By Shuana Stuart | For The Birmingham Times
A Birmingham-born musician is set to host a weekend of tributes to honor Jothan Callins, the visionary composer and educator from Ensley who founded and led the Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble, a 25-piece ensemble comprising middle and high school students that became a training ground for young Black musicians from Birmingham.
From Feb. 20 to Feb. 22, New York-based trombonist, educator, and former Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble (BYJE) member Calvin Sexton will lead the Jothan Callins Jazz Legacy Celebration. The project, funded by a grant from the South Arts Jazz Road Creative Residency and presented with the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame, will bring together a new generation of musicians, Callins’ family, and alumni of the Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble.
The events officially kick off on Friday, Feb. 20, at 7:00 p.m. with the “Calvin Sexton Presents: Winds of Change” concert at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. For the show, four artists (Anton Kot on drums, Levi Pugh on piano, Nigel Innis on tenor sax, and vocalist Ivory Waning Moon) will join bandleader Calvin Sexton to perform music from Callins’ treasured 1975 free jazz album “Winds of Change.”
On Saturday, Feb. 21, at 6 p.m., Sexton will host a banquet for Callin’s family, friends, Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble alumni, parents of alumni, and past Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble organizers at the Negro Southern League Museum.
The events will return to the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame on Sunday at 5 p.m. for the BYJE Alumni Concert. This show will reunite nearly 20 musicians who were members of the Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble during its tenure from 1994 to 2005 for a big band homecoming performance.
Sunday’s concert will mark a historic evening in Birmingham jazz history – the show stands to be the first time a large band of BYJE alumni has played together since Callin died in 2005.
Born in Birmingham in 1942, Jothan McKinley Callins was a trumpeter, composer, and ethnomusicologist. Callins, who studied trumpet under the tutelage of renowned musician Amos Gordon, went on to perform with legends including Lionel Hampton, SunRa, Stevie Wonder, and filmmaker Spike Lee’s aunt, Consuela Lee, a jazz pianist who also founded an arts school for children in rural Alabama.
Widely regarded as one of the pioneers of the avant-garde and spiritual jazz movement, Callins also led his own ensemble, Sounds of Togetherness. After spending decades in New York, Callins returned to Birmingham in the 1970s and worked with musician and educator J.L Lowe to help establish the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame. Callins was later inducted into the second class of the Hall of Fame in 1979.
Calvin Sexton remembers when he first heard about the Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble during the mid-90s, when the ensemble was rehearsing at the Birmingham Civil Rights Institute. Sexton heard radio announcements about the band and told his mother he wanted to join. Sexton grew up in Ensley, the same neighborhood as Callins.
Sexton, 47, says Callins’ decision to come back to Birmingham to teach needs to be acknowledged and celebrated. “Making a choice to serve the community, that was a choice, like… a calling. He could have easily been, I mean, he was the musician. He could have stayed in New York and had a career, but he made a choice to go back to Alabama.”
In Birmingham, Callins is revered by the city’s jazz elder statesmen. Renowned bandleaders Bo Berry and Daniel Jose Carr (who was on the board of Trustees for the Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble) regularly play two compositions by Callins — “Family” and “Council” — for performances. They also frequently call the songs at jam sessions.
Like Berry and Carr, Sexton wants to make sure the public outside of musicians remembers Callin’s contributions to jazz and music’s cultural lexicon.
“This celebration is my way of saying thank you,” said Sexton. “And of reminding Birmingham how powerful his vision really was.”
The Jothan Callins Jazz Legacy Celebration runs from Feb. 20 to 22 at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame and the Negro Southern League Museum. Tickets for the “Calvin Sexton Presents: Winds of Change” and the Birmingham Youth Jazz Ensemble Alumni Concert are available at the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame website.
Information about the Jothan Callins Jazz Legacy Celebration project is available at JothanCallinsJazz/project.
