When I think about Black Music Month, which is the month of June, a collage of names from the music industry flash through my mind. One of those names, is a name that is known–not just in Jazz circles from such cities as Philadelphia, Detroit, and Chicago, but there are also Jazz circuits abroad that know his name. The amazing Jazz artist I am referring to is Bryn Mawr, Pennsylvania’s own, Mr. Alfie Pollitt.
Alfie Pollitt has certainly been a well-recognized and well-respected name on the entertainment music circuit for more than five decades. Because of his years of labor in an Industry that is his passion, and for the humanitarian work and civil rights work he has done as well, who better to shine the spotlight on as we close out Black Music Month than Alfie Pollitt?
Learning his story and how he got his start in music, it was clear that–from birth, music surrounded young Alfie. He shared, “My father played Cello in a Black Symphony Orchestra called Philadelphia Concert Orchestra and my mother played violin. Her father played Coronet and Clarinet in that same orchestra. We also had a piano in the house. I’m the oldest. I started fooling around on the piano, and my father noticed. He knew a woman who lived close by who was a piano teacher, so she became my piano teacher when I was three. I don’t recall exactly what age I started performing publicly, but we were very young when we were playing at social teas. Also, once a year, since my music teacher has a number of students, she would host a recital at least once a year. Those were my early days of performing in public.”
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