Welcome to Black Horizons.

I'm Elaine Effort from 1410 KQV news radio.

We've got a great sho lined up for you this afternoon.

First, we'll learn more about the good things that are going on for both kids and adults over at the Martin Luther King Reading Center.

Then we'll hear some inspiring jazz from a group called Synchronicity.

And Minette Seate will be here to tell us all about the new movie Wild at Heart.

We'll begin today's program by finding out more about all the wonderful services going on over at the Martin Luther King Reading Center.

Joining me now is Elizabeth McCombs, the founder of the Reading Center, and Ola Jackson from the Public Relations Department.

Thank you both for being here.

Now, the Reading Center has been operating for 20 years now and you've started it all.

Mrs.

McCombs, how did it get started?

The Reading Center was actually a Offspring and Offspring of a van that we used in the district, in the Hill district, to try to get books to the children and adults also.

We were so overwhelmed by children in that district that the, the van was no longer the answer.

And we thought that this would be a good place for a small library.

We didn't call it the library because it didn't operate as a library.

How was it different?

First of all, we tried to get books that were wanted by the community.

We listened very carefully to what they asked for, and, we were able to get the book right away because they didn't have to go through the long cataloging process.

We also had a lot of programs because our primary aim was to try to interest children in reading and to try to help them develop library skills, hoping that eventually, when they outgrew the Reading Center, we could steer them then to the public library.

At that time, we had no fines.

We did not have a library card.

All we needed to know was their name and address, and if they wanted to check out a book or read a book about and, we trusted them to bring it back.

And if they didn't, since it was a community project, we could go knock on the doors and ask for the books.

Did you have to do that?

Yes, we did sometimes, and we did get, loose books.

But I think overall we accomplished what we were trying to do.

We did interest children in books and all of what now?

Other activities are offered at the Reading Center.

Okay, after that bookmobile, they did move into a storefront building.

Okay.

The community got together along with the city of Pittsburgh and Carnegie Library and was able to build a brand new march, the King Junior Reading Center.

It's only two years old at the present time.

We have an adult literacy program, for teenagers and adults.

We're also in the process o establishing a work place site, which will assist the community in developing, job related skills.

We also have activities such as arts and crafts.

We work with the schools, and we work with a daycare center that comes up.

And the youth films is also, African-American type films that we show.

Okay.

Does the center still hav the kind of atmosphere that Mrs.

McCombs was talking about?

Sort of seems like a friendly place to go.

Oh, very much.

The staff is very friendly.

There they go on first name basis.

The center's very busy.

I would like to encourage those out there to come down and take a look.

It's a very small facility, but we do, as I said, housed adult literacy program three days a week.

For those who may be discouraged about being involved in such a program it is set off in a private room so that, you know, if you feel uncomfortable, there's to two staff members there to assist you.

How do you decide what other things you want to go on at the reading?

We listen to the community, you know, and whatever they say with their needs or we try to address them.

We also have a grou called the friends of the Martin Luther King Junior Reading Center.

The group is a liaison between the community and the Reading Center, and trying to address the needs of the community.

Their assistance is very well needed.

How often do you hear from them?

Are they an active group or are they?

Oh, of hearing myself.

They come.

They can tell you how they started as an advisory board.

Yes.

When I first started, I had an advisory board component.

Excuse me.

Comprised of people from the community and some of the people who worked in the community.

And we would meet occasionally.

But I also had a very capable, person in charge of that reading center, and she is still in charge.

Oh, wonderful.

She was wonderfu with working with young people.

And it's Mrs.

Daisy Reed, and she, had a lot of ideas.

The children themselves had ideas.

Sometimes we took them to see a puppet show, live puppet, a whole nother live puppet show.

But, they were Life-Size puppets, and they came back.

They they it was fine, bu they weren't all that impressed.

I said they could do their own puppet show, so we challenged them, and they did.

And they made it to the place.

For activity and creativity.

And now you have some new plans on the drawing board.

And the friends are currentl in the process of raising funds to construct the Martin Luther King Junior Cultural Center, which is an expansion of the Reading Center.

It will house, numerous, community type services, along with archival black archival works of art.

And this is, the community is raising effort.

So it will be their cultural center because the the reading center is part of the Carnegie at the branch of Carnegie Library of Pittsburgh.

And every Carnegie library has a friends group.

Okay.

And how much is the, community advisory?

What are they trying to raise?

What's the goal for the.

Well, this may seem large, but it's at 2.8 million.

Okay.

And how far along have you come?

Well, I can't give a dollar amount as of yet, but, it's it's growing.

We get a lot of suppor from the community businesses, and we have also solicited funds outside for large corporations.

And you have some.

You have an activity coming up?

Yes.

Saturday, January.

I'm sorry.

September 29th at the Pittsburgh Hyatt.

We are sponsoring a fashion show and luncheon.

Okay.

And is there a theme to the fashion show?

Not really, its just for celebrating our 20 year anniversary.

So we're asking everyone to come up for the support.

Okay.

I don't think Mrs.

McComb thought that 20 years from when she first started, that we'd still be here and still growing.

Well, it seems like not only the hard work of the advisory board and yourself and Mrs.

Reed but also that the community uses the facility and almost demands that it stay there and growth without the community wouldn't be there.

And that was the idea in the first place.

So it is very gratifying to see that it has taken the right direction.

Well, congratulations to your success, Mrs.

McComb and Ola Jackson, thank you for joining us.

Don't forget the Martin Luthe King Fashion Show and luncheon coming up on September 29th at the Hyatt Pittsburgh.

For more information about it or about the Reading Center, call 622-6270.

In just a moment we'll be hearing some great jazz from synchronicity.

But first, here are a couple of entertainers coming to WQED that you won't want to miss.

On the next evening at pops the radiant star of the Metropolitan Opera, Kathleen Battle, and the sophisticated saxophone of Branford Marsalis and.

A rare blend of elegant classics and swing and jazz.

That's Branford Marsalis and Kathleen Battle together on the next evening at Pops.

Don't miss the next evening at Pops Monday night at seven right here on WQED.

Joining me now in the studio are four terrific musicians call synchronicity.

They are headed up by Nelson Harrison.

Nelson Harrison and synchronicity.

Welcome.

Thanks for being here.

Who are the other members of the band?

Well, firs I'd like to introduce my bassist with this unusual looking bass.

It's a custom made bass.

It looks like most of it's part of.

It's missing all the essential parts are there you cannot believe.

Okay.

And, he's absolutely one of the most fantastic basis that the cit has ever produced in this city.

Produced Ray Brown and many other great bases.

Scotty Hood, his name is.

And, notably, he's played with all of us locals, and he's also played with Carmen McRae and Blarney Castle and Herb Ellis.

So he's earned his stripes and he's a veteran on drums.

Gentlemen, I started out with with the Beethoven Bebop and we played in Joe West Band together.

Then he went on the road a little bit before I did, and he played with Al Gray, the Birdland.

He played with the great Jimm McGriff and, fantastic Red Pryso So that's Mr.

Roscoe Wire welcome and on keyboard.

I save him for las because he's one of my mentors.

Okay.

He is not only a fabulous trombonist, and he's also an arranger, composer and just a musical genius.

And as I was a youngster, I used to study under him.

Mr.

Gerry Elliot, who notably played with Lester Young, Ray Charles and, Gene Ammons.

So.

And poor little me, I came along back in the 50s and, got to pla with a few of my idols, such as, great Count Basie.

I traveled with him for about three years, and, of course, Kenny Clark.

Now you're going to have to tell us about this name Synchronicity.

What does that mean?

Synchronicity is a new age term, and it actually means simultaneity, but it also means that things fit together perfectly, simultaneously, without preparation, without any forethought.

They happen perfectly because that's the way the universe functions.

We used to think in terms of cause and effect, you know, and they thought that the speed of light was the fastest thing in the universe.

They found out that simultaneity is faster than the speed of light, and that everything happens simultaneously.

It doesn't happen in terms of cause and effect, past, present, and future.

So since our music happens that way, Very convincing, All right.

Now, jazz, we're finding it on the pop charts now with TV commercials.

It's everywhere.

But is it the real thing?

Well, it's becoming a generic term.

And I like to quote, on of my good friends, Ahmed Jamal.

He said, mother of jazz will outlive all of our children.

And, the way we conceived jazz as we learned it, it's a the greatest cultural product America has produced.

And it is a language.

It's a language that is spoken directly, as we did without rehearsal, without talking about what we were going to play.

This was not rehearsed.

Oh, no, no, no, the music was directly done.

I just started playing and they know what to do.

That's the real language of jazz.

Now.

It's learned in a master apprentice way.

The classroom method doesn't teach it well, although classrooms are budding with jazz students and improv students.

I sugges to them whenever I get a chance that if they really want to learn the music, right?

To learn it the way you learned your native language.

And that's by imitating imitate your parents.

Or in jazz, your parents are the jazz masters who went before you, and you must imitate them in order to speak the language, right?

Or else you'll sound like a a Pittsburgh or trying to speak patois.

And the Jamaicans will laugh at you.

But are they, are the up and coming imitating the real thing or.

Well, no.

It's been methodologized.

The classroom method does that.

It gives you everything a cookbook, fashion.

And they're talking about patterns and notes, and I sort of call it left brain jazz.

The guys come to jam sessions with books.

Now they don't come with tape recorders.

So, you know, they're not listening.

They're looking, and the music's not there.

Okay, well, I understand that you're going to, play another number for us.

Yes, we'd like to do a Duke Ellington, balla entitled In a Sentimental Mood.

Okay, Mr.

Elliott, thank you.

Hopefully we'll get to hear some more from synchronicity at the end of the show.

But right now, our entertainment expert, Minette Seate is here to tell us all about the new film Wild at Heart.

Hello.

Hi.

Good to see you Whats Wild at Heart.

all about?

It's an amazing movie.

You are stunned.

You are beaten into submission.

It's directed by David Lynch.

He did Eraserhead and Blue Velvet and Dune and Elephant Man.

And, of course, Twin Peak that everyone went berserk over.

It's an amazing movie about a young couple in love traveling across the country trying to escape her insane mother.

And we're going to show you a clip, which is one of the few clips we can actually show on television from Wild at Heart.

Oh, okay.

Well, let's take a look.

You know what?

I'm thinking of?

Breaking parole and takin you out to Southern California.

Sailor!

Are you up for that?

I go the fa end of the world for you, baby.

You know what I want?

Rocking good news.

Those stories about riots we want.

We got some dancing to do.

Oh, is this a romance?

It is a romance, but it's not.

Their romance in itself is not twisted.

They're extremely in love with each other.

They would do anything to go to the ends of the earth for each other.

They have wild, unbelievable, passionate sex all the time.

It's just they're intense about each other.

But her mother is hell ben on separating Sailor and Lula.

And she's played by Diane Ladd, who is the actress who plays Lula.

She they just she's tryin to rip these two people apart, and she's got these fake nails and these big blond wigs, and it's so intense.

All these great cult actors turn up in this David Lynch movie.

And what happens, you know in the course of your lifetime, you see violence and you see sex and you see tragedy and you see blood and you see all these things happen.

He just compacts them into 127 minutes to the time the movie's almost over.

You cannot contro your reactions.

You're laughing.

You're upset.

You'r singing the songs in the movie.

It's just you are just totally at his will for the entire movie.

Now, the mother is a monster.

Is that it?

She's a monstrous woman.

She's trying to protect her baby.

But there's violence and there's romance and there's all this sex.

It's not.

It doesn't sound like a famil movie.

It is not a family movie.

I would not recommend this movie to anyone who is slightly offended by anything.

If you don't like heavy metal if you don't like murder, blood, brains, sex, drugs, rock n roll, drinking, or cigarets, do not go see this movie.

I mean, if you want Bambi, it's at the video store.

This movie is truly for someone who wants to have a film experience.

I mean, it's gotten a lot of bad reviews, but I think people expect they've seen Twin Peaks and they think that David Lynch is going to be grown up.

Now all you got to do is watch Eraserhead again, and everyone tells me it'll drive you insane, just like this movie.

Well, did you enjoy this movie?

Unbelievably.

I cannot wait to see it again.

Well, why?

It sounds like it's absorbing, but it could be offending.

It could be very offending.

But it's not offending in the sense that you feel some movies are sexually offending, some are racially offending.

The things that are offensive are things that you would hope you would never walk up on.

Unreal.

Like a bank robber where a man's head is blown off.

Another man is shot and his hand is blown off of his arm and they're crawling around in this huge pool of blood looking for his hand.

But the dog is running out of the back door of the shop with the hand in his mouth.

I mean, the kind of things that like, assault you in that way.

But if you're twisted enough, you'll find them kind of enjoyable.

Now, is there a message?

I mean, why why this movie?

With what point is he trying to make?

I dont think the point is what The point is that this is a love story and that love to some people is this wonderful little thing where church bells ring and you get married and you have babies.

But to love to other peopl is this series of huge, heinous, hellish adventures that have to be gotten through so you can get to the final culminatio of what love is supposed to be, which is to spend the rest of your life with this person no matter what it takes.

And you're rating for this movie.

I would spend any amount of money to see this movie again.

I'm extremely impressed by this movie.

Okay, was there anything you didn't like you liked the acting, you liked everything.

There was just nothin I did not like about this movie.

And like, they have this unbelievable speed metal band called Power Mad that just gives you the biggest headache.

I'm telling you, go.

I'll go with you.

Okay?

Never mind.

You bring the Tylenol.

Thank you.

Minette for that review.

A Wild at Heart sounds like, It's amazing.

It's it.

I want to thank Dorinda Hughes from the Fulton she gave me wonderful press clips, and she did all she could do to help me promote it.

And I love it.

Thank you.

Okay.

Thanks, Dorinda.

Believe it or not, we'r at the end of another half hour.

Thank you for joining me this week for all of us here at Black Horizons, I'm Elaine Effort.

We'll leave you no with some more great jazz from Synchronicity.