{"@context":"http://iiif.io/api/presentation/3/context.json","id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/iiif/9k45q4s53w/manifest","type":"Manifest","label":{"en":["Melvin Miles oral history, 2002 April 19"]},"logo":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/008/original/peabody-institute.logo.large.horizontal.blue.cropped.png?1549570058","metadata":[{"label":{"en":["Description"]},"value":{"en":[" Melvin Miles began studying trumpet in elementary school and continued at Calverton Junior High School with Chester Rowlett, who inspired him to begin composing music. While a student at Douglass High, he performed with Frankie and the Spinners, a local rhythm and blues group and, later, with the Whatnauts (later reorganized as The Sound Experience). Miles went on to perform with the band at Morgan State University, where he would later serve on the faculty of the Music Department. He also served as music director for Encore Theatre and taught in the Baltimore City Public Schools. (Abstract)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Date"]},"value":{"en":[" 2002-04-19 (created)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Agent"]},"value":{"en":[" Miles, Melvin N., Jr. (Interviewee)"," Costigan, Brendan (Interviewer)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Language"]},"value":{"en":[" English (Primary)"]}},{"label":{"en":["Format"]},"value":{"en":["audio/mp3"]}},{"label":{"en":["Publisher"]},"value":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]}},{"label":{"en":["Rights Statement"]},"value":{"en":["The collection is open for use. Contact peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information."]}},{"label":{"en":["Source Metadata URI"]},"value":{"en":["https://aspace.library.jhu.edu/repositories/4/archival_objects/215377"]}}],"summary":{"en":[" Melvin Miles began studying trumpet in elementary school and continued at Calverton Junior High School with Chester Rowlett, who inspired him to begin composing music. While a student at Douglass High, he performed with Frankie and the Spinners, a local rhythm and blues group and, later, with the Whatnauts (later reorganized as The Sound Experience). Miles went on to perform with the band at Morgan State University, where he would later serve on the faculty of the Music Department. He also served as music director for Encore Theatre and taught in the Baltimore City Public Schools."]},"requiredStatement":{"label":{"en":["Attribution"]},"value":{"en":["The collection is open for use. Contact peabodyarchives@lists.jhu.edu for more information."]}},"provider":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/aboutus","type":"Agent","label":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]},"homepage":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/","type":"Text","label":{"en":["Peabody Institute of the Johns Hopkins University"]},"format":"text/html"}],"logo":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/organizations/logo_images/000/000/008/original/peabody-institute.logo.large.horizontal.blue.cropped.png?1549570058","type":"Image"}]}],"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 1 of 2 - pims0091_MilesM_01.mp3"]},"duration":3027.04327,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/content/1/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-peabody.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/117/458/original/pims0091_MilesM_01.mp3?1624270917","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":3027.04327,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_pims0091_MilesM_01.mp3 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e It's April 19. My name is Brendan Costigan, and this is for the Music of Baltimore's Black Community [class], and I'm interviewing Melvin Miles.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1.61,13.61"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Mr. Miles, when did your musical education first begin?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=17.33,20.81"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I started learning trumpet age eight. It started in elementary school, 132. At that time it was called Coppin Elementary. My music teacher was Mrs. Gill [phonetic]. I originally went in and wanted to play drums, and then I found out that I couldn't take the drum home every week and I decided I wanted to play something else. [Mrs. Gill] went through the normal thing, presenting me with various instruments, and I selected the trumpet because it looked easy. Had three buttons on it. And it was a cornet at the time, so it was small, had three buttons on it. I said, This has got to be easy. Can't play but three notes on it. Eight years old, that's what you would think. And I took it home and I started practicing, and I've liked it ever since. That's where it started.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=25.19,84.74"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e So after elementary school, you continued playing the trumpet?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=86.33,92.78"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. Continued playing trumpet in junior high school. I went to Calverton Junior High School in Baltimore, and my band director at that time was Mr. Chester Rowlett and I played trumpet in the band and trumpet in the orchestra. I dibbled [sic] on French horn a little bit and it was in junior high school that I got interested in writing music. And Mr. Rowlett wrote a selection and I got very interested, very curious as to how he put that all together. He talked to me a little bit about it, showed me what he did with the piano, and how he wrote his melody and how he wrote an accompaniment. And of course, he had scored for the whole band, so it was great. For the life of me, I can't remember the name of the selection, but it certainly was an inspiration for me in junior high school.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=93.382,144.62"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e We had a great education, lots of opportunities to play. I played in a solo and ensemble festival. In fact, I played in a solo and ensemble festval in elementary school. My first solo was the Volga Boatmen song. Little Russian piece. I can recall my dad taking me to Easton High School at the time when they would have solo and ensemble festivals. You'd go in a room with a person and you play. So I played and those things all through junior high school and elementary school.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=146.6,182.06"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Was high school different, playing the trumpet in high school?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=186.49,189.69"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, yeah -- it was a heck of a lot more competitive. My first interest in going to high school was not to play music. My first interest in high school was to go play football. And I left junior high school and my first interest was to go to, at that time, Baltimore City College, and it was the football mecca of the city. There were people like Curt Anderson [chairman of the Baltimore City Delegation and former football and track captain at BCC] and Kurt Schmoke [former mayor of Baltimore and former quarterback at BCC] and people like that that were attending there and they were doing all kinds of phenomenal things with football. And I was very interested in football as a kid. It was really the thing to do with the Colts and all that stuff going on.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=190.65,231.36"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e So I went to City College because I wanted to play football. I got there, and at that time it was an all-male school. It was something about being an all-male situation that seemed a little different for me, but most of all what was troublesome -- the music program at that time. It was just a average music program. It was an okay program, but there was a lot of conflict in terms of being on football and trying to do something with band. And so I decided that I wanted to change schools where I could have a few more options with music. And then I transferred to Douglass High School to basically be involved with music.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=231.46,279.75"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e And of course, then there came the big choice in my life -- whether I was going to play football or I was going to be a musician. Because I made the J.V. team at Doulgass and I was on the football team, and football conflicted with band practice. So I had to really make a decision at that particular time. And I recall sort of sitting down with my dad, just sort of talking about it, and we made a list of pros and cons and I decided I wanted to be a musician at that point because I felt that I could do music for the rest of my life. If I played ball and I got lucky, I could play for a little whiIe. And if I got lucky, I'd have to stop because at a certain point you get too old to play. And I wanted to do something I could be involved with my entire life. I can participate in music in some form or fashion until I die, really. And so that was really made it for me.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=280.65,337.38"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Around what year was this?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=339.3,339.769"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e That was right around '65, '66. That was pretty much the decisive point in my life that I decided that music was going to be my career option, it was going to be my choice. It was going to be the direction. I was going to let that lead me to where I needed to go.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=340.62,366.75"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Did that really change your attitude on the trumpet specifically?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=367.29,370.589"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I don't think it changed my attitude about trumpet playing because I was sort of very competitive with that. I was always trying to challenge myself in ways of playing trumpet. But what it did -- it opened my eyes up to music and to all those things I had sort of been learning about in music, and not really applying them. I began to start thinking about how to apply all those concepts and those things I learned in my music classes and how they all fit into this thing that I wanted to call music.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=373.11,409.47"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e With that in mind, what was it like when you first started playing with local musicians outside of high school?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=413.01,425.64"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e [Laughs] Well, that was interesting. My first recollection -- I played with a group called Frankie and the Spinners [also known as Frankie and the Spindles] at the time. And it was the first time that I have ever encountered working with a group where they did everything by ear. I'd been in school bands and things [where] you read music. So here I am, I think I'm at Lexington Terrace Elementary School where the band was rehearsing, and there was a guy there, Roscoe Evans, and I can't think of Joe's last name. Joe played trumpet. We used to call him Joe Horn, but I know Horn wasn't his last name. But Roscoe, I remember because he played alto sax and he was very good. And these guys were commissioned to a record and figure out what the horn lines should be and what the licks should be. And they played. And so I was struggling trying to figure that all out.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=426.989,500.921"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I eventually got better at it, but it was certainly a struggle and something very, very different for me. And I grew up with not a strong appetite for jazz, but with some appetite for jazz. And so I wasn't really listening to a lot of rhythm and blues. Frankie and the Spinners was a rhythm and blues group. It was a cover group. They call them a cover group now, where they did the songs that were on the radio, and they played the cabarets and school dances. So I got involved and I can't really remember how I got involved with that. I can't remember whether Leon Ferguson [phonetic], who I knew with the group -- I can't exactly remember. Somebody saw me and said, Hey, would you like to play in the band? And I think I just went down to play with them.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=502.0,555.529"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Was that around what time?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=556.75,558.57"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I think I was about fourteen when I first started. I think I was either just in eighth or ninth grade, probably ninth grade, when I first started working with them. [Around] '65, '64.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=561.13,575.44"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What were the big songs of the time? [crosstalk]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=579.79,581.769"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Anything The Temptations did. \"My Girl.\" smokey Robinson was a very big hit. Anything that was sort of Motownish and/or doo-wop fashion. I was so much into just trying to figure out what to do, I can't reckon the songs. I just remember The Drifters -- them putting the little 45s [records] on and putting your ear to the record and say, Oh, the line goes like this, or the horn part goes like this, and automatically adding harmony to it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=586.18,629.38"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e So for me, it was a very fascinating thing for me to see people doing that because I didn't grow up learning music in that fashion. Often what happens in Black music -- I remember teaching my Black music class -- a lot of Black kids do get their musical experiences from church. I didn't grow up in church. My parents didn't make us go to church. My parents didn't belong to a church, and so I didn't go to church every Sunday, and I wasn't involved in any kind of music. I will never forget my class asked me one day, Well, how did you get involved in music? I said, School. [Laughs] And I said, It was through the public school that I got involved in music. It wasn't through the church or any kind of thing like that where you see your organist playing, church choir singing. And in a lot of churches, a lot of rote music is done and a lot of stuff is done by ear. That wasn't my upbringing. My upbringing was certainly through school. And so therefore, the whole ear thing of learning music through rote and by ear was not part of my upbringing. But I adapted to it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=629.56,716.65"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e But you would say it was a pretty important --","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=719.67,720.429"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, it was a pretty important aspect to learn. It certainly added to the breadth of my musical experience. And I still use it a lot today.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=721.06,738.85"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e So Frankie and the Spinners, your work with them, in a lot of ways, provided a foundation for your continuing to play outside of school. But you didn't stay with Frank and the Spinners a long time -- what happened then?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=740.53,754.059"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I moved to a group called The Whatnauts, which is a strange word. It's W-H-A-T-N-A-U-T-S, like \"what travelers,\" \"what astronauts.\" I don't know where the name came from, but it had more or less to do with this group -- it was like a organization of people and there were all kind of aspects of it. There were Whatnaut dances, there was a Whatnaut club, and the Whatnaut band and singers. The Whatnauts -- that was a really great place for me in terms of being able to develop some of the outside things that I do with music; getting involved with a bunch of people who some are still friends of mine. We've been friends for years, and we still are. And that group -- at least '65, '66 -- and we still see each other. It was just a wonderful time. It was a very large group and a very busy group. We played just about everybody's prom, all the CYO [Catholic Youth Organization] dances. We played places like the civic center, Carr's Beach, Sparrow's Beach. We played all kinds of places. It was a very popular group and a very good group. There was a full band accompaniment. I think we had at least two guitar players, a keyboard player, a bass player, drummer and about five horn players.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=758.84,873.4"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Did you cover bands or did you have originals?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=874.74,877.45"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e No, we covered. It was a cover group and we didn't do any original stuff. Baltimore is a funny kind of place like that. I think it's just probably opened up a little bit to really supporting people who are trying to do some original stuff, particularly in the Black community. Growing up, I did see some groups like The Admiral, Pen Lucy, a couple other groups like that who did things that were sort of original. And on the rock side they had a good following. In the Black community, they wanted to hear what was on the radio. And for them, I believe, now that I'm sitting here and have some perspective to it, I think it was just like being able to see -- in particular, with a group that was as good as the Whatnauts who mimicked all the steps that The Temptations had, mimic the clothing. We would do everything by The Spinners, by The Temptations. The Temptations was really the focal point, because it was a five man singing group. I think it was a way for people to escape and get a sense of being able to see something that looked like the Temptations, and felt like The Temptations, and felt like a big time show, but it wasn't the big time show. Better than karaoke but not the real thing. So I think that was a big thing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=877.94,978.36"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e You mentioned Carr's Beach. What was that like?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=979.08,983.19"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Carr's Beach was a major place. It was a place that a lot of Black people went and they had major acts. You could go to Carr's Beach and you could see James Brown, The Drifters, Clyde McPhatter. Everybody played Carr's Beach. It was a major place to play. And like the Royal [Theatre], and like places of that time, you could see two or three shows a day. You could be on the beach and James Brown could be finished singing and getting in his Cadillac and he'd go over to the trailer or something, and he'd be on the beach and you'd be on the beach and he'd get ready to do his next set. It was just that kind of thing. It was a real neat experience. A little dirty, you know, sand and stuff. But it was a big old pavilion kind of thing. And people went to the beach and they took their food and they would have bus trips to go to the beach -- like people have bus trips to go to Kings Dominion [Virginia amusement park], maybe, they see acts. It was the same kind of thing. But it was a very kind of local beach. People would get on, they'd say, We're going to get on the bus and we're going to go to Kings Dominion and we're going to see NSYNC. They're going to be the show group. It was the same thing. They got on the bus and you rode down the road, and you went to Carr's Beach and you'd see an act and you'd be at the beach.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=985.98,1092.03"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e So for the Whatnauts to play, there --","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1092.57,1093.96"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e -- it was a pretty big deal. Whatnauts played there, Frankie and the Spinners played there. It was a pretty big deal. And the Spinners were a little earlier, because Carr's Beach wasn't a new thing by the time we did the Whatnauts. It had been around a while -- since I was a little kid, people had been going to the beach.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1094.4,1115.55"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Did Frankie and the Spinners and the Whatnauts ever get together to collaborate?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1118.97,1121.88"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Collaborate? No -- they were archrivals. They were rival groups. I don't think they ever collaborated.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1122.97,1131.72"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What did that stem from?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1133.13,1133.94"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/36","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Just different parts of town, just different groups. It was friendly. It was always good fun. But it was just, we were the Whatnauts and that's Frankie and the Spinners, and they had their own little groupies and people that follow them. Frankie and the Spinners was a downtown group -- they were Fremont Avenue, Lexington Terrace. [The band] lived in the high-rise, all of them, that way -- Saratoga, Fremont. A lot of stuff's gone there, because they've torn it all down. Saratoga Street, Fayette [Street], George Street, Lexington Terrace, Myrtle Avenue. All that down there. They've sort of renovated. They've torn a lot of the high rise projects down, but they used to live down in that part of town. And the Whatnauts were in West Baltimore. We were Easterwood, Bentalou [Street], Baker Street, North Avenue. We were up and out of an area near Coppin State [University]. So it was two major parts of the city where different groups of people were. Frankie and them were very good, and the Whatnauts had this organizational thing that was kind of incredible, cool.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1134.9,1226.83"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/37","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Is that what drew you to the Whatnauts?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1227.4,1228.497"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/38","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e No, what drew me to the Whatnauts, I think they paid more money. [Laughter] I think that was all there was to it. I think that they approached me and they paid a little more money, and I think it was a little closer. I think there was a point with Frankie and the Spinners -- we were having some money difficulties and I don't think they were paying well, and Whatnauts was paying better money. But it was a great move, like all moves that sometimes you make. Not to put the Spinners down -- it was just a better move all the way around because we put together a very quality group, I think.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1228.81,1275.96"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/39","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e So you stayed with the Whatnauts for a pretty long time?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1277.53,1279.93"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/40","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Pretty long time. I really don't know the years. I don't know whether to call it a long term. [It was] not as long as my final group. But we worked a pretty long time, probably all the way through high school, about three and a half years.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1280.56,1299.79"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/41","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e And then you said your next group --","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1304.43,1306.289"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/42","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e The Sound Experience.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1307.73,1308.36"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/43","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What was the story with the Sound Experience?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1308.594,1313.64"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/44","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Excellent group. Sound Experience was really the Whatnauts' band. The Whatnauts was a band and singing group and in the days of the Whatnauts, a lot of people had band and singer. I can't think of all the names -- there was a group called Ricky and the Chips -- but it was just a lot of band and singer groups. You know, there were singers and they had a band. I can't for the life of me, I can't think of all the names of the groups. Once in a while, I run into people saying, Remember when I was in the such and such group? I was like, Yeah I remember the group, but I don't always remember the people that were in the group. But I do remember once they give me a name. But we were a band and singer group, and when the Whatnauts got a record deal, the record company only wanted the singer. They didn't want the band.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1314.359,1372.65"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/45","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Who did they get a record deal with?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1373.19,1374.15"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/46","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e [Groans] I knew you were going to ask me that. I don't know. I know the producer was George Kerr. And I remember us doing a gig at Nyack, New York. But I cannot for the life of me remember the name of the record. I was thinking that I had some of those 45s here, but they might be upstairs in my other office. Want me to see if I can find it?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1375.08,1413.469"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/47","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Sure.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1413.69,1413.69"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/48","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Let me go upstairs to see. It will just take me a second.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1413.814,1416.03"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/49","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"[INTERRUPTION]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1416.03,1416.03"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/50","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e We're back and we just found out the name of the --","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1444.68,1448.819"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/51","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e The record company the Whatnauts was working with was Stang records. And it was George Kerr. George Kerr was a pretty big producer. He produced the Moments, and he had done some stuff with Mickey and Sylvia -- Sylvia Robinson, who really ended up doing a lot of stuff with the Moments. \"Love on a Two-Way Street,\" things like that. And of course, basically behind the scenes on the whole Sugarhill Gang thing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1450.29,1484.4"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/52","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e I know a little bit about that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1488.15,1489.14"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/53","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e So when they first did the hip-hop, that little group was all involved in that when that first started coming out.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1491.84,1501.38"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/54","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e So, like we were saying, your next project.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1505.809,1506.526"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/55","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e The Sound Experience was a wonderful group.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1511.06,1512.539"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/56","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e How did it compare to the Whatnauts?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1516.02,1516.979"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/57","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, we couldn't sing. There was no one in the group that could sing. We were just a band and we just played music. And of course, we figured out that we couldn't just play music, that we had to figure out how to sing. So we got a couple of guys. There was a guy in the Whatnauts named Thomas Frailing. He had some twin brothers. I don't think they were the first people, I think we went through a lot of different people, but we ended up with the Frailing twins. They were with another group and they left the other group. I don't know the names of these groups, but they were with another group and they left that group and came with us. But I can't remember how many singers we went through. I think we tried singing. At that time, the group was a little different. If I'm not mistaken, Ronny Harwell [phonetic] played bass, Anton [Scott] played guitar. I don't know who we had on keyboards because the keyboard part was always suspect. I know I played trumpet, Rick [Reginald] Wright played trumpet, Johnnie Foreman played trombone, and we had the Holmes brothers. Albert Holmes played alto saxophone, Gregory Holmes played tenor saxophone. That was the horn section. We had a horn section and a rhythm section.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1518.24,1616.59"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/58","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e And we went about trying to play and making music. We were lucky enough to get a place to rehearse at the Easterwood Recreation Center on Baker and Bentalou. It was a rec center and they allowed us to come in there and leave our equipment and practice in there, so it worked out pretty good for us. If I'm not mistaken, though, we started out with a guy managing us named Marvin -- I can't think of Marvin's last name. But Marvin lived off of Garrison Boulevard. I think we first started formally working with Marvin, that's what sort of got it going.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1618.6,1663.044"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/59","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I guess it'll all come back to me one day, but I need a couple of the guys, because they fill in all the blanks. My brain was really on the music [laughs] and we were all in college around that time, '68, '69, many of us. And so going to school was really important to us. We all wanted to go to school. We all wanted to complete that. But we had a great time. It was a great group.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1665.11,1695.47"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/60","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Did you play in the summers then, while you were going to school?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1696.13,1697.54"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/61","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, played in the summers, played while we were in school, too. We were able to balance those things out. I think the major thing was, by everyone being in school, we all had the same kind of schedule. In fact, Johnnie Foreman and myself -- This is a little later on because Albert was older than all of us. We were still coming out of high school. He was already in college and we were just going to college, so he was either two [or] three years ahead of us. All of us were always very interested in going to school and we were all going to school basically at the same time. We had the same interests, so we were able to work our schedules out so that we didn't get gigs that conflicted with our school. So that worked out pretty good. Once in a while, myself, Johnnie Foreman, Reginald Wright, we were all in that group and we were in the band here at Morgan [State University]. So that also had some dynamics, because sometimes we had to do a marching band gig and then we had to play for the Sound Experience. We might be in Greensboro and then we'd have to hurry up and get back so that we could make the gig. And James Lindsey came along a little later, but James Lindsey was also in the band here. So we were all in school at the same time at Morgan, playing in the band at Morgan, and playing in the Sound Experience.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1698.28,1804.024"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/62","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e But Sound Experience was a very popular group, played a lot of places, did a lot of stuff. Opened for groups like Earth, Wind, and Fire, War; we toured with the Delfonics; we opened for Kool and the Gang, people like that. We worked in Atlantic City, the Apollo in New York, the Spectrum in Philadelphia, the Cap Centre [Landover, Maryland] -- they used to call it something else, I think. We used to work the Civic Center [Baltimore arena] and all the major houses in the region. So it was a very, very, very, very popular group. We got a record contract with a record company called Philly Groove Records.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1805.06,1860.02"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/63","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e When did you put out your first album? What was it called?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1870.29,1871.603"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/64","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e The first album was called Sound Experience Live. Glen Mills was -- Again, this is the day of the live albums. Everybody was making a live album.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1875.32,1888.68"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/65","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e I was going to say -- a debut album, live. I've never heard of that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1889.07,1890.467"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/66","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. We didn't have enough material to make a live album. [Laughter] We had about three or four numbers that we had recorded and the rest of them were covers. The difficulty with the deal was simply that we were with a company that really liked the band -- it was something unique and something different -- but they had only worked with singing groups. So working with a band was entirely different because you were working with musicians, so they weren't really thinking about how musicians think. They really liked the band, but they didn't know what to do with it. And when people saw and heard the band, they liked it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1892.42,1944.56"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/67","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"[PHONE RINGS]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1945.19,1945.195"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/68","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e So, it was the day of the live bands, so they were just trying to capitalize on the fact that what they heard live was what they really wanted to capture. But they just didn't know how to capture it. Because the band was a very good live band. It had a great sound and [the record company] was just trying to capture that sound. So basically, that's why they went with a live thing, because they thought they could capture that. We weren't good enough at that time. We weren't good at recording. I don't think we were that polished. I thought we were good, but we certainly could have been a lot more polished and of course, had more tunes before we would actually do a live album. But we did okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=1958.02,2016.69"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/69","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e So what was your first studio album and how much later was it?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2017.41,2020.229"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/70","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Not much later. Probably about another year, maybe a year and a half. We imported another singer from Philadelphia because the record company didn't like our singers. They thought we could use another singer. And he'd stay with us through the next couple of projects. His name was Arthur Grant. He played alto sax and he sang. He was our lead singer, but we wrote a lot of it. We wrote a lot of good stuff. We arranged everything and wrote all the music, the group did. I wrote quite a few tunes on it, James wrote quite a few tunes. But I think their hit off that album was a slow song called \"You Don't Know What You're Doing,\" and that was written by our guitar player named Anton Scott. It's a good song, and a lot of people liked that song.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2021.22,2100.05"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/71","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e So, you did the Sound Experience from '68, '69, when you started college, to --","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2104.59,2113.101"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/72","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e 1979.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2114.63,2114.63"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/73","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e The band broke up then?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2116.86,2118.39"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/74","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e It broke up. What happened was, as always, lots of people do different things. By that time, people were out of school. They sort of started real jobs and they were doing band at the same time. And it was sort of this dual full-time thing. I mean, I started teaching here in '73. So that meant from '73 to '79, I was doing this and I was doing that. And it was a really popular group. So I was really, literally, living out both ends of my body just trying to keep up with both of them. And of course, when you're twenty-four, twenty-five, you don't know that you're killing yourself. [Laughs] But I think that it just got to a point where everybody wanted out of the record deal that we had, we wanted to get a new record deal. We were preparing information for the new record deals that we were looking for.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2118.782,2188.49"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/75","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Still with Philly Groove?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2188.82,2189.958"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/76","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e We were still produced by the same producers who were moving us around to different record [companies]. We went from Philly Groove, and then they put us with Buddah Records for a while. And then at this time, Arista Records was just coming back on the market. Clive Davis had just moved out of Columbia [Records], he had just finished making his run with Philly International [Records], and then he was sitting on a whole new record company called Arista Records. So we were getting ready trying to make a pitch for Arista Records, and it came to a point where the guys had to decide whether to go all the way with this or whether they're not going to. And there were some people that just couldn't take the chance. They'd started buying homes, and they had jobs and families, and they just couldn't take the chance. So, we sort of melted away. We didn't just walk in one day and say, that's it. It just sort of fizzled away quietly, and we started doing side projects.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2191.16,2262.17"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/77","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Myself, Anton, and James Lindsey, we started a production company and we were producing groups. We produced an all-female band called She-Devil. And we had a production company and we produced a guy named Curtis Anderson, who was a local deejay, and did some nice stuff for him. There was another guy named Butch something, I can't remember. But we started producing people and those things met with less than market success, but weren't total flops. And we were just trying to get a group that could take us over the edge, to gain some momentum. And we couldn't do that. And then I picked up a deal and I started working with somebody else. So it just sort of dissolved.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2263.13,2320.539"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/78","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What deal did you pick up?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2323.1,2324.21"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/79","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I picked up Soft Tones. I started working with a producer. Rod Armstrong had another group called First Class. I produced and arranged some things for them. And then I actually went on the road with First Class for a little while.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2324.54,2341.199"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/80","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Is this early '80s?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2342.309,2342.73"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/81","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e It would have to be early '80s, because I got separated in '79 from my first wife and I met my second wife right around the same time. We started dating in '80, and I moved downtown to Fell's Point around that time.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2348.196,2373.68"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/82","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I did some traveling with [First Class], but I had a great time making records with them. Soft Tones were leaving, at the time, A\u0026D -- Armstrong and Donaldson Agency -- needed a producer. I was ready to produce. We did a great project. But as always, there's always somebody in the middle that gets in the way of it, and the product didn't meet the kind of success I thought it should have made. And then I got involved in theatre work. So here I am. I did theatre work from about 1981, 1982 to -- I guess it was '97. You'll have to ask my wife. She could tell you better when I stopped. But I did theatre work for all that time I wrote and arranged and directed. I was the musical director for Encore Theatre. I wrote music for it and arranged music for it and adapted music for plays that we did. \"Double Handicap\" was written by Belva Scott. It was an original play we did and the rest of them were original plays with musical adaptation. So we covered music.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2382.11,2469.32"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/83","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e I remember you were saying you wrote the music for \"Unforgettable.\"","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2470.449,2473.79"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/84","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh. Yeah, we did a musical called \"Unforgettable.\" We did \"Blues, Blues, Blues, Nothing but the Blues.\"","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2474.78,2479.82"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/85","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Nat King Cole?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2481.62,2481.77"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/86","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah. That was a good show. We did a piece called \"Broadway Melodies,\" where we did scenes from Broadway shows and I arranged and adapted music for that. And the thing that we would try to do with some of that stuff is find obscure stuff, obscure musicals, and make presentations of it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2481.802,2505.64"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/87","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Where were these musicals put on?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2505.703,2508.309"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/88","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e We had a place. Well, we moved around. Our first piece was a Ellington piece, and that was done at the 5 Mile House on Reisterstown Road. The 5 Mile House is a lounge, and Wesley -- I can't think of his last name -- he agreed to, once a month, twice a month, let us do plays in his lounge. And it worked out okay. And we moved from there to the place that's personally known as The Forum. We worked at The Forum for a number of years. And then we left there and we did our first play at Morgan, the very first play Belva and I did, we did at Morgan.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2509.04,2561.077"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/89","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What was that?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2561.231,2562.36"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/90","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e \"Double Handicap.\" We did it at Morgan.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2563.29,2565.13"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/91","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What was that about?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2573.23,2573.71"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/92","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e It was about racing. Belva likes racing. She doesn't bet much money but she likes horses. And it was great for me because I knew absolutely nothing about racing. I've never been to a race in my life. So the whole thing [is] about racing, plus a love interest of the guy. You know, the guy takes the money and bets on the horse and then loses the money from the girl, and has to get the money back. That kind of thing, and all those tensions. But the racing part was a huge component because we did all the things about horse racing, about betting on the races and all those things that go on that people that are betting are thinking about. So we built music around all that stuff as well as the love interest so that those were the two basic tiers. But it was about this guy and the girl who loved each other. And Brenda Alford, who is a huge Baltimore icon and jazz singer that's from here -- she lives in Miami now -- played the lead role. So that's what it was all about -- horse racing, and money, and love, and in that order. But it was fun. We're kicking around [unclear]. We're both trying to just find the time to do it. And then I have this face. It's got a lot of good business. [Laughs] Got a lot of good visions about it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2574.61,2677.53"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/93","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Just to go back a little bit, you had your career as a musician, from Frankie and the Spinners up to the Sound Experience. You were doing producing, composing, arranging and musicals. But when you graduated here from Morgan State University, you started another career path.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2681.73,2704.59"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/94","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e That's right, teaching here at Morgan. I was cheap. I was young and cheap. I graduated from Morgan in December of 1972 and I went to work for Baltimore City Public Schools. Baltimore City Public Schools had promised me that the day I graduated, the next day they're going to give me a job. Wanted me to teach. I was a product of Baltimore City and I had done some things -- I wrote a little song, and had a big award in the newspaper and everything.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2704.95,2755.81"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/95","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What was the award?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2756.559,2756.726"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/96","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I wrote some song based on a hymn. And it was a contest, and when I was in high school I won the award, and it was in the Sunday paper and my picture was in the paper everywhere.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2758.63,2770.72"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/97","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e In the [Baltimore] Sun?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2772.07,2772.475"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/98","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e [Baltimore] News-American, probably, at that time. News-American was the other newspaper that we used to have that was as large as the Sun. It had a circulation as large as the Sun paper has now. It's been out of circulation a lot of years now. But if you ask people, they'll talk to you about the News-American. Baltimore News-American was a big, big newspaper. And they had a big Sunday pull out section and my picture was in it. It was me with a trumpet and [unclear] music. I didn't look at the paper to find out how much I won, but it was a cash prize and a lot of publicity. But anyway, while I was at Morgan, I wrote a lot of music for the band here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2772.503,2831.35"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/99","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e While you were attending here?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2833.24,2834.26"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/100","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, while I was attending. And at that time, we didn't have a full time band director. And so students would take a certain amount of time each week and work with the band, and the band director would come in. And at the same time, I had also landed a student working job with the chairman of the music department. So I worked in his office as a student worker. Therefore I became privy to some things like how do requisitions, who to talk to about getting this done, who to talk to about getting that done. And so when it came time to ask someone to be a band director, he asked me. Primarily because they needed someone to be instrumental, because at the time we had no instrumental music person on faculty, [no] director of bands at all. And he asked me. Well, that's quite a stir. I mean, I'm just a young guy, have really no experience, and then he wants to offer me a job in college. As I look at it, it's probably not a very wise thing to do. But nevertheless, he did it. [Laughter] But at the same time, the world of bands as I know it today was not at the level that it is now, particularly in this area. But I certainly had no experience. Twenty-three years old. No experience. Only experience I had was being in the band at Morgan and quite frankly, not a very good band.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2835.19,2934.54"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/101","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e And your professional [experience] -- that must have been nothing, no comparison.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2936.37,2941.26"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/102","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah, it was no comparison. The band here compared to my -- no, it was no comparison. I mean, I had a great time here and I worked very actively here as a student. I worked with all the effort that I could give it myself. I didn't pooh-pooh it. I worked very earnestly. I worked very hard with the program. Made rehearsals and did everything I could to maintain the quality level in the band program. None of us looked at it as nothing. But it certainly didn't have the same notoriety and meet the same level of success as I was having in the outside world. But I've always wanted to be a college band director. That was what I wanted to do. I wanted to teach music, so I had a great interest in it. And so I got hired. One year I'm in the band with these guys and the next year I'm teaching them. [Laughs]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=2943.38,3006.04"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/103","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What was that like? [crosstalk]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=3007.51,3008.02"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/104","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e It was easy. Well, when you assume a lot of leadership in a program and you have some regard about --.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=3013.72,3023.341"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458/transcript/35977/annotation/105","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"[END PART 1]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117458#t=3023.347,3023.347"}]}]},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459","type":"Canvas","label":{"en":["Media File 2 of 2 - pims0091_MilesM_02.mp3"]},"duration":1189.04163,"width":640,"height":360,"thumbnail":[{"id":"https://d9jk7wjtjpu5g.cloudfront.net/public/images/audio-default.png","type":"Image","format":"image/png"}],"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/content/1","type":"AnnotationPage","items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/content/2/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"painting","body":{"id":"https://aviary-p-peabody.s3.wasabisys.com/collection_resource_files/resource_files/000/117/459/original/pims0091_MilesM_02.mp3?1624270918","type":"Audio","format":"audio/mpeg","duration":1189.04163,"width":640,"height":360},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459","metadata":[]}]}],"annotations":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976","type":"AnnotationPage","label":{"en":["AUTO_TRINT_pims0091_MilesM_02.mp3 [Transcript]"]},"items":[{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/1","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e -- so the next year, you're just doing the same thing, so it really doesn't get in the way. But it was a great bunch of guys that were with me. It was sort of like, I'm the band director, but it was sort of band by committee. People would show up, they'd help out, they worked real hard. So it was really good. But I certainly didn't have any experience at all. It was by committee and we did a lot of good things, but it was clear that I didn't know a whole lot about what I was doing. I knew how to write music, I knew how to rehearse a band. But when it came to the marching band and what to do on the field, I had not a clue.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=2.629,53.42"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/2","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e You were really rushing headlong in it.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=54.24,54.453"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/3","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Right. As well as some of the professional administrative things that you need to do because you're now a whole different level. And lucky for me, it didn't hurt me too bad. Sooner or later, Nathan Carter -- who's chairperson now -- he became chairperson, and he hired another gentleman that worked with me, John Newson. John Newson and I were sort of cohorts; we worked simultaneously, together. John had come from a school, Southern University, where there was a band program, so he knew how band needed to look. So he was able to work out things with the field, I was able to write music. I knew about administrating a band, he knew how to charm and he was very good at making people feel good. And so it was a great team and we were a great team for about ten years. I've written a lot of music for the marching band. I still do.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=55.79,124.459"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/4","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Have you seen the band grow?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=129.56,130.82"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/5","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, gosh, yes. We've come a long ways. I mean, we're still not huge [like] Florida. We're not a 250-piece band. But the program is just -- In 1985, we had a major retrenchment here at the university. Retrenchment is a fancy word for laying people off. And I made up my mind that particular point in time that the rest of my time was going to be spent here really making sure that it's a great program, and that the [band] program was definitely going to be intertwined and really a core fabric of the university. I don't think we did that in the early years. We were just another group of people that sort of did something. But it's been my goal to make it a core part of the university. And I think that to some degree, we've been able to do that. Like tonight, we've got a group playing. When people want things to happen, they think about, Oh, how can the band be involved? When I go across campus, [people are] like, We need you to play for this, we'd like for you to play for that. In the early years, it wasn't like that at all. So that part has been significant. The fact that this building exists was because of what people felt about the band program. We certainly needed a good place to rehearse. The choir needed a good place to rehearse. It all went into the fabric of developing the facility that we have now.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=131.42,235.73"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/6","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e And this building is brand new.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=236.63,237.14"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/7","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e It is brand new. It's called the Carl Murphy Fine Arts Center. And the other place was the same -- it was named after Carl Murphy. Carl Murphy was an African American. He owned the Afro-American newspaper. The Murphy family. And Carl Murphy was on the board of trustees [unclear], and the Murphy family is a major family in the Baltimore community. So this building is named after him. And my career here has been very exciting. I've taught just about everything.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=237.5,282.05"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/8","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e What are some of the music classes you teach?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=284.39,284.534"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/9","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I don't teach as many as I used to, but right now I teach methods classes to the ed majors. I teach brass methods. But I've taught instrumental conducting, I've taught music theory, I've taught music history, I've taught African American music, I've taught electronic music and electronic music was huge here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=289.7,309.816"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/10","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e When did that start as a program?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=312.48,313.74"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/11","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I came to Morgan more in 1970 -- I guess the synthesizer came right about then -- because I went to Delaware State before I came to Morgan. We were one of the only few places in the country with a Moog 3C synthesizer with dual sequencers. And that's a big deal. We still have it now. It's just sitting right now. We still don't know exactly what we're going to do with it, but it's pre-ARP synthesizers. It was the state of the art at the time, and we had people come from all over the world to come here to play and manipulate that synthesizer. It was an incredible instrument. And I was in charge of that.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=316.7,370.58"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/12","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e As a student, I got to work with Milton Babbitt, Otto Luening, John Cage, people that would come in here to see the instrument and work with the instrument and do some things because it was truly Robert Moog's state-of-the-art instrument at the time, when we got it. And in those days, they cost a tremendous amount of money. I could be over quoting it, but I think it was somewhere around $30,000 to $40,000 for this one synthesizer. That was like unheard of. It might be 20 to 30, but it was a significant amount of money. It was like the talk of the university, the talk of the state, that we were spending this much money on this instrument.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=370.664,427.447"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/13","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Clarence Faulcon, who was the chairman at the time, is an incredible visionary. I took music history from him in 1971. Everything he talked about in music history that was going to happen in the future is all happening. Everything. From PCs to internet. The whole thing. He was talking about how we wouldn't have to go to a library, that we could dial up on the phone and get all the information we would need through our computers.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=428.85,485.14"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/14","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Were people skeptical?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=485.92,486.37"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/15","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Oh, gosh, yeah. We were like, [sarcastically] yeah, Doc. Absolutely. He was in that group of people who were that far ahead of thinking. I mean, this was '71.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=487.18,497.95"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/16","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Is he still alive?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=499.569,499.877"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/17","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e He's still alive. Incredible guy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=499.88,501.66"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/18","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Does he still work at the school?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=503.269,503.409"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/19","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e No, he retired somewhere between '90 and '95.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=503.419,514.282"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/20","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e He'd be a great guy to talk to.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=516.649,516.894"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/21","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I can get you in contact with him if you want to ever get in touch with him. He's an incredible visionary. Incredible. Half the things that we -- Our association with Peabody, our association with the Baltimore Symphony all started with Clarence. Clarence was the connector. We had a great professor here named Dominique[-René] de Lerma, who is one of the foremost authorities in Black American music. It was [Faulcon's] relationship with getting Dominique, and Paul Freeman, and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, to put together this consortium of people to develop and perform William Grant Still's \"Sahdji\" [ballet] and record it, and do some African American music for Columbia [Records]. It was just incredible. And when I talked to him then, it just blows my mind because he's talking about stuff that's -- And just from having the experience with him in his class, and he was talking about that kind of stuff, to some of the times when I listen to him now, the things he talks about. And you've got to believe him, because all this stuff is old. We were sitting around marveled with PCs and laptops, and that's old stuff to him. He's onto something. Incredible guy.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=518.03,612.29"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/22","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e But he was a big deal. Because the whole electronic music thing -- I got involved with electronic music, so that really opened my eyes. I studied composition for a little period of time when I was at Delaware State with Howard Brockington. I've always been very, very interested in writing music. Writing music is to me, the greatest thing that you can do. To put your ideas on a piece of paper and have people perform them and have people hear them and internalize and like them. The only thing that equates to that is giving birth to a child. There's nothing else. And love. Love's way up there -- being deeply in love is way up there. And when you write music and people perform it over and over and over again, and they do it well, you can't believe how incredible it is. And so I fell in love with writing music. Besides teaching, it's probably the only thing I could do. I could do it all day. If it was my job to write music all day, if I could, that's what I'd do. And the only reason I don't do it now is because I've got other work to do.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=616.2,708.17"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/23","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e So I write a lot of stuff for the band, mostly for the marching band. I'm hoping to scale back and write some other things for some of the other bands here, but mostly for the marching band. I do a lot of stuff for them. I probably have over 300 or 400 arrangements that I've done for marching band.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=709.76,731.089"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/24","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e And everyone is going to perform them?","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=733.38,734.777"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/25","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Yeah.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=738.1,738.1"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/26","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e So you talk about this Clarence Faulcon gentleman, but you yourself have been a pretty big deal to this university.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=742.036,751.06"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/27","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Well, some people say that, and that's kind of hard for me. I've always felt like one of the reasons I've stayed is because I really care about the program. All programs I know that are good have been good because somebody stayed. Michigan's good because [William] Revelli stayed. Purdue [University] and all those schools are good because Falcone [phonetic] and Al Wright stayed. Grambling [State University] is good because Conrad Hutchinson stayed. Southern University is good because Isaac Greggs stayed. Florida A\u0026M [University] was good because William Foster stayed. All the places that are really, really good, band-wise, was because somebody stayed. Somebody stayed twenty, thirty years because it takes thirty years -- that long -- to make something really happen, so it's on solid ground.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=752.17,822.08"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/28","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e And because it's a state school, things go at the whim of the state. Governors change, senators change, funding changes, politics change things. And so it has to be somebody that can weather all the storms, to pick up all the pieces, to put all the ends of the puzzle together, to try to make it so that you have a firm footing, a firm foundation. And it's just been my goal before I leave to make sure that this program has firm, firm, firm foundation, and that whoever comes behind me can stand on it and really take it to the next level where it needs to go. So all I've been doing is trying to just build all the groundwork and really put all those ends together. Make sure it has all the right equipment, make sure that it's infused in the life of the university. It's not just a band, but it's infused in the life of the university; that the community likes it, and that the politicians think it's okay, and the community thinks it's okay, and the little kids that see it think it's okay.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=822.8,894.998"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/29","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e We still got some work to do. We're getting to the point where, hopefully, in a couple of years I can hand it over to somebody that can really do what it -- There are a few things we got left to do. We go to Bermuda again this year. I got to take it overseas a little bit, so it gets a little more international exposure. We'll be recording this year. We're starting a recording project. First of all, all the things that I've written I want to get recorded. We've got a lot of students who write very well, so we're going to start recording some of their stuff. So we're going to start putting out a series of things because that'll validate and document some of the things that we've been doing here.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=896.18,950.27"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/30","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Elizabeth Schaaf would definitely be interested in picking some of that up, based on what I've talked to her about, just some of the names you've given me. Especially the stuff that you wrote. [crosstalk]","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=950.9,966.049"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/31","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e We're certainly going to do that. We're going to do arrangements, original stuff, and I collect wind music by African American composers, some stuff that's never been recorded. So I'm going to be recording a lot of that stuff, because there's there's a lot of music written by African American composers in file cabinets and drawers and places. Guys that are on the job, they've written pieces and their band would play them, and they just put them in a drawer. So I'm on a search to collect as much of it as I possibly can. I'm hoping to within the next year put together a symposium, at least of some composers of it right now, in an effort to drive that -- I'm trying to get people to look in their file cabinets. Same thing you're doing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=966.5,1020.05"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/32","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I'm going to South Carolina State -- let's look in the drawer, let's pull out some stuff. The guy who was here before you, he's written something and let's play it. Let's put it in a format. Let's play it, let's see what it sounds like, let's put it out there. Let's make it a part of what goes on. Because there's a lot of music out there and it's a missing link. It's an important task.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=1020.2,1047.65"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/33","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e I just put up a stack of things -- We had a guy here named Strider, R. Hayes Strider, who was some kind of guy. And he's written a lot of stuff and I have some of his things that we're going to be putting together. We had a guy here named John Sweeney who did some arrangements for band, and we're going to take some of his stuff, some of the things that they've done, and begin to sort of piece all this stuff together. And I'm doing transcriptions of orchestral pieces written by African American composers, because I think that one of the ways that we know about music, about other people, the reason I know Beethoven's music is because I've played it in band. The reason I know Mozart's music is because somebody transcribed it. I did two transcriptions of William Grant Still. We're going to get some other African American composers who've done orchestral stuff, and we're going to transcribe it and rearrange for band, so that we can get those composers some exposure in the band world and thereby bring it to a different -- Because we've got probably more kids playing in band than they play in orchestra. And we want to try to bring the life to some people who are obscure, who America doesn't know about, and who are great composers, and try to bring some life to do them. And that's part of what I'm doing.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=1048.099,1147.18"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/34","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eBRENDAN COSTIGAN:\u003c/strong\u003e Good work you're doing. Thank you for your time. We've gotten a lot of really good history about Baltimore, about yourself. On behalf of my whole class and on behalf of anyone who reads this transcript or hears this interview, I just want to say thanks a lot.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=1149.04,1177.17"},{"id":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459/transcript/35976/annotation/35","type":"Annotation","motivation":"transcribing","body":{"type":"TextualBody","value":"\u003cstrong\u003eMELVIN MILES:\u003c/strong\u003e Okay, thank you.","format":"text/plain"},"target":"https://streaming.peabody.jhu.edu/collections/1178/collection_resources/44155/file/117459#t=1177.65,1178.55"}]}]}]}