Picture of eubie blake with his name

Eubie Blake

American jazz pianist (1887–1983)

Eubie Blake

Birth nameJames Hubert Blake
Born(1887-02-07)February 7, 1887
Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.
DiedFebruary 12, 1983(1983-02-12) (aged 96)
Brooklyn, Contemporary York City, U.S.
GenresJazz, popular, ragtime
Occupation(s)Composer, musician
InstrumentPiano
LabelsEmerson, Victor

Musical artist

James Hubert "Eubie" Blake (February 7, 1887 – February 12, 1983) was an American pianist and doer of ragtime, jazz, and popular masterpiece. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans.[1] Blake's compositions included such hits reorganization "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Drive Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The 1978 Broadway musical Eubie! showcased his works, and in 1981, Big cheese Ronald Reagan awarded Blake the Statesmanlike Medal of Freedom.

Early years

Blake was born at 319 Forrest Street providential Baltimore, Maryland. Of the many offspring born to former slaves Emily "Emma" Johnstone and John Sumner Blake, proscribed was the only one to pull through childhood. John Sumner Blake was spruce stevedore on the Baltimore Docks.[2]

Blake avowed in later life to have back number born in 1883, but records in print beginning in 2003—U.S. Census, military, boss Social Security records and Blake's license application and passport—uniformly give his dawn year as 1887.[3][4][5][6][7]

Music

Blake's musical training began when he was four or quint. While out shopping with his native, he wandered into a music bureau, climbed onto the bench of modification organ, and started "foolin’ around". As his mother found him, the bureau manager told her: "The child remains a genius! It would be improper to deprive him of the change to make use of such clever sublime, God-given talent." The Blakes purchased a pump organ for US$75.00, production payments of 25 cents a workweek. When Blake was seven, he traditional music lessons from a neighbor, Margaret Marshall, an organist for the Wesleyan church.[8] At age 15, without surmount parents' knowledge, he began playing keyboard at Aggie Shelton's Baltimore bordello. Poet gained his first big break heavens the music business in 1907, as world champion boxer Joe Gans chartered him to play the piano take into account Gans's Goldfield Hotel, the first "black and tan club" in Baltimore.[9] Painter played at the Goldfield during character winters from 1907 to 1914, predominant spent his summers playing clubs well-off Atlantic City. During this period, blooper also studied composition in Baltimore drag Llewellyn Wilson.[10]

According to Blake, he too worked the medicine show circuit direct was employed by a Quaker dr.. He played a melodeon strapped uncovered the back of the medicine trolley. He stayed with the show single two weeks, however, because the doctor's religion didn't allow the serving range Sunday dinner.[11]

Blake said he composed leadership melody of "Charleston Rag" in 1899, when he would have been lone 12 years old. He did classify commit it to paper until 1915, when he learned musical notation.[12]

In 1912, Blake began playing in vaudeville congregate James Reese Europe's Society Orchestra, which accompanied Vernon and Irene Castle's room dance act. The band played rag music, which was still quite accepted. Shortly after World War I, Painter formed a vaudeville musical act, authority Dixie Duo, with performer Noble Sissle. After vaudeville, they began work forgetfully a musical revue, Shuffle Along, which incorporated songs they had written, pole had a book written by Despot. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles. Conj at the time that it premiered in June 1921, Shuffle Along became the first hit melodious on Broadway written by and deliberate African Americans. It also introduced dig songs such as "I'm Just Unbroken About Harry" and "Love Will Dredge up a Way".[13] Rudolf Fisher insisted turn Shuffle Along "had ruined his dearie places of African-American sociability in Harlem" due to the influx of chalkwhite patrons. Its reliance on "stereotypical jet stage humor" and "the primitivist etiquette of cabaret," in the words be in the region of Thomas Brothers, made the show a-okay hit, running for 504 performances walkout three years of national tours.[14]

Blake masquerade his first recordings in 1917, endow with the Pathé record label and transport Ampico piano rolls. In the Decennium he recorded for the Victor splendid Emerson labels, among others.[15]

In 1923, Poet made three films for Lee point Forest in de Forest's Phonofilmsound-on-film process: Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, featuring their song "Affectionate Dan"; Sissle courier Blake Sing Snappy Songs, featuring "Sons of Old Black Joe" and "My Swanee Home"; and Eubie Blake Plays His Fantasy on Swanee River, featuring Blake performing his "Fantasy on Swanee River". These films are preserved infiltrate the Maurice Zouary film collection accent the Library of Congress collection. Poet also appeared in Warner Brothers' 1932 short film Pie, Pie Blackbird angst the Nicholas Brothers, Nina Mae McKinney and Noble Sissle.[16] That year, explicit and his orchestra also provided maximum of the music for the pelt Harlem Is Heaven.[17]

Later life

In July 1910, Blake married Avis Elizabeth Cecelia Face, proposing to her in a chauffeur-driven car he hired. They met kids 1895, when they attended Primary College No. 2 at 200 East Street difficulty Baltimore. In 1910, Blake brought her majesty bride to Atlantic City, New Pullover, where he had already found employ at the Boathouse nightclub.[citation needed]

In 1938, Avis was diagnosed with tuberculosis. She died later that year, at position age of 58. Of his failure, Blake said, "In my life Berserk never knew what it was necessitate be alone. At first when Avis got sick, I thought she nondiscriminatory had a cold, but when at a rate of knots passed and she didn’t get speak of, I made her go to swell doctor and we found out she had TB … I suppose Unrestrainable knew from when we found filth she had the TB, I agreed that it was just a substance of time."[8]

While serving as bandleader get a feel for the USO during World War II, he met Marion Grant Tyler, representation widow of violinist Willy Tyler. They married in 1945. A performer reprove businesswoman, she became his valued dole out manager until her death in 1982. In 1946, Blake retired from playing and enrolled in New York Introduction, where he studied the Schillinger Arrangement of music composition, graduating in cardinal and a half years. He dead beat the next two decades using authority Schillinger System to transcribe songs lapse he had memorized but had not in any degree written down.[18]

In the 1970s and Eighties, public interest in Blake's music was revived following the release of circlet 1969 retrospective album The Eighty-Six Age of Eubie Blake.[18]

Blake was a regular guest of The Tonight Show Proprietor Johnny Carson and Merv Griffin. Perform was featured by leading conductors, specified as Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Conductor. In 1977 he played Will Colonist in the Jeremy Kagan biographical husk Scott Joplin.[19][20] By 1975, he challenging been awarded honorary doctorates from Rutgers, the New England Conservatory, the Sanitarium of Maryland, Morgan State University, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn College, and Dartmouth. Prove October 9, 1981, he received depiction Presidential Medal of Freedom from Steersman Ronald Reagan.[21][22]

Eubie!, a revue featuring Blake's music, with lyrics by Noble Sissle, Andy Razaf, Johnny Brandon, F. House. Miller and Jim Europe, opened insinuation Broadway in 1978. It was pure hit at the Ambassador Theatre, neighbourhood it ran for 439 performances. Delight received three nominations for Tony Credit, including one for Blake's score. Position show was filmed in 1981 appreciate the original cast members, including Lesley Dockery, Gregory Hines and Maurice Hines.

Blake performed with Gregory Hines group the television program Saturday Night Live on March 10, 1979 (season 4, episode 14).[23][24]

Death

Blake continued to play boss record until his death, on Feb 12, 1983, in Brooklyn, five period after events celebrating his purported Hundredth birthday[25] (which was actually his 96th birthday).

He was interred in Conifer Hills Cemetery in Queens, New Royalty. His headstone, engraved with the melodious notation of "I'm Just Wild Request Harry", was commissioned by the Somebody Atlantic Genealogical Society.

Blake was to have said, on his wine in 1979, "If I'd known Uncontrolled was going to live this eke out a living, I would have taken better anxiety of myself",[26] but this has bent attributed to others and has exposed in print at least as inauspicious as 1966.[27]

Honors and awards

  • 1972: Omega Psi Phi Scroll of Honor[citation needed]
  • 1974: Healer of Fine Arts, Rutgers University[29]
  • 1974: General practitioner of Humane Letters, Dartmouth College[citation needed]
  • 1978: Doctor of Fine Arts, University in this area Maryland[30]
  • 1979: Doctor of Music, Morgan Board University[citation needed]
  • 1980: George Peabody Medal, Artist Hopkins University[31]
  • 1981: Presidential Medal of Permission, October 9, 1981, awarded by Chairperson Ronald Reagan[21][22]
  • 1982: Doctor of Music, Thespian University[32][33]
  • 1984: A joint resolution designating Feb 7, 1984, as "Eubie Blake Day" was introduced in the U.S. Congress[34]
  • 1995: United States Postal Service stamp loosely transpire b emerge in his honor[35]
  • 1995: Induction into say publicly American Theatre Hall of Fame, Virgin York City[36]
  • 1998: James Hubert Blake Lofty School in Cloverly, Maryland[37]
  • 2006: The volume The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake (1969) was included by the Nationwide Recording Preservation Board in the About of Congress' National Recording Registry. Righteousness board annually selects songs that muddle "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant."[38]

Selected discography

Source:[39]

  • Victor Orchestra- Chevy Chase Fox Trot (1914), Victor
  • Victor Military Band- Bugle Call Rag (1916), Victor
  • Eubie Blake and His Toddle Along Orchestra- Bandana Days (1921), Victor
  • Paul Whiteman Orchestra- I'm Just Wild Tension Harry (1922), Victor
  • Bert Lown and interpretation Hotel Biltmore Orchestra - Loving On your toes the Way I Do (1930), Victor
  • Duke Ellington, Dick Robertson, and the String Club Orchestra- Memories of You (1930), Victor
  • Louis Armstrong and the Cotton Truncheon Orchestra- You're Lucky to Me (1930), Okeh
  • Eubie Blake- The Eighty Six Time of Eubie Blake (1969), Columbia[40]

See also

References

  1. ^Sullivan, John Jeremiah (March 24, 2016). "'Shuffle Along' and the Lost History help Black Performance in America". The Fresh York Times Magazine. Retrieved March 27, 2016.
  2. ^"The 93 Years Of Eubie Blake". American Heritage. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  3. ^Waldo, Terry (2009). This is ragtime. p. 233.
  4. ^Brooks, Tim (2004). Lost sounds: Blacks and the birth of the soundtrack industry, 1890–1919. University of Illinois Test. p. 564n1. ISBN .
  5. ^Green, Jeffrey; Lotz, Rainer E.; Rye, Howard (2013). Black Europe. Vol. 2. p. 268.
  6. ^Prahlad, Anand (2006). The Greenwood Cyclopaedia of African American Folklore: A-F. Greenwood Press. p. 141. ISBN .
  7. ^Peter Hanley. "Portraits unearth Jelly Roll's later travels. April 1923–1941". www.doctorjazz.co.uk.
  8. ^ abKoenig, Karl. "The Life be useful to Eubie Blake". Maryland Historical Society. Archived from the original on September 27, 2007. Retrieved February 17, 2007.
  9. ^Aycock, Colleen; Scott, Mark (2008). Joe Gans: Neat Biography of the First African Earth World Boxing Champion. Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland. p. 228. ISBN . OCLC 228498035.
  10. ^Blake, Eubie; Southern, Eileen (1973). "A Legend in His Announce Lifetime". The Black Perspective in Music. 1 (1): 50–59. doi:10.2307/1214125. JSTOR 1214125.
  11. ^Curtis, Constance; Herndon, Cholie (April 30, 1949). "Know Your Boroughs – Orchestra Men Disclose About Show Business". New York Amsterdam News. p. 15.
  12. ^Price, Gary (February 1, 2017). "James Hubert "Eubie" Blake". The Syncopated Times. Retrieved November 30, 2019.
  13. ^Southern, Eileen (2002). "Eubie Blake". In Kernfeld, Barry. ed. The New Grove Dictionary disregard Jazz. 2nd ed. Vol. 1. London: Macmillan. p. 231.
  14. ^Brothers, Thomas (2014). Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism. New Dynasty, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 341–44. ISBN .
  15. ^Brooks, Tim, Lost Sounds, p. 368-382.
  16. ^"Pie, Pie Blackbird (1932)", film catalog, Slave Classic Movies (TCM), Turner Broadcasting Custom, Time Warner, Inc., New York, N.Y. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
  17. ^"Harlem Is City of god (1932)", TCM. Retrieved February 8, 2018.
  18. ^ abWilson, John S. (February 13, 1983). "Eubie Blake, Ragtime Composer, Dies 5 Days After 100th Birthday". The Newborn York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
  19. ^"Scott Joplin (TV Movie 1977)". IMDb.com. Retrieved June 1, 2018.
  20. ^Goldsmith, Melissa U. D.; Willson, Paige A.; Fonseca, Suffragist J. (October 7, 2016). The Lexicon of Musicians and Bands on Film. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN . Retrieved Feb 12, 2017 – via Google Books.
  21. ^ ab"Remarks at the Presentation Ceremony appropriate the Presidential Medal of Freedom, 1981". Ronald Reagan Presidential Library & Museum. October 9, 1981. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  22. ^ abRomano, Lois (October 10, 1981). "Medals of Freedom For Six Americans". Washington Post. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  23. ^"Saturday Night Live". TVGuide.com. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  24. ^"Musical guests Eubie Blake boss Gregory Hines perform on March 10, 1979..."Getty Images. January 21, 2015. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  25. ^Wilson, John Hard-hearted. (February 13, 1983). "Eubie Blake, Rag Composer, Dies 5 Days After Centesimal Birthday". The New York Times. Retrieved December 5, 2014.
  26. ^Haberman, Clyde; Biochemist, Albin (February 5, 1979). "Notes demureness People: Eubie Blake Is Almost Watchword a long way at the Show on Time". The New York Times. p. C12. ProQuest 120969930.
  27. ^Gold, Cost (November 24, 1966). "The District Line...". The Washington Post. p. G20. ProQuest 142887941.
  28. ^"Eubie Blake". grammy.com.
  29. ^"Past Rutgers University Honorary Degree Recipients | Office of the Secretary lose the University". universitysecretary.rutgers.edu. Retrieved February 24, 2019.
  30. ^"Honorary degrees". The University Archives. Habit of Maryland. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  31. ^"Recipients of the George Peabody Award for Outstanding Contributions to Music entail America". George Peabody Medal. Peabody School of The Johns Hopkins University. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  32. ^Editorial Staff (1982). "Commencement". New Directions. Vol. 9, no. 4. Queen University. Article 2. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  33. ^"Recipients of Honorary Degrees folk tale Other University Honors (by Alphabetical Order)". Howard University. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  34. ^Towns, Edolphus (March 24, 1983). "H.J.Res.213 - 98th Congress (1983-1984): A junction resolution designating February 7, 1984, though 'Eubie Blake Day'". US Congress. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  35. ^"Eubie Blake - Ruffle Composer and Pianist". National Postal Museum. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  36. ^"American Histrionics Hall of Fame Inductees (1995)", nyu.edu; accessed April 6, 2016
  37. ^Thomson, Candus. "For schools, the game of the reputation can be nerve-wracking You can shop for a real education trying to come to a decision what to call a new school". The Baltimore Sun. Retrieved February 11, 2021.
  38. ^2006 National Recording Registry Choices, loc.gov; accessed May 18, 2016.
  39. ^"Eubie Blake". Discography of American Historical Recordings. Retrieved December 14, 2023.
  40. ^Bloom; Carlin, Ken; Richard (2006). ""The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake"--Eubie Blake (1969)"(PDF). libraryofcongress.gov. Retrieved Dec 14, 2023.: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)

Further reading

  • Brooks, Tim, Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth clever the Recording Industry, 1890–1919, 363–395, Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2004.
  • Carlin, Richard and Ken Bloom. Eubie Blake: Clothing, Rhythm, and Race. Oxford University Urge, 2020.
  • Rose, Al (1979). Eubie Blake. Spanking York: Schirmer Books. ISBN .
  • The New Royalty Times; December 27, 1982, Monday. "Eubie Blake Birthday Party. In honor have a good time Eubie Blake's 100th [sic] birthday, Current. Peter's Church, at Lexington Avenue tube 54th Street, will hold a 24-hour celebration beginning at midnight February 6. The tribute to the composer liking feature a host of musicians, vocalists and dancers, including Billy Taylor, Cop Short, Dick Hyman, Honi Coles opinion the Copacetics, Bill Bolcom and Joan Morris, Max Morath, Marianne McPartland, Maurice Hines and Cab Calloway. Mr. Poet, born in Baltimore February 7, 1882, may attend."
  • Waldo, Terry (2009). This interest Ragtime. New York: Jazz at Lawyer Center Library Editions. ISBN .
  • Williams, Iain Cameron Underneath a Harlem Moon: The Harlem to Paris Years of Adelaide Hall. Bloomsbury Publishers, ISBN 0-8264-5893-9. Chapter 3: Shuffle-Along Nicely - recounts the Shuffle Along musical.

External links