Short films make Coastal Georgia debut in honor of Black History Month

Feb. 20—Two short films produced decades ago by an acclaimed jazz musician, one about African American history on St. Simons Island, will make their Coastal Georgia premieres this week in Glynn County.

The Coastal Georgia Historical Society will present "The Soul of St. Simons Island and Tony Williams in Africa" at 5 p.m. on Feb. 22 at the A.W. Jones Heritage Center and at 5 p.m. on Feb. 23 at College of Coastal Georgia's Stembler Theater.

You can register for a screening online at CoastalGeorgiaHistory.org.

The films were produced by jazz musician Willie Ruff, who was a professor at the Yale University School of Music and founder of the Duke Ellington Fellowship at Yale.

Local resident Bently Long, an undergraduate at Yale, learned of the films during a screening on campus. Watching the films prompted him to write a paper on Bessie Jones and the Georgia Sea Island Singers.

"While visiting the A.W. Jones Heritage Center in search of resources, Bentley mentioned the film and offered to introduce us to the Yale Film Archive," said Mimi Rogers, the historical society's curator. "In addition to making the film available, the archive put us in touch with Willie Ruff, who graciously agreed to attend the screening."

Ruff will introduce the films and be available to answer questions, said Sherri Jones, the society's executive director.

"These films have never been shown in Coastal Georgia, and we are honored that Mr. Ruff will be attending the events and providing insight," Jones said.

For the film about St. Simons Island, Ruff visited the island in 1981 with virtuoso trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie to meet the legendary singer Jones to explore the her African roots and how they had influenced her.

Ruff said in a release from the historical society that Jones represented an experience that was "as far back as we could get where there was a traceable continuity. Her grandfather had been a slave child when he arrived in North America at 7 years old, and he brought not only memory of some games he had learned as a small child in Africa, but they kept learning more. She was just full of stories and riddles and dances and musical ring games."

In the other film, "Tony Williams in Africa," produced in 1973, Ruff and acclaimed jazz drummer Tony Williams traveled to Africa to explore connections between African music and American jazz.

Ruff's jazz connections run deep. After earning a bachelor's and master's degree from Yale, he formed a duo with pianist Dwike Mitchel in the 1950s. The duo played with greats and opened for acts like Ellington and Miles Davis. He returned to Yale in 1971 and served as a professor until 2017.