Frompin' in the Great Plains Listening and Dancing to the Jazz Orchestras of Alphonso Trent 1925~44
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University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln Great Plains Quarterly Great Plains Studies, Center for 1996 FROMPIN' IN THE GREAT PLAINS LISTENING AND DANCING TO THE JAZZ ORCHESTRAS OF ALPHONSO TRENT 1925~44 Marc Rice University of Louisville Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly Part of the Other International and Area Studies Commons Rice, Marc, "FROMPIN' IN THE GREAT PLAINS LISTENING AND DANCING TO THE JAZZ ORCHESTRAS OF ALPHONSO TRENT 1925~44" (1996). Great Plains Quarterly. 1091. https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/greatplainsquarterly/1091 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Great Plains Studies, Center for at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in Great Plains Quarterly by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. FROMPIN' IN THE GREAT PLAINS LISTENING AND DANCING TO THE JAZZ ORCHESTRAS OF ALPHONSO TRENT 1925~44 MARC RICE During the 1920s and 1930s, dozens of Afri development, creating a style of music dis can American dance bands of various sizes tinct from that of New York, New Orleans, or crisscrossed the Midwest and Southwest Chicago. This midwest jazz style did not die United States. These organizations are called with the demise of the early bands, for the "territory bands" by jazz historians because they careers of the Count Basie Orchestra and typically maintained a city such as Oklahoma Charlie Parker were their legacy. City, Kansas City, Omaha, or Tulsa as a home This paper focuses on one of the most popu base, from which they mounted tours of the lar and influential of the territory band lead surrounding towns. The territory bands had ers, Alphonso Trent. From 1925 to the mid their best years just prior to the Great Depres 1940s, his groups were acknowledged by lis sion, but most were devastated by the 1930s teners and by other musicians as among the and disbanded. Most of these bands included very best of the jazz bands performing in the jazz in their repertoire and were vital to its Southwest and Great Plains. In the cities and towns that they visited, their performances were always a special event, particularly in the African American communities. Trent's or chestras played an important role as musicians and entertainers of African Americans in the Great Plains States in the 1920s and 1930s. Although Trent did lead his first orchestra Marc Rice is a musicologist with a focus on jazz composition. A teaching assistant at the University of through the Midwest and Northeast, most of Louisville, he is writing his dissertation on the Bennie his career was set in and around the Great Moten Orchestra, a jazz band in Kansas City from Plains, specifically in three cities, Dallas, 1925-30. Texas; Kansas City, Missouri; and Deadwood, South Dakota. In Dallas Trent met with his first triumph, securing well-paying jobs that [GPQ 16 (Spring 1996): 107-151 had previously been off-limits to African 107 108 GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY, SPRING 1996 American orchestras. Kansas City saw him three arenas for an African American orches during a period of hard times, when tragedy tra to play and for a black audience to dance and the Depression had taken its toll on his and listen. There was an outdoor pavilion in a group. In Deadwood, at the end of his music section of Dallas called "Oak Cliff." There was career, Trent again found financial success and the Pythian Temple, a large building down stability. town for the use of black businesses and orga nizations. And there were two nightclubs in ALPHONSO TRENT the area, the L.B. Mose Theater and the Hum mingbird.4 Alphonso Trent was born in Fort Smith, The Oak Cliff pavilion was the scene o,f the Arkansas, in 1902. He came from a solidly Trent Orchestra's first engagements in Dallas. middle class African American family that According to Essie Mae Trent, Alphonso's emphasized greatly the importance of educa widow, who first met her husband shortly after tion. According to Henry Rinne, his father he moved to Dallas, the pavilion at Oak Cliff was the principal of the black high school in was at a ballpark in a predominantly African Fort Smith, and was one of the first black American neighborhood. The audience was graduates of Ohio State University.l In addi generally ninety percent black as well. In Mrs. tion to formal classroom education, Alphonso Trent's words, the facility was was given piano lessons at an early age. By his early teens, he was playing professionally with a large area and plenty of parking space. I local bands.2 wouldn't say that it was cultivated like they In 1925 Trent joined a group of musicians have now. It wasn't like the modern parks in Little Rock, Arkansas. The personnel in and things are now. But you had your space. cluded Edwin Swayzee, trumpet; Eugene Plenty of parking space. Oh it took up, say, Crooke, banjo; James Jeter, alto saxophone; two blocks. John Fielding, vocals; Leo "Snub" Mosely, It wasn't anything modern. You had your trombone; and Trent on piano.3 In the spring bandstand. It was large. Huge, you could of 1925 the band, now called the Alphonso say. You could accommodate 1000 people Trent Orchestra, traveled through Texas and easily. During those times it was outstand eventually arrived in Dallas. ing. I wouldn't be wrong in using those In most cities the Trent orchestra played words.s their primary engagemenrs at extravagant, ex clusively white hotels. These hotels, catering In the beginning of their stay in Dallas, the to the economic elite, could offer the band Trent Orchestra struggled with small crowds steady long-term employment. During their and little recognition, but their biggest break off nights, however, in whatever city they were came a few weeks after their arrival. A bellman in, the Trent orchestra booked themselves into from the luxurious, white Adolphus Hotel African American establishments. The orches convinced the hotel secretary to attend one of tra did not make much money on these nights, the band's Oak Cliff performances. She per but as their reputation grew, these dances be suaded her boss to offer the orchestra a two came important events in the black commu week engagement.6 The two weeks became an nities. eighteen-month stay, during which the orches tra established itself as the best band in the DALLAS Southwest. In the segregated Adolphus Hotel, the The orchestra first established this method dances that the Trent Orchestra played were of operation in Dallas. In 1925 the city had off-limits to African Americans. The bands- JAZZ IN THE GREAT PLAINS 109 men and their families, including Trent's fu at the Adolphus ... and man, you couldn't ture wife Essie Mae, endured the Jim Crow get in when they played. They used to make policies at the hotel, but these dances were as much as $ 7 5 a night a man, they were so broadcast over a 50,000 watt radio station, popular. They had all that airtime over WFAA. It was heard throughout much of the WFAA in Dallas, and they were heard all country and served to disseminate the music the way to Canada.9 of the band to people across the land, particu larly the African Americans of Dallas.7 In addition to the Oak Cliff pavilion and In this manner the Trent Orchestra became the two nightclubs, African Americans could an important element in the multi-faceted also hear the Trent Orchestra at the Pythian musical culture of Dallas. During the 1920s, Temple, a downtown, black-owned building jazz and blues-based music thrived in the Af used by various businesses. In the words of rican American communities of the city. The Mrs. Trent, the building was Central Track section of the town in particu lar was host to many blues singers, boogie all brick. And there was a ballroom in there. woogie pianists, and small combos, who And of course on the first floor there was a worked in various types of small clubs. drug store. On the second floor you had Buster Smith, a saxophonist who grew up your different doctors. And then you had in Dallas during the twenties, was a witness to your schools like your commercial schools. the musical activities in the African Ameri This is owned by Blacks. A five story build can communities. As Smith recalled, "there ing. And you could rent the auditorium out, were many, many good bands and musicians if one wanted to rent it. Bands and things around [Dallas] then, and you'd see them ev would come in, they would book them in erywhere you went ..." Smith remembered there. Oh it was a lovely place. It was first hearing African American orchestras such as class. 10 those led by Jap Allen, George E. Lee, and T. Holder. There were also "any number of little The Pythian Temple's dance hall could be four and five-piece bands playing around the rented out for various occasions. As Mrs. Trent roadhouses and after hours spots." Smith was recalled quite familiar with the Trent Orchestra; it and the Troy Floyd Orchestra from San Antonio, the dance floor was just for anybody who "were the big bands. "8 wanted to rent it. For organizations. Lodges. Their radio broadcasts quickly spread the Dances. Church affairs. If they wanted to popularity of the Trent Orchestra in the Afri have school affairs or plays. Sometimes the can American communities of Dallas and different clubs they'd say, "Well now what across the Midwest and Southwest.