Friday, March 21, 1997 | 11:59 a.m.
Bob Bailey modestly accepts credit for the idea, then lavishly praises a cadre of helpers for making it reality.
Kudos to event chairman Marilyn Gubler, he says. Many thanks to local coordinator Kathy Kidd, he adds. Couldn't have done it without choir coordinator Nichole Davis, he insists.
"A Vocal Extravaganza in Black" was two years in the works, and now it is just days from its inaugural flight.
"It's been an awful lot of work done by a lot of other people to make it work," says Bailey of the annual event, which features choirs and soloists from more than 20 of the nation's black colleges and universities.
The performers will compete for $25,000 in prizes. The event will benefit KCEP 88.1-FM, for which Bailey is the advisory committee chairman, while it attempts to revive the gospel, spiritual and folk music tradition.
"I actually come from that particular strain," says Bailey, a local businessman who was a soloist in the Morehouse College (Atlanta) glee club and a choir member.
In searching for ways to raise money for KCEP, Bailey wanted to come up with something that would not only assist in obtaining new equipment for the city's only black urban contemporary station, but also "glorify the entertainment offerings of Las Vegas."
"This," he says, "brings to full circle an offering of African-American culture that is not being done anywhere in the country. So everyone sort of bought into the idea that it was a win-win situation for everyone involved."
Bailey, a vocalist for the Count Basie orchestra from 1947-49, says 25 representatives from the nation's black colleges and universities were brought into Las Vegas last year for a meeting to determine interest in the concept.
"They were so happy that we were putting on such an event, and that it was going to be an annual affair," he says.
Bailey adds that 150,000 brochures were mailed to alumni of the various black colleges and universities. The hope is that most of them will attend the three-day event and support their schools as they help the local economy.
He says the tradition of gospel, spiritual and folk music isn't in danger of being lost, "but needs to be examined and put in a proper showcase, and that's what we're attempting to do."
But there is more to the competition than a survey of black root music. There are also competitions in classical singing (opera, operetta, oratorio) and contemporary singing (jazz, blues, theatrical) in addition to traditional singing.
"I think the concept is wonderful," says John Ware, chairman of the department of fine arts at Virginia Union University, a school of 1,300 students in Richmond, Va. "I think a lot of people have a false idea of what we at historically black schools do.
"Essentially, what we do is the same as what the folks at white schools do, plus the black literature. I think there's an assumption that black literature is all we do, or that our music majors play primarily jazz or some other type of popular music that is popularly identified with that population."
Likewise, the goal of music departments within black colleges and universities is the same as their white contemporaries: to prepare their students to be musicians in today's music world.
"That requires the same level of talent anybody would expect from any other place," Ware says, "but also requires us to give attention to what people call the black heritage and the types of music associated with it."
He says Virginia Union's music students perform an evening of spirituals each winter in an effort "to make everyone aware of a heritage that even many black people don't know much about anymore. We see ourselves as preservers and transmitters of a heritage as well as teachers of a traditional discipline of music."
In addition to Virginia Union, confirmed participants in the event include Alabama State University, Florida A&M University, Jackson State University, Kentucky State University, Morgan State University, Texas Southern University and Tuskegee University. More than 100 institutions compose an alliance known as the Historically Black Colleges and Universities.
The event will be shot for television as a nationally syndicated special by Sunbelt Video, producers of black college football television programming. The special will air in May.
On the night of the finals (Wednesday), Joe Williams will make an appearance with a 150-piece choir and perform "Achieve Your Dreams," a song written for the event by Johnny Pate. Singer Ruth Brown will also perform, as will the group After 7. Rachel Robinson, the widow of baseball player Jackie Robinson, will take part in the award presentations.
As for Bailey, he'll simply observe. His singing these days, he says, "is confined to the church and the bathroom."
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