Ford Dabney

Dabney attended the business education division of Colored High School (aka M Street High School) in Washington, D.C., grades nine through eleven. Robert Heberton Terrell was the Principal. On June 22, 1901, Dabney was promoted from 1st year (grade 9) to 2nd (grade 10) for the fall of 1901.[upper-alpha 1] This was the same school that James Reese Europe graduated from in 1902. Dabney then attended Armstrong Manual Training School in Washington. He sang in the church choir of St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal Chapel – a mission of St. John's Parish – 23rd Street, between G and H Streets, N.W. – the current campus of George Washington University.

Dabney studied music privately first with his father, John Wendell Dabney, then with his uncle, Wendell Phillips Dabney (1865-1952), then Charles Donch (né Charles Bernard Donch; 1858–1948), William Waldecker (1857–1931), an organist for several churches in Washington, and Samuel Fabian (né Samuel Monroe Fabian; 1859–1921), a concert pianist.[upper-alpha 2][upper-alpha 3][1]

Dabney moved from Washington, D.C., to New York around 1901, two or three years before James Reese Europe moved there. In New York, Dabney studied music and played piano in parlors. He played many piano engagements in drawing rooms filled to capacity with prominent society. Dabney and Europe's early days in New York apparently overlapped because, reportedly, they often met at the Marshall Hotel in Midtown's Tenderloin District, at 127–129 West 53rd Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues – one of two avant-garde hotels for creative, intellectual black New Yorkers. James L. Marshall (1874–1925),[upper-alpha 4] with the assistance of his brother, George Marshall – both accomplished African-American bonifaces – operated the hotel from 1901 through 1914.[upper-alpha 5][6][7] The Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association (compare to White Rats of America), when founded in 1909, was headquartered right across the street at 320 West 53rd Street. The Clef Club – founded in 1910 by Europe, Dabney, and others – was initially headquartered next door, at 137 West 53rd Street, but eventually moved west two blocks to 334 West 53rd. St. Mark's M.E. Church, an African-American congregation, was one block east, at 231 West 53rd. The church flourished from 1895 to 1926.

That same neighborhood, one block south — 52nd Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues — contained, from the late 1930s until the early 1960s, a remarkable concentration of jazz night clubs.[8]

While in New York, Dabney won sponsorship of the Haitian consul to France, Joseph Jefford, who also was a special Haitian envoy to the United States.[upper-alpha 2] In the first week of January 1904, he sailed to Haiti to fill a four-month post as pianist to the president, Pierre Nord Alexis (1820–1910), for $4,000 (equivalent to $130,281 in 2022). His itinerary included a trip to France to play for President Émile Loubet, then to Germany.[upper-alpha 6] His appointment in Haiti was extended through 1907.[9]

From around October 1910 through 1911, Dabney owned and operated a theater bearing his name, "Ford Dabney's Theater." It was located at the eastern edge of the Cardozo neighborhood, Washington, D.C., on the northeast corner of 9th and U Streets, N.W. (2001 9th Street, N.W.), around the corner from the current African American Civil War Memorial Museum. George W. Hamilton (1871–1910) was general manager. The theater's tagline in newspaper ads read, "Refined vaudeville and motion pictures."

In 1910, Dabney formed several touring vaudeville groups, among which, he and violinist Willie Carroll (né William Thomas Carroll; 1881–1943) conceived and produced Dabney's Ginger Girls, who first performed at his theater before going on the road. The Ginger girls were a duet: Lottie Gee (née Charlotte O. Gee; 1886–1973), dancer and soprano, and Effie King, dancer and contralto (photo in New York Age, June 12, 1913, p. 6 Newspapers.com; subscription required). Effie King was the stage name of Anna Green (maiden; 1888–1944), who in 1907, married actor Frank Henry Wilson (1885–1956).

When Dabney's theater manager Hamilton died December 10, 1910,[upper-alpha 7][upper-alpha 8] James H. Hudnell took over as manager. Dabney's Theater received competition when the Hiawatha Theater, running vaudeville, opened in October 1910. It was also located in the Cardozo neighborhood at 2006-2008 11th Street, N.W. That theater ran until May 1922.[10]

In October 1911, the New York Age published an announcement that Dabney had purchased the Chelsea Theatre at 1913 M Street, N.W. (between 19th and 20th Streets, N.W.). Louis Mitchell and J. West were the house managers.[upper-alpha 9] One year earlier, around August 1910, S.L. Jones and L. Kohler Chambers (né Luddington Kohler Chambers; 1874–1913) acquired the Chelsea, which had been "formerly owned and managed by white people."[upper-alpha 7]

Two months later, around December 1, 1911, Dabney's Theater changed hands and James H. Hudnell became sole manager.[upper-alpha 10] He kept the name, "Dabney's Theater," but operated it as a motion-picture theater until January 1912, then added back vaudeville.

In 1909, Dabney began composing and publishing songs, namely "Oh! You Devil" (©1909), "That Minor Strain" (©1910), "Haytian Rag" (©1911), and "Shine" (©1910). Dabney began working with James Reese Europe at the Clef Club in the 1910s, and together collaborated with Florenz Ziegfeld on his shows in New York City (including at the New Amsterdam Theater from 1913 to 1921). Europe and Dabney's collaborations included eight pieces to accompany the dancing of Vernon and Irene Castle.[upper-alpha 11]

In 1917, Ford Dabney's Syncopated Orchestra began recording jazz. In August 1917, during their first session, they recorded 5 songs for Aeolian Vocalion, including "At the Darkdown Strutter's Ball," which featured vocalist Arthur Fields.

Dabney and his instrumentalists were black and Fields was white. According to historian Tim Brooks, that recording was "an early, and unusual example of a white vocalist recording with a black orchestra. Though not the first example of interracial recording, it was progressive for its time."[11] Dabney, from 1919 through 1922, as pianist and leader, recorded 28 songs with Vocalion and Paramount.[12][2]

Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic

The New Amsterdam Theatre in 1905

Dabney, leading his own Syncopated Orchestra, was the musical director of Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic for 8 years, from 1913 to 1921. The shows were in the Roof Garden Club of the New Amsterdam Theatre, where more risqué productions were presented. In that setting, his Syncopated Orchestra stands as the first black orchestra to play regularly in a Broadway Theater.[13][upper-alpha 12][14]

In the summers, Dabney's orchestra performed at the Palais Royale in Atlantic City.

1917

1922

After the start of World War I, Vernon Castle – Dabney and Europe's employer – was determined to fight for England. He joined the Royal Flying Corps, trained as a pilot, but was killed in 1917 during flight training crash at Camp Taliaferro, near Fort Worth, Texas.

James Reese Europe served in World War I as a commissioned officer in the New York Army National Guard and fought as a lieutenant with the 369th Infantry Regiment (the "Harlem Hellfighters") when it was assigned to the French Army. Europe rapidly rose with great acclaim as director the 369 Regiment Band and returned to New York in 1919 as a war hero.

On May 9, 1919, Europe was performing in Boston at Mechanics Hall. During an intermission, he berated a snare drummer, Herbert B. Wright (born 1895), who became enraged and lunged at him, striking his neck with a pen knife in what seemed initially to be a minor nick. Even Europe dismissed it as a superficial wound. But, within a few hours it turned fatal. Wright was convicted of manslaughter and served 8 years of a 10-to-12-year sentence in the Massachusetts State Prison.[18]

After Europe's death, Dabney continued leading his own ensembles, including Dabney's Band and Ford Dabney's Syncopated Orchestra, the latter of which recorded for Belvedere and Puritan Records. However, these endeavors were less successful, and in 1921 he lost his theater position on Broadway.

As a side note, when Wright was released on March 30, 1927, he, with his wife Lillie, went on to live in Roxbury, Boston, at 23 Haskins Street, working as an elevator operator, a danceband drummer, and a private drum teacher. Wright was the first music teacher for one particular 8-year-old Roy Haynes, who lived across the street at 30 Haskins.[Genealogy 1]

After losing his job in 1921 at the New Amsterdam Theatre, Dabney continued working in New York, composing for three more decades. Notably, he scored all the music and co-wrote the lyrics for Rang Tang in 1927. His film credits include the 1934 film, Social Register, and the 1943 film, Stormy Weather (as consultant). Dabney operated an entertainment bureau, and for many years, performed engagements in West Palm Beach and Newport.

Dabney was close friends with the family of Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall and was an honorary pallbearer for the funeral of Marshall's first wife, Vivian Burey Marshall (1911–1955).[upper-alpha 16]

Dabney died June 6, 1958, in Manhattan, at the Sydenham Hospital – 2 months and 9 days after the death of W.C. Handy.

1. "Call Me Dear" (©1908), words by Henry Creamer (1879–1930), music by Dabney, published by Francis, Day & Hunter Ltd.[lower-roman 1]
2. "You Can Learn the Hootchie-Kootchie for a Dollar and Thirty Cents" (©1908), words by Henry Creamer (1879–1930), music by Dabney, published by M. Witmark & Sons; featured in the 1909 production, The Blanche Ring Vaudeville Act[lower-roman 2][upper-roman 1]
3. "Oh! You Devil" (©1909), rag for piano, by Dabney, was published by Maurice Shapiro. Dabney composed it as a quasi-ballet number for Aida Overton Walker, initially as part of his 1909 one-act operetta, The King's Quest.[19] Its premiere is unclear. One account states that Aida Overton Walker introduced it in February 1909 as a dance in Chicago as part of a post-Broadway production of Bandanna Land[20] billed as The New Bandanna Land or "the 2nd edition" of Bandanna Land. The publisher, on February 25, 1910, copyrighted a song version with words by E. Ray Goetz (1886–1954).[upper-roman 2][21][lower-roman 3] "Oh! You Devil" became a favorite of the Clef Club Symphony Orchestra.

From His Honor the Barber (1909)

4. "That's Why They Call Me Shine" (©1910), R.C. McPherson (aka Cecil Mack) and Ford Dabney, publisher[lower-roman 4] words Cecil Mack, music by Dabney.[upper-roman 3][upper-roman 4]

The song debuted in S.H. Dudley's 1909 production of His Honor the Barber, with a notable production in 1911 at the Majestic Theater, currently the site of the Time Warner Center. Stars included Dudley and Aida Overton Walker (1880–1914), who sang "Shine."

According to songwriter Perry Bradford, the song was inspired by a real person named 'Shine' (possibly 'Kid Shine'), a street tough kid who was a friend of George Walker, and who was caught with Walker in the New York City race riot of August 1900.[11]

David Krasner, in his 1995 article, "Parody and Double Consciousness in the Language of Early Black Musical Theatre," stated, "Not only do the lyrics echo themes in Paul Laurence Dunbar's 1895 poem 'We Wear the Mask,' the text signifies what Du Bois calls living a 'double life, with double thoughts, double duties, and double social classes ... ' The lyrics of 'Shine' draw our attention to the double consciousness of racial identity, and parody racism through inverting the position of the signifier. The signifier (Walker) inverts the signified (racial identification; i.e., names), subverting racist signification. 'Shine,' Richard Newman writes, 'is almost a song of social protest in its antiracism."[22]

In 1924, fourteen years after "That's Why They Call Me Shine" was published, Lew Brown shortened the title to "Shine" and changed the lyrics from a black man singing about himself to a shoe shine man who has a sunny outlook.[lower-roman 5][lower-roman 6]

Songs (continued)

5. "Anoma," [characteristic] rag, Jerome H. Remick, publisher (©1910),[lower-roman 7][upper-roman 5]
   William Starmer or Frederick Starmer, cover art. (the anonym of "Anoma," in Haitian Creole, translates to "grandmother")
6. "The Pensacola Mooch" (©1910), Will Cook & Dabney (w&m), copyright by Cook, published by Harry Von Tilzer Music Publishing Co.[lower-roman 8]
7. "Haytian Rag" (©1911), Jerome H. Remick & Co., publisher. The composition was copyrighted after the death of then former Haitian President Pierre Nord Alexis (1820–1910).[lower-roman 9] President Alexis, after Dabney's tenure in Haiti, had declared himself President for life. He was then ousted from power December 2, 1908, followed by going into exile – first to Jamaica, then to New Orleans.

From Ziegfeld Follies of 1910

8. "That Minor Strain" (©1910), Gotham-Attucks Music Publishing Company, publisher[lower-roman 10]
9. "Porto Rico," rag intermezzo (©1910), Maurice Shapiro, publisher[lower-roman 11][upper-roman 6]
10. "Oh! You Angel," rag (©1911), Maurice Shapiro, publisher[lower-roman 12][upper-roman 7]
11. "Georgia Grind" (©1915), Jos. W. Stern & Co., publisher[lower-roman 13]

Castle compositions, co-composed with James Reese Europe, Joseph W. Stern (1870–1934), publisher[23]

The syndicated cartoon, Strange as It Seems, by Elsie Hix (née Elsie Teresa Huber; 1902–1995), dated September 21, 1959, states that "The fox trot was born because Ford Dabney, the band leader, played "Down Home Rag" too slow! The new step was improvised by Vernon and Irene Castle because the tempo was too slow their brisk one-step . . . "[24]

From Kern and Bolton's Nobody Home (1915)[Note 6]

— Princess Theatre April 20, 2015, through June 1915; Maxine Elliott's Theatre June 7, 1915, through August 7, 1915

21. "At That San Francisco Fair," lyrics by Schuyler Greene (né Schuyler Rawson Greene; 1880–1929), music by Dabney, Europe, and Jerome Kern; published by T. B. Harms & Francis, Day & Hunter, Inc.[lower-roman 16][upper-roman 9] performed in Act 2, sang by the character Miss Tony Miller with Chorus; Miller was played by Adele Rowland and Zoe Barnett

Songs (continued)

The King's Quest (©1909)

— Operetta: lyrics by J. Mord Allen (né Junius Mordecai Allen; 1875–1953), an African American poet, music by Dabney, which includes the song, "Oh! You Devil."

Rang Tang (©1927; renewed 1954)

— Musical revue: book by Kaj Gynt (1885–1956); lyrics by Joseph H. Trent; music by Dabney, who tailored some of it for Mae Barnes and Evelyn Preer; published by Leo Feist[lower-roman 23][upper-roman 13][upper-roman 14]

"Shine"

• 1931: A Rhapsody in Black and Blue – performed by Louis Armstrong and band
• 1941: Birth of the Blues – sang by Bing Crosby
• 1942: Casablanca – sang by Dooley Wilson as Sam accompanied by the band in the setting at Rick's Cafe
• 1943: Cabin in the Sky – John William Sublett (aka John W. Bubbles) animates "Shine" in a song-and-dance number; Duke Ellington conducting the MGM studio orchestra and chorus, with Shorty Baker on trumpet and Buck Washington on piano (video via YouTube)
• 1955: The Benny Goodman Story – performed on trumpet by Harry James
• 1956: The Eddy Duchin Story – performed by Tyrone Power as Eddy Duchin and Rex Thompson as Peter Duchin with accompaniment
• 1989: Satchmo: The Live of Louis Armstrong
• 1997: Wild Man Blues – documentary
• 1999: Sweet and Lowdown

"Honey Dear"

• 1934: Social Register

"The Castle Walk"

1939: The Story of Vernon and Irene Castle

• 1983: Low Down and Dirty Rag, Donald Byrd/Group II,[32] choreographed by Donald Byrd, premiered in New York November 3, 1983, at the Dance Theater Workshop, was a new production set to piano arrangements of popular music by Dabney in a suite of three duets based on such period "animal" dances – the Grizzly Bear, the Turkey Trot, and the Chicken Glide – choreographed, according to Jennifer Dunning of The New York Times:

" . . . from slow, sexy clinging to stylish high-stepping, with the performers adding to their outfits at the side of the stage between dances, in stage business that is as potent as the dancing itself. By the last dance, they have become period fashion plates in handsome costumes by Stephen dePietri (born 1952)."[33]