Eubie Blake in Berlin in 1972 playing several of his most famous compositions,
Charleston Rag, I'm Just Wild About Harry and Memories of You.
Among the three individuals selected by the Veterans Committee for DownBeat's Hall of Fame was James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1887 - February 12, 1983), known as Eubie Blake. Blake was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans. Among the compositions he is still remembered for are "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie!, which opened on Broadway in 1978, featured his works. Blake was born in Baltimore of two former slaves, and the only one of eight children to survive infancy. He worked first in a bordello, then a Black and Tan Club and then on a medicine show circuit. Blake said he composed the melody of the "Charleston Rag" in 1899, when he would have been only 12 years old, but it was not committed to paper, however, until 1915, when he learned to write musical notation. In 1912, Blake began playing in vaudeville with James Reese Europe's Society Orchestra, which accompanied Vernon and Irene Castle's ballroom dance act. After World War 1, Blake first joined with Noble Sissle to work as a vaudeville act, and then they worked on Shuffle Along. The Blake-Sissle partnership ended in 1925,
but Blake continued to evolve. In 1930, he collaborated with Andy Razaf on Blackbirds,
which introduced, among other numbers,
“Memories Of You” and “You’re Lucky To Me.”
Louis Armstrong's classic recording of You're Lucky To Me.
After decline in interest in ragtime, his career went on an upswing in the 1950s when interest in ragtime revived and Blake, one of its last surviving artists, found himself launching yet another career as ragtime artist, music historian, and educator and recording with 20th Century Records and Columbia Records. Additionally another ragtime revival engendered by the 1973
film The Sting—along with the 1978 musical Eubie!—helped to elevate Blake’s profile
during his final decade. Through the last decades of his life lectured and gave interviews at major colleges and universities all over the world, and appeared as a performer and clinician at top jazz and rag festivals as well as appearing on television as a guest on the Tonight Show with John Carson and Merv Griffin, and was featured with orchestral performances conducted by Leonard Bernstein and Arthur Fiedler.
A 1932 film of Eubie Blake and His Orchestra that includes the Nicholas Brothers
Terry Waldo, author of This is Ragtime, said of Blake "He lived long enough to convey to later generations all of his knowl- edge about the whole history of American music, and the ways in which black music was entwined within it.” Furthermore, in the DownBeat article accompanying his selection to the Hall of Fame, Ted Panken observes that "younger musicians imbued
with an “all jazz is modern” aesthetic, such as
vocalist Cécile McLorin Salvant and pianist
Ehud Asherie, continue to find inspiration in
his works. It is quite a legacy. The material in this appreciation is taken from Blake's Wikipedia entry and Ted Panken's article in the August 2017 DownBeat. We close with a clip of Eubie Blake with John Denver as Eubie plays and they announce the Best New Artist award on the 1979 Grammy Awards TV show.
Veteran ragtime pianist Johnny Maddox may have had a million selling instrumental with the Crazy Otto Rag over a half century ago, but he has remained true to the music, still performing classic ragtime as well as the ragtime inspired show and parlor numbers of the period and blues of the first few decades of the twentieth century. He also has compiled one of the great collections of sheet music, early recordings and the like of this music. Having recorded numerous CDs, he still keeps his music in catalog on his Crazy Otto label which have their charms. Three distinctly different releases give an indication of the breadth of his catalog and the music that is of a long bygone time.
Songs That Made the Flappers Cry collects a dozen selections with Maddox’s very stately parlor-style piano accompanied by an unidentified violin player on a selection of songs the most familiar of which is My Blue Heaven. A number of these performances are medleys such as the opening They Needed a Songbird in Heaven (So God Took Caruso Away) b/w There’s a New Star in Heaven Tonight, Rudolph Valentino, along with I’ve Grown so Lonesome Thinking of You b/w Some Sweet Day. The cd booklet contains sheet music covers and Maddox’s concise histories of the included compositions.
Salute to the Jazz Age is a hotter album with the clarinet of Vern Baumer added to a number of tracks, with Maddox featured on the others. The tempos are a bit hotter here with Sugar from the pen of Maceo Pinkard (also composer of Sweet Georgia Brown) followed by Maddox’s solid solo rendition of Virginia Blues, one of the early Tin Pan Alley ‘blues’ numbers followed by the Baumer’s clarinet embellishing some wonderful piano on W.C. Handy’s St. Louis Blues and then on Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans, one of the two compositions that come from after the jazz age. Other songs include Maddox’s wonderful solos on Percy Bradford’s Crazy Blues (one of the first blues songs to be recorded), and Royal Garden Blues, the latter taken at a breakneck tempo (perhaps a tad too fast), and the duo on When The Red Red Robin Comes Bob-Bob-Bobbin’ Along, as well as Honeysuckle Rose. Maddox’s own Friday Night Stomp is another exhilarating display of Maddox’s piano. This may be the best of the three to introduce listeners to Maddox’s musical world with the variety of settings and tempos.
The last disc under consideration, Sunflower Slow Drag (a reissue of two vinyl lps) is comprised of 24 blue, rags and cakewalks by Maddox including more than a few familiar songs such as the exquisite title track composed by Scott Joplin and Scott Hayden and some may remember from the movie, The Sting, followed by a couple of W.C. Handy classics, Yellow Dog Rag and Memphis Blues. Songs like I Get the Blues When It Rains and Dallas Blues were more Tin Pan Alley songs and popular with bands like Guy Lombardo and Ted Lewis, while Will Nash, a pianist with Mr. Handy's band composed The Snaky Blues which was among the first songs the Handy Band recorded. Everybody’s Two-Step is a lively rag number that appeared in the show A Lucky Hoodoo. Another number with a handy connection is J Paul Wyer’s Long Lost Blues, with a familiar melody (My Bucket’s Got a Hole in It). Tom Turpin was another celebrated ragtime composer (and the first African-American to have his rags published) and Maddox treats us to a delightful version of Turpin’s St. Louis Rag that celebrated the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair. Maddox also treats us to his arrangement of the traditional Frankie and Johnny. 80 minutes of engaging music along with the thoughtful and very informative booklet making for another delightful release that certainly is invaluable for those lovers of early twentieth century music, and enjoyable on its own terms.
This review appeared in the March-April 2007 Jazz & Blues Report (issue 291) and I believe the publication provided me review copies. Here is a video of him performing Frankie and Johnny.
The late pianist Wally Rose was an influential pianist who was part of the West Coast traditional jazz revival of the forties and fifties, as well as also brought back classic ragtime back into popularity. He was a member of Lu Watters Yerba Buena Jazz band as well as two groups that evolved from Watters Band, Bob Scobey’s Frisco Jazz Band and Turk Murphy’s Jazz Band.
Delmark has just issued a marvelous CD, Whippin’ the Keys, that reissues two lps from the Blackbird label. This disc is comprised on a number of classic, if lesser known, rags from the pens of James Scott, Scott Joplin and Joseph Lamb and others. From the stately introduction of the opening title track through the closing St. Louis Tickle, Rose places with grace and charm.
Its refreshing to hear such a lively, but never rushed sounding, set of performances with their lovely melodies and so tasteful rhythmic embellishments. Selections of particular merit include Raymond Bird's ‘Blue Goose Rag, James Scott’s Ragtime Oriole, Joseph Lamb’s lively Cleopatra Rag, Tom Turpin’s St. Louis Rag, Joplin’s Elite Syncopations, which evokes some of the music of Jelly Roll Morton, and Barney & Seymore’s St. Louis Tickle.
This is a gem that should not get overlooked.
This review originally appeared in the July 2008 Jazz & Blues Report (Issue 306). I received a review copy from Delmark. Here is a video of Wally a few decades after recording this but sounding so good.
Posts
