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Lifetime
Achievement Spotlight
Ernie Calhoun
Musician
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Photograph
by Herb Snitzer
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Tenor saxophone
player Ernie Calhoun became an octogenarian in April, but the thought
of retiring hasn't even begun to enter his mind. On any weekend the
beloved entertainer is apt to be donning his best suit and strutting
out with his horn to play for a concert or a private party. Always in
charge, he'll be bringing with him a rhythm section of long time friends,
established musicians, somewhat younger, of course. He'll be recognized
and cheered by many during the course of the evening.
Born in Jacksonville,
Ernie was the youngest of three boys in the family, but moved as a baby
with his parents, Joseph and Martha, to Akron, Ohio. Four years later,
his father, an electrician, died. His death broke up the family, causing
Ernie's two brothers to go to live with grandparents and leaving Ernie's
mother alone to care for him. In 1938, when he was thirteen, she brought
him back to Florida. Ernie attended all-Black public schools in Tampa
graduating from Middleton High and playing a saxophone in the school's
band.
At seventeen, Ernie
helped the World War II war effort by working as a rubber compounder
in the chemical lab for B.F.Goodrich. This enabled him to buy his first
horn. Essentially self taught, Ernie took lessons from a teacher he
called "Professor Rodriguez" often walking to his house at
night in lamp light, two miles from the end of the bus stop. The walk
was worth it, he said. He was developing his rich, full sound on his
saxophone.
Ernie and his mother
lived on Central Avenue in Tampa across the street from J. Pellara Grocery
and Butcher Shop. Next to the shop was the Central Hotel where visiting
musicians stayed. Ernie worked as a delivery boy, bringing food to the
musicians and hanging around to listen to their rehearsals. Meanwhile
Ernie was practicing three hours a day on his own and one day the soulful
sounds of his horn floated through his open window to the hotel across
the street. Percy Mayfield, a blues and ballad musician, soon rapped
on the door of the Calhoun house asking to meet the sax player. Though
Ernie's mother hesitated to disturb him, the meeting with Percy Mayfield
led to a job for Ernie that very night and at eighteen he went on the
road with the group.
At this time Ernie
was making friends with a future legend, 16-year old pianist Ray Charles
who arrived in Tampa in 1946 after leaving the Florida School for the
Deaf and Blind in St. Augustine. Ray played in the Manhattan Casino
in St. Petersburg and the Blue Room in Tampa. From his hotel room on
Central Avenue he walked to Ernie's house to study and practice with
him. They worked together in the Manzy Harris Orchestra and later with
Charlie Brantley and the Honeymooners. After three years, Ray left for
Seattle and stardom, but Ernie never forgot his sessions with him because
Ray always kept in touch.
Ernie was a teenage
Army enlistee in World War II for a brief tour and later he served in
the Korean Conflict. Assigned to the 167 Rangers, 2nd Division in Korea,
he suffered a leg wound from a mortar blast in 1950. To complete his
service he drove Army trucks through muddy roads, carrying ammunition
to the front lines.
Ernie attended
Morehouse College in Atlanta on a scholarship, becoming active in the
civil rights movement. When his mother took ill, he returned home and
continued his studies at vocational schools, pursuing business law and
accounting. He had dreams of being an attorney.
While playing his
saxophone most nights, Ernie had a full-time day career. He worked as
a job developer for minority youth at the Tampa Comprehensive Employment
Program from 1973 until 1996. The nonprofit job placement organization,
later known as WorkForce, was funded by the Federal government. It called
upon Ernie to be not only a technical advisor, but to serve in a community
relations capacity helping minority youth to succeed, many of them handicapped
and from low income families. Serving as many as 600 youth at a time,
he coordinated their on-the-job training opportunities in factories,
hospitals, offices, department stores, etc. then sought to place them
in regular jobs -- all the time worrying how they could get from their
homes to work and back. Following up, he became their personal counselor,
urging them to save some of their money and to better themselves in
life. He touched the hearts and lives of thousands as he gave a helping
hand to those who needed it. He promoted economic growth for minorities
and he derived satisfaction from learning of the success of his clients.
"We had the love and concern for the people," Ernie recalled.
"Our work helped to unify us as a people." Under his watch,
the Tampa Comprehensive Employment Program became a model operation
for the nation. From the youth program Ernie was called upon to also
assist in the senior citizen program with a staff of 139 persons to
help him direct the public employment service. Though no longer holding
this challenging job, to this day he still gets occasional calls for
help.
Over the course
of his 65-year music career, Ernie traveled with the Lloyd Price Big
Band throughout the Southeast, then played in Canada with drummer-organist
Chris Columbo. In 1958, he came off the road and launched his own band,
"Ernie Cal and the Soul Brothers, " which had a steady gig
five nights a week at the Ace Lounge and Club on Cass Street in Tampa
. "Our band backed visiting headliners, the best and the greatest,"
Ernie recalled, "Cab Calloway, Lionel Hampton, Duke Ellington,
Jimmie Lunceford, we played for all of them."
Ernie's band evolved
in 1961 into the "Al Downing and the All Stars" band. By 1964,
it was considered by many to be the leading jazz band in the Tampa Bay
area in the past century. Piano legend, the late Al Downing, was the
group's esteemed leader, but it was Ernie's golden tenor that created
the group's unmistakable rich sound, recognized and loved by so many
jazz followers.
Al Downing founded the Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association in 1981
to help promote and preserve America's classic jazz music. Ernie, a
charter member, supported the Association throughout its exceptional
efforts to present jazz programs to the general public and to provide
scholarships for the education of young jazz students. The octogenarian
continues to be a loyal standard bearer for jazz in Tampa Bay.
--By Maggi Bevacqua-Geddes
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