Lots has modified within the 5 brief years since Cheryl Fabio premiered her documentary, Evolutionary Blues…West Oakland’s Music Legacy. As its title suggests, the movie traces the historical past of the town’s blues scene, whereas additionally paying homage to the musical pioneers chargeable for making West Oakland prosper within the mid-Twentieth century as a hub of blues music and Black tradition.
A few of the icons interviewed by Fabio within the movie have since handed away. However audiences unfamiliar with their legacies could have an opportunity to study them at a particular screening of the 2017 doc subsequent Thursday, Feb. 24, on the Grand Lake Theatre. The occasion is being hosted by the Rotary Membership of Oakland in observance of Black Historical past Month. A Q&A with Cheryl Fabio will comply with the screening.
The documentary attracts on archival footage and images—together with from Agnès Varda’s 1970 brief, Black Panthers, and Marlon Riggs and Pete Webster’s 30-minute 1981 West Oakland blues documentary, Lengthy Practice Working—together with interviews with dwelling artists performed by Fabio, to inform the historical past of Oakland blues.
In a single part of the movie, writer Isabel Wilkerson (The Heat of Different Suns) explains how the Nice Migration paved the way in which for West Oakland to develop into a vibrant Black neighborhood. Some who migrated right here from the South included blues and jazz musicians, who got here to be beloved on Oakland’s music circuit however by no means gained nationwide or worldwide fame.
Greater than only a music movie, nevertheless, Fabio touches on how West Oakland’s once-flourishing neighborhood was demolished within the Nineteen Sixties to make method for “city renewal” redevelopment initiatives. In a single occasion from 1960 documented within the movie, the Abdo S. Allen demolition firm used a surplus Sherman tank from World Battle II to bulldoze 500 houses over a 12-block radius to clear the way in which for brand new developments together with a brand new predominant publish workplace and mail distribution heart, displacing tons of of residents and enterprise house owners from the neighborhood.
Neighborhood economies could rise and fall over time, mentioned Fabio, however the West Oakland mid-century period documented in her movie won’t ever be replicated.
“You can also make a brand new financial engine on Seventh Road. It might be San Pablo Avenue, MacArthur, or East 14th. However what we misplaced once they bulldozed these homes and simply type of wiped folks out in West Oakland—it’s a neighborhood that’s gone,” mentioned Fabio.
Fabio gained’t get to reunite with a few of the acquainted faces she interviewed and had stayed in contact with for the reason that movie made its debut, who’ve since handed away.
A type of is Sonny Rhodes, a gifted blues singer and lap steel-guitar participant who graced the phases of venues like Esther’s Orbit Room and Eli’s Mile Excessive Membership. One other is Marvin Holmes, frontman for bands The Uptights, and Justice and The Funk Firm. His Oakland funk sound resonated all through the 60s and 70s.
“How am I getting on a stage and never seeing or not naming these folks?” Fabio mentioned. “The dying of all these males is the top of an period.”
What made that period in West Oakland particular, mentioned Fabio, wasn’t simply the music—it was the neighborhood that constructed up round it. “The undergirding of what’s thrilling about what this movie is representing [is that] it occurred in locations that Black people have towered. It doesn’t occur in white institutions that allow you to are available in, do the gig and go,” she mentioned. “That is one thing a lot deeper than that. And no, it’s going to by no means be rebuilt. It’s gone for good.”
Along with preserving the legacies of those that paved the way in which, Evolutionary Blues function interviews with modern Oakland musicians who at the moment are leaving their very own mark on Oakland’s wealthy musical historical past.
Artists lending their voices and experiences within the movie embody D’Wayne Wiggins of Tony! Toni! Toné! fame; The Dynamic Miss Faye Carol, who’s at the moment performing each Sunday at Geoffrey’s Internal Circle; Ronnie Stewart, the chief director of the West Coast Blues Society and the creator of The Music They Performed on seventh Road Oakland Stroll of Fame; Sugar Pie DeSanto; and blues singer Alabama Mike.
Fabio additionally interviewed Unbelievable Negrito and captured the artist enjoying a set at Oakland First Fridays. Again then, Unbelievable Negrito was identified for busking throughout Oakland, and his impromptu exhibits at First Fridays had been a fan favourite. For the reason that movie’s debut, Unbelievable Negrito has amassed three Grammys (together with in 2017 for his album, The Final Days of Oakland), and opened Storefront Information, an unbiased document label and neighborhood house on San Pablo Avenue at thirty fourth Road.
For Fabio, subsequent week’s screening with the Oakland Rotary Membership is a chance for the movie to achieve new audiences and enhance understanding of various folks’s histories and experiences in Oakland.
“I hope that the screening is successful,” she mentioned, “as a result of it’s a sign that there’s possibly some bridging occurring.”
The present subsequent week isn’t restricted to membership members and is open to the general public. For many who are nonetheless not snug going to film theaters, the movie may be streamed by the Oakland Public Library utilizing your library card.
Thursday, Feb. 24, 6 p.m., $14, Grand Lake Theatre, 3200 Grand Ave.