William Grant Still

William Grant Still

The First Hundred Years:
A Chronology of Cultural Connections
1920-1924



1920

R. Nathaniel Dett awarded Bowdoin Prize at Harvard University for an essay, "The Emancipation of Negro Music."

"Race records" initiated in New York City with a recording by Blues singer Mamie Smith.

Charlie Parker born in Kansas City, Kansas.

Scholar Eileen Jackson Southern born in Minneapolis, Minnesota.

1921

William Grant Still leaves the W. C. Handy organization to join Harry Pace's Phonograph Company as arranger and recording manager.

Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle produce the first of the Shuffle Along musicals. William Grant Still plays in the pit orchestra.
Shuffle Along Orchestra

Thomas Dorsey (1899- 1993) writes "If I Don't Get There," the first of his gospel songs.

Blues singer/actress Ethel Waters makes her first recording for Harry Pace's Black Swan jazz label.

1922

William Grant Still studies composition privately with George Whitefield Chadwick.

Bert Williams, vaudeville performer, dies while performing in Under the Bamboo Tree in Detroit, Michigan.

1923

William Grant Still begins a period of private study with Edgar Varèse.

Bessie Smith records her first single for Columbia Records: "Down Hearted Blues."

Gertrude "Ma" Rainey makes her first record.

1924

The symphonic poem Darker America completed by William Grant Still.


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