- Hi.

We are here on our special journey through the historic African American Heritage Corridor here in Buffalo, New York.

In the first episode, we learned all about the Michigan Street Baptist Church and the Nash House.

Hi!

I'm Chrisena and today we're going to explore two legendary sites for music, resilience, and creativity in the African American community.

Let's go!

♪ Let's go, let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go ♪ ♪ Let's go ♪ - The Colored Musicians Club is known throughout the world for being a center of jazz, with its ties to one of the first local unions for African American musicians.

This museum is dedicated to the club.

Hi there.

- [Dan] Hi, I'm Dan Williams.

Welcome to the Colored Musicians Club and Jazz Museum.

Please, right over here.

(jazz music) - [Chrisena] Tell me a little bit more about the club.

- The idea here is to have our own place to do things, whether it's rehearse, to practice, to eat to get together and jam.

We had people like Dizzy Gillespie, Miles Davis, John Coltrane It was a who's who, a plethora of folks who were actually industry leaders.

In the bebop movement and the Renaissance coming out of Harlem, Buffalo was the place to be.

The club's actually upstairs.

What started the whole program was actually the union.

In 1917, after 20 years of petitioning the American Federation of Musicians, we were finally granted membership on February the third, 1917.

And then as a result of that, the union started the club so that we had a place to socialize amongst ourselves.

- Can you define what a union is?

- A union is a group of folks who do a particular task or job description, and they get together to negotiate fair wages, working conditions, and those types of things.

And of course, musicians are no different.

- Wow.

Could you tell me how segregation in the 1950s impacted the jazz scene here?

- Well, the fifties was a very difficult time.

We had just come back from a war, and the economy was actually booming.

But for African Americans, we didn't own all of the places that we were working in.

In Buffalo, we had more than 16 different jazz clubs that were actually using our musicians, who were earning a living there.

It was still segregated.

But the club was a place that they could come after they played there, and they could come here, and dine, and then play here, and we would get together, compare notes, and create new music.

I got started here myself in 1982 when I attended a jam session.

- What instruments do you play?

- [Dan] Play trombone, baritone, horn, and the cello.

- [Chrisena] Do you have a favorite instrument?

- Trombone.

- Trombone.

- One of the amazing things that, dynamic that took place was a lot of the older guys were very willing to teach.

And these guys could all read on the fly.

These were things that you can't learn on your own, you know.

You got to get in there and know the guys who are doing it.

And Buffalo was a great magnet for those folks who wanted to learn to do things.

- So let's talk a little bit more about jazz in general.

What makes it special?

Why is it so important?

- Well, the African-American music that folks refer to as jazz came into being because when Africans came to this country, we were stripped of our culture, our food, our language, our family, and our music.

Whereas European music usually starts with a melody.

African American music starts with, or African music starts with usually percussion or rhythm.

So we add those elements to what we learned from the European.

So we took the European music, but we added what we had that was unique, and that was our rhythms, and our textures, and drums, and those types of things.

And it's important because it is something that we invented.

No other country had it yet.

But the idea is the museum is here to not only preserve, but to grow and stretch the art form.

And of course, the younger they start, the better they will be.

You can envision being a truck driver.

You can envision being an airplane pilot.

But you need to come in here and see what it's like to envision being a musician.

What does it sound like?

What does it smell like?

(jazz music) - [Chrisena] Next door is the radio collective WUFO which has represented Black business and the local music industry since the 1960s.

Let's go!

- Oh!

- Hi, Chrisena.

How you doing?

- Hi, Sheila.

I'm great.

How are you today?

- It is good.

How's everything going?

- So great.

I'm so excited to be here today.

- I'm so glad you came.

Just so you can really get some of the history of WUFO.

So I'm going to take you in the back, so you can get a sneak peek.

- Lead the way.

- All right.

(exciting music) Radio was where people didn't have televisions.

Radio was the force.

So in the sixties, you know, WUFO, they're known for not just the music of Motown.

They're known for talk shows and social justice.

Martin Luther King, he was the hero for people of color back there in the sixties.

Not even people of color.

Just people of equality, people of peace.

And when he got assassinated, that was a hurting thing for people across the country.

So the radio station was able to change our format of what normally would be played on at that time, at 12 o'clock, and really take the final tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King.

(smooth music) And these are different album covers, all different genres of music, whether it was gospel, whether it was funk, whether it was r&b, and they actually got played on the actual turntables.

So they would lift up little needle underneath there, put the album cover on, and then they would put the album on.

(record scratches) (funky music) One of our local record shops where people would go get their music, they would listen to WUFO, and whatever we were playing they would go to Doris Records and pick it up.

So this was called our Top 40 Hits and our album pick.

- Yeah, I know some of those songs - Know some of them songs, right?

- Yeah, I do, right?

(laughing) - I know, right?

(laughing) - I see some familiar names there.

- Yeah, right.

- Al Green.

- Yeah.

Right, right.

(happy music) - [Chrisena] And you said you're the owner?

- I am the owner.

I am the first African American woman to own a radio station in all Western New York and upstate New York.

Well, first woman period to actually own a radio station.

I actually started at 21 years old in 1986.

I started at WUFO.

Wasn't really looking to go into journalism or communication.

So it's been quite a journey 35 years later to be owner of the radio station.

We are the community station.

Now we're getting ready for the Black Music Month conference.

You always get us ready for the red carpet.

Nia, how are you today?

- I am wonderful.

I just want to say first, thank you for having me.

Always a pleasure to be at WUFO 96.5.

- I'm Terry Davis with you on a Wednesday.

It's 3:51 on May 17th.

That's new music- - We're in the main studio of the radio station.

This is where all the magic happens, where Terry Davis is our on-air personality.

- Okay, so Terry, when we first came in you I saw you doing a lot of work here.

You were working on something here.

You were mixing some things over here.

What was happening there?

What were you doing?

- Actually, I was setting this up so that everything would flow smoothly so that I can get the news on.

What this is, is the news that we do once an hour.

Dwayne Landers, he will record the news and send it to me.

But the miracle of technology, I can pretty much edit it and get it on the air within that three minutes.

- Wow.

- So, yeah.

- Do you ever get nervous?

- I get nervous every time I open up the mic.

And I've been doing this, I started radio in 1981.

I worked at Buff State.

I did a show called "Music for Lovers, for Lovers of Music."

I made every mistake you can possibly think of.

I understand that thousands of people are listening to me.

And there's a human element involved.

'Cause you know, you do make that mistake.

I can't tell you how many new words I've made up on the air.

(Chrisena laughs) So many, and I will probably make up more.

But once I cracked that shell, it's on and popping.

- What an adventure.

I'm so grateful that you came along for this journey with me.

Today, we explored a rich history that everyone should know about.

And now, we can celebrate it together.

Well, I'm going to go write about it in my journal.

See you next time!

1080 AM, WUFO and Power 96.5 FM, - Didn't that sound great?

(laughs) - Okay, I'm going to give this back over to you, Terry before I quit my day job and try to be your personal assistant.

- But this is a great job because, I mean, four hours a day, you can't beat that.

(person speaking indistinctly) (Chrisena laughs)