Collection Items

  • Biography
    Will Accooe (d. 1904) Biography. Biography. Will Accooe (18??-1904) was an important songwriter during the birth of the black musical. By 1896, Accooe was working as musical director for John Isham's Octoroons, a successful and popular quasi-minstrel troupe. At the Nashville Exposition of 1897 his "Tennessee Centennial March" was one of the biggest hits of the approximately 450 compositions by black composers played by E. C. Brown in...
  • Biography
    Alton A. Adams Biography. Biography. Alton Augustus Adams, born in the Virgin Islands in 1889, remains an iconic figure there. When the United States took over the islands in 1917, the new governor appointed Adams chief musician. The band that Adams assembled entered the U.S. Navy as a unit, making Adams the first black bandmaster to serve in the U.S. Navy. He composed a great deal of...
  • Biography
    Maurice Arnold, 1865-1937 Biography. Biography. Maurice Arnold was one of many African-American students of Antonin Dvorak during Dvorak's 1894 stay in the United States. Arnold participated in Dvorak's famous January 23, 1894, concert at the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Arnold's four "American Plantation Dances" were performed at the conservatory and garnered him a small measure of fame. He was also the author of...
  • Biography
    Eubie Blake (1887-1983) Biography. Eubie Blake was one of the most important figures in early-20th-century African-American music, and one whose longevity made him a storehouse of the history of ragtime and early jazz music and culture. Born in Baltimore in 1887, Blake began playing piano professionally when he was 16; he wrote his first composition, "Sounds of Africa," (later retitled "Charleston Rag") around the same time. His...
    • Contributor: Blake, Eubie
  • Biography
    J. Tim Brymn, 1881-1946 Biography. Biography. James Tim Brymn (1881-1946) was another talented musician and songwriter who took advantage of the rise of the black musical to expand the range of black music. Born in Kingston, North Carolina, Brymn was educated at Shaw University and the National Conservatory of Music in New York
  • Biography
    Bob Cole, 1868-1911 Biography. Biography. Robert Allen Cole was born on July 1, 1868, in Athens, Georgia, the son of former slaves. Like Will Marion Cook and James Reese Europe, he became one of the most important composers of his generation, creating a model for other African-American musicians and composers. By 1891 Cole was a member of Jack's Creoles, a black minstrel company based in Chicago. Within...
  • Biography
    Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, 1875-1912 Biography. Biography. Samuel Coleridge-Taylor was born in Croydon, England, on August 15, 1875. His father, a doctor from Sierra Leone, was forced to return to his home country around the time of Samuel's birth because he was not permitted to practice medicine in England. Samuel remained in England with his mother.
  • Biography
    Will Marion Cook (1869-1944) Biography. Biography. Biography. One of the most important figures in pre-jazz African-American music, Will Marion Cook is also one of its better known personalities. As a composer, conductor, performer, teacher, and producer, he had his hand in nearly every aspect of the black music of his time and worked with nearly every other important musician in his fields. Uncompromising and difficult to work with,...
  • Biography
    R. Nathaniel Dett (1882-1943) Biography. Robert Nathaniel Dett was born in Drummondsville, Ontario, Canada, on October 11, 1882. His ancestors were among the slaves who escaped to the North and settled in that slave-founded town. In 1901, Dett began studying piano with Oliver Willis Halstead in nearby Lockport. Three years later he was admitted to the Oberlin Conservatory, where he majored in piano and composition. In 1908, Dett...
  • Biography
    Shepard N. Edmonds, 1876-1957 Biography. Biography. Little is known of Shepard N. Edmonds, except that he published some music. He was part of a vaudeville team with J. Leubrie Hill which performed on the East Coast around 1898.
  • Biography
    James Reese Europe, 1881-1919 Biography. Biography. Eubie Blake said of James Reese Europe, "He was our benefactor and inspiration. Even more, he was the Martin Luther King of music." Europe earned this praise by being an unflagging innovator not only in his compositions and orchestrations, but in his organizational ability and leadership. One of America's greatest musicians, he progressed from strength to strength but was pointlessly cut down...
  • Biography
    J. Leubrie Hill (John Leubrie), d. 1916 Biography. Biography. John Leubrie Hill was born about 1869. Little is known of his early life, but by 1896, he was writing songs with Alex Rogers. He also acted and wrote songs for the Williams and Walker musicals in the first decade of the 20th century.
  • Biography
    Billy Johnson, 1858-1916 Biography. Biography. Billy Johnson was born in Charleston, South Carolina, in1858 and was educated in Augusta, Georgia. By 1881 he was performing in minstrel shows. In 1886 he joined Lew Johnson's minstrels and the following year moved to Hicks and Sawyer's minstrels, where he stayed for six seasons. During stints with several other minstrel troops, he began writing songs and eventually landed a job...
  • Biography
    J. Rosamond Johnson (John Rosamond), 1873-1954 Biography. Biography. John Rosamond Johnson was one of the more important figures in black music in the first part of the 20th century, usually in partnership with Bob Cole or with his brother James Weldon Johnson. While he is chiefly remembered today as the composer of the Black National Anthem, "Lift Ev'ry Voice and Sing," he had a varied career as a pianist, songwriter,...
  • Biography
    Joe Jordan Biography. Biography. Joe Jordan (1882-1971) was born in Cincinnati, raised in St. Louis, and moved to Chicago in his youth. From 1900-05, Jordan concentrated on writing piano rags, but also contributed a song to Sons of Ham (1900).
  • Biography
    John Larkins Biography. Biography. John Larkins was a minor figure in black music in the early part of the 20th century. He ran "Jolly" John Larkin's Company and employed James Reese Europe as its musical director from 1906-07. In 1910 he produced and starred in A Trip to Africa. His other credits include Royal Sam (1911) and Deep Central (1932).
  • Biography
    Sidney Perrin Biography. Biography. Sidney Perrin was a composer, actor, and producer for a few lesser-known shows both in the first heyday of black musicals (1898-1910) and its revival in the 1920s. He composed most of the music for The Colored Aristocrats (1909), including the songs "Why Moses Never Saw the Promised Land," and "Chocolate Mandy." This show starred the famous team of Flourney E. Miller...
  • Biography
    Maceo Pinkard, 1897-1962 Biography. Biography. Composer Maceo Pinkard was born in Bluefield, West Virginia, in 1897. After his "Oh, You Darktown Regimental Band" was published in 1920 by the first black-owned music publishing company, Pace and Handy, Pinkard went on to write music for the shows Bon Bon Buddy, Jr. (1922), Liza (1922), and Broadway Rastus (1925 edition). He also composed several blues songs as well as...
  • Biography
    Montague Ring Biography. Biography. Montague Ring was the musical pseudonym of Amanda Christina Elizabeth Aldridge (1866-1956). Her father, the great actor Ira Frederick Aldridge, was known as the "Black Roscius" and was famous for his portrayal of Shakespeare's Othello.
  • Biography
    Benjamin Shook Biography. Biography. A musician who was well-versed in almost all musical idioms except the blues, Benjamin Shook was a bandleader in Detroit from the end of the 19th century into the 1930s. According to Blesh and Janis, authors of They All Played Ragtime, the bands of Theodore Finney, Fred S. Stone, and Benjamin Shook "...monopolized the city's entertainment and social world to the almost...
  • Biography
    Noble Sissle, 1889-1975 Biography. Biography. Noble Sissle was born in Indianapolis on July 10, 1889. After attending Butler University, he toured with the Thomas Jubilee Singers and became a protege of James Reese Europe, the great band leader. In 1915 Sissle met James Hubert "Eubie" Blake; they formed a songwriting partnership with Blake focusing on music and Sissle on lyrics. Their first song "It's All Your Fault"...
  • Biography
    Chris Smith, 1879-1949 Biography. Biography. Chris Smith "wrote songs that pointed to black folk styles," according to music historian Eileen Southern. One of his biggest hits, "Good Morning, Carrie," was recorded as early as 1901. Both black and white musicals of the first decade of the 20th century used many of his songs as "interpolations,"or extra songs not especially connected to the plot. Some interpolations were "He's...
  • Biography
    William H. Tyers, 1876-1924 Biography. Biography. Born in 1876, William H. Tyers was a prominent musician among the new generation of black musicians and performers who burst upon the New York City scene after 1898. He arranged the songs for The Policy Players, Bert Williams and George Walker's second New York City musical.
  • Biography
    Herman Wade Biography. Biography. Very little is known of Herman Wade. He may be the same person as Herman Avery Wade (and may also have been known as Edwin E. Wilson) who worked for the Aeolian Corporation from 1904-23 as a piano roll arranger. Songs attributed him include "I Want to be Loved Like a Leading Lady" (1908), "Hindoo Honey" (1907), and "I've Got a Pain...
  • Biography
    George Walker, 1873-1911 Biography. Biography. George Walker was born in 1873 in Lawrence, Kansas. His first acting job took him to San Francisco where he met Bert Williams in 1893. As a team, their big break came in 1896 in Victor Herbert's musical Gold Bug. The musical flopped, but the songs performed by Williams and Walker were audience hits. They began playing Koster and Bial's in New...
  • Biography
    Clarence Cameron White, 1880-1960 Biography. Biography. Clarence Cameron White was born on August 22, 1880, in Clarksville, Tennessee. He spent his childhood in Oberlin, Ohio; Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Washington, D.C. White began studying violin at age eight; within four years he was studying with the accomplished violinist Will Marion Cook. He attended Oberlin Conservatory from 1896-1901 (accounts differ as to whether he graduated or left just before graduation...
  • Biography
    Horace Weston, 1825-1890 Biography. Biography. Horace Weston (1825-90), was one of the biggest stars of the minstrel stage during its heyday in the late 19th century, along with James Bland, Billy Kersands, and Sam Lucas. A freeborn black from Connecticut and a virtuoso banjo player, he started with Buckley's Serenaders in 1863, but spent most of his career with the Georgia Minstrels. In 1873 he became the...
  • Biography
    Bert Williams, 1874-1922 Biography. Biography. Egbert "Bert" Austin Williams was one of the greatest entertainers in America's history. Born in the Bahamas on November 12, 1874, he came to the United States permanently in 1885.
  • Article
    African-American Band Stocks Article. Article. There are digitized versions of published music by African-American composers from the opening decades of the 20th century on several Web sites. These compositions are found most often on general Web sites on American music. The American music industry began publishing music by African-American composers immediately following the Civil War. Whether these works are on a general music Web site or on...
  • Article
    African American Performers on Early Sound Recordings, 1892-1916 Article. Article. Finding music by African Americans on early phonograph records is more difficult than one might surmise. Black artists rarely performed on early recordings. Racial prejudice may only be a contributing factor.
  • Article
    Band Stocks Article. Article. The term "ragtime" took on new shades of meaning in the first decades of the 20th century. Originally defined as the "classic rag" style of African-American piano players in the 1880s and 1890s, it described a unique style in which the pianist "ragged" or syncopated the rhythms. Later, however, "ragtime" came to signify a world of popular entertainment that had been sterilized...