Books for Thought Series: Going Back to T-Town

There was a time when countless music patrons in the Midwest, South and Southwest went to dances and stage shows to hear a territory band play. Territory bands traveled from town totown, performing jazz and swing music, and Tulsa-based musician Ernie Fields (1904-97) led one of the best. His daughter, Carmen Fields, tells the story of his emergence less than a decade after Tulsa’s infamous race massacre, to chase his musical dream. The book details his successes, disappointments and perseverance that kept his group alive from the early jazz era to the 1960s. This enlightening account of how Ernie fields navigated the hurdles of racial segregation during the Jim Crow era, gives a before now missing account of American popular music and African American history.

A fixture in the greater Boston journalism community for over 30 years, Carmen Fields has broad experience in both print and broadcast journalism; journalism education and corporate and non-profit media relations. Additionally, Fields is a SAG-AFTRA affiliated actor and voice-over artist. The Tulsa, OK native earned a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Lincoln University (MO) and a master’s degree in broadcast journalism from Boston University. Other achievements include Harvard University’s Nieman Fellowship and an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Salem State University.

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Host or Publisher Greenwood Rising, Inc.