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PITTSBURGH JAZZ

 

From Blakey to Brown, Como to Costa, Eckstine to Eldridge, Galbraith to Garner, Harris to Hines, Horne to Hyman, Jamal to Jefferson, Kelly to Klook; Mancini to Marmarosa, May to Mitchell, Negri to Nestico, Parlan to Ponder, Reed to Ruther, Strayhorn to Sullivan, Turk to Turrentine, Wade to Williams… the forthcoming publication Treasury of Pittsburgh Jazz Connections by Dr. Nelson Harrison and Dr. Ralph Proctor, Jr. will document the legacy of one of the world’s greatest jazz capitals.

 

Do you want to know who Dizzy Gillespie  idolized? Did you ever wonder who inspired Kenny Clarke and Art Blakey? Who was the pianist that mentored Monk, Bud Powell, Tad Dameron, Elmo Hope, Sarah Vaughan and Mel Torme? Who was Art Tatum’s idol and Nat Cole’s mentor? What musical quartet pioneered the concept adopted later by the Modern Jazz Quartet? Were you ever curious to know who taught saxophone to Stanley Turrentine or who taught piano to Ahmad Jamal? What community music school trained Robert McFerrin, Sr. for his history-making debut with the Metropolitan Opera? What virtually unknown pianist was a significant influence on young John Coltrane, Shirley Scott, McCoy Tyner, Bobby Timmons and Ray Bryant when he moved to Philadelphia from Pittsburgh in the 1940s?  Would you be surprised to know that Erroll Garner attended classes at the Julliard School of Music in New York and was at the top of his class in writing and arranging proficiency?

 

Some answers  can be gleaned from the postings on the Pittsburgh Jazz Network.

 

For almost 100 years the Pittsburgh region has been a metacenter of jazz originality that is second to no other in the history of jazz.  One of the best kept secrets in jazz folklore, the Pittsburgh Jazz Legacy has heretofore remained mythical.  We have dubbed it “the greatest story never told” since it has not been represented in writing before now in such a way as to be accessible to anyone seeking to know more about it.  When it was happening, little did we know how priceless the memories would become when the times were gone.

 

Today jazz is still king in Pittsburgh, with events, performances and activities happening all the time. The Pittsburgh Jazz Network is dedicated to celebrating and showcasing the places, artists and fans that carry on the legacy of Pittsburgh's jazz heritage.

 

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Civil Rights Leader Alma Speed Fox passes at 98.

Announcement of the Passing of Civil Right’s Leader and Activists, Alma Speed Fox
91EC1A09-D7DE-458A-94C7-E3F8FA2841E2
Alma Speed Fox Receiving the Homer S. Brown Award

It is with profound sadness that we announce the passing of Alma Speed Fox on January 24, 2022-Civil Rights Leader and lifelong member of the Historic Church of the Holy Cross Episcopal in Homewood.
Alma Speed Fox (b. 1923) made Pittsburgh home in 1949 when she married Gerald Fox. Alma was a trailblazer and became actively involved in the Pittsburgh Branch of the NAACP in the 1950s when she joined in demonstrations against the Duquesne Light Company and participated in virtually every march from Freedom Corner since it was established in the 1960s. She served as the Executive Director of the NAACP (1966-1971) and as Eastern-area Equal Opportunity Manager for the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Mines (1971-1983). Among some of her many public roles, she also served on the Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission (1972-2002). Alma Fox was an unsung “Shero” who organized many demonstrations and led many civil and human rights efforts here in Pittsburgh.
Alma Speed Fox’s legacy transcends the breadth and depth of service to God and our neighbor. She entered the church triumphant on Monday, January 24 and heard the words of our Savior: “Well done thy good and faithful servant lay down thy head and rest.”
Once we have details about funeral services, we will send out a notice to Holy Cross members and friends. May her soul and the souls of all the faithful departed rest in peace, and light perpetual shine on them. Please keep Carl, Wesley, and Muriel and the entire Fox family in your prayers as they honor the legacy of their mother.

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Permalink Reply by Dr. Nelson Harrison on January 28, 2022 at 4:45am

Pittsburgh civil rights icon Alma Speed Fox dead at 98

  • Rob Taylor Jr. - Courier Staff Writer
  • January 27, 2022

ALMA SPEED FOX receives the “key” to the city from then Mayor Bill Peduto, right. Also pictured is current former State Rep. and current Mayor Rep. Ed Gainey. 

Alma Speed Fox, Pittsburgh’s beloved civil rights figure who was a 30-year member of the Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission and past executive director of the Pittsburgh NAACP, died Monday, Jan. 24. She was 98.

Word began to spread Monday evening about Fox’s passing. It was confirmed Tuesday morning, Jan. 25, by the Historic Church of the Holy Cross Episcopal, in Homewood, Fox’s lifelong church.

“Alma Speed Fox’s legacy transcends the breadth and depth of service to God and our neighbor,” the church wrote to the public. “She entered the church triumphant on Monday, January 24 and heard the words of our Savior: ‘Well done thy good and faithful servant lay down thy head and rest.'”

Born in 1923, Fox made Pittsburgh home in 1949 when she married Gerald Fox. She became actively involved in the Pittsburgh NAACP when she joined in demonstrations against the Duquesne Light Company and participated in virtually every march from Freedom Corner since it was established in the 1960s. Fox served as executive director of the Pittsburgh NAACP from 1966-71 and as Eastern-area Equal Opportunity Manager for the U.S. Department of Interior, Bureau of Mines from 1971-83. And she was a can’t-miss figure on the local Human Relations Commission from 1972-2002.

Her name also stands proudly on a building in the Hill District where the NAACP is housed.

Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey, waking up Tuesday, Jan. 25, to the news, tweeted that Fox was “a Civil Rights Icon who helped to transform the City of Pittsburgh. We Love You.”

In 2018, then-Pittsburgh mayor Bill Peduto honored Fox with the “Key to the City.” Upon learning of her passing, Peduto tweeted: “Pittsburgh lost a leader, a true freedom fighter, who trail blazed a path of civil rights & social justice throughout our region for over 50 years. Alma Speed Fox was a mentor & friend. An advisor w/a warm smile & compassionate heart, she not only knew history, she made it.”

Permalink Reply by Dr. Nelson Harrison on January 31, 2022 at 2:46am

The funeral is at 11 a.m. Thursday at Calvary Episcopal Church, 315 Shady Ave. A livestream of the service will be available at calvarypgh.org/live.

Donations in her name can be made to Freedom Unlimited Inc., 2201 Wylie Ave., Pittsburgh, PA 15219.

Permalink Reply by Dr. Nelson Harrison on February 2, 2022 at 4:58am
Alma Speed Fox in 2018.
1

Alma Speed Fox, movement’s matriarch, inspired Pittsburgh

 
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette logo
 
THE EDITORIAL BOARD
Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
 
FEB 1, 2022
 
12:00 AM

During a time of tumultuous change, Alma Speed Fox, who died Jan. 24 at 98, was the civil rights leader Pittsburgh needed. Ms. Fox was a mentor to many of the region’s most accomplished leaders and an inspiration to practically everyone who met her.

After an apprenticeship in the Pittsburgh chapter of the NAACP, Ms. Fox was elected its president in 1966 and served in that role until 1971. It’s significant that she was the voice of the NAACP when Jim Crow was being dismantled across the region, and during the assassination of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and the social unrest that followed.

Through it all, Alma Fox was a voice of reason, pragmatism and action — not empty gestures. For 30 years, from 1972 to 2002, Ms. Fox also served on the Pittsburgh Human Relations Commission.

Ms. Fox was also a leader in the National Organization of Women, where she was co-convener and president of the East Hills chapter of NOW. Because of her activism on behalf of Black people and women, Ms. Fox was intersectional before there was a word for it. There was no area of human or civil rights that she didn’t care deeply about. Her nature was to be a friend and organize against injustice. That’s what love of the community was about for her.

 
Alma Speed Fox
Janice Crompton
Obituary: Alma Speed Fox | Fighter against racism, discrimination, injustice in Pittsburgh

In the 1950s, Alma Fox helped organize demonstrations against Duquesne Light because of its discriminatory hiring policies. When Freedom Corner became the epicenter of protest in the Black community following MLK’s assassination, she led marches from that site. From 1971 to 1983, she worked for the federal government as an area equal opportunity manager for the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines.

As a true daughter of the U.S. civil rights movement, Alma Speed Fox would be celebrated as one of the movement’s matriarchs several decades later. It’s appropriate that she lived to see it.

In recent years, Alma Speed Fox received the key to the city, and every high civilian honor, for her work on behalf of the downtrodden and exploited in Pittsburgh. In retirement, Ms. Fox’s counsel was still sought. She has been a repository of information about the city’s politics in general, and the Black community in particular, since moving here in 1949 with her late husband, Gerald Fox.

Mayor Ed Gainey singled her out in his inaugural speech as an inspiration. There is no overstating how important she was to this city’s moral development.

Alma Speed Fox was a great Pittsburgher — and a great American.

First Published February 1, 2022, 12:00am

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