Janine Gilbert Carter, Vocalist
April is Jazz Appreciation Month, and — in this centennial year for both Ella Fitzgerald and Lena Horne, I have discovered that there is no shortage of opportunities to celebrate the artistry of women in jazz. Today, I invite you to join me in focusing on the work of two gifted musicians.
Vocalist Janine Gilbert Carter is known for her performances on both the domestic and international music scenes. I had the pleasure of hearing her in an African American History Month presentation at the Woodrow Wilson Center in Washington DC. She is one of the many members and friends of DC Legendary Musicians, Inc. who agreed to participate in the Washington DC Jazz Oral History Project.
Ms. Gilbert Carter will be included in the Washington DC Jazz book that the Rev. Dr. Sandra Butler Truesdale and I are co-authoring for Arcadia Publishing’s
Mary Lou Williams
“Images of America” series. I am looking forward to sharing more information about her work with our readers.
This month, I have also decided to treat myself to some of the keyboard artistry of the legendary Mary Lou Williams (1910 – 1981). For a sample of her piano jazz (and blues!), check out this video: https://www.youtube.com
/watch?v=DiKwZRMYvQ0#t=199.029854 .
This 1947 image of Williams is part of the William Gottlieb Collection at the Library of Congress.
Happy listening!
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
Save
About Dr. Regennia N. Williams, Founder, President, and Executive Director
Dr. Regennia N. Williams is the Founder and Executive Director of The RASHAD Center, Inc., a Maryland-based non-profit educational corporation.
Williams holds a PhD in Social History and Policy from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. A native Clevelander and a four-time alumna of Cleveland State University, information on RASHAD's “Praying Grounds, African American Faith Communities: A Documentary and Oral History” project is now available online at www.ClevelandMemory.org/pray/, a site that is maintained by CSU's Library Special Collections, home of the Praying Grounds manuscript collections. Praying Grounds was the primary inspiration for the launching of the Initiative for the Study of Religion and Spirituality in the History of Africa and the Diaspora (RASHAD) at CSU, and links to RASHAD's scholarly journal and newsletter are also available on the Praying Grounds site. On April 28, 2020, the RASHAD Center, Inc. became a tax-exempt 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.
In 2010, Dr. Williams was a Visiting Fulbright Scholar at Nigeria’s Obafemi Awolowo University, where she taught history and directed a RASHAD-related oral history project that focused on the role of religion in recent Nigerian social history. Other research-related travels have taken her to Canada, China, France, South Africa, and Austria.
In 2013, she conceived and produced “Come Sunday @ 70: The Place of Duke Ellington’s Sacred Jazz in World History and Culture, c. 1943-2013,” a project that included scholarly presentations and performing arts activities. From September 1993 until May 2015, she was a faculty member in the Department of History at Cleveland State University. She served as a Fulbright Specialist at South Africa's University of the Free State in the summer of 2019, and completed a short-term faculty residency at Howard University in the fall of 2019. She is based in Cleveland, Ohio.
As a public scholar, her current research projects focus on African American history and culture, especially as it relates to music, religion, and spirituality. She is a member of the Oral History Association, the Western Reserve Historical Society, and the National Museum of African American History and Culture.
The RASHAD Center, Inc. 