In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

- 132 Chapter 10 ThE rAGTImE dInosAur by the early 1920s it seemed that Sweatman’s recording career was over. New bands, both black and white, were changing the whole approach to jazz. On one hand there were the “symphonic jazz” bands such as Paul Whiteman and Vincent Lopez dispensing a form of dance music that, to the casual dancer or record buyer of the time, was the epitome of modern jazz music, but to subsequent generations of collectors and critics plumb the very depths of banality. On the other hand, black musicians such as Johnny Dunn were riding the crest of the “blues craze” wave, which started with Mamie Smith’s recording of “Crazy Blues” for OKeh in the autumn of 1920. Dunn arrived in New York around 1920 with Handy’s Memphis Blues Band and made a name for himself with his “freak” trumpet style, making much use of various mutes. Dunn joined Mamie Smith’s backing group, the Jazz Hounds, and appeared with her, both on record and her sellout tours, until she and manager Perry Bradford had a falling-out in the summer of 1921. Bradford approached Columbia, who were desperate to capitalize on the craze for records of blues singers, and offered them the services of singer Edith Wilson, Johnny Dunn, and most of the former members of Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds, plus Bradford himself, as supplier of blues songs and talent scout.1 Sweatman, no doubt, eyed the competition with not a little degree of envy, and took steps to bring both himself and his act up to date and to appeal to a new, younger audience. In April 1922 the New York Clipper reported that “Wilbur Sweatman ‘The Clarinet King’ and his 15 piece orchestra , now playing the Keith Circuit have been signed to make a series of novelty records for Vocalion. Sweatman claims credit for having made the first so-called jazz records ‘10 years ago’.”2 the ragtime dinosaur 133 The reference to making records for Vocalion (Aeolian Vocalion, to be accurate) is intriguing. While he was to make four sides that appeared on the Vocalion label in 1935 (by which time the label had gone through two changes of ownership), the possibility exists that he did make some records for the label when it was in the hands of the Aeolian Company, which, for whatever reason, were never issued. However, the Aeolian Vocalion recording ledgers for the period no longer exist, so it is impossible to verify whether he did make records for them or not, or whether this was simply a case of journalistic hyperbole. Sweatman spent much of the 1920s vacillating between leading large bands with a full complement of featured singers and dancers and working with a backing trio or quartet. Despite his disappearance from the Columbia catalog, his popularity was apparently undiminished. He was extremely popular with fellow black musicians and performers, not least because of his wide experience in a business that, at that time, was not known for its benevolence to black musicians and performers. He was working as regularly as ever in vaudeville, as well as looking after his music publishing and band contracting interests from his office at 1547 Broadway. This, along with club and radio work with his own band, ensured a full diary. The various groups that Sweatman led in this period were frequently rostered with younger sidemen who subsequently went on to greater fame, most notably Duke Ellington and Coleman Hawkins. Other notable musicians who later achieved renown and who worked with Sweatman in the mid twenties included drummer Cozy Cole, pianist Claude Hopkins, trombonist Herb Flemming, and saxophonist Jimmie Lunceford, the latter working for him in 1926 during college vacations. With the rage for female blues singers at its height in the early 1920s after the phenomenal success of Mamie Smith’s OKeh record of “Crazy Blues,” Sweatman regularly featured female blues singers and dancers in his vaudeville and club work. These included Princess White, Zaidee Jackson (who made a successful career as a theater and cabaret performer in Britain in the late 1920s and 1930s), Ada “Bricktop” Smith (later a celebrated club owner and hostess in Paris), Tressie Mitchell, and Flo Dade. He even made a record with one of his singers , probably Hazel Vanverlayer, on his 1929 Grey Gull record of “Battleship Kate.” Sweatman’s engagements in vaudeville kept him continually on the road, mainly on the Keith-Albee and Orpheum circuits, covering the East Coast...

Share