Similarities Between Noble Sissle And Eubie Blake

Before the musical team of Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake, it was rare for a black entertainer to gain acceptance along the “Great White Way,” also known as Broadway. The duo obtained unparalleled success, and reopened the door for black performers on the Broadway stage during the early 1920s. At the end of World War I, African American culture was prospering in Harlem, and the country was tentatively sampling the black rhythms of jazz. However, Sissle and Blake’s 1921 production Shuffle Along became the first black production on Broadway since 1910. The collaborators presented a succession of songs, dances, and sketches that were attuned to the new musical sounds of the day, which broke through the color bar on Broadway. Shuffle Along inspired

more than a dozen new black musicals and revues on Broadway in the 1920s, flourishing the careers of more black talent north of Harlem.

Sissle and Blake remain one of the most prominent musical pairs in musical theatre history.

The jazz pianist and composer James Hubert "Eubie" Blake was born in Baltimore, Maryland in 1883. The son of former slaves, he began organ lessons at the age of six and was soon creating the tunes he heard in his mother's Baptist church. While still in his teens, Blake began to play in the ragtime style, which was popular in Baltimore sporting houses and saloons due to its syncopated rhythms (Kantor, 86). Without the knowledge of his parents, Blake worked in Aggie Shelton's bordello at age fifteen, entertaining customers with classics and popular rags such as Michigan Frog’s “Hello, Ma Ragtime Gal” and Charles Harris “After the Ball.” With little interest in school, Blake decided to become a full time musician, and at age sixteen performed professionally in a Baltimore nightclub. In 1899 he composed his first piano rag later titled the “Charleston Rag” (Gale). The piano roll of "Charleston Rag", observed Mark Tucker in “Ellington the Early Years”, “features a walking bass in broken octaves, flashy appreciated breaks, chromatic seventh chords, and certain rhythmic tricks.” In

his work “Early Jazz: It's Roots and Modern Development”, Gunther Schuller claimed that Blake “was probably the leading exponent of the ragtime piano style that developed somewhat independently of the Midwestern branch all along the Eastern seaboard as far south as Charleston, with headquarters in Baltimore.” After producing his first rag Blake was quickly becoming a significant player in ragtime music and his unique style was starting to get noticed. Blake's piano pieces unfolded a strong folk ragtime melody that prevented him from being associated historically with some of the lesser commercial work associated with the publishing industry of New York City's Tin Pan Alley. In 1902 Blake received one of his first professional jobs as a dancer in the New York City touring minstrel show, In Old Kentucky (Graziano). In 1911, Blake wrote his piano rags, “The Chevy Chase” and “Fizz Water.” Both rags included upbeat tempos, and ragged rhythms that inspired two-step dancing. During the next few years, Blake did seasonal work in Baltimore and Atlantic City where he performed in places such as; Ben Allen's Boathouse and the Bucket of Blood (Rose).
Noble Sissle was born in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1889. His father was a minister and church organist, and his first experience in music came as a boy soprano in a Methodist church choir. Sissle studied music at public schools in Indianapolis and Cleveland, where his family moved. While still in his teens, Sissle toured the Midwest as part of vaudeville and gospel quartets as a singer (Brooks, 365). He enrolled at Indiana's Butler University in 1913 and later transferred to DePauw, but much like Blake, music maintained a stronger grip on his interests. With interest in dancing being encouraged by the rise of black-influenced popular music such as ragtime, Sissle organized a dance orchestra at the Severin Hotel in Indianapolis (Brooks, 366).
In 1915 Blake met Noble Sissle while performing with Joe Porter's Serenaders at Baltimore's Riverview Park. The duo connected creatively; and within a few days, Sissle had written lyrics for a song called “It's All Your Fault,” while Blake had composed the music. The pair found immediate success when Sophie Tucker, a leading white female vocal star of the 1900s, introduced the song at a Baltimore performance (Rose). The song is considered to be a ballad about love and the heartache it can cause. The number became a hit soon after Tucker’s performance, officially launching the Sissle and Blake musical partnership. Sissle led a band in Coconut Grove, Florida; and with this experience, in 1916 he was hired into the dance orchestra of New York bandleader James Reese Europe, whom he had met during his time in Indianapolis. The bands of which Europe was the best known, were essentially ancestors of jazz, creating ragtime dance music for the fox trots and other new dances of African-American origin that had gained popularity in America. Sissle performed as a vocalist and guitarist under Europe's group. After Sissle joined James Reese Europe's Society Orchestra, he convinced the bandleader to hire Blake. Accepting the offer, Blake came to New York to join the Harlem-based orchestra. Blake was later promoted from solo pianist to assistant orchestra leader, earning the opportunity to choose more numbers, and direct the orchestra. “Jim Europe was the biggest influence in my musical career,” asserted Blake in “Eubie Blake: Keys of Memory”, "He was at a point in time at which all roots and forces of Negro music merged and gained its wildest expression (Carter, 45).” Europe’s guidance allowed Sissle and Blake to understand the need for music in black culture. In 1919 Europe formed the “Hell Fighters” Jazz Band of the 369th Infantry, a group of black servicemen musicians who entertained European audiences with popular American dance styles and jazz music; Sissle performed on drums with the group while Blake managed the office (Kantor, 86). Europe was later stabbed in 1919 during an intermission of a concert by a deranged member of his own band. However, Sissle and Blake respected Europe’s vision of expanding black culture and were determined to make something of themselves as a musical force.
After Europe’s death Sissle and Blake and formed a vaudeville act called the Dixie Duo. They were billed as “America’s Favorite Society Entertainers” by numerous theatres. Their act was different than other African-American stage presentations as Sissle and Blake worked, not in theaters that contained primarily black audiences, but, instead, in the circuit under the control of the Keith firm, one of the country's leading theatrical promoters. Sissle and Blake were able to break through the segregated seating arrangements that existed in many theaters (Kimball). The duo did not entirely eliminate the stereotypes of blacks that spreaded through African-American productions of the period, but, they chose not to perform with the burnt-cork blackface makeup that was conventional for both white and black minstrel performers. The duo performed in only their tuxedos, removing the masks common in most acts. In this respect, Sissle and Blake paved the way for black performers, with a step in the creation of a more respected image for African-American entertainers.
In 1920 Sissle and Blake met the vaudeville team of Flournoy E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles in Philadelphia. The two teams were different in styles, since Miller and Miles were known for joking in minstrel fashion wearing blackface. Yet, along with Miller and Lyles, Blake and Sissle produced the 1921 musical stage production, Shuffle Along. The show was based upon Miller's and Lyles' old sketch Broadway-style show, "The Mayor of Jimtown," a scenario about the comic complications of a three way mayoral race in a fictional all black town. The show was produced with added musical numbers written to suit extra costumes (Kantor, 87). The show was initially planned for a black audience, and ran for two weeks at the Howard Theatre in Washington D.C. then, at the Dunbar Theatre in Philadelphia. Shuffle Along was nearly $20,000 in debt before opening at New York City's 63rd Street Music Hall in May of 1921 (Kantor, 87). After 504 performances, Shuffle Along finished with a reported sum of eight million dollars. Sissle was the lyricist, Blake the composer and the jazzy syncopation of “The Baltimore Buzz” became a new sound on Broadway, that infused the audience with the desire to dance. In the work “The Cotton Club”, Jim Haskins noted that Shuffle Along succeeded because “in earlier shows, ragtime had been hidden under the heavy overlay of operetta. By the time the show opened in New York, Blake had already won fame as a composer, and ragtime was present in pure form in Shuffle Along.” Shuffle Along helped to establish ragtime as a standout form of music, able to finally come into the forefront of performances on Broadway. Blake changed a lyrical waltz into a foxtrot with the number “I’m Just Wild About Harry”, which became one of the hit songs of the decade. The song was revived as part of the 1948 campaign of President Harry Truman and entered upon a fresh round of royalty-producing performances (Kantor). Amid the success of the “I’m Just Wild About Harry” and “Bandana Days” scores Sissle and Blake produced the romantic ballad “Love Will Find a Way.” Performers and critics noted that the ballad introduced a romantic quality about black performers that had never before been allowed onstage. The show included romantic love scenes between black characters, and at the opening performance the pair feared contempt and anger from its white audience. However, both black and white audiences were entranced by the show to make it a success downtown and uptown, where it created a new sense of African-American pride throughout the Harlem community (Kantor, 88). Shuffle Along also became a performing arts academy for some of America’s best black talent, launching the careers of Paul Robeson and Adelaide Hall whom sang in the chorus. Florence Miller would go on to be Harlem’s favorite showgirl and Josephine Baker made her debut as a wisecracking chorine, going on later to outlet the follies of jazz-based Broadway performance style to Europe in the 1930s (Kantor, 88).
In 1924 Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake’s collaboration The Chocolate Dandies helped to cement black musical comedy as a force on Broadway. Opening in September, the two act musical ran for 96 performances at New York’s New Colonial Theatre, closing in November that same year. While not a complete commercial failure, the show, which was set in Bamville, Massachusetts was far from being a box office success. Lew Payton co-wrote the book for The Chocolate Dandies mainly contributing additional dialogue, and the star-studded cast included Josephine Baker, Lottie Gee, Inez Clough, Valaida Snow, and Payton himself. The Chocolate Dandies received mixed reviews. Some critics praised it as highly as Shuffle Along, but others said that it “pandered too much to the stale ideas and expectations of white audiences.” Songs such as “There’s A Million Little Cupids In The Sky”, did not have the same appealing qualities of the earlier ‘I’m Just Wild About Harry’ and ‘Love Will Find A Way’ (Kimball, 86). Like Shuffle Along, The Chocolate Dandies was an all-black show at a time when the American theatre was still decades away from acceptance of black artists.
Traveling to Europe in 1926, Blake and Sissle dropped the name the Dixie Duo for the stage title “American Ambassadors of Syncopation”, performing in England and Paris.

Back in America the pair broke up in 1927, since Blake wanted to return to the U.S., and Sissle hoped to pursue opportunities in France's jazz scene. In October of the same year, Blake organized a new act with Broadway Jones for the Keith circuit. After launching the show Shuffle Along Jr. in 1928, Blake earned $250 a week with the 1930 production of Lew Leslie's Blackbirds, billed as “Glorifying the American Negro (Rose).” Songwriter Cole Porter helped Sissle put together a band of top jazz artists that included clarinetist Sidney Bechet. Touring with this group as a singer, Sissle remained in Europe for years, sometimes returning to the U.S. for brief performances. Sissle and Blake reunited for the Broadway show Shuffle Along of 1933; it was less successful than its 1921 production but inspired another significant career, of Nat "King" Cole, who performed on keyboards

(Kimball).
Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake’s contribution to Broadway expanded the role of African-American musicals and artists. Shuffle Along broke through color barriers and inspired the creation of various black musicals during the 1920s. After the productions of Shuffle Along and The Chocolate Dandies white patronage increased the economic and emotional support for black musical theater. This support brought about a great change to the Broadway scene. Sissle and Blake managed to reinvent black entertainment, doing away with stereotypical comedy and blackface. The Sissle and Blake duo are considered essential figures in not only musical theatre, but also African-American history.