The HistoryMakers video oral history with Benjamin Tucker.

Chicago, Illinois : The HistoryMakers, [2016]

1 online resource (6 video files (2 hr., 56 min.)) : sound, color.

Access is available to the Yale community.

Videographer, Scott Stearns.

Access restricted by licensing agreement.

Jazz bassist and entrepreneur Benjamin "Ben" Tucker was born on December 13, 1930. Tucker taught himself to play the tuba at the age of thirteen and later the bass violin and piano. Tucker graduated from Pearl High School in 1946 and entered Tennessee State University as a music major. In 1950, he joined the United States Air Force where he served for four years. Tucker recorded several jazz compilations over the years, Jazz of Two Cities in 1959 and Come Home Baby, a song featured in the film Get Shorty. Tucker became Savannah, Georgia's first African American radio station owner in 1972 when he purchased WSOK Radio. His station had over 400,000 listeners. In 1989, Tucker opened a jazz club called Hard Hearted Hannah's, where he served as the owner and led the band six nights a week. He was also the creator of the Telfair Jazz Society in Savannah, Georgia. Tucker passed away on June 4, 2013.

Images / Online / Video & Film

English

February 04, 2021

Videographer, Scott Stearns.

Denise Gines, interviewer.