Happy Birthday Eubie Blake!
...on this wonderful day in black history, ragtime pianist and composer Eubie Blake was born.
From his bio: Eubie Blake was born James Hubert Blake in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 7, 1883. He played the organ at six years old, got his first job playing in a brothel at 15, and made his professional stage debut in a Pennsylvania medicine show at the age of 18.
In 1905, Blake moved to New York City, where he decided to try to publish his first song, "Sounds of Africa." He asked the influential but fiery Will Marion Cook to accompany him to the publisher, and his song was accepted for $100. However, when Kurt Schindler, the arranger who was going to score it, asked why Blake changed keys without modulation, Blake related: "Cook flared up and said, `What right have you to question my protege? How long have you been a Negro?' `I'm only asking a question,' Schindler said. `Well you have no right to ask it. We write differently from other people.' `Good day, gentlemen,' said Schindler, and all bets were off." The song, renamed Charleston Rag, was not published until after 1919.
Blake went home to Baltimore where he played in local establishments, performing with and learning from such great African-American pianists as "Willie the Lion" Smith, C. Luckeyeth Roberts, and James P. Johnson. In 1910, he married Avis Lee, an accomplished classical pianist. Four years later, he published his first song, Chevy Chase.
Blake's bio
Labels: black folks
posted by ~Kesh @ 2/07/2007 10:35:00 AM
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