By Samantha de León Miller Outdoor Theatre during a summer symphony night. All photos courtesy of Miller Outdoor Theatre. In February 1969, forty-six years after Miller Outdoor Theatre opened and a year after moving into its new facility, Houston Chronicle fine arts editor Ann Holmes questioned what was next for the outdoor amphitheater. Nestled in […]
Archive | Music
The Pam Francis Portraits
By Christine Starkman Pam Francis was born in Houston, Texas, in 1954 and passed away in 2020. She received her BFA in graphic design and photography from the College of Fine Arts at The Universityof Texas at Austin. Pam Francis Photographs will be the first retrospective exhibition organized at the Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston on the work of Pam Francis (1954 – 2020). On display September 29 to October 6, 2021, the exhibition will feature iconic artworks depicting her technical mastery of luminous lighting and […]
It Is There I Feel the Spirit: Houston’s Third Ward
By Marie-Theresa Hernández and Naomi Mitchell Carrier The objects you find in Third Ward show you everything you’re willing to see. You look at this car, and what do you see? I see time. The time before the transition. A car that is the 1960s equivalent of a Mercedes today. The Civil Rights Movement is […]
Being the Spirit of Houston: The University of Houston Marching Band
By La’Nora Jefferson The University of Houston marching band was founded in 1946. Any student could participate as long as they auditioned. Even in its early years, the marching band supported the Cougars at all football and basketball games, traveling to several away games. The band led the Frontier Fiesta parade and the first football […]
Houston’s Graffiti Culture
Graffiti. This disruptive, colorful, and self-boasting style of popular art has permeated walls for centuries, including in Houston. Modern graffiti has been around since the 1960s when gangs or “crews” created social order with preservation of writing and began spray painting names and messages on walls, as expressions of protest, violence, or leisure. Undoubtedly graffiti […]
Volume 11, Number 1
Listen to the Music Vol. 11, No. 1 (Spring 2013) Download PDF Letter from the Editor, Joe Pratt 2 Desde Conjunto to Chingo Bling: Mexican American Music and Musicians in Houston By Natalie Garza 7 Rockin’ and Boppin’: Houston’s Record Shops and Radio, 1940s to 1960s By Debbie Z. Harwell 12 Keeping Cajun […]
Letter from the Editor: Classical Music in Houston
The Houston region has a long musical tradition with diverse styles ranging from country to zydeco to blues to rock and roll to gospel–and everything in between. Our current issue captures many parts of this musical heritage, with the important exception of classical music. Indeed, it barely mentions Hank Williams and has nothing to say […]
Desde Conjunto to Chingo Bling
Feet start tapping and people are drawn to the dance floor by the upbeat polka sound of the accordion and the bajo sexto keeping rhythm. Men wearing tailored suits lead women in strappy sandals or black heels as the mid-calf hemlines of their dresses flow with every spin.
Rockin’ and Boppin’
My newlywed parents came to Houston at the end of World War II with $150 to open a record shop. A former railroad employee, my dad, Frank Zerjav, hailed from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, and had served as a master sergeant in the Air Force; my mother, Irene Freeman, created department store ads before going to work […]
Keeping Cajun Music Alive
Pe-Te Johnson was born in Grand Taso, near Eunice, Louisiana. His ancestors are direct descendants of the Acadians expelled from Nova Scotia in the mid-eighteenth century. His last name, Johnson, is the Anglo version of his Acadian sir name, Jeansonne. He served in the U.S. Air Force during the Korean War and was stationed in […]