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Eubie Blake

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

James Hubert Blake, better known as Eubie Blake, was an American pianist and composer of ragtime, jazz and popular music. He was born in Baltimore in 1887, the only one of his parents' children to survive childhood. Both his parents had been born into slavery. He later said that he was born in 1883, but census documents and his passport point to 1887. At the age of four or five he began playing an organ in a music shop, and at seven he was taught by an organist. At fifteen he played piano in a Baltimore brothel, and from 1907 at the Goldfield Hotel, a club owned by the boxing champion Joe Gans.

Music and breakthrough

His career began in 1912. After the First World War he worked with the singer Noble Sissle. Together they wrote Shuffle Along in 1921, one of the first Broadway musicals written and directed by African Americans. His best-known compositions include Charleston Rag, Bandana Days, Love Will Find a Way, Memories of You and I'm Just Wild About Harry. After the Second World War he worked with Sissle at the USO. In 1978 the musical Eubie! showcased his work, and in 1981 he received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Ronald Reagan.

Influence

Blake linked the ragtime of the turn of the century with the musical theatre of Broadway. You can hear his fast, rhythmically layered piano playing on records such as Golden Reunion In Ragtime and Rags To Classics. He died in 1983, five days after his ninety-sixth birthday.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to Charleston Rag in Blake's own recording and notice how the left hand plays a firm rhythm while the right hand dances over it with fast, displaced notes.

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

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Mentioned in other articles

See also

Categories: ArtistsRagtimeHarlem Renaissance