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Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago Center for Black Music Research: Black Music Research Newsletter Publications Fall 9-1-1987 Black Music Research Newsletter, Fall 1987 Samuel Floyd Columbia College Chicago Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cbmrnews Part of the Arts and Humanities Commons, and the Education Commons Recommended Citation Floyd, Samuel, "Black Music Research Newsletter, Fall 1987" (1987). Center for Black Music Research: Black Music Research Newsletter. 25. https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cbmrnews/25 This Book is brought to you for free and open access by the Publications at Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. It has been accepted for inclusion in Center for Black Music Research: Black Music Research Newsletter by an authorized administrator of Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago. For more information, please contact [email protected]. BLACK MUSIC RESEARCH NEWSLETTER. C B \I R COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO Vol. 9, No. 2 ISSN Number 0271-3799 Fall 1987 Chicago's Jazz Trail: 1893-1950 by Dempsey/. Travis, Chicago, [llinois Chicago's 1893 World Columbian Ex­ The Haitian Pavilion was an in­ or mentally drained while working in position was the magnet that attracted cubator for jazz music; it was there that Sedalia or St. Louis, he would return hundreds of black itinerant musicians, Scott Joplin and others discovered that to Chicago to be rejuvenated by the entertainers, intellectuals, and hustlers many of their fellow black musicians beauty of Lake Michigan, the smell of to its doorsteps. They all came to had developed musical skills in isola­ the stockyards, and the sounds of the Abraham Lincoln's city by the lake in tion from each other in various sections honky tonks in the red-Llght district. search of opportunities to display their of the country and had created an orig­ Scott Joplin's last-known Chicago ad­ talents. Talented individuals, such as inal art form that had common ele­ dress in 1899 was 2840 Armour Avenue W. C. Handy, the father of the blues, ments endemic to black life styles. (now named Dearborn Street). Armour Scott Joplin, the king of ragtin1e, Fred­ Scott Joplin was overwhelmed when Avenue was one block west of State erick Douglass, the abolitionist and he first heard the W. C. Handy Or­ Street, the street that inspired Shelton author, Bert Williams, the master com­ chestra, at the Haitian Pavilion, play Brooks to write "Darktown Strutters' ic, Ida 8. Wells, the freedom fighter, arrangements that incorporated ele­ Ball." In 1917 Joplin frequently strolled James Weldon Johnson, author and ments of both Memphis and Missis­ from his small apartment over to State musician, W. E. B. DuBois, author and sipf)i ragtime. In addition, he marveled Street, where he heard strains of his black liberation leader, Paul Laurence at the piano technique and style of such "Maple Leaf Rag" floating out of the Dunbar, the poet, and Jesse Binga, musicians as Arthur Marshall and windows of the houses of joy on hot Chicago's first black banker, left their Louis Chauvin, two of Chicago'.s best­ summer evenings as it was being footprints on the steps of the Haitian known bawdy house piano players. played on the pianolas. Pavilion, the center of black entertain­ Joplin was inspired by Chicago'.s awe­ Scott Joplin was the undisputed ment on the Columbian Exposition some musical environment. As a mat­ grounds-what today is Jackson Park. ter of fact, whenever he felt physically Continued 011 page 2 Announcing ... In 1988 the Center's publications program will see several changes. Black Music Research Journal, which has been an annual publication, will now appear twice yearly, in spring and fall. Black Music Research Newsletter has grown in length and changed in character so that it is no longer really a newsletter. Beginning with the next issue-Vol. 10, No. 1-Newsletter will become Black Music Researcl, Bulletin. 1n addition to the title change, the content will reflect the publication's trend toward more substantive, preliminary research articles and columns. The newsy columns will appear in a new publication, issued free of charge to all of the Center's subscribers and patrons, to be titled CBMR Digest. This new publication will also contain more information about the Center for Black Music Research and its activities. Simultaneously with these increases in the number and frequency of the Center's publications comes a rate increase. The subscription rate for BMR Journal in 1988 will be $15.00 for domestic subscribers and $20.00 for foreign subscribers; the new rates for BMR Bulletin will be $3.00 for domestic subscribers and $5.00 for foreign subscribers. It is our hope that these changes will result in a greater ability to serve the needs of our constituency. 2 Jazz Trail, continued bly with State Street for the trade of Smith, and Clara Smith. Just a couple the after-sunset merrymakers. It had of blocks south, at 3435 South State king of ragtime composers and piano the Entertainers' Cafe located at 209 Street, was the Monogram Theatre, players. However, the bridge between East 35th Street, where Clarence where Ma Rainey was featured with ragtime and jazz was built by one of Muse, who later became one of Hol­ such acts as Sleepy Harris and his young admirers, Ferdinand "Jelly lywood's black movie star legends in Stovepipe Johnson-major stars of Roll" Morton, who also spent a great his lifetime, did shows that featured that period. On the other hand, the deal of time on Chicago's State Street. artists such as the beautiful Marian State Theatre at 3509 South State Joplin, Morton, and Porter King col­ Harrison, who was supported by a Street was strictly a movie house. The laborated on a work called "King Por­ dozen other top-notch acts. Down the management employed a pianist and ter Stomp." The tune was named in street at 315 East 35th Street, on the a drummer to play mood music to en­ honor of King after the deaths of both southwest corner of Calumet Avenue, liven the action of the silent films . Joplin and King. However, "King Por­ was the Sunset Cafe, where Carroll The decision to relocate Chicago's ter Stomp" was not immortalized Dickerson and his sixteen-piece or­ black jazz scene from the 3000 block until 1924 when it was recorded in chestra played music for an all-star re­ on South State to 47th and South Park­ Chicago by King Joe Oliver, Louis view. Featured was the diminutive way (King Drive) was made in the fall Armstrong's mentor. It was recorded and dynamic Frankie "Halfpint" of 1926 by a small syndicate of white, again the following year by the Jackson, who scatted and cavorted New York investors who had reaped Fletcher Henderson Orchestra. How­ across the stage with a rhythmic huge profits from their newly-built ever, it was Chicagoan Benny Good­ background support of ten beautiful, Savoy Ballroom, located in the heart man's 1935 rendition of the Fletcher "high-yellow" chorus girls. of New York City's Harlem. The Savoy Henderson arrangement that gave the Diagonally across the street from Ballroom, which later became known tune national prominence. the Sunset Cafe was the Plantation as "The Home of Happy Feet," was State Street and its environs were Cafe at 338 East 35th Street, a popular reputed to be the largest ballroom in training grounds in jazz for white black and tan cabaret known for its America, white or black; it covered musicians such as Benny Goodman, heavy drinkers and all-night dancers. the entire block between 140th and Bix Beiderbecke, Tommy Dorsey, Paul A large number of white students 141st Street on Lenox Avenue. Since Whiteman, Red Norvo, and Bunny from the universities frequented all of Chicago offered the country's second Berigan. One of State Street's earliest the South Side's black and tan night· highest concentration of urban blacks, jazz laboratories opened its doors on clubs. These nightclubs were the mus­ the New York investors decided to June 18, 1905. It was Bob Motts's Pekin ical homes of such stars as Earl Hines, build a Midwest Savoy. Temple of Music, which was located Cab Calloway, Eddie South, Ethel Chicago's beautiful Savoy Ballroom at 2700 South State Street. Shelton Waters, Blanche Calloway, Alberta opened on Thanksgiving Day, 1927, Brooks was working at the Pekin in Hunter, and the Sammy Stewart Or­ with two red-hot musical aggrega­ 1910 when he created the words and chestra. tions: Charles Elgar's eighteen-piece music to his famous song "Some of In addition to State Street being the These Days," which was later center of the cabaret district, it was adopted by Sophie Tucker as her also the "Broadway of the Black Belt." theme song. There were fifteen vaudeville and The prototype for high-class black movie houses between 31st and 35th and tan (black and white) cabarets of on State Street. Even the smallest the­ the 1920s and 1930s was opened in ater hired at least one pianist or organ 1912 by Jack Johnson, the world's first player to accompany the silent pic­ black heavyweight boxing champion. tures. As a matter of fact, the late Johnson's club was located just four Count Basie worked in Chicago in the blocks south of the Pekin at 42 West early twenties as an organist at one 31st Street. Black and white musicians of the State Stre-et theaters. In con­ gathered at Johnson's Cafe De Champ­ trast, the larger houses, like the Ven­ ion to hear the latest red hot jazz dome Theatre at 3145 South State music.

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