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29 W. C. Handy W. C. Handy, “Father of the Blues,” is one of the best-known black Americans of the twentieth century and his “St. Louis Blues” is one of its best-known songs. Less well known are the struggles he endured, the important role that records played in popularizing his innovative music during the 1910s, and the story of his own recordings, most of them made between 1917 and 1923. Handy is one of those lucky musicians who lived long enough to enjoy the fruits of his early accomplishments, as well as the acclaim of later generations. He also wrote an unusually vivid and engaging autobiography, Father of the Blues (1941), which has served as the basis of much that has been written about him and, to a large extent, allowed him to define how he would be remembered.1 William Christopher Handy was born on November 16, 1873, in Florence, Alabama , the son of ex-slaves. Both his father, Charles, and paternal grandfather, William Wise Handy, were ministers who disapproved of secular music and discouraged him from seeking a musical career. In his autobiography Handy told of buying a guitar with money he had saved, only to have his stern father make him take it back and exchange it for a dictionary. Handy’s aptitude for music was unmistakable, however, and Charles did pay for organ lessons in order that his son could learn the proper kind of music. Eventually young W. C. bought a rotary-valve coronet (a kind of trumpet) and practiced on his own. He also studied music at the Florence District School for Negroes. A lad with a strong independent streak, as well as a certain wanderlust, Handy left home at the age of fifteen to join a small-time minstrel troupe only to have it fail and leave him stranded. He returned to school to finish his education. An excellent student, he easily passed a teaching exam upon graduation and became a teacher in Birmingham, but the pay was so poor he quit and worked for a time in a pipe-works plant before deciding that music was truly his calling. His first attempt at making a living in music was a disaster. Handy and some friends formed a vocal quartet and hitchhiked to Chicago, hoping to find work at the long-awaited 1892 World’s Columbian Exposition, which was being organized to celebrate the 400th anniversary of Columbus’s “discovery” of America. When they arrived they found that the fair had been postponed (it would finally open in May 1893); moreover, the country was sliding into a deep economic depression. With employment prospects grim, the quartet disbanded and Handy wandered the Midwest, landing for a time in St. Louis. Penniless, hungry, and literally sleeping in the streets, he later described it as one of the most miserable times of his life, and yet one that affected him greatly. His experiences would find their way into some of his most memorable lyrics. Of the famous opening line of “St. Louis Blues,” “I hate to see de evenin’ sun go down,” he later remarked, “if you ever had to sleep on the cobbles down by the river in St. Louis, you’ll understand that complaint.”2 Eventually Handy settled in Henderson, Kentucky, where he played with a black 05.335-496_Broo 12/22/03, 1:43 PM 410 411 orchestra and learned a great deal about vocal music from Professor Bach, the helpful director of a first-rate German singing society. In August 1896 he received an offer to join Mahara’s Mammoth Colored Minstrels, one of the premiere black minstrel troupes then touring the country, as a cornetist. The next four years provided Handy with a graduate education in show business, as Mahara’s Minstrels crisscrossed the United States, Canada, and Mexico. The talented young cornetist was soon promoted to leader of one of the bands traveling with the company, and reports in theatrical journals began to take note of him. The minstrel shows of this era were great theater, and impresarios like Irishman W. A. Mahara knew how to put on a good show for entertainment-starved citizens of small towns. A September 1896 report described the traditional parade through town that preceded the evening performance. “The street parade is in full dress, silk hats and eight silk banners bearing various designs, with six Mexican-dressed drum majors and pickaninny drum corps, six walking gents with white Prince Albert suits...

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