Minstrel shows were largely made up of either Black performers or of White actors and musicians who performed in "blackface," and often they reinforced the stereotype of the slow-talking, lazy, happy-go-lucky Black man from the South. Among the earliest of these performers were Frank Johnson (1792-1844) and Joseph Postlewaite (1837-1889). Predating Cook by many years, Johnson and Postlewaite were among a number of Black and other orchestra leaders who played society dances and minstrel shows alike, and they would be the embryonic influence of what would be called the "big band" over a century after their time. Johnson was a prolific composer who played both the bugle and the violin, and among his compositions were The New Railroad Gallop, and in the 1830's he led a small orchestra that played in the UK ("Francis Johnson (composer) at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francis_Johnson_(composer) - accessed 2/12/2017). This definitely puts him as an early forerunner of both jazz and dance bands, although much of the repertoire such groups played was standard waltzes, quadrilles, and other dances of the times which primary entertained White audiences.
Frank Johnson (1792-1844)
Joseph W. Postlewaite (1837-1889) was a much younger contemporary of Johnson, and his composition, "Concert Hall Grand Waltz" published in 1845, launched a lucrative musical career for Postlewaite as a composer, as well as leading several society parlor orchestras in the 1860's and 1870's. Like Johnson before him, he catered to a primarily upper-crust White clientele, and his legacy would also contribute to the rise of later large dance bands in the following century ("Joseph W. Postlewaite," at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_W._Postlewaite - accessed 2/12/2018).
A variety of Black minstrel and dance orchestras also proliferated during the 19th century, including groups such as the Malara Minstrels (1896), the Hicks and Swiger Minstrels, the McCabe and Young Minstrels, and the Richards and Pringle Minstrels, among others. Not much is documented as to what influence Postlewaite, Johnson, and others had on a young Black composer named Will Marion Cook, who was also a student of Czech composer Anton Dvorak. However, as Cook was a product of his times, I would theorize that these earlier bandleaders and composers had some bearing on Cook, as again he didn't emerge from a vaccuum. It is now the point where Will Marion Cook is to be discussed.
Will Marion Cook was born on January 27th, 1869 (just a little over a hundred years before my own birth!) as William Mercer Cook, and his father, John Hartwell Cook, was an educated Black alumnus of Charles Finney's Oberlin College who worked for the newly-organized Freedmen's Bureau, which had the task of helping to educate and integrate freed slaves into American society. Where Cook was born was the location of what would become the "Black Harvard," Howard University, in Washington, DC. His father was a law student at the fledgling university, and wanted his son to have a well-rounded experience, thus causing him to be sent to Tennessee to be raised with his maternal grandparents. He later followed his father's footsteps and attended Oberlin and he studied music there from the age of 14 (Marva Griffin Carter, Swing Along: The Musical Life of Will Marion Cook. New York: Oxford University Press, 2008. pp. 5-13). It was in 1885, when the National Conservatory of Music was founded by wealthy socialite Jeannette Meyer Thurber on Manhattan, that Cook's legacy reached an important milestone. Thurber managed to attract Dvorak to her new Conservatory, and also took on a number of bright Black young people, including Cook, and here he was exposed to Dvorak's influence. It also opened doors to his Broadway debut, where his scores, notably In Dahomey, made the stage in 1903, although Cook was directing and leading orchestras long before that. (Carter, pp. 29-35). This is not meant to be a complete composite of Cook's life, but rather provides a background to his founding of a very important orchestra that would impact the development of jazz both in America and in Europe.
Will Marion Cook (1869-1944)
Cook's founding of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra around the year 1919 was pivotal in introducing some major figures of jazz to the world, including Eubie Blake, James Reese Europe, Sidney Bechet, and he would later become a mentor to a young Black pianist in Washington by the name of Edward Kennedy Ellington, better known to us as Duke Ellington, who affectionately called him "Dad Cook." The 50-piece Southern Syncopated Orchestra doesn't appear to be Cook's first venture with wielding a baton, as he had led smaller orchestras since the 1890's. He used the influences he learned from Dvorak and others, redefining them in the American Black experience, and a uniquely American form of serious music was founded, although due to segregation at the time Cook (much like his contemporary, composer William Grant Still) never was able to achieve what he had the potential of being. Nonetheless, his contributions to the development of both American jazz and the dance band genre cannot be underestimated, but more importantly his legacy as an American composer was only realized many years after his passing. Many big band enthusiasts overlook Cook's legacy, which is unfortunate, and that is why I wanted to include it here. He was one of the earliest big dance bandleaders, and thus is important to the history of the dance bands for his legacy. Unfortunately, there doesn't seem to be any recordings of Cook's orchestra, and indeed the only recording I am aware of that showcases Cook is a recording from around 1923 of a young Black female singer named Ethel Waters entitled "I'm Coming, Virginia," accompanied by Will Marion Cook's "Singing Orchestra," on which Cook also plays piano. Waters of course became a legend in her own right - her devout Christianity, many years association with Rev. Billy Graham, and her classic rendition of the old spiritual "His Eye is On the Sparrow," all speak for themselves - but this record is significant because one hears Cook's own playing. It is really tragic that Cook's great orchestra was not recorded, as that would have been something amazing for collectors. Perhaps - one can hope for miracles! - something could still show up in Europe where maybe Cook made some obscure recordings in the early 1900's. If so, I definitely would love to know about those.
Cook's Southern Syncopated Orchestra in 1919 in Europe
The legacy of Will Marion Cook as well as of those who preceded him, such as Johnson and Postlewaite, shed new light and appreciation on the evolution of the big band as a musical tradition, and it shows that these roots do run deep. It also fairly acknowledges that the Black contribution to this development is integral, but at the same time many of those Black musicians were playing music that they learned from their White contemporaries - in the case of Cook, he was directly impacted by Antonin Dvorak. However, like any good musician does, these talented Black pioneers took something they learned from their European neighbors, and they expressed themselves through it, thus adding another ingredient to a rich multicultural stew that would become the distinctly American art form called jazz later. As we continue this discussion, we are going to talk later about the contributions of many immigrant communities - Jews, Slavs, Italians, etc. - to this rich tapestry. Big bands/dance bands, in other words, have a rich family tree, and like any good genealogist we need to explore the whole tree rather than focusing on a part of it and creating a division. And, that is the whole point of my own discussion in this area. We'll see you again soon.
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