Department News - 2005

Second Annual Dunbar Heritage Festival and Eddie Durham Music Tribute

The Second Annual Dunbar Heritage Festival and Eddie Durham Music Tribute will take place on August 20-21, 2004, in San Marcos. Activities will include featured presentations about Eddie Durham, native of San Marcos and "Maestro of Southwestern Swing," renditions of his Big Band compositions and other works, a "Meet the Artists" fundraiser, and a documentary film premiere.

Groups and artists scheduled to perform on August 21 at San Marcos Plaza include Eric Durham, son of Eddie, and his Top Groove Band (6.00 pm), Rattlesnake Annie (8.30 pm), and The Harlem Blues & Jazz orchestra with special guests (9.30 pm). Mr. Phil Schapp, curator for Jazz at Lincoln Center, will emcee the activities.

Also on Saturday, August 21, at 3.00 pm in the Calaboose African American Museum (MLK & Fredericksburg), San Marcos Mayor Susan Narvaiz and museum curator Johnnie Armstead will host a "Meet the Artists" fundraiser.

Kicking off the festival and tribute will be the Texas premiere of "The Last of the First," a documentary film about the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band. The film will be shown at the San Marcos Activity Center at 7.00 pm on Friday, August 20. Admission is by donation.

Born in San Marcos on August 19, 1906, Eddie Durham's musical legacy is spectacular.  Durham's contributions are vast and influenced the emerging musical movement known as Southwestern Swing or Kansas City Jazz during the 1920s and 1930s.  After spending his early years in San Marcos' Dunbar neighborhood, Durham joined Bennie Moten's seminal "Kansas City Sound" band, along with Count Basie.  After Moten's death, Basie eventually formed the Count Basie orchestra around the core members of the Moten band, which Durham joined.  Durham composed and arranged early hits of Basie's orchestra, including "One O'Clock Jump," "Topsy," "Good Morning Blues," and "Swinging The Blues." After a stint with the Count Basie Orchestra, Durham arranged tunes for The Glen Miller Band, contributing to the band's signature piece, "In The Mood," for which Durham gained entry into the Grammy Hall of Fame.  Durham also produced classic arrangements for Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, and Jan Savitt, cementing his place as one of the premier arrangers and composers of the Big Band Era.  An accomplished trombonist, Durham possessed talents that extended beyond composing and arranging songs.  Most significantly, Durham pioneered recording using an amplified guitar.  His work with the electric guitar strongly influenced a generation of jazz artists, including Charles Christian, widely held to be one of the greatest electric guitarists ever.  The electric guitar became, of course, a standard instrument for Blues and Rock & Roll bands.

These activities are also part of ongoing efforts to publicize the Dunbar Heritage and Museums District, a proposed multi-acre heritage and cultural tourism and economic development initiative located primarily within the Dunbar Historic District in central San Marcos.  The integrated heritage tourism area would include an Eddie Durham Heritage Park and Durham Music Museum, preservation efforts in the historic Dunbar neighborhood, improvements to the Calaboose African American Museum, the preservation and restoration of the Old Hays County Jail for a Hays County History Museum, a restored Old First Baptist Church N.B.C. for community use and exhibit space, a restored blacksmith's workshop, and several additional exhibits that would include a visual recreation of "The Beat," the once vibrant commercial heart of San Marcos' African-American community.

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