Jackson Mississippi's Source for News and Jazz
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations
Public media is under attack! Stand with WJSU by donating today.
Text WJSU to 71777 or click the Donate button.

The 'Lost' Opera of Jazzman Johnson, Poet Hughes

Jazz pianist James P. Johnson -- the "father of stride" -- once collaborated with poet Langston Hughes on De Organizer, an opera describing union organizing among blacks in the 1920s. For 60 years, the work was forgotten. But a production of the opera opens Tuesday in Detroit. Celeste Headlee of member station WDET reports.

Copyright 2002 NPR