Columbia College Chicago Digital Commons @ Columbia College Chicago Center for Black Music Research: Black Music Research Newsletter Publications Fall 9-1-1988 Black Music Research Bulletin Fall 1988 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 Bulletin Fall 1988" (1988). Center for Black Music Research: Black Music Research Newsletter. 27. https://digitalcommons.colum.edu/cbmrnews/27 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 BULLETIN C B .\I R COLUMBIA COLLEGE CHICAGO Vol. 10, No. 2 ISSN 0898-8536 Fall 1988 Contents Looking Toward St. Louis: Installment 1 Black Music in St. Louis St. Louis, Missouri, will be the site McGinty, Harriet Ottenheimer, Na­ Looking Toward St. Louis 1 of the Center's 1989 National Confer­ than Pearson, Jr., Ann Sears, Warren ence on Black Music Research, to be Swindell, Trebor Jay Tichenor, Bruce Eddie Randle and the 1 held there during October 12-15, Tucker, and William Wiggins, all of t St. Loufa Blue Devils 1989. The following brief essays are whom will present papers at the con- Paul DeMarinis part of a preview of the research sub­ ference. Participating as members of Ragtime in St. Louis 3 jects to be explored at the St. Louis panels will be Ben E. Bailey, Richard Trebor Jay Tichenor meeting. The spring 1989 issue of Crawford, Stanley Crouch, Donald Bulletin will carry other preliminary Funes, Willis Patterson, and Olly Wil­ essays as well as abstracts by Edward son. In the meantime, the first two Black Music in Berlin, Edith Borroff, Tilford Brooks, articles in this issue of Bulletin are New York City William Dargan, Aaron Home, Doris samples of our offerings for St. Louis. James Reese Europe and 5 His Impact on the New York Scene Leonard Goines and Mikki Shepard The Harlem Renaissance of 8 Eddie Randle and the the 1920s St. Louis Blue Devils Samuel A. Floyd, Jr. Composers Corner: 10 by Paul DeMarinis, Webster Univers'ity, St. Louis Carman L. Moore Lucius R. Wyatt St. Louis was the home of a num­ drummers "Big Sid" Catlett and Jo ber of excellent black jazz bands in Jones with Jeter-Pillars; trumpeter the 1930s and the 1940s. The Jeter­ Harold "Shorty" Baker and saxo­ Research Notes Pillars Orchestra, Eddie Johnson's phonist Tab Smith with the Cracker­ A Note on the Death Date of 14 Crackerjacks (later called the Original jacks; and trumpeter Oark Terry and Blind Lemon Jefferson St. Louis Crackerjacks under Chick saxophonist "Weasel" Parker with E. S. Virgo Finney), the George Hudson Orches­ George Hudson. Eddie Randie's Blue tra, and Eddie Randie's St. Louis Blue Devils, who are the focus of this arti­ Canadian Newspapers as 15 Devils were among the most re­ cle, also share with thes-e other bands Source Material spected St. Louis groups of this pe­ a certain obscurity typical of many Neil V. Rosenberg riod. All enjoyed local popularity and musical groups who recorded infre­ New Books Received: 18 featured outstanding sidemen: trum­ quently, or not at all, and who did Preliminary Reviews peter Harry "Sweets" Edison, bassists Walter Page and Jimmy Blanton, and Continued on page 2 2 Eddie Randle, continued not often appear in entertainment capitals like Chicago or New York. Trumpeter Eddie Randle was born in Villa Ridge, Tllinois, near the Ohio River, on May 27, 1907. His early musical experiences were of an infor­ mal nature-he was taught how to read music by an uncle, and he sang at home and in a church choir. He moved to St. Louis in 1923 and began to play trumpet in 1924 at the age of seventeen. Randie's early experience on the trumpet coincided with an exception­ ally rich period for jazz trumpeting in St. Louis. Charles Creath fre­ quently appeared at Jazzland on \·, I ' ~ Market Street near Twenty-third Figure 1. Eddie Rantfle (right of microphone) and the St. Louis Blue Der:n1s Street, as well as on the Streckfus steamer S. S. Caflito/ with bandleader Photogroph courltsy of th• out/ror Fate Marable. Trumpeter Dewey Jackson was very active in St. Louis, Randle formed his first band in occurred during the band's first de­ appearing with both Creath and 1932. It included Joe Jarnigan and cade. Druie Bess (who had recorded Marable. Leonard Davis, who later Theron Slaughter on saxophones, in St. Louis with Jesse Stone's Blues played in New York with the bands John Arnold on piano, Pete Patterson Serenaders in 1927 and who played of Charlie Johnson, Benny Carter, (who had recorded with Charles with Walter Page's Blue Devils from and Luis Russell, also worked locally Creath) on banjo, and Jesse Brazier 1929 to 1931) joined the band on with Charles Creath. A strong Louis on drums. The name subsequently trombone in 1935 and stayed until Armstrong disciple, Oliver Cobb, chosen for the group, "Eddie Randle 1938. A succession of trumpeters in who recorded for Brunswick and and his Seven Blue Devils," was cho­ the band included Cliff King, Vertna Paramount, was very popular in St. sen by Randle in a gesture of admira­ Saunders, Sykes Smith, Willie Moore, Louis until his untimely death by tion for one of his favorite bands, the Bob Johnson, ex-Jimmy Lunceford drowning in 1931. New Orleans Oklahoma City Blue Devils led by sideman "Sleepy" Tomlin, Charles trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen was bassist Walter Page, whose radio Young, and Irving "Bruz" Woods. heard locally in the late 1920s with broadcasts were regularly heard in New faces among the saxophones in­ Fate Marable on the Streckfus river­ St. Louis. Randie's group was among cluded altoists Gene Porter and boats. Louis Armstrong, who played the first of St. Louis's black bands to Clyde Higgins, and tenor saxophon­ in St. Louis with Marable on the be heard on local radio, with Tues­ ists Ernie Wilkins, Grady Rice, and boats between 1919 and 1921, was day and Thursday noontime broad­ Cecil Thornton. In 1942 tenor saxo­ occasionally brought to St. Louis by casts beginning in the fall of 1932 on phonist Jimmy Forrest (who would promoter Jesse Johnson to appear as station WEW. Randle most often later gain fame with Duke Ellington a single at Jazzland in the late 1920s. played the first trumpet part in all and Count Basie) joined the band for A focal point in Randie's early mu­ his bands and left the improvisations an extended stay at the Club 400 on sical education was the tailor shop to his sidemen. Grand Avenue. Charles Pillars, the and shoeshine parlor his father Randie's bands spent most of the brother of ex-Alphonso Trent saxo­ owned at Garrison and Lucas Ave­ 1930s playing one-nighters at dance­ phonist Hayes Pillars, also played nues, which was a gathering place halls either in St. Louis or on the alto and baritone saxophone in the for the many musicians who often re­ road in Missouri, lliinois, Tennessee, band in this period. Pianists with the hearsed at the YWCA skating rink and Kentucky, with extended stays Blue Devils during this time included across the street. Randie's early play­ in Stephens Point, Wisconsin, in Robert Parker and Tommy Dean. The ing experience included sideman 1936; Dubuque, Iowa, in 1937; and bass players were George Brazier work with Jimmy Powell (whose Sodus Point, New York, on Lake On­ and Raymond Elridge. TC()nage bass­ band also included trumpeter El­ tario, in the summers of 1939 and ist Jimmy Blanton played with the wood Buchanan, who would later 1941. band occasionally before his discov­ teach Miles Davis) and Warner Long. A number of personnel changes ery by Duke Ellington in 1939, and 3 alto saxophonist Tab Smith also Levi Madison. addition to his activities as a band­ worked as a substitute from time to While none of Randie's bands ever leader, Randle was also the treasurer time. recorded commercially, a private re­ for the then-segregated St. Louis In 1936 Randle coached student cording of the 1941, pre-Miles Davis black musician's union, Local 197, trumpeters at Sumner High School at band has survived among a few col­ during the late 1930s and early 1940s. the invitation of Major N. Clark lectors in St. Louis. It demonstrates a In summary, Eddie Randle has Smith, the music educator who had stylistic flexibility that must have made a significant contribution to the previously directed music at Lincoln contributed to the group's popular­ growth of jazz in St. Louis. As a High in Kansas City and who had ity. The band's book was a mixture trumpeter and teacher he influenced given basic musical training to some of original and popular tunes. many aspiring musicians who sub­ of that city's finest jazz musicians. In Among the bandsmen who arranged sequently established themselves in the 1930s Randle also tutored many for Randle were saxophonists Joe the field; as a bandleader, he devel­ young musicians who were junior le­ Jarnigan, Cecil Thornton, Ernie Wil­ oped his Blue Devils into one of St. gionnaires of the Tom Powell Ameri­ kins, and Oliver Nelson (in the Louis's most popular jazz bands of can Legion Post in St.