Notable Music History

Tulsa’s spot on the American music landscape is giant. Practically no genre has been unplucked, unblown, unthumped, or unsung by musicians associated with Tulsa.

The first modern music of the area is that of the Osage, whose historic buffalo trails ranged near present day Tulsa. The Osage war dance ceremonies known as "In-Lon-Shka" fill the Osage country with traditional music each year summer. While some of north Tulsa is considered part of the Osage Reservation, the northeast section of Tulsa is in the Cherokee Nation, and the southern and southeastern part of Tulsa is in the Muscogee (Creek) Nation, so those music styles would also be considered part of Tulsa’s overall musical palette, as is the intertribal powwow world. Both the Tulsa Powwow, started in the 1940s, and the Intertribal Indian Club of Tulsa’s Powwow of Champions (pictured at left), have become two of the most prominent urban powwows in the United States.

1940s Tulsa was still in its massive oil refinery production phase. Note Route 66 crossing the Arkansas River (upper left bridge) .

After American Indian music, Tulsa’s music history follows the course of American music as a whole in the 20th century, providing some extremely important contributions along the way. Covered extensively in the Oklahoma Music Guide, Tulsa’s jazz history ranges from past greats such as saxophonist Earl Bostic (b. 1913), bassist Cecil McBee (b.1935), and the trumpeter who became an inspiration to Miles Davis, Howard McGhee (b. 1918), to contemporary jazz figures such as Wayman Tisdale, Grady Nichols, and Tommy Crook.

The Cain's Ballroom near downtown Tulsa.

Of course, Tulsa would not be Tulsa if it weren’t for the "House That Bob Built," also known as the Cain’s Ballroom, located at 423 N. Main. That Bob would be Bob Wills, whose Texas Playboys merged country, pop, jazz, blues, and mariachi into Western swing, a dancehall music meant to help partyers forget about the depression, or celebrate the end of World War II. Wills became famous via 50,000 watt KVOO, the "Voice of Oklahoma," heard throughout much of the midwest , southwest, and West.

If jazz was Tulsa’s music in the 1920s, and Western swing owned the scene for the 1930s and through the 1940s, rock and roll raised its head in the 1950s. Tulsa’s music scene of the Elvis-era jetted several players to national status, to include Flash Terry, Jack Dunham, Leon Russell, David Gates, Elvin Bishop, J.J. Cale, Junior Markham and Tommy Crook. Additional musicians such as drummers Jim Keltner and Chuck Blackwell, bassist Carl Radle, keyboardist Rocky Frisco, and guitarist Leo Feathers contributed to this environment that produced what has come to be known as the "Tulsa Sound." Many more musicians contributed to the city’s music scene, and interested readers can consult the Oklahoma Music Guide, or the Tulsa World’s online archives for more details.

By all accounts, the Tulsa Sound is a musical stew of country, blues, rock, and occasionally jazz, that has its sources in the multi-faceted "Okie Jazz" of Bob Wills, the rich R&B history of Tulsa, and the teenage musicians of the 1950s who embraced the burgeoning rock and roll movement while infusing it with their own Tulsa twang and earthy blues. What later becomes known as the Tulsa Sound of the 1970s might best be described as 50s rockers slowing down, maturing, starting families and changing priorities, which is reflected in the more relaxed style of music manifested most directly by Leon Russell’s easy-paced recordings of the early 1970s. Eric Clapton’s 1974 tribute to Cale, Slowhand (MCA), with a rhythm section of Oklahomans Jamie Oldaker and Carl Radle, as well as Dire Straits Sultans of Swing (Sire, 1978), are both just mainstream popular music catching up to Tulsa’s hip hybrid of blues, country, and rock. In the 1990s, Steve Ripley’s Tractors mined the same vein for their multi-platinum success, and by 2004, periodic Tulsa Sound reunions, or independent appearances by those musicians drew appreciative audiences.

Leon Russell

On the strength of his massive popular success in the early 1970s, Leon Russell returned to Tulsa where he purchased the First Church of God at Third and Trenton. Russell converted the building into the now-famous Church Studio, currently owned and operated by Steve Ripley of the Tractors. The Church Studio provided a nexus through which some of rock’s biggest performers channeled their recording sessions away from the microcopic pressures of New York or L.A. Bob Dylan and J.J. Cale recorded there in the early 1970s; native Tulsan Howard Twilley recorded his 1975 Top 20 hit, "I’m on Fire," in the building; and the GAP Band experienced some of their earlieest recordings in the Church Studio.

Leaning on influences ranging from Parliament-Funkadelic and Sly and the Family Stone to Earth, Wind, and Fire, The GAP Band, comprised of multi-instrumentalist brothers Ronnie, Charlie, and Robert Wilson (all Tulsa natives), surfaced as one of the most popular R & B groups of the 1980s. With fifteen Top 10 R & B hits, the group has become a perennial favorite of sample-happy hip hop and R & B artists looking for a fat bass lines, smooth vocal hooks, and funky beats. The brothers grew up performing in their father’s Pentecostal church in Tulsa where their mother was a pianist, and where they sang every Sunday. All three brothers took piano lessons, and their parents demanded they practice at home. Ronnie, the oldest, started a group when he was fourteen and eventually recruited his younger brothers to play in the band they named after streets in the heart of Tulsa’s historic African-American business district: Greenwood, Archer and Pine. After playing various clubs around Tulsa, they provided bass, horns, and vocals to Leon Russell’s album All That Jazz. Subsequently, after Russell signed the band to record their first album for his Shelter label, Magician’s Holiday (1974), they moved to Los Angeles where they began a successful career in R&B and pop music.

Gap Band

Numerous compilations document he GAP Band’s career: Gap Gold: The Best of the Gap Band (Mercury, 1985); and a best-of collection via Mercury’s 20th Century Masters Series. In 2001 Hip-O released Ultimate Collection, a thorough summary of the GAP Band’s greatest hits with extensive liner notes, while Ark 21 released Love at Your Fingertips, featuring a few new tunes, live recordings, and several remixes of "You Dropped a Bomb on Me."

A continuation of Tulsa’s music history in the 1970s includes power pop beacon Dwight Twilley, as well as the Dunn half of country music’s superstars, Brooks and Dunn. Although from Texas, Ronnie Dunn came to Tulsa for a chance at the music scene marshalled by industry impresario, Jim Halsey. Dunn found work and inspiration in the country music night club, City Limits, where line dancing sparked their first major hit, "Boot Scootin’ Boogie." The duo continued massive success in 2004 with their highly successful Neon Circus and Wild West Show. Ronnie Dunn was inducted into the Oklahoma Music Hall of Fame in 2003.

Compared to previous decades, the 1980s proved to be quiet ones in Tulsa, with many major musicians having moved on. However, the return of Steve Ripley to Tulsa in 1986 proved to be a harbinger of better times. Within two years, Ripley recorded and released his first single by The Tractors. By 1994, the first Tractors album, with its persistent nods to both the Tulsa Sound and country music’s heritage, became the best-selling country music album in 1994.

The next successful artists to emerge from Tulsa were another brother act. In 1997, Hanson topped the pop world with their single "MMMbop" from Middle of Nowhere. The group continues to tour and record, with their most recent CD, Underneath (pictured to the right), being one of the most successful independent releases of 2004.

Unsurprisingly, the list of Tulsans who are enjoying musical success at the beginning of the twenty-first century is not a short one. While also remembered in Oklahoma as a legendary basketball player, Wayman Tisdale is one of the nation’s top contemporary jazz artists. His 2001 CD, Face to Face, hit #1 on Billboard’s jazz chart, and he was noted as the 2002 Bassist of the Year by the Smooth Jazz Awards. Also in 2002, Tisdale was appointed to serve on the state tourism and recreation commission. In 2004, he released Hang Time (Rendezvous).

Also on the contemporary jazz front is Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey (JFJO), a well-journeyed group led by keyboardist Brian Haas (left) and bassist Reed Mathis who work with any number of different percussionists and horn players, as well as country and classical musicians. Both musicians received the bulk of the their formal training in Tulsa, and have since released a series of critically acclaimed CDs, performed to ecstatic reviews around the country, and may be the most progressive live jazz combo in America today.

If Route 66 travelers need extended jams to listen to while rolling through the big spaces out West, or increasingly frenetic, but beautifully played, uptempo jazz for rolling back East, the Oklahoma Music Guide recommends picking up just about any CD available featuring this group. For starters, try All Is One - Live in New York City (2002) or Walking With Giants (2004). Usually, the group also sells unique or limited edition CDs at their shows, which is where one gets the ultimate appreciation for Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey’s technical abilities, artistic ethos, and seemingly limitless interpretive skills.

Listing all of the Tulsa musicians who have made, or are making, important, or at least well-liked, music would turn this small publication into a lengthy treatise on only one city. Hot R&B diva Toni Estes, newcoming poprocker Tony Romanello, jazz pianist Mike Leland, and one of the best guitar players in the world, Tommy Crook, all call Tulsa home, and play here regularly. If nothing else, jazz fans, guitar fans, and just fans of music in general should track down guitarist Tommy Crook. He wows ‘em very Friday night at Lanna Thai Restaurant on 7227 S. Memorial Boulevard in Tulsa. Call ahead to be sure: (918) 249-5262.

To break open Tulsa’s music scene, pick up the Tulsa World’s Spot Magazine in the Friday paper, or find the free Urban Tulsa at various locations around the city. Both have extensive listings of current live music around town, as well as regular features on local and national musicians.

Historic Sites with a Musical Focus

Cain’s Ballroom - 423 N. Main (918) 584-2309

Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame - Greenwood Cultural Center

Features photos and history of jazz musicians who have made contributions to Oklahoma’s great jazz legacy, as well as history of Tulsa’s Greenwood District, also known as "The Black Wall Street" in American history. Much of Tulsa’s jazz and R&B can be traced to the area around Greenwood, Archer, and Pine.

For Vinyl Collectors Frontier Records and Tapes, 4904-A South Union, Tulsa Blue Moon Discs, 3807-C S. Peoria Avenue, Tulsa CD Exchange Sounds, 3202 E. 11th Street, Tulsa Rob’s Records and CDs, 1511 S. Memorial, Tulsa Starship Records and Tapes, 2813 E. 11th Street, Tulsa Goodwill on Southwest Blvd. Rt. 66, West Tulsa

Music Stores While several good, and in the case of Roy and Candy’s, historic, music stores exist in Tulsa (consult any phone book) Firey Brothers Music and Pro Audio is the only music store on the original Route 66 in Tulsa. Find them at 4718 E. 11th, or call (918) 838-9895.

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Live Music Venues

See previously mentioned publications, or www.tulsamusicscene.com for listings of the multitude of sacred and secular performance spaces in Tulsa. While stalwarts like the Tulsa Performing Arts Center, the Brady Theater, and Cain’s Ballroom anchor the downtown entertainment district, the city has many nightclubs, churches, university and other school facilities that present live music regularly. For the Route 66 Flavor, visit Ed’s Hurricane Lounge at 3216 E. 11th Street, or the Stage Door at 10117 E. 11th.

Musical Side Trips

Bartlesville - Held each year in mid-June, the OK Mozart Festival is a tremendous opportunity to hear some of the world’s finest musicians play in one the most acoustically perfect performance spaces anywhere, the Bartlesville Community Center, designed by the Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation. Call (918) 336-900, or see www.okmozart.com.

Rentiesville - Dusk til Dawn Blues Club - 3-day blues festival over Labor Day Weekend. Call 918- 473-2411 or see www.dcminnerblues.com for additional activities at this historic and authentic country juke joint near Checotah, Oklahoma.

Annual Musical Events in Tulsa

• Oklahoma Blues Festival, May, www.okblues.com
• Tulsa International Mayfest, May, www.tulsamayfest.com
• Light Opera Oklahoma Festival, June, www.lightoperaok.com
• Juneteenth Greenwood Festival, June, www.okjazz.org
• Powwow of Champions (IICOT), August, (918) 744-1113, Expo Square, www.iicot.org
• Greek Festival, September, Holy Trinity Greek Orthodox Church, 1222 S. Guthrie, (918) 583-2082
• Oklahoma Scottish Games and Gathering, September, Chandler Park, 6500 W. 21st Street, (918) 499-2585, www.tulsascottishgames.com
• Fiesta Tulsa, September, Plaza Santa Cecelia, 2160 Garnett Road, (918) 664-5236
• Festival Espano, September, 3rd and Boulder, (918) 622-8258
• Tulsa State Fair, First of October, Expo Square, www.tulsastatefair.com
• Shalomfest, October, Temple Israel, 2004 E. 22nd Place
• Oktoberfest, River West Festival Park, (918) 744-9700, www.tulsaoktoberfest.org

For More Information If travelers are coming into Tulsa from the east, or leaving Tulsa from the west, they should try and stop by the Oklahoma Information Center on I-44 between Catoosa and Tulsa north of I-44 at Exit 161. Call (918) 439-3212 with questions. Tulsa Metro Chamber and Visitors Bureau, (918) 585-1201 (800) 558-3311, www.VisitTulsa.com www.tulsachamber.com, www.cityoftulsa.com Greenwood Chamber of Commerce, (918) 585-2084

Near Sapulpa, looking east to Tulsa from where Interstate 44 and Route 66 converge, or diverge, depending on which way you are going.