{"id":349104,"date":"2026-09-17T08:37:11","date_gmt":"2026-09-17T08:37:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349104\/"},"modified":"2026-09-17T08:37:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-17T08:37:11","slug":"leon-hefflin-the-real-impresario-of-jazz","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/349104\/","title":{"rendered":"Leon Hefflin, the real impresario of jazz"},"content":{"rendered":"

As the current administration actively diminishes sources of Black cultural history, bans books, restructures voting districts, and dismantles freedom of speech, Deborah Swan has written a most remarkable book<\/a> sharing the history of her grandfather titled \u201cThe Impresario Leon Hefflin and the World\u2019s First Annual Jazz Festival\u201d (Hefflin Legacy Foundation, 2025). The long title represents eight years of research that amounts to 555 pages, over 300 rare photos, 135 QR codes, and 33 original poems by Swan.<\/p>\n

Hefflin\u2019s legacy boasts the kind of thrilling Black cultural history one discovers at Harlem\u2019s Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, where a copy of Swan\u2019s book currently resides. The chapters of Hefflin\u2019s story are alive, turning with the kind of exciting and adventurous experiences that films are made of. Hefflin admittedly knew nothing about the entertainment business going into it \u2014 having accumulated his fortune as one of America\u2019s early Black millionaires as owner of one of the country\u2019s largest Black furniture manufacturers. He built and operated the Royal Appomattox Club. In addition, he produced America\u2019s first large outdoor concert, the Cavalcade of Jazz Festival, which flourished at Wrigley Field from 1945 to 1958 and later took place at the Shrine Auditorium.<\/p>\n

The annual festival became a mecca for iconic stars including Sarah Vaughan, Dizzy Gillespie, Frankie Laine, Dinah Washington, Sam Cooke, Little Willie John, Louis Armstrong, Ray Charles, Ruth Brown, Josephine Baker, Little Richard, Lionel Hampton, Cozy Cole, and Velma Middleton. The many photos, original program covers, and authentic memorabilia in the book drop readers into a Wrigley Field seat: the gentlemen decked in pinstriped three-piece suits, fedoras, and shined Stacy Adams shoes; the ladies catching stares in beautiful dresses, gloves, hats, and heels. The music comes alive: feel yourself being jostled about as you walk into the giant Wrigley Field, Black folks everywhere. Leon Hefflin\u2019s story represents nation building, community activism, and how to promote and maintain Black music in the community. As one ad states in the book, \u201cHefflin is one of the city\u2019s most sincere but daring promoters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Black press was the community\u2019s pulse during that era, and the book reveals many ads and reprinted previews and reviews from the Los Angeles Sentinel and California Eagle. Hefflin took out large ads in all the newspapers, as well as radio spots when he could. Jazz impresario Norman Granz was also known for his antiracist positions and for integrating audiences. Hefflin was not as fortunate: a Black man who hired both Black and white bands and integrated audiences himself, he is not remembered for it. He also had to compete with Granz, who was able to advertise in both white and Black newspapers. However, Hefflin did hire Granz for a 1947 concert at the Shrine Auditorium, paying him $1,200.<\/p>\n

Granz and good friend George Wein are acknowledged \u201cas the most successful impresarios in jazz history\u201d \u2014 which probably isn\u2019t debatable but jazz history tells us Wein organized the first Newport Jazz Festival in 1954, billed and documented as the first outdoor jazz festival in the United States. Clearly Wein\u2019s early accomplishments came nine years after Hefflin\u2019s 1945 outdoor festival, giving him a blueprint for his Newport fest. Oftentimes when African Americans write their history, American history has to be altered to accommodate the full story.<\/p>\n

Get another perspective of West Coast jazz before it became cool, when Los Angeles was jumping: Central Avenue was the hotbed of jazz and the street was blazing like Harlem\u2019s Lenox Avenue or Detroit\u2019s Black Bottom. Hefflin and his brother Bill (his partner) packed local clubs like Elks Ballroom, Jack\u2019s Basket Room, and Club Alabam, where they promoted big band dances. There is also a full chapter on Hefflin\u2019s groundbreaking all-Black musical revue that he created and financed that starred the legendary Dorothy Dandridge with a cast of over 20 celebrity performers.<\/p>\n

Hefflin\u2019s Cavalcade of Jazz took off in very difficult times: World War II had just ended, the Great Migration was at its height, and Jim Crow, segregation, and lynchings were everywhere. KKK membership was high, and the Chitlin\u2019 Circuit was swinging across the country. His Cavalcade of Jazz wasn\u2019t just music, but a form of escapism, where Blacks dressed to impress for performances by the best entertainers in the world, who happened to be Black. Relax, groove to the music that for a moment took audiences eons away from a terrorizing, troubled country. Swan captures her grandfather\u2019s resilience, the tenacity of Black soul, and the socioeconomic structure of his hometown, forged by his immense foresight and perseverance! It\u2019s one of the most important books for Blacks and anyone connected with jazz or American music.<\/p>\n

Eighty years ago, Lionel Hampton and his big band performed at the second annual Cavalcade of Jazz on Oct. 12, 1946. The Hefflin Legacy Foundation will celebrate this historic anniversary at WLCAC Phoenix Hall (Central Ave, Los Angeles, CA) on Oct. 10, 2026, with an evening of live jazz, history, culture, and community, as well as a conversation about Swan\u2019s work, with a book signing.<\/p>\n

For this event and for info regarding the book, visit hefflinlegacyfoundation.com<\/a><\/p>\n

As the summer sun bows to the autumn winds, the John Coltrane centennial continues at Sistas\u2019 Place\u2019s 31st season opener<\/a> on Sept. 23, at Janes United Methodist Church (660 Monroe Street, Brooklyn, NY).<\/p>\n

The James Carter Quintet is sure to mesmerize taking a page from Coltrane, who reshaped the jazz idiom with his intense spiritual and blues discourse. Carter, known as a fiery reed technician, is too fierce to be categorized, having mastered the art of playing damn near every saxophone ever made. Whether the Detroit native is playing baritone with the complicated phrasing of Hamiet Bluiett, or the wild honking of Illinois Jacquet, or the soul alto of Cannonball Adderley, the temperature will rise. His inventive cast includes trombonist and seashell improvisor Steve Turre, pianist Sharp Radway, bassist Leon Lee Dorsey, and drummer Kahlil Kwame Bell. For tickets, call 718-398-1766 and visit sistasplace.org\/john-coltrane-100-james-carter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As the current administration actively diminishes sources of Black cultural history, bans books, restructures voting districts, and dismantles…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":349105,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[36],"tags":[98,100,99,9,24,63],"class_list":["post-349104","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn","tag-brooklyn-headlines","tag-brooklyn-news","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-city","tag-nyc"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349104","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=349104"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/349104\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/349105"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=349104"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=349104"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=349104"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}