Biography
When Len Chandler reached New York City during the 1950s, involvement with folk music formed no part of his plans. Akron, Ohio, was his birthplace in 1935, and an early fascination with music had already taken hold. "My father was in the army," Chandler recalled, "and my mother bought me a little plastic flute with eight holes in it, and I played songs on it until I ran out of range." Piano study began at age eight, followed at twelve by formal classical training. He added the oboe to participate in the high school band and performed with the Akron Symphony during his final year.
Folk material remained outside his sphere until a college instructor presented the work of Bukka White, Furry Lewis, and Leadbelly. Chandler subsequently performed folk-derived pieces arranged for classical forces with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, delivering “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” and “Wayfaring Stranger” within the “Winter’s Past” segment. He next entered an M.A. program at Columbia University while serving as a counselor at St. Barnabas House, a residence for neglected children. Counselors regularly escorted residents to folk performances in Washington Square, Greenwich Village. “I started borrowing other people’s guitars … and learning more and more chords and folk songs …,” Chandler recollected. Before long he was earning twenty-five dollars weekly at the Gaslight.
Civil Rights activism began to attract Chandler in the early 1960s. His initial topical composition appeared in 1962, and attendance at a freedom singers conference in Atlanta in 1964 strengthened his engagement. “I started submitting a lot of songs to Broadside,” Chandler said, “because what sometimes got me off the most were topical songs. I really liked the impact that would be made on people when they would hear something that you had just written right out of the news about something that happened today.” Appearances at demonstrations and rallies established his standing as a protest songwriter.
Travel through the South led to an invitation to compose material for KRLA in Los Angeles. After creating pieces addressing the Original Black Panther Party for the station, he supplied three topical songs daily to the Credibility Gap broadcast. In the early 1970s Chandler established the Alternative Chorus-Songwriters Showcase to support emerging writers, presenting concerts first at the Ash Grove and later at Lincoln Center West. “As a result of the Showcase,” wrote Kristin Baggelaar and Donald Milton in Folk Music: More Than a Song, “over three hundred writers have been signed to recording and publishing contracts, and several of the artists have had their records make it to the Top 40 chart.” Solo recording commenced in 1967 with the Columbia release To Be a Man, followed the same year by The Lovin’ People. Selections also appeared on The Best of Broadside. Len Chandler died on August 28, 2023, in San Pedro, CA, at the age of 88.
Folk material remained outside his sphere until a college instructor presented the work of Bukka White, Furry Lewis, and Leadbelly. Chandler subsequently performed folk-derived pieces arranged for classical forces with the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, delivering “Black Is the Color of My True Love’s Hair” and “Wayfaring Stranger” within the “Winter’s Past” segment. He next entered an M.A. program at Columbia University while serving as a counselor at St. Barnabas House, a residence for neglected children. Counselors regularly escorted residents to folk performances in Washington Square, Greenwich Village. “I started borrowing other people’s guitars … and learning more and more chords and folk songs …,” Chandler recollected. Before long he was earning twenty-five dollars weekly at the Gaslight.
Civil Rights activism began to attract Chandler in the early 1960s. His initial topical composition appeared in 1962, and attendance at a freedom singers conference in Atlanta in 1964 strengthened his engagement. “I started submitting a lot of songs to Broadside,” Chandler said, “because what sometimes got me off the most were topical songs. I really liked the impact that would be made on people when they would hear something that you had just written right out of the news about something that happened today.” Appearances at demonstrations and rallies established his standing as a protest songwriter.
Travel through the South led to an invitation to compose material for KRLA in Los Angeles. After creating pieces addressing the Original Black Panther Party for the station, he supplied three topical songs daily to the Credibility Gap broadcast. In the early 1970s Chandler established the Alternative Chorus-Songwriters Showcase to support emerging writers, presenting concerts first at the Ash Grove and later at Lincoln Center West. “As a result of the Showcase,” wrote Kristin Baggelaar and Donald Milton in Folk Music: More Than a Song, “over three hundred writers have been signed to recording and publishing contracts, and several of the artists have had their records make it to the Top 40 chart.” Solo recording commenced in 1967 with the Columbia release To Be a Man, followed the same year by The Lovin’ People. Selections also appeared on The Best of Broadside. Len Chandler died on August 28, 2023, in San Pedro, CA, at the age of 88.
Albums
