life membership in the NAACP. It quoted him: "I am dedicated to the elimination of all forms of discrimination."
LioraKnocked to the floor at the first show, and he still played the second. That's The Bridge. Back to today, right after this.
Four. On the Road: Stefon Harris and Blackout play one set at Jazz Alley in Seattle
LioraTonight, coast to coast.
Tonight's ticket is in Seattle.
Jazz Alley has Stefon Harris and Blackout, one set at half past seven, doors at six. Forty three dollars, handling fee included. The club names the whole band itself: Harris on vibraphone, Kenny Banks Junior on piano and keys, Jaleel Shaw on saxophone, Luques Curtis on bass, Terreon Gully on drums, Alexis Morrast on vocals.
Now the sweep.
In New York, the Village Vanguard opens a six night Ravi Coltrane Centennial Celebration. Eight and ten, forty five dollars, and both sets are sold out. No waitlist. The club says the standby line usually starts forming roughly thirty to forty five minutes before each set, and entry is not guaranteed.
In Oakland, Yoshi's has Acoustic Alchemy, doors at seven, show at half past seven, forty six to eighty nine dollars.
LioraAnd in New Orleans, Preservation Hall has the Preservation All-Stars, four forty five minute sets, at five, quarter past six, half past seven and quarter to nine. One ticket, one set, and no price printed.
Five. One More Note: Ray Brown was born a hundred years ago today, and the two bassists he called his sons
LioraRay Brown was born a hundred years ago today. October thirteenth, 1926, Pittsburgh, by the National Endowment for the Arts' own file, which makes him a 1995 NEA Jazz Master.
WBGO's page for the October twelfth Jazz Night in America puts the career in one breath. Gillespie and Parker as bebop took shape. Fifteen years in the Oscar Peterson Trio. More than two thousand recordings.
He mentored two bassists he called his sons: John Clayton, and the host of that show, Christian McBride.
A hundred years, and the tribute came from the family he made.
Outro
LioraThat's the Quintet. If today's show earned it, follow The Daily Quintet wherever you listen.
The Daily Quintet is an AI-crafted production, researched and checked by humans. Every listing you heard came from the venue or the festival's own organizer.
That's your Tuesday. I'm Liora. See you tomorrow.