Even in today's opera world, the position of the black tenor is problematic.

Short (accompanied by Beverly Peer on bass and Dick Sheridan on drums) became an institution at the Carlyle as Feyer had been before him and remained there as a featured performer for over 35 years. Then Allen used his recording "I Happen To Like New York" for opening title of Manhattan Murder Mystery (1993). He began performing as a busker after leaving home at the age of eleven for Chicago with his mother's permission.

Johnson Andy Razaf Fats Waller Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn presenting their work not in a polemical way but as simply the obvious equal of that of their white contemporaries. He also championed African-American composers of the same period such as Eubie Blake James P.