Savannah Jazz to screen Ben Tucker documentary on Sunday to kick off educational programming

Jazz often conjures images of shiny saxophones, slide trombones and swinging rhythms loping through the streets of New Orleans, but that’s just a glimpse of the genre’s rich and storied history. Savannah’s cobblestone streets have played an important role in the evolution of America's true art form, and Ben Tucker was one of the biggest influences Savannah had to offer. To honor this local treasure, Savannah Jazz will kick off its Educational Program with “In Tune: The Ben Tucker Story,” a documentary that helps us see one another as partners in this crazy thing called life.

“We chose this film to launch our educational series because it touches on so many great points, like the history of jazz in Savannah and how our association was founded, but also what legends come out of Savannah in the world of jazz, and there's no greater one than Ben Tucker,” said Savannah Jazz Executive Director Paula Fogarty.

Since its creation in 1982, Savannah Jazz has helped keep the genre alive in the Lowcountry through programs such as the annual Savannah Jazz Festival, the Savannah Jazz History and Hall of Fame Exhibit and free concerts throughout the year. The Educational Programs, funded in part by a grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts, are the latest addition. Through this programming, Savannah Jazz hopes to start a conversation about the city’s role in the jazz revival.

“Jazz was all but dead in Savannah between the '60s and '80s, like it was everywhere else in the world with the advent of rock and roll and the British invasion with the Beatles and the Rolling Stones. That phenomenon pushed jazz underground for a long time,” Fogarty explained.

Self-taught Tucker collaborates with top jazz musicians

If anyone could save jazz, it was Ben Tucker, a gifted musician who taught himself to play tuba, piano and bass starting at 13 years old. Once he caught the rhythm, Tucker tuned in to the beautiful world of music, and nothing could stop him from sharing that joy.

That passion pointed Tucker’s career toward a series of impressive collaborations with artists like Art Pepper, Billy Taylor and Quincy Jones. In 1961, Tucker hit a major milestone when he helped compose “Comin’ Home Baby,” a tune popularized by Herbie Mann and Mel Tormé. The swinging jingle caught on quickly and continues to thrive today.

“You'll hear it in espresso commercials, you'll hear it in car commercials. You'll hear it in the background of movies. You’ll hear it in elevators. Once you get hooked on it, you'll hear it everywhere. ‘Comin’ Home Baby’ really made him a global jazz sensation,” Fogarty said.

With his career in full swing, Tucker moved to Savannah in the 1970s. Once he and his family settled, Tucker quickly began making friends and nurturing the musical community.

“He was one of the most welcoming, friendly people in Savannah. He truly was an ambassador for the city and jazz,” Fogarty said. “He called everybody partner. ‘Hey partner, howdy partner, how you doin’, partner?’ He never met a stranger, and he welcomed so many different kinds of musicians onto the stage with him.”

In 1972, Tucker purchased WSOK-AM Radio, becoming one of the first African American radio station owners in the city. Blending Tucker’s broad musical and social interests, the station featured a wide range of popular music and helped amplify African American voices.

And his efforts certainly didn’t stop there. Tucker became a founding member of the Telfair Jazz Society, which later became Savannah Jazz, in 1982. In 1989, he opened Hard-Hearted Hannah’s, where he played six nights a week. Instead of using these performances to promote his own music, Tucker extended an open hand to Savannah’s budding musicians.

“It was a true jazz club, so he fostered a lot of musicians there. He brought them up on stage and got them some professional chops,” Fogarty said.

Each musician brought their own style, but they also brought their own experiences and perspectives. Without these two components, jazz would be a very different phenomenon.

American trumpeter and composer Wynton Marsalis once said, “Jazz music celebrates life: the range of it, the absurdity of it, the greatness of it, the intelligence of it, the sexuality of it, the profundity of it, and it deals with it.” Jazz artists use their music to understand and share their experiences, and Tucker was in the business of helping everyone tell their stories.

Tucker inspires Savannah Jazz's educational mission

That goodwill continues to fuel Savannah Jazz’s mission. The organization’s programming aims to help people from all walks of life experience the joy of jazz as Tucker and his fellow co-founders intended.

“We have so many free shows because part of [Tucker’s] spirit and the spirit of Teddy Adams and our founders is that jazz music should be accessible. It's the people's music. It was founded from the call and response tradition in the enslaved populations and the cotton fields and the workers and so forth in the South. It should not be cloistered away in an ivory tower,” Fogarty said.

That accessibility makes it easier to connect with the myriad experiences that come with it. When we attend live music events, we are all united by a shared experience but separated by our unique understandings.

“That's what the arts are all about. It's about people coming together with different points of view on a similar object. In this case, the object is the ever-moving art form of jazz," said Fogarty. "That's why when you ask ‘what is jazz,’ you're going to get a different answer from everybody, but they're all looking at the same thing.”

These conversations help Savannah Jazz thrive, and Tucker’s life has a pivotal role in the next chapter. Thanks to his legacy, the organization is always ready to turn obstacles into opportunities and strangers into partners.

If You Go >>

What: “In Tune: The Ben Tucker Story”

When: 3:30 to 5 p.m., Aug. 20

Where: Savannah History Museum, 303 Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd.

Tickets: $10 each

Info: savannahjazz.org

This article originally appeared on Savannah Morning News: Savannah Jazz to screen Ben Tucker documentary to kick off education program