Black Swan Records
| Black Swan Records | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Parent company | Jazzology |
| Founded | 1921 |
| Founder | Harry Pace |
| Distributor(s) | George H. Buck Jr. Jazz Foundation |
| Genre | Jazz, blues |
| Country of origin | U.S. |
| Location | New Orleans |
| Official website |
www |
Black Swan Records was an American jazz and blues record label founded in 1921 in Harlem, New York. It was the first widely distributed label to be owned, operated, and marketed to African Americans. (Broome Special Phonograph Records was the first to be owned and operated by African Americans).[1] Black Swan was revived in the 1990s for CD reissues of historic jazz and blues recordings.
History
Black Swan's parent company, Pace Phonograph Corporation, was founded in March 1921 by Harry Pace and was based in Harlem.[2] The new production company was formed after Pace's music publishing partnership with W. C. Handy, Pace & Handy, had dissolved.[2]
Bert Williams was an early investor in Pace Phonograph. Williams also promised to record for the company once his exclusive contract with Columbia Records ended, but he died before that could occur.[3]
Pace Phonograph Corporation was renamed Black Swan Phonograph Company in the fall of 1922. Both the record label and production company were named after 19th century opera star Elizabeth Greenfield, who was known as the Black Swan.[4][5]
Former employees of Pace & Handy staffed the new company: Fletcher Henderson, the recording manager, provided piano accompaniment for singers and led a small band for recording sessions. William Grant Still was named arranger and later musical director.[4] Noted author, activist, and academic W. E. B. Du Bois was a stockholder and member of the Board of Directors of Black Swan. Ads for Black Swan often ran in The Crisis, the magazine of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, which Du Bois edited.[6][7][8]
The production company declared bankruptcy in December 1923, and in March 1924 Paramount Records bought the Black Swan label. The Chicago Defender reported the event by noting important accomplishments of Black Swan in a short career span, including: pointed out—to the major, all white-owned, record companies—the significant market demand for black artists; prompted several major companies to begin publishing music by these performers. In addition, the Defender credited Pace with showing the majors how to target black audiences and to advertise in black newspapers. Paramount discontinued the Black Swan label a short time later.
The Black Swan label was revived in the 1990s for a series of CD reissues of historic jazz and blues recordings originally issued on Black Swan and Paramount. These CDs were issued by George H. Buck's Jazzology and GHB labels under the control of the George H. Buck Jr. Jazz Foundation, which gained rights to the Paramount back-catalogue but not the Paramount name. Rights to the name "Black Swan Records" were also transferred to GHB.
Notable artists
- Bessie Allison, original member of the Shuffle Along cast
- C. Carroll Clark, baritone who was the first artist recorded by the label[9]
- Four Harmony Kings, vocal quartet
- Henry Creamer and J. Turner Layton, vaudeville duo
- Katie Crippen, vaudeville singer
- Kemper Harreld, violinist
- Lucille Hegamin, jazz and blues singer
- Revella Hughes, soprano featured on one of the label's first releases[2]
- Alberta Hunter, blues singer
- "Mamie Jones", pseudonym for singer Aileen Stanley who was one of many white artists to record for Black Swan. These artists were "passing for colored" since the label was advertised as featuring only black artists.[10]
- Trixie Smith, blues singer, second only to Ethel Waters in Black Swan sales.
- Florence Cole Talbert, soprano
- Eva Taylor, singer
- Ethel Waters, blues and pop song singer. She had the label's first commercially successful records, and remained their best seller.
- Essie Whitman, vaudeville singer[2][9][10][11][12]
The classic jazz artists appearing on Black Swan Records include:
· Viola Bartlette
· Ed Bell
· Bob Call
· Buddy Hawkins
· Bertha Henderson
· Ike Rodgers
· Ivy Smith
· Leola B. Wilson
See also
References
- ↑ Sutton and Nauck, p. 21, 27
- 1 2 3 4 Weusi, Jitu K. (1996). "The Rise and Fall of Black Swan Records". A History of Jazz Before 1930. The Red Hot Jazz Archive. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ↑ "Bert Williams (advertisement)". The Crisis. New York. 23 (6): 284. April 1922. ISSN 0011-1422. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- 1 2 Brooks 2004, p. 168.
- ↑ "The Black Swan". The Crisis. New York. 21 (5): 213. March 1921. ISSN 0011-1422. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ↑ "Black Swan Records (advertisement)". The Crisis. New York. 23 (4): 187. February 1922. ISSN 0011-1422. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
- ↑ "A List of Sacred and High Class Black Swan Records (advertisement)". The Crisis. New York. 23 (5): 236. March 1922. ISSN 0011-1422. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
- ↑ "To the Investing Public (advertisement)". The Crisis. New York. 25 (1): 44. November 1922. ISSN 0011-1422. Retrieved January 27, 2010.
- 1 2 Settlemier, Tyrone (September 19, 2008). "Black Swan 2000 Series numerical listing". The Online Discographical Project. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- 1 2 "White Performers on Black Swan". Mainspring Press. 2005. Archived from the original on September 24, 2010. Retrieved February 3, 2010.
- ↑ Settlemier, Tyrone (November 30, 2006). "Black Swan miscellaneous series". The Online Discographical Project. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
- ↑ Sutton, Allan (August 29, 2007). "Black Swan's Other Stars". Mainspring Press. Retrieved February 2, 2010.
Bibliography
- Brooks, Tim (2004). Lost Sounds: Blacks and the Birth of the Recording Industry, 1890-1919. Urbana: University of Illinois Press. p. 168. ISBN 0-252-02850-3.
- Southern, Eileen (1997). The Music of Black Americans: A History (3rd ed.). New York: W. W. Norton & Company. ISBN 0-393-97141-4.
- Sutton, Allan; Kurt Nauck (2000). American Record Labels and Companies - An Encyclopedia (1891-1943) (1st ed.). Denver: Mainspring Press. p. 417. ISBN 0-9671819-0-9.