Professional Documents
Culture Documents
net
Onderwerp: Blake, Eubie
Datum: 21 december 2007 14:28:14 GMT+01:00
Aan: laurens@billiet.net
dsg found this entry in Grove Music Online and thought that you'd like to see it.
Grove Music Online is an integrated music resource on the web, including the full text of The New Grove Dictionary of Music and
Musicians, edited by Stanley Sadie and John Tyrrell (second edition; 29 volumes; London, 2001), The New Grove Dictionary of
Opera, edited by Stanley Sadie (4 volumes; London, 1992), and The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, edited by Barry Kernfeld (second
edition; 3 volumes; London, 2002).
Blake, Eubie
Blake made his first recordings in 1917, and continued to record as a soloist (making piano rolls as well as phonograph records) and
with his orchestra into the 1930s. A ragtime revival in the 1950s focused attention on him as the foremost rag pianist in the USA and
launched him on a new career as a touring artist and lecturer, and he resumed recording in 1969 with the album The Eighty-six
Years of Eubie Blake. His playing demonstrates strikingly the interconnections among brass-band music, ragtime, and jazz; his own
ragtime piano pieces have prominent “oom-pah” rhythms in the left hand and a syncopated interpretation of the melody in the right,
but he also introduces a compelling sense of swing and virtuoso improvised breaks into his performances, reflecting the influence of
jazz. His works, along with others written in the 1920s by such composers as Fats Waller and James P. Johnson, had a direct
influence on the development of the Harlem stride-piano school.
In 1972 Blake established his own publishing and record company, Eubie Blake Music, and the following year he cut some piano
rolls, this time for the QRS company. He became a legendary figure, performing constantly on television and at jazz festivals in the
USA and elsewhere. He received many awards from the music and theater industries and from civic and professional organizations,
notably the Presidential Medal of Freedom (1981), and honorary degrees from Brooklyn College (1973), Dartmouth College, Rutgers,
and the New England Conservatory (all 1974), and the University of Maryland (1979). His life was celebrated in documentary films
and on Broadway in the show Eubie (1978). The Eubie Blake Cultural Center in Baltimore and the Maryland Historical Society hold
collections of his music, papers, and memorabilia.
SELECTED RECORDINGS
As unaccompanied soloist: †Baltimore Buzz/†Bandana Days (1921, Vic. 18791); †Baltimore Buzz/*Sounds of Africa (1921, Emerson 10434); Ma (1921,
Emerson 10450); The Eighty-six Years of Eubie Blake (1969, Col. C2S847)
As leader: The Wizard of Ragtime Piano (1958, 20CF 3003), incl. *Eubie’s Boogie Rag, *I’m just wild about Harry
Eubie Blake Plays (c1922); Snappy Tunes (1923); Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake (1927); Pie, Pie, Blackbird (1932); Jazz USA, episode 10 (1960); Scott
Joplin (1976); The Great Rocky Mountain Jazz Party (1977)
BIBLIOGRAPHY
R. Blesh and H. Janis: They all Played Ragtime (New York, 1950, rev. 4/1971)
W. Smith and G. Hoefer: Music on my Mind: the Memoirs of an American Pianist (Garden City, NY, 1964/R1975), 39
J. R. T. Davies: “Eubie Blake: his Life and Times,” Sv, i/6 (1966), 19; contd as “Blake and Noble Sissle,” ii/7 (1966), 12
R. Blesh: “Little Hubie,” Combo, USA: Eight Lives in Jazz (Philadelphia and London, 1971), 187
E. Southern: The Music of Black Americans: a History (New York and London, 1971, rev. 3/1997)
P. Bailey: “A Love Song to Eubie,” Ebony, xxviii/9 (1973), 94
R. Kimball and W. Bolcom: Reminiscing with Sissle and Blake (New York, 1973) [incl. work-list, discography]
E. Southern and B. King: “Conversation with Eubie Blake,” Black Perspective in Music, i (1973), 50, 151
M. Montgomery, comp.: “Piano Roll Notes: Eubie Blake Piano Rollography,” Record Research, nos.159–60 (1978), 4
L. T. Carter: Eubie Blake: Keys of Memory (Detroit, 1979)
A. Rose: Eubie Blake (New York, 1979)
E. A. Berlin: Ragtime: a Musical and Cultural History (Berkeley, CA, Los Angeles, and London, 1980/R1984 with addns)
B. Doerschuk: “The Eubie Blake Story: a Century of American Music,” Keyboard, viii/12 (1982), 52
E. Southern: Biographical Dictionary of Afro-American and African Musicians (Westport, CT, 1982)
D. Jasen: “Eubie at 100,” Sv, no.105 (1983), 84
M. Jones: “Britain Salutes: Eubie Blake, 100,” Jazz Express, no.39 (1983), 1
L. Norment: “Farewell to Ragtime’s Apostle of Happiness,” Ebony, xxxviii/7 (1983), 27
H. Rye: “Visiting Firemen 7: Eubie Blake & Noble Sissle,” Sv, no.105 (1983), 88
L. A. George: The Early Piano Rags (1899–1916) of James Hubert (Eubie) Blake: a Stylistic Study and Annotated Edition (diss.,
University of Maryland, Baltimore County, 1995)
M. Tucker: “In Search of Will Vodery,” Black Music Research Journal, xvi/1 (1996), 123
EILEEN SOUTHERN
Emails sent from the Grove sites are best viewed using Unicode (UTF-8)
Generated:13:28:14 21:12:2007