W. C. Handy

William Christopher Handy (November 16, 1873 - March 28, 1958) was an African American blues composer, often known as "The Father of the Blues".

Transition: popularity, fame and business

In 1909 he and his band moved to Memphis, Tennessee and established their presence on Beale Street. At that time, American society and culture was distinctively segregated and Handy's observations of Whites responses to native Black music in conjunction with his own observations of his habits, attitudes and music of his ethnicity served as the foundation for what was later to become the style of music popularized as "the Blues".

Related Topics:
1909 - Memphis, Tennessee - Beale Street

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The genesis of his "Memphis Blues" was as a campaign tune originally entitled as "Mr. Crump" which he had written for Edward Crump, a Memphis, Tennessee mayoral candidate in 1909. He later rewrote the tune and changed the name to "Memphis Blues."

Related Topics:
Memphis Blues - Edward Crump

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The 1912 publication of his Memphis Blues sheet music introduced his style of 12-bar blues to many households, and was credited as the inspiration for the invention of the dance step the "Fox Trot" by Vernon and Irene Castle, a New York based dance team. Some consider it as the first Blues song ever. He sold the rights to the song for $100, and by 1914 at age 40 his musical style was asserted, his popularity increased significantly and he composed prolifically.

Related Topics:
1912 - Fox Trot - Vernon and Irene Castle - New York - Dance - Rights - 1914

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Because of the difficulty of getting his works published, he published many of his own works and in 1917 he and his business moved to New York City. By the end of that year, his most successful songs Memphis Blues, Beale Street Blues and St. Louis Blues had been published. The Original Dixieland Jazz Band, a White New Orleans jazz ensemble, had recorded the very first jazz record that year, introducing a wide segment of the American public to jazz music. Handy initially had little fondness for this new "jazz" music, but jazz bands dove into the repertoire of W. C. Handy compositions with enthusiasm, making many of them jazz standards.

Related Topics:
Published - 1917 - New York City - Original Dixieland Jazz Band - New Orleans - Jazz - Jazz standard

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Handy's foray into publishing was noteworthy for several reasons. Not only were his works groundbreaking because of his ethnicity, but he was among the first Blacks who were successful because of it. The rejection of his manuscripts for publication led him to self publish his works. In 1912, Handy met Harry H. Pace at the Solvent Savings Bank in Memphis. Pace was valedictorian of his graduating class at Atlanta University and student of W.E.B. DuBois. By the time of their meeting, Pace had already demonstrated a strong understanding of business and earned his business reputation by rebuilding failing businesses. Handy liked him, and he later became manager of Pace and Handy Sheet Music.

Related Topics:
Publishing - Ethnicity - 1912 - Harry H. Pace - Memphis - Valedictorian - Atlanta University - W.E.B. DuBois - Business

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In 1920, frustrated at white publishing companies that would buy their music and lyrics and record them using white artists, Pace amicably dissolved his long standing partnership with Handy, with whom he also collaborated as lyricist, and resolved to start his own record firm which he later named Black Swan Records.

Related Topics:
1920 - Lyricist - Black Swan Records

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For years, scholars thought Handy was a founder of Black Swan Records. However, Handy wrote, "To add to my woes, my partner withdrew from the business. He disagreed with some of my business methods, but no harsh words were involved. He simply chose this time to sever connection with our firm in order that he might organized Pace Phonograph Company, issuing Black Swan Records and making a serious bid for the Negro market. ... With Pace went a large number of our employees. ... Still more confusion and anguish grew out of the fact that people did not generally know that I had no stake in the Black Swan Record Company."

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Although Handy's partnership with Pace was dissolved, he continued to operate the publishing company as a family-owned business, and published other Black composers works as well as his own, which included more than 150 sacred compositions and folk song arrangements and about sixty blues compositions.

Related Topics:
Partnership - Business - Sacred - Folk

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In the 1920s, he founded the Handy Record Company in New York City.

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Bessie Smith's January 14, 1925 Columbia Records recording of St. Louis Blues with Louis Armstrong is considered by many to be one of the finest recordings of the 1920s.

Related Topics:
Bessie Smith - January 14 - 1925 - Columbia Records - St. Louis Blues - Louis Armstrong - 1920s

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In 1926 he authored and edited a work entitled Blues: An Anthology: Complete Words and Music of 53 Great Songs, and is probably the first work of its type which attempted to record, analyze and describe the Blues as an integral part of the U. S. South and the History of the United States.

Related Topics:
1926 - U. S. South - History of the United States

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So successful was Handy's St. Louis Blues that in 1929, he and director Kenneth W. Adams collaborated on a RCA motion picture project by the same name which was to be shown before the main attraction. Handy suggested Blues singer Bessie Smith be placed in the starring role since she had gained widespread popularity with that tune. The picture was shot in June and was shown in movie houses throughout the United States from 1929 to 1932.

Related Topics:
1929 - Director - Kenneth W. Adams - RCA - Motion picture - June - United States - 1932

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The genre of the Blues was a hallmark of American society and culture in the 1920s and 1930s. So much so was it's influence and Handy's hallmark, that author F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote in his epic fiction work "The Great Gatsby" that, "All night the saxophones wailed the hopeless comment of the "Beale Street Blues" while a hundred pairs of golden and sliver slippers shuffled the shining dust. At the gray tea hour there were always rooms that throbbed incessantly with this low, sweet fever, while fresh faces drifted here and there like rose petals blown by the sad horns around the floor."

Related Topics:
Genre - F. Scott Fitzgerald - The Great Gatsby

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