The jazz-opera Forgotten, which will be performed at Macalester next Friday night, is not the sort of musical you encounter everyday. It is a mix of jazz music, a murder mystery and a telling story from labor history.

The idea for the musical began when Steve Jones, a jazz musician living in Washington, D.C., began researching family history and came across the story of Lewis Bradford. Bradford, a Methodist minister, came to Detroit in the 1930s and began working at the Ford Rouge Plant, the largest factory in the world. When Bradford was found dead in the Rouge Plant on November 27, 1937, his death was labeled an accident. As Jones continued to investigate Bradford’s death, even requesting an autopsy report, he became convinced that Bradford’s death was not an accident at all, but a murder. At this point, Jones set out to write his jazz-opera to tell the story of Bradford’s murder at the hands of Henry Ford and his chief henchman, Harry Bennet.

But Forgotten is more than the story of just one man. With songs such as “The Battle of the Overpass” and “Ford Hunger March,” Forgotten details some of the most important events in the history of Ford workers and in labor history at large. What’s more, Steve Jones believes this story speaks to labor issues today. Having worked for a farm workers’ union for two years, he believes that farm workers now are experiencing what auto-workers were experiencing in the ’30s.

Forgotten has come to Macalester through the efforts of History Professor Peter Rachleff and Music Professor Bob Peterson who taught a class entitled “Labor’s Story Through Music” this semester. This class has been learning labor history in association with labor music (ranging from folk music to hip-hop). Most of the class members are participants in the production of Forgotten and find it a meaningful way to enhance their class experience.

Students not taking the class have also found meaning in Forgotten. One such student, Joseph Sedillo ’06, who plays Lewis Bradford, talked with me about his connection to the musical and to contemporary labor issues. Sedillo’s father is a full time union organizer for the UFCW (United Food and Commercial Workers) so Sedillo feels a personal connection to his role in the play (interestingly enough, he’s been cast as a union organizer before). Sedillo was grateful for the chance to work with Steve Jones himself, who visited Macalester and worked with the cast. He was also glad to visit a local Ford Union Hall with Rachleff and Peterson’s class. As he listened to workers discuss the unyielding pace of the assembly line which pulls them along, even at the risk of injury, he was reminded of “Keep the Wheels Rollin’,” a number from Forgotten. For everyone involved, experiences outside of actual rehearsals add richness to this labor musical.

If you’re looking for a powerful and authentic labor story told through the innovative form of jazz music, come see Forgotten on Thursday, April 29 at the United Auto Workers Hall on 2191 Ford Parkway, St. Paul at 8 p.m. or right here at Macalester on Friday, April 30 in the Janet Wallace Fine Arts Center at 8 p.m.