February 17, 2021
BY HOWARD BANKHEAD
For many of us, Jazz is Joy to our Souls! Twenty years ago, Howard Bankhead started the Tennessee Valley Jazz Society. Today, he serves as Founder and Executive Director. His testimony is inspiring.
Bankhead was blessed to be raised by a mother and father with nine other siblings. He was born the seventh child, which for him is a lucky number. As a product of the south, born and raised at the end of the Jim Crow era in Florence, AL, he was fortunate to attend W. C. Handy, an all-Black elementary school, and Burrell Slater, an all-Black middle and High School.
Due to integration, “they” closed the Black schools and made the Black students attend the white schools. “My family attended Armstead Christian Methodist Episcopal Chapel in Florence, AL.,” he said. It was a church that one of his father’s mother help found. He remembers hating going to church, but in their family, there was no other option. Now that he is 64 years old and much wiser, he says “It was one of the best things that ever happened to me.”
He graduated from Coffee High School with football and track scholarships in 1975. Coffee had a 13% Black population. He was voted MVP on the football team and voted as one of the class favorites by both Black and White classmates as a freshman and senior. After graduating High School, he was on a quest to find himself. No one in Bankhead’s family, including cousins, aunties, and uncles, had ever attended college; He was the first. He didn’t realize that he was “college material” until after his sports career ended.
“For career decisions, we had poor counselors in High School to advise me and the other Black students,” he remembers, while being told by one of the Black counselors that he “would not be anything in life.” Because of his character, he will not name that person because others know him/her. With that attack on who he was to become, he settled at his beloved Alabama State University (ASU, where he graduated in 1981 with a B. S. Degree in Marketing.
As a marketing class project, he came up with the idea to do something to help my fellow students appreciate our Black culture. He loved jazz music and art, so he organized and produced his first festival called “Jazz and Cultural Awareness.” The festival included campus jazz bands, art students displaying their works, and other activities. The project was a success and he earned an A for his grade. He didn’t go the college to get a “good job” but rather he was committed to receiving the degree to get an education and gain additional knowledge.
Forty-five years later, he is still advocating for Black people first and all people to appreciate Black Americans’ rich history. After graduating from ASU, he wanted a different cultural experience, rather than simply living in the south. His family had relatives who resided in several northern states including, Cincinnati, Ohio. After experiencing “Cincy,” he moved to the Pittsburg, PA, area.
Life’s challenges led him back South and he landed here in Huntsville. He worked several jobs, and while still loving sports, in 1985, Bankhead started a sports marketing business called The Huntsville Apartment Tennis Circuit.
He was a good tennis player, so he came up with the idea of promoting tennis tournaments at apartment complexes around Madison and Huntsville. He befriended one of Huntsville’s tennis greats, Brick Warden. Brick operated the Tennis Center with Huntsville Recreation Department. Together, they were able to encourage the City to partner. “I joined the Space City Rocket Club, a Black-operated tennis club founded by Dr. Horace Rice and a couple of others.
While working and operating the tennis business, he still wanted more out of life. His love of jazz music led him to meet a good friend, Tyrone Phillips. Tyrone had a recording studio and was in the music business. Both of them loved jazz and wanted to see and hear more live jazz in Huntsville. In 1986, after researching how to start a music organization, we discovered the defuncted Tennessee Valley Jazz Society. Jon Freemon, was the last of the founding members of the Jazz Society. Tyrone and I joined what was left of the organization, and the rest is history. In 2001, Bankhead became its Executive Director.
Jazz-N-June on the Mountain Festival is one of the most celebrated events of the Jazz Society. For over 32 years, before diversity and multiculturalism became popular, Jazz-N-June was the most diverse and multicultural event in Alabama. For years, thousands of families, festival-goers and travelers, traversed their way up to Monte Sano State Park for free musical experiences. Today, Bankhead is proud to say, Jazz-N-June continues to impact the quality of life for Huntsvillians and Alabamians.
In 1992, life was good, and everything was going well for Bankhead. One night while at work, he experienced a life-changing, on-the-job injury that led to a concussion. That experience led him to become indigent and homeless for three years. He thanks God and Huntsville’s Mental Health system for “saving his life.” There has always been a stigma of Black men and mental health, but Bankhead attests that there’s nothing wrong with getting mental health assistance when needed.
During his experience with the concussion, severe periods of depression, and being impoverished for several years, he gives the power of God the credit that enabled me to persevere. Once he regained a sense of getting back to life, and due to his Jazz Society’s friends that he absolutely adores, Bankhead is “still trying to do what will please God.”
In the year 2000, due to knee issues, he stopped playing tennis and running 5Ks and was introduced to golf by a good friend, Andre Harris. After a year of learning how to swing the golf club, he was challenged and encouraged to learn how to play golf. In 2002, upon grasping the full concept of golf and knowledgeable of African Americans’ historical barriers in the mainstream golfing world, Bankhead created the Tennessee Valley Youth Golf Development program, so local kids would have the opportunity he never had.
Starting in 1998, due to the explosion of negative rap and images, he created an initiative called “Jazz Education is Cool in the School.” Under Huntsville’s Tennessee Valley Jazz Society’s auspices, Bankhead designed the project to introduce K-12 students to America’s “only true art form, Jazz music.” They raised funds and compensated local bands and national artists to go into schools and perform educational concerts. Since 1998, over 34,800 students, faculty, and staff have experienced and benefited from Jazz Education in local schools.
Using his sports marketing skills, knowledge and passion for helping youth development, he was offered a contract with Huntsville City School, Camp Success Program, from 2002 to 2007. During that time, he introduced over 1,800 students from the ages of 7-12 to academics and life skills using golf as the context. They partnered with Huntsville City Schools, Madison City Schools, and Madison County Schools. Schools included Colonial (now Martin Luther King), Terry Heights (now Sonny Hereford), Lincoln (now closed), Madison County High; Highland Elementary; Ed White; Stone Middle; Hampton Cove Middle; Chaffee Elementary, and others.
In 2017, Bankhead begin to be challenged with his physical health. His body joints were aching and he didn’t know what was happening. Throughout his life, he has been a health nut with a strong ego. So, when the pain persisted, he was confused and didn’t know what was going on with his shoulder, wrist, etc. He finally broke down and went to the doctor and was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis which led him to know that he wasn’t able to continue at his current pace.
For those of us who know Bankhead, we understand that he has a speech impediment. The stuttering has always challenged his ability to communicate with confidence. As a kid, he was given a speech for Easter Sunday each year because the church’s youth had to say an Easter speech. Even though he always made it through, he says, “the stress wasn’t good for a shy young boy.” Despite that handicap, he did not quit. The speech impediment is one of the primary reasons he works with kids and young people today. He wants them to know and have the courage to face their fears.
RELATED: Howard Bankhead Day Celebrated in the City of Huntsville
Today, Bankhead operates two 501(c)(3) nonprofits, Huntsville’s Tennessee Valley Jazz Society and Par Excellence Youth Development (PEYD). PEYD is a youth development organization with an emphasis on golf. Both organizations have a separate board of directors and volunteer staff.
During his tenure with the Jazz Society, Bankhead has been afforded the opportunity to meet and become friends with many good people, including Jazz greats like Ellis Marsalis, Freddy Cole, Jimmy Heath, Marian McPartland; Clint Eastwood; Roy Ayers; Wynton Marsalis; Curtis Lundy; Tommy Stewart, and others.
He has met and worked with great golfers like Calvin Peete, Joe Louis Barrows, and Charlie Sifford through the golf programs and experiences.
Bankhead lost one of his most influential friends and mentors in 2017, Mrs. Elizabeth Sloan-Ragland. He has a lovely 22-year-old daughter, Breeze Summer Bankhead Monk who lives in Brooklyn, NY.
Finally, the Tennessee Valley Jazz Society’s E3 initiative of presenting quality Education and world-class entertainment that makes an economic impact on the community is something that he has always done. Bankhead wants everyone to know, “Your support of the TVJS appreciates the on-going community support.”
To learn more about Howard Bankhead and to donate or get involved in his initiatives please contact Howard Bankhead, Executive Director, Tennessee Valley Youth Golf Development, 604 Jordan Lane, Huntsville, AL 35816 USA.
Telephone: 256-604-8172.
Source: Interview with Howard Bankhead
AmeriCorps Vista Volunteer
2018 City of Huntsville, Alabama proclaimed September 2 as Howard Bankhead Day
2013 Alabama State Council on the Arts Fellowship Recipient
2012 Recipient of Key to the City of Huntsville from Mayor Tommy Battle
Blog writer for the African American Golfer’s Digest.
