Music in Omaha, Nebraska, has been a diverse and important influence in the culture of the city. Long a home to jazz, blues, funk and rock, today Omaha has dozens of subgenres represented, including Latin, alternative rock and hip-hop. Omaha's historical music contributions include being the home of a thriving African American music scene from the 1920s.Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame More recently, it is home to indie rock's "Omaha Sound" and the birthplace of one of pop music's most successful producers, Terry Lewis.
Institutions and venues
The Dreamland Ballroom was located at 2221–2225 North 24th Street in North Omaha on the second floor of the Jewell Building. Opening in 1923, it became the premier nightclub for big bands and jazz in Omaha. James Jewell, Jr. booked the original Nat King Cole Trio for $25 a person for one show. Other performances included Dinah Washington, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Dizzy Gillespie and Lionel Hampton. Dreamland closed in the 1960s. Today the renovated Jewell Building is used for offices and apartments.
Although Sokol Auditorium and its sister space Sokol Underground have been a concert hot spot for many years, the city has recently seen a rise in other indie music venues. These newer venues include The Waiting Room (created by One Percent Productions, an Omaha-based booking company), Rock'N'Jocks (formerly the Rock), and The Mosaic. There are numerous other smaller venues and coffee shops that offer nightly performances. The recently opened Slowdown complex, located near the CenturyLink Center, is a Saddle Creek-generated complex of a music venue, shops (such as Urban Outfitters), restaurants, and apartments.
Recent developments in the Omaha music scene include the closing of the Cog Factory, The 49'r Lounge, and the Ranch Bowl, three prominent venues that helped launch the current Omaha music scene. Two new developments are Slowdown,.theslowdown.com a new recording space for Saddle Creek Records located on the edge of downtown Omaha, and One Percent Productions' venue, The Waiting Room Lounge. In addition to The Waiting Room Lounge, the Benson area features prominent venues, including The Barley Street Tavern, reputed to be the bar with the best acoustics for live music in Omaha due to its 'double barrel' layout. The 402 is another venue that has good live music in the Benson area. Also, the Omaha Blues, Jazz, & Gospel Festival and the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame both celebrate African American music in Omaha. In 2009, the nonprofit MAHA Music Festival featuring rock music was held along Omaha's riverfront, which has become an annual summer event. In July 2011, the Metropolitan Entertainment and Convention Authority (MECA) hosted more than 50 bands for the first annual Red Sky Music Festival at TD Ameritrade Park.
History of music in Omaha
From the 1920s through the early 1960s the Near North Side neighborhood boasted a vibrant entertainment district featuring African American music. The main artery of North 24th Street was the heart of the city's African-American cultural and business community with a thriving jazz and rhythm and blues scene that attracted top-flight swing, blues and jazz bands from across the country.
The most important venue was the storied Dreamland Ballroom, which was opened in the Jewell Building in 1923 at 24th and Grant Streets in the Near North Side neighborhood. Dreamland hosted some of the greatest jazz, blues, and swing performers, including Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, and the original Nat King Cole Trio. Whitney Young spoke there as well. Other venues included Jim Bell's Harlem, opened in 1935 on Lake Street, west of 24th; McGill's Blue Room, located at 24th and Lake, and Allen's Showcase Lounge, which was located at 24th and Lake. Due to racial segregation, musicians such as Cab Calloway stayed at Myrtle Washington's at 22nd and Willis while others stayed at Charlie Trimble's at 22nd and Seward. The intersection of 24th and Lake was the setting of the Big Joe Williams song "Omaha Blues".
North Omaha musicians
George T. McPherson was known as Omaha's first prominent black musician, arriving in Omaha in the early 1870s and opening a music studio there.Papers of the WPA Omaha Ne. City Guide Project, Negro musical development. Chapter 8. Dr. C. C. and Mabel L. Criss Library Digital Collections, University of Nebraska, Omaha accessed March 15, 2016, at http://unomaha.contentdm.oclc.org/cdm/ref/collection/p15301coll1/id/321 Mcpherson was called by Thomas P. Mahammitt's Enterprise "the leading pianist of the [African-American] race".Masons in Favor. Excelsior Club Entertainment Is A Grand Success. Enterprise (Omaha, Nebraska). Saturday, February 13, 1897. Page: 1
Early North Omaha bands included Lewis' Excelsior Brass Band, Dan Desdunes Band, Simon Harrold's Melody Boys, the Sam Turner Orchestra, the Ted Adams Orchestra, and the Omaha Night Owls, as well as Red Perkins and His Original Dixie Ramblers. Lloyd Hunter's Serenaders who became the first Omaha band to record in 1931. A Lloyd Hunter concert poster can be seen on display at the Community Center in nearby Mineola, Iowa.Collins, T. (1994) Rock Mr. Blues: The Life & Music of Wynonie Harris. Big Nickel Publications. Nat Towles was a renowned territory band leader based in Omaha. The National Orchestra Service was an important company based in Omaha that managed white, black and integrated territorial bands.
North Omaha's musical culture also birthed several nationally and internationally reputable African American musicians. International Jazz legend Preston Love, and influential drummer Buddy Miles were all friends while they grew up and played together. They collaborated throughout their lives, and while they were playing with the greatest names in Rock and Roll, Jazz, R&B and Fund. Funk band leader Lester Abrams is also from North Omaha. Omaha-born Wynonie Harris, one of the founders of rock and roll, got his start at the North Omaha clubs and for a time lived in the now-demolished Logan Fontenelle Housing Projects at 2213 Charles Street.
One of Omaha's most notable musicians of the 1940s was Anna Mae Winburn. As the leader of North Omaha's Cotton Club Boys, which included the amazing guitarist Charlie Christian, Winburn traveled the local region as a typical territorial band. However, upon the advice of Jimmie Jewell, owner of the Jewel Building, Winburn left Omaha and hit the "big time" with the International Sweethearts of Rhythm.
Another notable artist was Lalomie (Lomie) Washburn. Born in North Omaha, she went on to write songs and sing backup with such legends as Chaka Khan, Rufus, Stevie Wonder and Aretha Franklin. She signed with the Parachute label in 1977, where she released her first album "My Music is Hot". She went on to launch a solo career, which drew a large following in Germany in the 1970s and 1980s. In 1992 she released several 12" singles, and in 1997 a second (self-titled) solo album. She came back to Omaha to do a small tour when in her mid-seventies. She died on September 18, 2004, in Los Angeles. In 2005 she was inducted into the Omaha Black Music Hall of Fame.
Classical music Beginning in 1871 until the end of the century, Omaha built several opera theaters with considerable seating capacities. The largest of these, the Creighton Orpheum Theater, built in 1895, is the principal home of Opera Omaha, which was founded in 1958. It is now considered a major regional opera house that has had several major commissions and premieres.
The Omaha Symphony Orchestra, founded in 1921, is also a major regional orchestra. The symphony is based at the Holland Performing Arts Center.
New Age/Rock In the 1970s, Chip Davis worked for an Omaha advertising agency writing jingles. The agency created a series of commercials starring a fictional truck driver name C.W. McCall. One of the songs McCall sang became a single called "Convoy". The single became a part of a CB radio craze in 1975 and a movie of the same name was made starring Kris Kristofferson. Davis left the firm and recorded an album called Fresh Aire at the studio he used previously, Sound Recorders. He released the album under the name Mannheim Steamroller. Fresh Aire became a series of releases and achieved great popularity, Davis won a Grammy Award for the seventh album in the Fresh Aire series. In 1984, Mannheim Steamroller Christmas was released and its version of "Deck the Halls" became a radio hit. Davis' Christmas tour had its 25th anniversary in 2015.
Pop music
Pop music producer Terry Lewis was born in Omaha in 1956. The second half of one of the most successful production teams in the history of recorded music, Lewis contributed to the success of a variety of modern stars, including Janet Jackson.
Singer-songwriter Criss Starr started his music career performing at venues in North Omaha under the tutelage of James Boone, founder and bassist for the band ‘Highlighters & Rhythm Machine,’ and owner of Go Ahead Magazine. Criss Starr has recorded and released songs with former members of Prince’s band ‘The Revolution,’ and recently performed shows in Tokyo, Japan. Criss Starr’s family lived in Omaha’s Spencer Apartments public housing complex.
Modern African American music While African Americans have contributed greatly to the history of music in Omaha, they continue to impress black culture upon the city and the country as a whole. Other artists from Omaha's modern African American music scene include Thomas Wilkins, current director of the Omaha Symphony Orchestra, and Lois "Lady Mac" McMorris, a lead guitarist and vocalist.
Hip-hop Omaha is also home to a growing underground hip-hop scene. For a long time, the scene was defined by North High School graduate Houston Alexander, a.k.a. Scrib or FAS/ONE. In the 1980s he led a hip-hop movement in North Omaha called the Scribble Crew as an alliance of graffiti writers who developed a reputation as the top tag artists in the area. The art stands today at 24th and Binney Streets, to 16th and Corby Streets, and other North Omaha locations, and is still respected by the community. His Midwest Alliance act was active through the 1990s and into the new millennium, and is seen as influential on the Omaha scene. Other artists from the late 80's that helped push the early years of hip-hop in Omaha was the Young Rebels who had a semi-major record deal and an import of Offutt Air Force Base named Suavey Spy (Orlando Barnett) and his local DJ Disco Rick. Today Alexander is a DJ on a local radio station in Omaha that hosts an independent music show featuring hip-hop, and he facilitates an elementary school program that teaches students about hip-hop called the "Culture Shock School Tour". Alexander has also been vocal about Omaha's lack of support for its hip-hop artists.