Out of Sight: The Rise of African American Popular Music, 1889-1895 (American Made Music Series)

529 Pages·2003·10.32 MB·English

by  Lynn Abbott

Out of Sight
Lynn Abbott
and
Doug Seroff
University Press ofMississippi / Jackson
Out
Out
of Sight
of Sight
Out of Sight
The Rise of
African American
Popular Music
 
–
American Made Music Series
Advisory Board
David Evans,General Editor
Barry Jean Ancelet
Edward A.Berlin
Joyce J.Bolden
Rob Bowman
Susan C.Cook
Curtis Ellison
William Ferris
Michael Harris
John Edward Hasse
Kip Lornell
Frank McArthur
W.K.McNeil
Bill Malone
Eddie S.Meadows
Manuel H.Peña
David Sanjek
Wayne D.Shirley
Robert Walser
Charles Wolfe
www.upress.state.ms.us
Copyright © 2002 by University Press ofMississippi
All rights reserved
Manufactured in the United States ofAmerica
10 09 08 07 06 05 04 4 3 2
(cid:2)
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Abbott,Lynn,1946–
Out ofSight:the rise ofAfrican American popular music,
1889–1895 / Lynn Abbott and Doug Seroff.
p.cm.— (American made music series)
Includes bibliographical references (p.) and index.
ISBN 1-57806-499-6 (cloth:alk.paper)
1.African Americans—Music—Hisory and criticism.2.Popular
music—United States—To 1901—History and criticism.
I.Seroff,Doug.II.Title.III.Series
ML3479 .A2 2003
781.64(cid:3)089(cid:3)96073—dc21 2002007819
British Library Cataloging-in-Publication Data available
Contents
Acknowledgments (cid:2) 
Introduction (cid:2) 
Chapter 1.1889
• Frederick J.Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers and
Their Australasian Auditors,1886–1889 (cid:2) 3
•“Same”—The Maori and the Fisk Jubilee
Singers (cid:2)12
•Australasian Music Appreciation (cid:2)13
•Minstrelsy and Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers (cid:2)19
•The Slippery Slope ofVariety and Comedy (cid:2)21
•Mean Judge Williams (cid:2)24
• A “Black Patti”for the Ages:The Tennessee
Jubilee Singers and Matilda Sissieretta Jones,
1889–1891 (cid:2) 27
• Other “Colored Pattis”and “Queens ofSong,”
1889 (cid:2) 40
• Other Jubilee Singers,1889 (cid:2) 42
• Rev.Marshall W.Taylor (cid:2) 45
• Selected,Annotated Chronology of
Music-Related Citations,1889 (cid:2) 47
• The Minstrel Profession (cid:2) 60
• Charles B.Hicks Abroad,1889–1895 (cid:2) 60
• McCabe and Young’s Minstrels,1889–1892 (cid:2) 65
 Contents
Chapter 2.1890 Chapter 4.1892
• Loudin’s Fisk Jubilee Singers Come Home (cid:2) 73 • Cake Walks in Context (cid:2) 205
• Jubilee Singers on the Home Front,1890 (cid:2) 86 • Toward a Black National Anthem:“John
• “A Woman with a Mission”:Madame Marie Brown’s Body” (cid:2) 211
Selika,1890 (cid:2) 89 • “Colored Pattis”and “Queens ofSong,”
• Selected,Annotated Chronology ofMusic- 1892 (cid:2) 214
Related Citations,1890 (cid:2) 91 • Lizzie Pugh Dugan:“God Never Gave a Human
• African American Minstrel Companies in the a More Beautiful Voice” (cid:2) 218
South (cid:2) 105 • Selected,Annotated Chronology ofMusic-
• Richards and Pringle’s Original Georgia Min- Related Citations,1892 (cid:2) 220
strels and Billy Kersands,1889–1895 (cid:2) 106 • Barber-Musicians (cid:2) 244
• Cleveland’s Colored Minstrels,Season of • Mandolin Clubs (cid:2) 247
1890–1891 (cid:2) 110 • W.P.Dabney (cid:2) 251
• Mahara’s Minstrels,1892–1895 (cid:2) 115 • “Monarchs ofthe Light Guitar” (cid:2) 254
• The Legend ofOrpheus McAdoo, • “A Model ofCommunity Service”:John W.
1890–1900 (cid:2) 119 Johnson and the Detroit City Band (cid:2) 255
• The Excelsior Reed and Brass Band of
Chapter 3.1891 Cleveland,Ohio (cid:2) 262
• Benjamin L.Shook:A Community-Based
• New Departures in African American
Musician (cid:2) 265
Minstrelsy (cid:2) 145
•William Foote’s Afro-American Specialty
Company (cid:2)146
Chapter 5.1893
•Sam T.Jack’s Creole Burlesque Company (cid:2)151
• Compromises in Jubilee Singing:Thearle’s • The Dvorák Statement—“As Great as a
Nashville Students,Wright’s Nashville Beethoven Theme” (cid:2) 273
Students,and the Canadian Jubilee • Black Music in the White City:African Ameri-
Singers (cid:2) 170 cans and the 1893 World’s Columbian
•The Nashville Students (cid:2)170 Exposition (cid:2) 276
•The Canadian Jubilee Singers (cid:2)176 •Colored Folks Day (cid:2)279
• Selected,Annotated Chronology ofMusic- •The Midway Plaisance and the Dahomean
Related Citations,1891 (cid:2) 177 Village (cid:2)284
• The Texarkana Minstrel Company and the •Conclusion (cid:2)294
Jefferson Davis Monument Fund:“The • Selected,Annotated Chronology ofMusic-
Thing Is Unnatural” (cid:2) 198 Related Citations,1893 (cid:2) 296
• Two Southern Brass Bands in New York City: • “Folk-Lore and Ethnology,”“Coonjine”and
Becker’s Brass Band from Kentucky and the “Hully-Gully” (cid:2) 308
Onward Brass Band from Louisiana (cid:2) 200 • The “African Prince”Phenomenon,
• “Rags”in Tennesseetown,1891 (cid:2) 201 1891–1895 (cid:2) 312
Contents 
• Prof.Tobe Brown:“Terpsichorean • The Black Patti Troubadours and Madame
Soiree” (cid:2) 315 C.C.Smith,“the Patti ofTopeka” (cid:2) 438
• Blind Boone:“Clear out ofSight” (cid:2) 318 • The Whitman Sisters (cid:2) 440
• “A Little ‘Ragging’”:The Emergence ofRagtime
in the Land ofJohn Brown (cid:2) 443
Chapter 6.1894
• Preserving the Spiritual Legacy:The Last Days
• “Black and White”Minstrelsy (cid:2) 325 ofFrederick J.Loudin (cid:2) 455
• “Darkest America”:Al G.Field’s Real Negro
Minstrels (cid:2) 331 Appendix 1:Repertoire ofthe Tennessee Jubilee
• Selected,Annotated Chronology ofMusic- Singers,1888–1889 (cid:2) 463
Related Citations,1894 (cid:2) 335 Appendix 2:Personnel Listings ofOrpheus M.
• A Tour ofConquest and Melody:Prof.W.H. McAdoo’s and M.B.Curtis’s Troupes in
Australia,1899–1900 (cid:2) 463
Councill and the Alabama State Normal
School Quartette (cid:2) 351 Appendix 3:Repertoire ofMcAdoo’s Virginia
• That Barbershop Chord (cid:2) 357 Concert Company and Jubilee Singers,
• Quartets to the Fore:The South Before the War 1892–1893 (cid:2) 464
Appendix 4:Roster ofthe Detroit City Band,
Company and Its Plantation Pretenders,
1892–1895 (cid:2) 360 1891–1892 (cid:2) 465
• A Low and Narrow Pathway ofOpportunity in Notes (cid:2) 467
Index (cid:2) 485
the Circus Sideshow “Colored Annex,”
1891–1895 (cid:2) 373
• Dime Museums (cid:2) 380
Chapter 7.1895
• “Black America” (cid:2) 391
• Brass Bands in Kansas (cid:2) 395
• “Kid Bands”in Kansas:The John Brown Juve-
nile Band and N.Clark Smith’s Pickaninny
Band (cid:2) 403
• “In Old Kentucky” (cid:2) 406
• “The Fake and His Orphans”:Sherwood’s
Youth Missionary Band,1889–1895 (cid:2) 409
• Selected,Annotated Chronology ofMusic-
Related Citations,1895 (cid:2) 419
• From the Criterion Quartet to “In Old Ten-
nessee”:The Rise ofErnest Hogan,
1889–1895 (cid:2) 433
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Acknowledgments
In the early 1980s, when we began our survey Fisk Jubilee Singers.Thanks particularly to Spe-
ofAfrican American newspapers on microfilm, cial Collections Librarian Beth Madison Howse
we were motivated by a common interest in the for many years ofassistance and kindness.
early evolution ofblack vocal harmony singing. The Hogan Jazz Archive at Tulane University
We gradually began to appreciate the broader in New Orleans also threw open its doors to us.
context.In 1989 we inaugurated a series offive We are grateful for our long-term working rela-
essays which appeared in 78 Quarterly under tionship with curator Dr.Bruce Boyd Raeburn
the title “100 Years from Today.”Our intent was and his staff, especially Mrs. Alma Freeman,
to bring to light and comment on the music- who negotiated an endless river of requests on
related citations we were discovering in 1890s our behalf.Thanks as well to the staffofTulane’s
newspapers. Those essays represent the rough Howard Tilton Memorial Library, especially in
beginnings ofthe book at hand. the Music, Microforms, and Interlibrary Loan
Special thanks to 78 Quarterly editor Pete divisions; and to the Amistad Research Center,
Whelan for his early support and continued which is also located on the Tulane campus.
cooperation; and to Ray Funk, who was in on We thank the staffofthe Center for Popular
our early black newspaper research and who Music at Middle Tennessee State University in
remains a valued friend and colleague. Murfreesboro, especially Bruce Nemerov, for
Thanks to Dr. David Evans for friendship, assistance and encouragement.The staff of the
advice,and a critical reading ofthe manuscript Country Music Foundation Library in Nashville,
which inspired many significant improvements. specifically Bob Pinson, Ronnie Pugh, and
Thanks to Wayne D. Shirley for an equally Alan Stoker,were also helpful over many years.
illuminating review of the manuscript and for Thanks as well to the Nashville Public Library;
responding to our many requests for copies of the New Orleans Public Library, especially the
sheet music and copyright deposits held by the staffofthe Louisiana Division;the Earl K.Long
Library ofCongress. Library ofthe University ofNew Orleans,especi-
Thanks to Chris Ware for the book jacket art ally Interlibrary Loan librarian Evelyn Chandler;
and for his enthusiastic support ofour work. and the Virginia State Library in Richmond,
We are grateful to the Fisk University Library Virginia. 
in Nashville for the use ofresources and facilities, Thanks are due to the Portage County His-
most notably their extraordinary collection of torical Society Museum in Ohio,which houses
African American newspapers on microfilm and many personal effects of Frederick and Harriet
their incredible body ofmaterials relating to the Loudin; the Detroit Public Library, which