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October 30, 2008 President Buffington, Don Glanden and organizers and presenters of the Clifford Brown

Symposium, distinguished guests, fans of Clifford Brown---and especially, Clifford

Brown’s family here today: Thank you for honoring me with the University of the Arts President’s Award for the

Advancement and Preservation of Jazz. I am grateful for your recognition of my role in

preserving Clifford Brown’s appearance on my show, “Soupy’s On!” In 1955, nobody

thought about recording television for posterity. A fateful coincidence that night had a

friend film the show to preserve some of my characters. That remains the only existing

record of “Soupy’s On!,” Detroit’s 11 pm viewing habit from 1953 to 1959. Today, I am

delighted to remember my work in Detroit television’s early days. It was a great time,

and I had a lot of fun.

As a lover of jazz, to live and work in Detroit in the Fifties was to die with the insurance

that you were going to heaven. Detroit was a jazz mecca, with some twenty clubs playing

 jazz greats day in and day out. The city enjoyed jazz, and sucked every breath of it into

its many souls. At the same time, Detroit gave back what it took, and what happy

returns we got. It was like an ocean, with a humongous wave, had thrust an avalanche of

great music upon the shores of Detroit. Detroit was a sophisticated town, a place where

everybody dressed up when they went out. And you could eat dirt cheap back then. Of

course, if you wanted food, it cost you extra. God sure loved Detroit, and I lived and

worked there.

For a jazz player coming through Detroit in the 1950’s, “Soupy’s On!” became the show

to do. Everybody performed live, and it was no surprise to tune in at 11 pm and see Duke

Ellington, Dizzy Gillespie, or Billie Holliday performing live. Charlie Parker appeared on

the show twice, and his “Yardbird Suite” was my theme song. Little Stevie Wonder was

eleven years old when he appeared on “Soupy’s On!” and he was a genius even then.

Bobby Darin was 18 when he did his first TV appearance on my show. All those great

players and performers made each evening a gala opening night. On this particular night,

Clifford Brown played with the rhythm section from my house band. Like so manymusicians, he stopped by to do a couple of songs on “Soupy’s On!” to promote a local gig

he and Max Roach were doing.

The musical genius of Clifford Brown was obvious to everyone who encountered him. The

sounds he recorded in his brief time thrill us today. “Joy Spring” remains more than a

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song title. It is the essence of listening to Clifford Brown, a joy in music that springs

forth all these years after his death. I am so grateful that we preserved Brownie’s appearance on “Soupy’s On!” Nobody could

have predicted the awful twist of fate that silenced the horn of Clifford Brown, and

nobody can truly measure the impact his loss had on the jazz world. Thank you forremembering him, and for keeping his legacy alive for future generations. 

I consider myself a success because I have been able to do what I love to do. The

nightly mixture of jazz, talk, and comedy of “Soupy’s On!” was a part of my career that

means a great deal to me. Thank you on behalf of myself and my wonderful wife, Trudy

Carson Sales. Thank you on behalf of my cast and crew from “Soupy’s On!” Thank you on

behalf of my bandleader Hal Gordon and his band, all players gifted with the flexibility

to play with the best at a moment’s notice. Thank you on behalf of the musicians who

were part of some of the best work of my life. Most of all, thank you on behalf of jazz

lovers everywhere for keeping the music alive. With gratitude, 

Soupy Sales