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Cakewalk is an historical novel destined to be a new classic not only because of its riveting murder mystery, but also because it unlocks a deeply hidden chapter of American musical, cultural and business history. In the 192-page book, debuting April 17 at Marcus Books, 1712 Fillmore Street during Jazz Appreciation Month, Templeton overcame his own skepticism to go against the grain of a century of conventional wisdom about the origins of jazz music. The book brings to light five extremely important, yet unknown figures: Sam King, Lewis Purcell, Lester Mapp, Sid leProtti and Benjamin Franklin “Reb” Spikes and their interaction with a very well known figure, Ferdinand “Jelly Roll” Morton as well as the famed vaudevillians Bert Williams and George Walker. Despite the relentless self-promotion by Morton, it is not well known that he was a registered voter and property owner in San Francisco, once described in a newspaper as “the mayor of San Francisco.” Set in the 14-year period between the 1906 San Francisco earthquake and the forced expulsion of 1,400 persons from the Barbary Coast by police and militia in 1921, the book also overlays Templeton’s own 14-year quest in search of the story told through his alter ego narrator Will. Will was also the narrator in Templeton’s first novel, Grampa Jack’s Secret, which followed his own family tree back to 15th century Mali. Going against the grain is not new for one of the most versatile writers in American literature. The second of his 23 books, Our Roots Run Deep: the Black Experience in California, Vol. 1, 1500-1900, established that the name of California was derived from a Spanish epic about an island solely populated by black women warriors. To back it up, he created an exhibition with every work of public art depicting Queen Califia, the protagonist of the saga, across the state, including murals in the State Capitol and Mark Hopkins Hotel. Cakewalk is derived from research Templeton conducted for the exhibitions JazzGenesis: Benjamin Franklin “Reb” Spikes and the Central Avenue Jazz Scene, 1919-1945 at the William Grant Still Arts Center in Los Angeles in 2006; and JazzGenesis: San Francisco and the Birth of Jazz, which has been at the Visitor Information Center of the San Francisco Convention and Visitors Bureau since August 2008. The fundamental premise, that jazz emerged as the result of the work of classically-trained musicians underwritten by former operatives of the Underground Railroad in the 1860s, is a paradigm shift from the prevailing view. However, it is supported by several decades of scholarly journal articles pointing to the role of West Coast musicians, and the formative role of the San Francisco clubs in the development of “animal dances,” a driving force for the spread of the music. His research led him to Floyd Levin, author of a 1951 British magazine article on Spikes. At Levin’s home, Templeton saw a handwritten wax master of the first jazz record produced by a black company, by Spikes’ Sunshine Records in 1921. Before going to Los Angeles, Spikes had been part of the Sid leProtti So Diff’rent Orchestra in San Francisco, the house band for Purcell’s So Diff’rent nightclub. At the opening of JazzGenesis in Los Angeles, Spikes’ son and granddaughter showed up. Templeton was ultimately able to find the descendents of three of the six members of the band as well as the grandson of Lt. Col. Walter Loving, a pioneer in both military music and jazz who got his start at the Presidio in the 1890s. The historian is now developing National Register of Historic Sites submissions for the eight black-owned club buildings still standing from the 1906-1907 era, based on his research. Using the murder mystery format is the latest innovative approach Templeton has used to popularize California’s African-American history. He was commissioned by the San Francisco Housing Development Corp. to create a spoken word choreopoem “More Mo’ Than You Know” to describe the heritage of the Fillmore district in 2007 and wrote a one-woman play Queen Calafia: Ruler of California in 2008 performed in Los Angeles and San Francisco. In 2009, he produced the documentary Freedom Riders of the Cutting Edge to open the Soul of Technology exhibition in the Palo Alto City Hall. Last November, he launched San Francisco Black Heritage Tours to provide daily tours of the city’s African-American attractions and heritage sites. The Cakewalk debut will begin with a walking tour of Pacific Street area, followed by brunch at the Farmer Brown restaurant and the book signing at Marcus Books, the nation’s oldest black-owned bookstore celebrating its 50th anniversary. He wrote all 50,000 words of Cakewalk during November as a winner in the National Novel Writing Month promotion, taking 22 days to compete the work. An honors graduate of the John H. Johnson School of Communications at Howard University, Templeton’s recent writing credits range from the N.Y. Society of Securities Analysts newsletter to Today’s Engineer to the Oxford Encyclopedia of African-American History. ASPIRE SAN FRANCISCO is an imprint of San Francisco-based eAccess Corp., where founder Templeton is president and executive editor.
The work of preserving California's rich African-American heritage is critical to the quality of life for the Golden State's black citizens.
Join us for the debut of Cakewalk on Saturday, April 17 as we review eight buildings being nominated for the National Register of Historic Sites and discuss other properties which are part of a multi-property submission to the State Historical Resources Commission.
Tour begins at 10 a.m. at
Cyril Magnin Plaza.