Today marks framework:afield's first 2025 show, and it features an audio piece that I've been working on for the past couple of years.
Several years ago I got my hands on a cassette tape collection from the 1980s that included spoken correspondence and interviews among my extended family members. As far as I know, these tapes hadn't been played much over the years, and while reviewing them, my main interest was in a conversation that my cousin Dave recorded in the spring of 1987 during a visit with his uncle and my grandfather, Ellis Banister.
As it happens, I also came across an old acetate disc at around the same time that these tapes came into my possession. On it, Ellis and his younger sister, Junelle, played piano and sang together, with Ellis doing most of the singing and Junelle accompaniment. Unfortunately, the disc has no liner notes and there's no information about the circumstances around its creation or when it was made; my guess would be the 1930s or 40s. Considering the medium—acetate is notoriously fragile compared to vinyl—and how long ago it was recorded, the quality of the recordings is pretty remarkable, something for which I'm very grateful.
As was the case with his siblings, Ellis was a talented musician. One of the more memorable themes that I recall from my own childhood with my grandfather was the enthusiasm with which he sit down at a piano and play and sing; he never passed up an opportunity perform for others, and his strong, tenor voice has stayed with me to this day.
Although a few of his brothers also served in the US military, Ellis spent more time in the service than they did, and in fact devoted most of his life the Army, a career which began in 1939 when at the age of 20 he joined the National Guard (as a means to help pay for college). Ellis was 22 when he and the rest of the newly minted 45th Infantry Division—nicknamed the Thunderbird Division—were called up for active duty in 1941. Beginning with their 1943 landing at Sicily, Ellis served with the 45th for the remainder of the European Theater and earned the rank of First Lieutenant by April 1945. By the time he retired from the Army in 1961 he had earned the rank of Major, a title that was used frequently and affectionately whenever members of his family and community addressed or spoke about him. After retiring, he taught elementary school for ten years, and passed away in 1988 at the age of 69, less than a year after this interview was conducted.
What Ellis saw and experienced during his time in Europe affected him deeply and profoundly, but it is worth highlighting that there are moments when, in this interview, this stands out strongly. Whether it's in the form of a passing comment (“You know, you have little things that are tragic, like the burning of those buildings, which I have regretted to this day. But it had to be done.”) or just a brief pause between beats in his telling, it’s clear that even at this late point in Ellis’ life the experiences weighed just as heavily on him as ever; the memories were every bit as complex and present for him as they had been when he originally experienced them.