Celebrating S.C. music pioneers Skipp Pearson + John Blackwell.

This is part of our #TBT Series in collaboration with Historic Columbia.

S.C. has a rich history of African American music dating back to the coastal Gullah spirituals in the 1700s. The 39th Annual Jubilee: Festival of Black History & Culture is one of Columbia’s traditions held in celebration of this history. On Saturday from 11 a.m.-6 p.m. at the historic Mann-Simons Site, the Jubliee festival gets back to its roots by honoring two of S.C.’s most influential musicians: Skipp Pearson + John Blackwell.

Jubilee image courtesy of Historic Columbia

Who were they + why were they so important?

John Blackwell was a Cola-native and an American contemporary R&B, funk, jazz, fusion + pop drummer. Some fun facts:

🥁 He began playing in clubs when he was 12 years old.

🥁 He landed his first professional gig at 14 years old – and went on to tour for three years with Patti LaBelle. Baller. (He appears on her Grammy-winning album, Live! One Night Only).

🥁 In 2000, Prince recruited Blackwell to play drums in his New Power Generation band, which he did for more than a decade. (You can hear him on 2003 hit album N.E.W.S.)

Skipp Pearson is an Orangeburg native who came to be known as S.C.’s Ambassador of Jazz. Some cool facts:
🎷 He purchased his first saxophone for 50-cents.
🎷 During his ~60-year career, he shared the stage with Otis Redding, Patti LaBelle, Miles Davis + Sam Cooke, among many others.
🎷 He performed at President Barack Obama’s first inaugural ball in 2008.
🎷 For ~17 years, he played jazz at Hunter-Gatherer on S. Main St. every Thursday.

More milestones in S.C.’s African American music history:

1700s | Gullah music (involves hand-clapping, foot-stomping, gourds with seeds + African drums) originated along S.C.’s coast when West African culture was introduced during slavery.

1739 | S.C. prohibited the beating of drums in fear that their rhythms would be used to communicate about slave rebellions.

1864 | The Atlantic Monthly published a collection of African American spiritual hymns – collected by Charlotte Forten, a free African-American from the North who moved to St. Helena Island (Beaufort County) to teach.

1892 | Rev. Daniel Jenkins opened The Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston – the only orphanage for African Americans in the state at the time. To financially support it, Jenkins formed a jazz band with the orphans that gained international attention + fame.

1917 | John Birks (a.k.a. Dizzy Gillespie) was born in Cheraw – and grew up to become one of jazz’s most renowned trumpeters, bandleaders, composers + singers.

1959-1964 | Camden-native + singer/songwriter "Brook" Benton recorded 21 gold records in five years.

1978 | The first year of Cola’s Jubilee Festival (and it’s happened each year since).

1985 | Buzz Arledge + Hank Martin wrote the state song South Carolina on My Mind.

Jubilee image courtesy of Historic Columbia

0 | The number of years since 1978 that there has not been a Jubilee Fest

2 | The number of festivals happening within two blocks of one another in downtown Cola this Saturday – Jubilee + the Greek Festival

6,500 | The number of attendees at last year’s record-breaking festival

12 | The number of performers on this year’s mainstage (and the number of years John Blackwell played in Prince’s New Power Generation)

54 | The number of marketplace vendors this year

Jubilee image courtesy of Historic Columbia

$0 | The cost of admission to the festival

$4 | The cost of a ticket for Historic Columbia’s bus tour of African American Heritage sites

$1 | The cost to take a tour of the Mann-Simons Site

1978 | The year Mann-Simons opened as an historic house museum

127 | The number of consecutive years the Mann-Simons site belonged to the same free black family in Columbia

4.5 | The number of "ghost structures" representing buildings once at the site today. (Where's the missing .5? If Historic Columbia added it, there wouldn’t be room for a parking lot.)

Jubilee image courtesy of Historic Columbia

Looking for ways to experience African American music in Cola after Jubilee this weekend? Check out these upcoming local music events:

Hip Hop Wednesday @ UofSC | Sept. 27, Oct. 11 + 25, Nov. 29 | 11 a.m.-2 p.m. | Greene Street | free

13th Annual Blues & Jazz Festival Restaurant Crawl | Oct. 6, 7-11 p.m. | Old Town Rock Hill | East Main + Caldwell St. | free-$10

–Beth