AN AMERICAN MUSICIAN
Probably the most well-known African-American musicians a century ago were the songwriting team of Blake and Sissle. Their recent musical theatre success "Shuffle Along" (504 performances on Broadway, then several East Coast tours and an Off-Broadway revival) had been a springboard for the performing careers of Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, Adelaide Hall, and Florence Mills. The most popular number ("I'm Just Wild About Harry") has been recorded by Al Jolson, Prima, and Judy Garland - but most famously in the Truman presidential campaign.   Its appeal crossed racial divides, and broke a decades-long practice of excluding African-Americans from white theatres (unofficially limiting shows to a single act with black performers). The show was revived in 1933 (with Nat King Cole), again in 1952, and adapted for the stage again in 2014.
James Hubert "Eubie" Blake was born in 1887, the only one of former slaves Emma Johnstone and John Blake to survive childhood in Baltimore. HIs father worked on the docks as a stevedore. When he was 5, Emma bought a cottage organ (paying twenty five cents a week) and Eubie started lessons with the lady who played the organ at the Methodist church. But soon, Eubie was fascinated by ragtime; he even snuck off to play in a Baltimore bordello. In 1907, boxer Joe Gans hired the young Blake to perform in the lobby of his hotel - the tale being Gans first heard the kid at Aggie Shelton's Bawdy House. Blake also played Allen's Boathouse in Atlantic City, including his own compositions "Tricky Fingers' (1904) and "The Charleston Rag."
Noble Sissle, son of Indianapolis Rev. George A. Sissle and Martha (formerly Scott) entered this world in 1889 . The young Sissle sang in church and school choirs, then began singing professionally in 1908 with Joe Porter’s Serenaders. That continued while he was a scholarship student at DePauw University (1913) and Butler University (1914-15). In 1915, the Serenaders performed at Baltimore's Riverview Park, where Noble encountered Eubie Blake, and their lives changed.
Each appreciated the other's abilities, and they decided to form a songwriting team: Blake composing and Sissle as lyricist. They sold their first song, "It’s All Your Fault," to Sophie Tucker for $200 (years later she added their "Have a Good Time Everybody" to her repertoire). That convinced Sissle his future lay in music, not college. The pair would remain friends until Sissle's death sixty years later.   
In 1916, Noble successfully auditioned for James Reece Europe's dance orchestra, accompanying Vernon and Irene Castle in New York. He urged the famous bandleader to hire his friend, so Eubie came north to join the Harlem-based orchestra. Sissle and Blake fit Europe's ideal of the professional black entertainer perfectly. Both had experience performing and writing music for white audiences, without losing their professional dignity. Blake was soon promoted from solo pianist to assistant orchestra leader, and later stated that "Jim Europe was the biggest influence in my musical career,"
When Europe's New York National Guard unit was called-up in 1917, Sissle joined his leader's 369th Infantry Regimental Band as a sergeant. During training in North Carolina, a white man attacked Sissl, which eventually led to the Army seconding the 369th to the French. Both Europe and Sissle served overseas until the war ended.
When Europe re-formed his Society Orchestra in 1919, Sissle was the featured vocalist and Blake the pianist and orchestra leader. After Europe's murder, they briefly led The Society Orchestra, then went on the vaudeville circuit as 'The Dixie Duo.' All along, they continued writing, and In 1921 their revue "Shuffle Along" opened an 18-month Broadway run, followed by another 2 years on tour.
As soon as the first play was established, the partners began work on "The Chocolate Dandies;" the cast (and budget) were double that of "Shuffle Along," so the show would have needed to play to sold-out houses for a year to get into the black. Instead, it went on a 24-week tour before opening on Broadway for just 96 performances. Nonetheless, both later claimed this was their best collaboration, with Blake saying it was his masterpiece.
Lee deForest filmed them performing individually and together; they toured Europe in 1925 where Sissle remained to work with Cole Porter and Fred Waring. During the 1930s they each led bands and performed in movies; Sissle founded the Negro Actors Guild. Both toured for the USO during WW2. In 1948, Blake returned to school, getting a degree from New York University; his career re-started when new interest in ragtime began during the 1960s. Sissle was named the Honorary Mayor of Harlem in 1950 then ran a music-publishing business, owned a nightclub, and was a radio disc-jockey.
Sissle and Blake's last collaboration was the 1968 composition, "Didn’t The Angels Sing || For Martin Luther King" - they assigned all royalties to the King Foundation. It was made while they were recording "86 Years of Eubie Blake." Their last performance together was in Tampa, Florida in 1972.   Sissle died in 1975, Blake in 1983.
#anamericanmusician
Marian McParland performs with and interviews Eubie Blake (1980)
https://www.npr.org/2012/10/19/123385170/
Noble Sissle sings "All of No-Man's Land Is Ours" (1919)
https://youtu.be/dGAV8VCXvA4