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Harry P. Guy Gets a Headstone

What do these Detroiters have in common: Todd Rhodes, Willie Anderson, Tommy Flanagan, Harold McKinney and Harry P. Guy? Right you are — they were all great pianists. And it's easy to find biographical information on all of them except one: Harry P. Guy.

Guy (1870-1950) was a pioneer Ragtime artist, composer and arranger. He served as Minister of Music at St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in Detroit for twelve years and while there was instrumental in starting a boy's choir and the first African American Music Academy in Detroit. Indeed it is storied that the great Don Redmond came to Detroit specifically to play with Guy. He was also an activist and, along with his contemporaries Fred Stone and Ben Shook, started the first Musicians Union in Detroit.
Oddly, Guy's music is seldom if ever performed, and he lies in an unmarked grave in Detroit's Elmwood Cemetary.

Fifty-three years after his death, however, a group of citizens spearheaded by The Societie of the Culturally Concerned are coming together to place a headstone on Maestro Guy's grave and to commemorate his important, though unsung, life. Saturday, October 11, 2003, the headstone will be unveiled at Elmwood Cemetery with a short program, replete with Processional & Recessional led by The Gabriel Traditional New Orleans Band.

Later that afternoon at 1 p.m. a buffet reception will be held at Bert's on Broadway, 1315 Broadway at Gratiot in Detroit. Pianists Michael Montgomery and Taslimah Bey will perform the music of Mr. Guy and his contemporaries.

If you want to take part in this long overdue commemoration, please make a reservation by October 8 by calling 313-393-3044. Tickets for the Reception are $25.00 per person.


 
 
I N - T H I S - I S S U E :
1. SEMJA AWARD 2003- 2. PAUL KELLER RETURNS- -
3. FORD DETROIT PHOTOS- 4. MICHIGAN JAZZ FEST PHOTOS
5. RECENT RECORDINGS- 6. HARRY P. GUY
7. CHANGES AT RUSTY'S
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