16 THE CAROLINA TIMES
SAT . MARCH 7.1981
Black Music
V J- -
And
Entertainers
16001920
By Lois Yvonne Whaley
Commissioned by
Amalgamated Publishers. Inc.
Representatives for 89 Community
Oriented Newspapers
45 West 45th Street, New York, 10036
Will Marion Cook
(1869-1944) achieved
distinction as a composer,
conductor, violinist and
director. Born ' in
Washington, D.C. of
graduates of Oberlin Col
lege, he demonstrated an
early talent for music. He
began with violin lessons
at the age of thirteen at his
parents' alma mater; and
was enrolled at the
Hochschule in Berlin at
sixteen. Upon his return to
the States, he continued
his study at he National
Conservatory of Music in
New York under Dvorak
and John White.
During this period in
New York, he became the
contemporary of
Burleigh, Ted Drury, and
impresario, Paul
Lawrence Dunbar, the
poet; .Bob Cole and the
Johnson Brothers all
declared him the "most
original genius among all
the Negro musicians."
He and Dunbar col
labrated on Clorindy, The
Origin Of The Cakewalk
a musical comedy
sketch that employed 26
black performers. Over
the admonitions of a white
producer who stated that
white Broadway audiences
would not pay to listen to
"Negroes singing Negro
opera," he presented the
show that he directed at
the Casino Roof Garden
on Broadway in 1898
the first all blacc musical
comedy to enjoy such
distinction to
thunderous applause.
He followed Clorindy
with Jes Lak White Folks
(1899) , The Casino Girl,
and The Policy Players
(1900) . Their mediocre
success was followed by
three smash hits: In '
Dahomey (1902), which
was a spoof on the Back-to-Africa
movement, and
enjoyed a successful Euro
pean tour, In Abyssinia
(1906) based on an
African locale with a huge
cast and live camels; and
Irt Bandana Land (1907)
F. .
i '
, "
if-
J
which , spoofed southern
life. In Dahomey on
Times Square made
theatrical history. These
early shows made the
cakewalk an international
dance craze.
The most listenable
tunes from these shows
were Who Dat Say
Chicken In Dis Crowd?
That's How The
Cakewalk's Done, Eman
cipation Day, Darktown's
Out Tonight, Swing Along
and May Be Crazy But U
Ain't No Fool. Cook
published A Collection of
Negro Songs in 1912. In
cluded are Rain Song,
Wid de Moon, Moon,
Moon and My Lady.
These and others in bis
collection have been con
certized for soloists and
choral groups.
The early shows for
which Cook composed
served to create more than
a dance craze (the
cakewalk), for it propelled
to international fame the
comedy team of Williams
and Walker, former
minstrelsvaudevillians
who met in San Francisco.
Originally, Williams'
rich baritone made him
the serious singer and
Walker the comic, but
Bert Williams' natural
comic flair created a role
reversal. (George Walker
was always well dressed
off stage or on and he
helped to c hasten-- the
demise of the burnt.cork.
After moving East, the
duo starred in several pro
ductions, but it was with
Cook's In Dahomey that
theatrical history was
made. They continued a
successful partnership un
til Walker's death in 1909.
Williams continued as a
solo act, and he perfected
his pantomiming of a card
game and dinner party,
dressed in dark clothes,
black-face and white
gloves, all under one
spotlight on a darkened
stage. (Emmett Kelly, the
white clown, would later
adopt this technique).
if i
chmen had not learned to
do.' V. ; ;..
Europe returned to the
States after the war, but
died when a ' crazed
assassin knifed him in
1919 over an imagined
slight.
Some musicologists
claim that jazz is an
outgrowth of the blues;
and, as such, did not
become a distinct form
until the twen
ties.However, Jelly Roll
Morton, according to
some, is regarded as the
first true jazz composer.
Morton was the first to
transcribe a jazz composi
tion in musical notation.
Jelly Roll Blues (1915)
was the first published .
jazz arrangement in
history.
Blues, of course, is ex
emplified in the works of
the legendary W.C. Han-,
dy. His memoirs, "Father
of the Blues", recounts his -early
experiences along
"The River" and
throughout the western,
area of the States. Mem
phis Blues, was originally
a campaign song for a
Memphis politician, and
has since become a stan
dard along with St. Louis
Woman (1914). Although,
blacks, particularly'
southern blacks, had been
singing blues for years.
Handy was the first to use
them in serious musical
form.
The music forms of the
blues and jazz have so
many schools, each with
its own adherents, that the
limitations of this,
discourse prohibit presen
ting them in a format that
would do each justice.
An interesting
outgrowth of the blacks'
' innovative approach to
music may be seen in the
evolution of the musical
instruments. The folk per
former' has often .been
responsible, ' for , new
heights in music because :
he was often unaware of
the limitations of his in
strumenthe didn't
"know" that he could not
duplicate the sound in his .
mind on his instrument.
Consequently, i? more
demands were placed
upon the instrument than
it could handle with resul
tant damage. When
repairs were indicated,
changes sometimes were
created to compensate.
Thus, new designs were
made to fulfill the need of
black performers.
Black music has in
fluenced life.
The styles, forms, con
tent and spirit of blacks
have : influenced : music
. throughout different eras.
The projection of our
music through television,
cafes and musical shows
has broadened and
democratized the tastes in
music of performers and
audiences. It has had an
impact ; on traditional
(classical) music for it has
become improvisational
and less highly organized.
Music seems to be the
major area in which
blacks have been accepted
as peers by the whites,
and, in some cases as
superior. . ,
The acceptance of black
music from the "lowest"
(field hand) to the
aristocracy has truly
democratized the people.
Eubie Blake
Eubie Blake (1883) has James Reese Europe.
Williams and Walker
certainly helped to keep
the spirit of ragtime alive.
He is the only ragtime ar
tist extant, and his
memoirs and memory
have served this medium
well.
The twentieth century
saw the rise of the dance
Dands. the nation was
gripped in a craze of danc
ing; the cakewalk,
Charleston, turkey trot,
fox-trot, one-step and the
castle walk became
popular; and their
popularity was due to the
collaboration of Vernon
and Irene Castle and
This act, plus the song
Nobody became Williams'
trademark.
Bert Williams' name
went up in lights on
Broadway when he
became the first black to
star jn an otherwise all
white cast. This occurred
.after he signed a ten-year
contract to star in the
Ziegfield Follies. In so do
ing, he became the highest
salaried black since Bland.
He made popular, Don 't
Care If You Never Come
Back, You've Got The
Right Church But The
Wrong Pew, and May Be
Crazy But I Ain't No
Fool.
Williams deplored the
double standard that
racism produced. Upon
leaving the theater he
would be sought after for
autographs, fawned over
by - white theater-goers,
and refused permission to
use the dining room or any
but the freight elevator in
his hotel. He once said
"It's no disgrace to be a
Negro, but it is very in
convenient." Williams
died in 1922.
Europe was borru, in
Mobile, Alabama, in 1881
and grew up in
Washington, D.C. He
studied violin under
Enrico Hurli, the assistant
director for the Cole and
Johnson and Williams and
' Walker companies, but his
organization of the Clef
Club, a black musicians'
union, in 1910, ended
those associations.
Numbering about 150 of
the best in the New York
area, a band could be
formed and syncopated
'dance music would never
be the same.
Europe's association
with the Castles, a white
dance team, began in
1914.
He was their director,
and the choreographer for
the fox-trof and the turkey
trot.
When World War I
began, once more blacks
were involved with their
music and Jim Europe was
called upon to form a
group to take to the Euro
pean Theater. They per
formed throughout
France to tumultous ova
tions, yet there was ex
treme puzzlement as to
how their "new sounds"
were formed. So convinc-.
ed were the French that
Europe's men used dif
ferent instruments that the
top bandsmen in France,
the French Garde Republi
caine, insisted that
Europe's group use
French instruments. Of
course, Europe's group
continued to produce their
sound! Jim explained:
"With the brass ini
struments we put in mutes
and make a whirling mo
tion with the tongue"
something that the Fren-
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