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Sissle and Blake / Abbie Mitchell (1923/1922) | DeForest Phonofilms
Noble Sissle photo taken by Carl Van Vechten, 1951 Noble Lee Sissle (July 10, 1889 – December 17, 1975) was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer, and playwright, best known for the Broadway musical Shuffle Along (1921), and its hit song "I'm Just Wild About Harry". In early 1916 Sissle joined one of the society orchestras organized by James Reese Europe in New York. He persuaded Europe to also hire his friend, pianist and composer Eubie Blake, and later in the year helped Europe organize a regimental band for the 15th Infantry Regiment (Colored) of the New York National Guard. This would later become the New York 369th Infantry "Hell Fighters" Regiment that served nobly in France in World War I, with Europe as a lieutenant and Sissle as his sergeant and lead vocalist.[4] Unlike most military bands it played syncopated music and was credited with introducing jazz to France. Sissle left the army after the war as a second lieutenant with the 370th Infantry Regiment[5] and joined Europe’s civilian version of the 369th band. Sissle began recording for the Pathe label in early 1917, and sang several vocals on Pathe discs recorded by Europe's 369th Infantry Band in early 1919, after it had become a civilian band.[6] Not long afterwards, on May 9, 1919, James Europe was murdered by a disgruntled band member in Boston, Massachusetts, leaving Sissle, with the help of his friend, Eubie Blake, to take temporary charge of Europe's band. Years earlier Sissle had struck up a partnership with Blake after they first met in Baltimore in 1915. ---- James Hubert "Eubie" Blake (February 7, 1887 – February 12, 1983), was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals to be written and directed by African Americans.[1] Blake's compositions included such hits as "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find a Way", "Memories of You" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie!, which opened on Broadway in 1978, featured his works. ---- Abriea "Abbie" Mitchell Cook (25 September 1884 – 16 March 1960), also billed as Abbey Mitchell, was an American soprano opera singer. She performed the role of "Clara" in the premier production of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess in 1935, and was also the first to record "Summertime" from that musical. Mitchell was the mixed-race daughter of an African-American mother and a Jewish-German father from New York City's Lower East Side.[1] She was reared by a maternal aunt, Alice Payne, in Baltimore, Maryland, where she attended a Catholic convent school. Mitchell was known for performing in the role of "Clara" in the premiere of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess (1935); this was her last musical role on the stage. She was the first singer to record "Summertime" from the opera. After this, "she taught and coached many singers in New York and appeared in many 'spoken' dramatic roles on the stage."[5] In 1939, she played the role of Tallulah Bankhead's intelligent and trusted servant in The Little Foxes on Broadway.[6] She also performed in New York City in other productions and taught at the Tuskegee Institute in Alabama. Lee De Forest made a short film, Songs of Yesteryear (1922), of Mitchell singing, using his DeForest Phonofilm sound-on-film process. This film is preserved in the Maurice Zouary film collection at the Library of Congress. - Wikipedia

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