Central Avenue Sounds: Leroy Hurte

Table of Contents

• TAPE NUMBER: I, Side One (July 12, 1995)

• Family background and childhood in Muskogee, Oklahoma -- Early experience with music -- Family moves to Los Angeles -- Music classes at McKinley Junior High School -- Voice instruction at Jefferson High School -- Music teachers in Los Angeles in the early twenties -- Hurte's vocal group, the Four Blackbirds -- Performing with the Sing Band -- Frank Sebastian's Cotton Club -- Joins the Screen Actors Guild but not the American Federation of Musicians -- Businesses on Central Avenue -- Earnings as a vocalist during the Depression.



• TAPE NUMBER: I, Side Two (July 12, 1995)

• More on earnings during the Depression - Employment available to African Americans during the thirties -- Opens the Flash Record Store -- Takes over the Bronze Recording Company - Takes radio broadcasting courses -- Learns record manufacturing skills -- Becomes one of the first independent record producers in Los Angeles -- Legal dispute over the copyright of Cecil Gant's "I Wonder" - Artists featured on Bronze Records -- Arranges music for other artists.



• TAPE NUMBER: II, Side One (July 12, 1995)

• Central Avenue shifts from being an African American neighborhood to being a predominantly Latino neighborhood -- The continuing presence of racial discrimination -- Hurte moves to New York City -- Studies conducting at the National Orchestral Association and the Juilliard School - Decides to return to Los Angeles -- Instruction at Juilliard -- Attends conducting workshop at Berkshire Music Center in Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein.



• TAPE NUMBER: III, Side One (July 13, 1995)

• Instruments Hurte studied in his youth -- Austin McCoy -- Illustrious alumni of Jefferson High School -- Lack of classical music programs available to African Americans in Los Angeles in the forties and fifties -- William Grant Still - Hurte's early involvement directing church choirs -- Flash Records -- The sudden proliferation of independent record labels in Los Angeles during the forties -- The barriers for African Americans seeking careers as conductors of classical music -- Challenges of conducting contemporary music -- Hurte returns to Los Angeles in 1958 with the intention of forming a symphony orchestra.



• TAPE NUMBER: III, Side Two (July 13, 1995)

• Hurte establishes the Leroy Hurte School of Music and the Angel City Symphony Orchestra -- Receives funding for quarterly orchestra concerts -- Other local orchestras in the early sixties -- The Angel City Symphony's first concert -- Conducting from memory -- Hurte opens a sheet music store - Publishes Lyric magazine -- Assists in organizing the Watts Symphony Orchestra -- The Watts riots - Work with the Inglewood Philharmonic Orchestra - Decides to buy a radio station in Lemoore, California, in 1968.



• TAPE NUMBER: IV, Side One (July 13, 1995)

• Three-year ownership of radio station ends due to racial harassment -- Returns to Los Angeles and works for the Los Angeles County Bureau of Public Assistance -- Reestablishes the Inglewood Philharmonic -- Including African American composers on programs -- Racial composition of the Inglewood Philharmonic -- Hurte's status as conductor laureate of the Inglewood Philharmonic - Composing a violin concerto -- Hurte's experience conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra at his church in 1992 -- His efforts to educate African Americans about classical music.



• TAPE NUMBER: V, Side One (July 20, 1995)

• Attends music classes at Los Angeles City College in the early sixties -- Receives B.A. in music from Victorville College in 1994 -- The National Association of Negro Musicians and other organizations promoting European classical music in the African American community -- Hurte's family life -- The importance of African Americans supporting their own community's businesses -- More on Hurte's efforts to educate African Americans about classical music -- Obstacles he had to overcome in order to realize his goals -- Hurte's struggle to be allowed to guest conduct the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra.



• TAPE NUMBER: V, Side Two (July 20, 1995)

• Hurte's eventual success in being allowed to conduct the L.A. Philharmonic -- Other guest conducting experiences -- Instrumentalists Hurte has conducted who went on to successful careers in music.

About this text
Courtesy of Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, 405 Hilgard Ave, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575; http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
http://content.cdlib.org/view?docId=hb4m3nb6cj&brand=oac4
Title: Central Avenue sounds oral history transcript : Leroy Hurte
By:  Hurte, Leroy E, Interviewee, Isoardi, Steven Louis, 1949-, Interviewer
Date: 1995
Contributing Institution: Dept of Special Collections/UCLA Library, A1713 Charles E. Young Research Library, 405 Hilgard Ave, Box 951575, Los Angeles, CA 90095-1575; http://www.library.ucla.edu/libraries/special/scweb/
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