sedcouncil leadership, music, service, sisterhood, Tau Beta Sigma

Breaking into Theater: The 3rd installment of the TBS SED BHM series

Though this isn’t exactly related to bands, Bob Cole made a significant impact on musical theater for blacks.  This article was taken from the Library of Congress.  I believe the fifth Factor falls under the “Art of Music” category.  Enjoy!Bob Cole

“Robert Allen Cole was born on July 1, 1868, in Athens, Georgia, the son of former slaves. Like Will Marion Cook and James Reese Europe, he became one of the most important composers of his generation, creating a model for other African-American musicians and composers. By 1891 Cole was a member of Jack’s Creoles, a black minstrel company based in Chicago. Within two or three years, however, Cole began to hammer out his own vision of black theater.

After publishing his first songs in 1893, Cole formed his own company of performers, The All-Star Stock Company, in 1894. This company included luminaries such as the Farrell Brothers, Billy Johnson, Stella Wiley (by then Cole’s wife), Will Marion Cook, and Gussie Davis. In 1896 Cole joined forces with the Black Patti Troubadours. He and Billy Johnson left the Troubadours, however, and formed a new company which produced the landmark musical,A Trip to Coontown (1898)—the first New York musical written, produced, and performed by black entertainers. This show’s run was successful; it also toured off and on until 1901.

After the initial production of Trip, Cole broke with Billy Johnson. He soon began a partnership with J. Rosamond Johnson, and occasionally with Johnson’s brother, James Weldon Johnson—a collaboration that lasted until Cole’s death. In 1900 J. Rosamond Johnson and Cole formed a vaudeville act which was noted for its elegance and broad range of material, including many songs that they had written.

Cole and J. Rosamond Johnson continued their musical collaboration. They joined the Klaw and Erlanger production staff and began writing songs for white shows. In 1901 their success was rewarded with an exclusive contract with Jos. W. Stern and Sons for the publication of their music. The song “Under the Bamboo Tree,” from the musicalSally in our Alley (1904), was one of their biggest hits in both black and white musical circles. Some people claim that around 1905 Cole and Johnson were the most popular songwriting team in America.

Cole and the Johnson brothers wrote and helped produce two musicals, The Shoe-Fly Regiment (1907) and The Red Moon (1909). Both shows were successful, but lost money, so Cole and Johnson returned to performing in vaudeville. Cole’s health began to fail in 1910 and in April 1911, he collapsed. Shortly thereafter, Cole drowned in what many believe to have been a suicide.

James Weldon Johnson later referred to Cole as “the single greatest force in the middle period of the development of black theatricals in America.” Although he is still not well known today, history bears out much of Johnson’s claim. Cole was one of the handful of truly pioneering black composers and performers of his time.”

sedcouncil band, leadership, music, SED, service, Tau Beta Sigma, TBSigma, TBΣ

IMPORTANT ANNOUNCEMENTS!

Greetings SED,

Just a couple of important announcements:

First, DLC is THIS WEEKEND!  It’s free, so if you haven’t gone over to www.kkpsipi.org to register, do it NOW! 

At DLC we will be working on a book of cards for Wava.  Please bring with you photos, markers, colored pencils, glue, scissors, and again PHOTOS, to put in the cards.  Once the book is completed, we will be sending it to her family!  Make sure you come prepared to participate as I will not be able to provide enough supplies for everyone! 

SEDVPSP Highlights from Shells: 

If you have any photos of your chapter that you’d like to be featured on the blog or on the SED website, please send them to me, stating what chapter and a brief description of the photo.  Part of the reason why I created the blog was to recognize the chapters that are doing outstanding service, so please be sure to send items in!

The service database has been around for a while, but hasn’t been utilized recently. It contains service projects from chapters all over the district is an opportunity for you all to do that year-round.  So I introduce the “2012 Service Database Challenge”.  The chapter that submits the most original ideas to the database will win a brick in the “Walk of Fame” leading up to our National Headquarters at Stillwater Station.  This is a really great way for your chapter to be recognized and to be a part of National Headquarters. The rules are as follows:

1)All submissions to the database must be submitted via the SED Website: www.kkytbs.org/sed/tbs/index.html
            – Click on “Programs” at the top of the page
            – To submit, click “Contribute to database” and fill out the form
            – To view the current database, click “Current Projects Database”
            – All submissions are automatically sent to my email
            – DO NOT SEND DIRECTLY TO MY EMAIL OR IT WILL NOT COUNT!
2) DO NOT send the same project/idea more than once.  It will not count more than once.
3) The chapter with the MOST submissions will win
4) It DOES NOT matter when the project was completed
5) The DEADLINE for all submissions for the challenge are due by midnight, Wednesday March 14th.

In other news, as decided at the 2011 National Convention, the new deadline for several scholarships and awards is MARCH 1st!  You can view all of those by visiting www.tbsigma.org. Feel free to email your National Vice President for Communication and Recognition, Jonathan Markowski – jonathanmarkowski@tbsimga.org, for more information.

sedcouncil band, Kappa Kappa Psi, leadership, music, service, Tau Beta Sigma

Neither Jazz nor Ragtime: The 2nd installment of the TBS SED BHM series

(Sorry for all those abbreviations in the title!!)

Composer and pianist Eubie BlEurope and members of his bandake referred to James Resse Europe as the “Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. of music”.  Mr. Europe was born in Mobile, Alabama in 1881 but was raised in Washington DC where he learned to play violin and piano.  He moved to New York City in 1904 and became a professional pianist.  While in NYC , he networked with many professionals in the black musical theatre industry.  Eventually one of his songs appeared in the 1906 productions of Shoe-Fly Regiment. 

Mr. Europe formed the Clef Club in 1910, an organization serving as a union and talent agency for black musicians, and eventually a Harlem concert hall.  He served as its president and even formed an orchestra and chorus, which performed “A Concert of Negro Music” at Carnegie Hall in 1912, a performance that had a huge impact on the history of jazz.  It is to be noted, however, that the band was not a jazz band, but a symphonic band.  “The 125-man orchestra included a large contingent of banjos and mandolins and presented music by exclusively black composers. By this time, Europe believed that although black musicians respected white music of quality, they did not need to play or imitate it. Instead they had their own music to play which people of all races would want to hear.”


After leaving the Clef Club in 1913, Mr. Europe went on to form the Tempo Club, an organization very similar to its predecessor.   A year later he worked with dancers Vernon and Irene Castle, inventing dances like the turkey-trot and fox-trot.  In 1914 he began recording a unique style of music, unlike the jazz and ragtime that were popular during the era.

Mr. Europe enlisted during World War I where he put together a band of great musicians and they became the 369th Regiment, or the Hell Fighters.  The band travelled all over Europe, garnering praise from the many natives.  In 1919, the United States welcomed as a hero.  He began a tour with the Hell Fighters across the country, starting in New York City.  However, before the next show in Boston, Mr. Europe was killed by one of his percussionists after a disagreement.  Mr. Europe was known for his booming personality and for being the most popular black bandleader of the early 1900s.

sources: Library of Congress, Oxford African American Studies Center 

sedcouncil leadership, music, service, Tau Beta Sigma

The Southeast District of Tau Beta Sigma presents: Black History Month 2012 – A feature on African-American conductors, composers, and instrumentalists and their contributions to our musical history.

I decided to do this blog series as a way to recognize prominent (and some not so prominent) Black historical figures in music as a way to celebrate this year’s Black History Month.  Each week I plan to feature a different individual and his or her contributions to music.  I hope that you find these blogs entertaining and educational and that you share them with you candidates, bandmates, and/or campus communities.  I encourage your chapters to recognize other Black historical figures in music and shine light on their achievements not just this month, but year round, either by hosting a seminar or guest speaker, doing a showcase, or other creative means at your schools.

This week I am featuring Henry Lewis, conductor (1932-1996) 

Henry Lewis and his wife, opera singer Marilyn Horn. Credit Source: www.astro.com

Henry Lewis, born October 16, 1932 in Los Angeles, California, is credited as the first African American to conduct and American symphony orchestra.  Lewis learned to play the piano as a young child, later moving onto clarinet, and many other instruments.  At just 16 years old he became the first black instrumentalist in a major symphony orchestra, playing the double bass in the Los Angeles Philharmonic.

In 1951, Mr. Lewis began attending theUniversity ofSouthern California on scholarship.  In 1954, he was drafted into the Army where he played with and conducted the Seventh Army Symphony (inGermany and theNetherlands) for two years.  Upon his return to theUS, Mr. Lewis continued to perform with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.  From 1961-1965 he served as the assistant conductor of the ensemble.  During his time inLos Angeles, he also formed the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra.

In 1968, Mr. Lewis was selected as the music director and conductor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.  He spent 8 years with the ensemble, transforming it from a small community group to a prestigious first-class orchestra, taking the stage at Carnegie Hall, theKennedyCenter, and other esteemed venues.  The orchestra played a big roll inNew Jersey community outreach, performing at high schools and various community events in the area, as well as performed with the likes of renowned pianist Misha Dichter and violinist Itzhak Perlman.

Mr. Lewis became the first African-American to conduct at the New York Metropolitan Opera in his 40th birthday in 1972.  He retired from the New Jersey Symphony in 1976.  He continued as the chief conductor of the Radio Symphony Orchestra as well as guest conducting many major orchestras all over the world until his death in 1996. 

I encourage you to read more about his accomplishments and his struggles as a black man in classical music here: New York Times 
 

Sources: NY Times (1996), LA Times (1996), Praise Indy (2001), Astro