Interview here

Marguerite de Bourgoing’s documentary could be called “In Search of the Lost Maestro.” The French filmmaker was living in Los Angeles in 2017 when she was hired to edit a video for a church. The soundtrack recounted the story of pioneers of African American music. One excerpt caught her attention: the name of the composer, with its French resonance, Edmond Dédé, and the title “Mon pauvre cœur.” “The fact that he lived in Bordeaux for thirty years definitely hooked me,” she explained during her visit to Bordeaux in July.

She would later learn that “Mon pauvre cœur” is the title of the earliest known melody composed by a Black Creole composer (1852). Around the same time, Sally McKee’s biography of Edmond Dédé was published: although studied as a significant figure in the history of African American music in the United States, the composer remains almost unknown in France, and especially in Bordeaux, the city where he spent most of his professional life.

Born in 1827 in slaveholding Louisiana, Edmond Dédé belonged to a French-speaking “free” family of color. His father, a clarinetist, encouraged young Edmond, who excelled on the violin. A victim of discrimination, Edmond Dédé went to Mexico for MUSIC until the Jim Crow laws, which enforced racial segregation, forced him to leave the United States, like many other Black artists of the time. He landed in France, where no legal restrictions were tied to skin color, and attended classes at the Paris Conservatory as an auditor — a dream that was out of reach for a Black man in the United States at that time. He then conducted the orchestra at the theater in Bourges, before settling in Bordeaux, where he would remain for thirty years, as accompanist and composer at the Grand Théâtre de Bordeaux, at the Alcazar theater on the right bank (later transformed into a dance hall and then apartments), and at the Folies Bordelaises (today the Fnac on rue Sainte-Catherine).

At the music-hall Alcazar, he was mentored by Martial Léglise, known as Bazas, a colorful impresario famous for his tirades against the theaters of Bordeaux. A virtuoso violinist, Edmond Dédé infused his Bordeaux orchestras with accents drawn from his mixed-race heritage. So much so that, by the late 1880s, “there was not a single Bordelais who did not know Edmond Dédé and had not listened to him and applauded him at least once,” reported L’Artiste de Bordeaux.

Long considered lost, the score of his four-act opera Morgiane ou le sultan d’Ispahan was rediscovered in 2011 in the collections of Harvard University Library in Cambridge. The opera was performed for the first time in January 2025, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, where Edmond Dédé had been baptized nearly two centuries earlier. Morgiane ou le sultan d’Ispahan carries historical, cultural, and social significance that goes far beyond its score.

“He straddles both the world of high art music and the world of café-concerts,” explains Marguerite de Bourgoing. His work blends the European classical tradition he learned in Paris with his Creole and American roots. Long considered lost, the score of his four-act opera Morgiane ou le sultan d’Ispahan was rediscovered in 2011 in the collections of Harvard University Library in Cambridge. The opera was performed for the first time in January 2025, at St. Louis Cathedral in New Orleans, where Edmond Dédé had been baptized nearly two centuries earlier. Morgiane ou le sultan d’Ispahan carries historical, cultural, and social significance that goes far beyond its score.

“If the score was rediscovered, it’s because Edmond Dédé quickly understood the importance of publishing his music,” notes Marguerite de Bourgoing. And with good reason: in thirty years, he composed no fewer than 150 dances, 95 songs (including “Cora la Bordelaise”), ballets, and operettas.

A belated recognition

This year, Marguerite de Bourgoing is in residence at the Villa Albertine in New Orleans for her research on Edmond Dédé. Her goal: to bring recognition to the composer. “The only reason the Alcazar of Bordeaux is known on the other side of the Atlantic is because of Edmond Dédé. So why is he so little known here? The Washington Post, The New Yorker, CBS — in the United States, all the major media have covered the rediscovery of his opera.”

In 2027, it will be the bicentennial of Edmond Dédé’s birth; he died in 1901 in Paris. Marguerite de Bourgoing’s documentary will be ready by then.

For more info: https://producingdopeness.com/edmond-dede

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First, let me state all the ways I LOVE TUBI.

It has a fantastic library of all sorts including older films. Here is a short list of music films I was thrilled to recently watch on Tubi for some of my research:

• New Orleans (1947). The only scripted film that features Billie Holiday with Louis Armstrong in bonus and many others.

• Searching for Sugar Man (2012). No presentation needed.

• Bayou Maharajah (2013) - a doc about pianist genius James Booker

• Beat Street (1984)- seminal early Hip-Hop film produced by Harry Belafonte to try and change the negative narrative around the culture

And here is a little perspective on Tubi by Vince Staples in his recent Rolling Stone interview:

I don’t think that they’re ever going to give us a fair shot, but I don’t think that that means we don’t matter. They made such a big deal out of the people making those films off iPhones like Tangerine and whatnot, and that’s amazing. That should show us that we can also do that same thing no matter how small our voice is, no matter what we create, it matters. People get a lot of flack for making Tubi movies that are “low budget,” but I’m happy people feel that they have somewhere they can put their ideas, and people will watch and digest them, and they’re able to express themselves. It’s important for us to just — no matter what they throw our way — continue to create because our stories and our voices matter at every scale."

And an older article by Philip Lewis also stressing Tubi’s influence on black filmmaking:

The independent Black movies on Tubi are attracting an often-ignored segment of movie watchers—those who enjoy the low-to-mid-budget television film that was ubiquitous years ago. But now, rather than spend money on a reboot or a blockbuster production, they can watch an indie movie on Tubi in the comfort of their home. 

“To anyone that is not a fan of independent film, or anyone that wants to get involved in independent film—give it a try,” Grant insisted. “Tubi gives you an opportunity at no charge to give those films a try. And anyone that's interested in doing it, starting on the independent level is a great place to start.”

“You won’t be disappointed and you might be surprised.”

Hence my excitement that LA STEREO TV music documentary It’s Yours produced over ten years, chronicling in real time the rise of Hip-Hop on social media, is now on TUBI! Give it a play

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https://tubitv.com/movies/100041893/it-s-yours-hip-hop-the-internet

IT'S YOURS - Hip-Hop & the Internet chronicles how young artists used the internet to reshape the music industry. Filmed over a decade, it follows pioneers like Wiz Khalifa, Lil B, and Odd Future, who built careers on platforms like Twitter, YouTube and MySpace. The film explores this evolving landscape, including lyrical controversies and the rise of social justice movements.

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Until this day, nearly 15 years after the social media platform’s demise, what you hear on the radio has been shaped by it. Artists would meet on that platform and connect, based on shared music tastes. Fans would gravitate towards them, knowing they were helping to build an indie scene away from the mainstream. There would be no Nicki Minaj or Drake as we know them, some of your favorite collaborations might have never happened (when I interviewed HitBoy in 2011, the beatmaker behind “N****s in Paris, he revealed how his trajectory changed thanks to MySpace) and its influence is still visible today (we see you Instagram). And of course… the Internet, the group who famously named themselves that way because of how all the Odd Future members met on MySpace : Odd Future the same who spearheaded the DIY digital revolution and were a catalyst for many artists to follow (like Billie Eilish and Finneas).

Even the name was far superior to what we have now (MySpace is The Place…), Tom was far cooler than what the Zuck will ever be, and the ability its customers had to customize the site was pretty unique too. But more importantly, it catered first and foremost to the artist in each one of us, in other words some of the best one has to offer today. Looking back, more than social media, MySpace anticipated this big wave of content creation we have been riding since. It fell off when it tried to do everything, everywhere, all at once, moving away from its DNA (don’t do that!). Its influence still needs to be studied properly, in the meantime we can only mourn when social media was at its finest but rejoice for the many careers it instigated. RIP indeed *.

* Rest in Peace also to the lovely Roslynn Cobarrubias, featured in this clip, who passed away in 2023 and was instrumental in bringing Hip-Hop to the fold and make MySpace the iconic platform as we know it.

🎬 #HipHopHistory #hiphopandtheinternet #itsyours #gangstaboo #musicdocumentary

VIMEO INT VERSION W/ ENGLISH & FRENCH CAPTIONS

USA

APPLE TV

AMAZON

VUDU

WATCH ON YOUTUBE/ GOOGLE PLAY

FRANCE

CANAL + VOD

LA MEDIATHEQUE CVS

* From May 1st

CREDITS

Director/Producer/ Writer: Marguerite de Bourgoing

USA Voice Over: Jack Davey French Voice Over: Aline Afanoukoé

Producers: Alexandre Perrier, Val the Vandle, Rebecca Haithcoat, Taj Frazier, Nicolas Manuel

Producers for ARTE TV: Marie-Hélène Girod, Julie Gainet

Associate Producers: Jasmin Ratansi, Patricia Patton, Moses Lujan, Philippe de Bourgoing

Photography: Kasey Stokes, Ayla "Brass" Montgomery, Laurent Lawson, Brick Stowell, Julian Berman, Dream Panther,

Director of Photography: Marguerite de Bourgoing, Bradden Duemler, Laurent Lawson

Editors: Eric Pritchard, Helene Pasquet, Emilie Orsini, Jim Kelly, Marguerite de Bourgoing

Consulting Producers: J. Kevin Swain, Anthony Maddox

Music: Edith Fambuena, Toby Wincorn, Vann Clayton, Jansport J, Go Dreamer, Nick Pratt, J Bizness, Gautier Vizioz, Surku N'chten

Music supervisor: Jeff Gray

Post-production: Francois Nabos

Graphics: Cyril Durignon

Sound Mix: Clement Chauvelle, Fox Fagan

Color grading: Reda Bebar

Production: LA STEREO, KIDAM, ARTE TV