Harlem Vintage Parade

11/10/2021

The Harlem Vintage Parade is an Uptown & Boogie Bicycle Advocacy project. We are not affiliated, collaborating or partnering with Team Unity Inc. or UnitySports Productions

Uptown and Boogie Bicycle Advocacy is a health and bicycle advocacy organization based in Harlem, New York whose mission is to provide bicycle education to residents of Upper Manhattan and the Bronx. Our goal is to provide information and resources on how to utilize a bicycle to improve their health...

02/25/2020

Claude McKay b. Festus Claudius "Claude" McKay was a Jamaican-born writer and poet, active in the social justice movement and giving a voice to black immigrants. The novel, Home to Harlem (1928) became a best-seller and won the Harmon Gold Award for Literature.
“If a man is not faithful to his own individuality, he cannot be loyal to anything.”
― Claude McKay

02/23/2020

W. E. B. Du Bois b. William Edward Burghardt Du Bois on February 23 was a scientist, activist and the first African American to earn a Ph.D. from Harvard. Du Bois co-founded the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) in 1909.

02/19/2020

Rudolph Fisher b. Rudolph John Chauncey Fisher was a physician, radiologist, novelist, short story writer, dramatist, musician, and orator. Fisher is the key figures of the . In 1924, Fisher graduated from the Howard University Medical School. In 1927, Fisher opened a private medical practice in Harlem and became the administrator of a private X-ray laboratory, and a chair on the Department of Roentgenology at Manhattan’s International Hospital.
In 1928, Fisher's first novel "Walls of Jericho" published by Alfred A. Knopf which exposed class antagonism among Harlem blacks.

02/18/2020

Cab Calloway b. Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was a jazz singer, dancer, and bandleader. He was famous for "s**t" style singing and the legendary "Hi De Ho" in the first recorded song "Minnie the Moocher". In 1931–32, Calloway and his band radio broadcast from the Cotton Club in , . In 1948, Calloway disband his orchestra but had a successful side career as an actor.

"We didn't have any segregation at the Cotton Club. No. The Cotton Club was wide open, it was free." - Cab Calloway

02/17/2020

Nicholas Brothers b. Fayard and Harold Nicholas, balletic acrobatics and tap dancers.
Their signature moves was to leapfrog down a long, broad flight of stairs, while completing each step with a split. They performance a number in "Jumpin' Jive" with Cab Calloway and his orchestra featured in the movie Stormy Weather.
In 1932, they became the featured act at Harlem's Cotton Club.
In 2003, the the Nicholas bothers were inducted into the Hall of Fame National Museum of Dance & Hall of Fame.

Photo: Harold and Fayard with their mother Viola.

02/17/2020

Fess Williams b. Stanley R. Williams was a jazz clarinetist, saxophonist and bandleader. In 1926, Williams formed the Royal Flush Orchestra "hot jazz" held a residency at Harlem's Savoy Ballroom from 1926-1928.

Ashton Stevens said, "I have heard Mistah Fess Williams play his jazz band in the big brand-new, brightly furnished Regal theater way out South Parkway at the 47th street and I confess that Fess is good. So are his bandsmen."

02/17/2020

Chick Webb b. William Henry "Chick" Webb was a jazz, swing music drummer and band leader. In 1925, he moved to New York City and led his own band in Savoy Ballroom. In 1935, he featured a teenaged Ella Fitzgerald as vocalist and together had such hits such as "A-Tisket a Tasket". After his death, Ella Fitzgerald led the Chick Webb band for the remainder of the swing era.

02/16/2020

Fletcher "Smack" Henderson b. James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson was a pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer. He originally intended to pursue a career in chemistry, but realized as an African-American, his options would be limited.
On Oct 13, 1924, the Henderson band re-engagement at Roseland Ballroom with Louis Armstrong and became the best African-American band in New York. Enlisting great musicians helped develop jazz big band as it is known today.
Louis Metcalf said, "The sight of Fletcher Henderson's men playing behind music stands brought on a learning-to-read-music kick in Harlem which hadn't cared before it. There were two years of real concentration. Everybody greeted you with 'How's studying?"