Ford Dabney

Ford Thompson Dabney (15 March 1883 – 21 June 1958) was an American ragtime pianist, composer, songwriter, and acclaimed director of bands and orchestras for Broadway musical theater, revues, vaudeville, and early recordings. Additionally, for two years in Washington, from 1910 to 1912, he was proprietor of a theater that featured vaudeville, musical revues, and silent film. Dabney is best known as composer and lyricist of the 1910 song "That's Why They Call Me Shine," which for decades, through , has endured as a jazz standard. As of 2020, in the jazz genre, "Shine" has been recorded 646 times Dabney and one of his chief collaborators, James Reese Europe (1880–1919), were transitional figures in the prehistory of jazz that evolved from ragtime (which loosely includes some syncopated music) and blues — and grew into stride, boogie-woogie, and other next levels in jazz. Their 1914 composition, "Castle Walk" – recorded February 10, 1914, by Europe's Society Orchestra with Dabney at the piano (Victor 17553-A, Matrix: B-14434) – is one of the earliest recordings of jazz.
Career.
Education.
Dabney attended the business education division of Colored High School "(aka" M Street High School) in Washington, D.C., grades nine through eleven. Robert Heberton Terrell was the Principal. On June 22, 1901, Dabney was promoted from 1st year (grade 9) to 2nd (grade 10) for the fall of 1901. This was the same school that James Reese Europe graduated from in 1902. Dabney then attended Armstrong Manual Training School in Washington. He sang in the church choir of St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal Chapel – a mission of St. John's Parish – 23rd Street, between G and H Streets, N.W. – the current campus of George Washington University.
Dabney studied music privately first with his father, John Wendell Dabney, then with his uncle, Wendell Phillips Dabney (1865-1952), then Charles Donch "(né" Charles Bernard Donch; 1858–1948), William Waldecker (1857–1931), an organist for several churches in Washington, and Samuel Fabian "(né" Samuel Monroe Fabian; 1859–1921), a concert pianist.
1901: New York.
Dabney moved from Washington, D.C., to New York around 1901, two or three years before James Reese Europe moved there. In New York, Dabney studied music and played piano in parlors. He played many piano engagements in drawing rooms filled to capacity with prominent society. Dabney and Europe's early days in New York apparently overlapped because, reportedly, they often met at the Marshall Hotel in Midtown's Tenderloin District, at 127–129 West 53rd Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues – one of two "avant-garde" hotels for creative, intellectual black New Yorkers. James L. Marshall (1874–1925), with the assistance of his brother, George Marshall – both accomplished African-American – operated the hotel from 1901 through 1914. The Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association (compare to White Rats of America), when founded in 1909, was headquartered right across the street at 320 West 53rd Street. The Clef Club – founded in 1910 by Europe, Dabney, and others – was initially headquartered next door, at 137 West 53rd Street, but eventually moved west two blocks to 334 West 53rd. St. Mark's M.E. Church, an African-American congregation, was one block east, at 231 West 53rd. The church flourished from 1895 to 1926.
That same neighborhood, one block south — 52nd Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues — contained, from the late 1930s until the early 1960s, a remarkable concentration of jazz night clubs.
Haiti.
While in New York, Dabney won sponsorship of the Haitian consul to France, Joseph Jefford, who also was a special Haitian envoy to the United States. In the first week of January 1904, he sailed to Haiti to fill a four-month post as pianist to the president, Pierre Nord Alexis (1820–1910), for $4,000 (). His itinerary included a trip to France to play for President Émile Loubet, then to Germany. His appointment in Haiti was extended through 1907.
Dabney's Theater, Washington, D.C..
From around October 1910 through 1911, Dabney owned and operated a theater bearing his name, "Ford Dabney's Theater." It was located at the eastern edge of the Cardozo neighborhood, Washington, D.C., on the northeast corner of 9th and U Streets, N.W. (2001 9th Street, N.W.), around the corner from the current African American Civil War Memorial Museum. George W. Hamilton (1871–1910) was general manager. The theater's tagline in newspaper ads read, "Refined vaudeville and motion pictures."
In 1910, Dabney formed several touring vaudeville groups, among which, he and violinist Willie Carroll "(né" William Thomas Carroll; 1881–1943) conceived and produced Dabney's Ginger Girls, who first performed at his theater before going on the road. The Ginger girls were a duet: Lottie Gee "(née" Charlotte O. Gee; 1886–1973), dancer and soprano, and Effie King, dancer and contralto (photo in "New York Age," June 12, 1913, p. 6 ; subscription required). Effie King was the stage name of Anna Green "(maiden;" 1888–1944), who in 1907, married actor Frank Henry Wilson (1885–1956).
When Dabney's theater manager Hamilton died December 10, 1910, James H. Hudnell took over as manager. Dabney's Theater received competition when the Hiawatha Theater, running vaudeville, opened in October 1910. It was also located in the Cardozo neighborhood at 2006-2008 11th Street, N.W. That theater ran until May 1922.
In October 1911, the "New York Age" published an announcement that Dabney had purchased the Chelsea Theatre at 1913 M Street, N.W. (between 19th and 20th Streets, N.W.). Louis Mitchell and J. West were the house managers. One year earlier, around August 1910, S.L. Jones and L. Kohler Chambers "(né" Luddington Kohler Chambers; 1874–1913) acquired the Chelsea, which had been "formerly owned and managed by white people."
Two months later, around December 1, 1911, Dabney's Theater changed hands and James H. Hudnell became sole manager. He kept the name, "Dabney's Theater," but operated it as a motion-picture theater until January 1912, then added back vaudeville.
Career (continued).
In 1909, Dabney began composing and publishing songs, namely "Oh! You Devil" (©1909), "That Minor Strain" (©1910), "Haytian Rag" (©1911), and "Shine" (©1910). Dabney began working with James Reese Europe at the Clef Club in the 1910s, and together collaborated with Florenz Ziegfeld on his shows in New York City (including at the New Amsterdam Theater from 1913 to 1921). Europe and Dabney's collaborations included eight pieces to accompany the dancing of Vernon and Irene Castle.
Dabney's Syncopated Orchestra.
In 1917, Ford Dabney's Syncopated Orchestra began recording jazz. In August 1917, during their first session, they recorded 5 songs for Aeolian Vocalion, including "At the Darkdown Strutter's Ball," which featured vocalist Arthur Fields.
Dabney and his instrumentalists were black and Fields was white. According to historian Tim Brooks, that recording was "an early, and unusual example of a white vocalist recording with a black orchestra. Though not the first example of interracial recording, it was progressive for its time." Dabney, from 1919 through 1922, as pianist and leader, recorded 28 songs with Vocalion and Paramount.
Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic
Dabney, leading his own Syncopated Orchestra, was the musical director of "Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic" for 8 years, from 1913 to 1921. The shows were in the Roof Garden Club of the New Amsterdam Theatre, where more risqué productions were presented. In that setting, his Syncopated Orchestra stands as the first black orchestra to play regularly in a Broadway Theater.
In the summers, Dabney's orchestra performed at the Palais Royale in Atlantic City.
1917: death of Vernon Castle.
After the start of World War I, Vernon Castle – Dabney and Europe's employer – was determined to fight for England. He joined the Royal Flying Corps, trained as a pilot, but was killed in 1917 during flight training crash at Camp Taliaferro, near Fort Worth, Texas.
1919: death of James Reese Europe.
James Reese Europe served in World War I as a commissioned officer in the New York Army National Guard and fought as a lieutenant with the 369th Infantry Regiment (the "Harlem Hellfighters") when it was assigned to the French Army. Europe rapidly rose with great acclaim as director the 369 Regiment Band and returned to New York in 1919 as a war hero.
On May 9, 1919, Europe was performing in Boston at Mechanics Hall. During an intermission, he berated a snare drummer, Herbert B. Wright (born 1895), who became enraged and lunged at him, striking his neck with a pen knife in what seemed initially to be a minor nick. Even Europe dismissed it as a superficial wound. But, within a few hours it turned fatal. Wright was convicted of manslaughter and served 8 years of a 10-to-12-year sentence in the Massachusetts State Prison.
After Europe's death, Dabney continued leading his own ensembles, including Dabney's Band and Ford Dabney's Syncopated Orchestra, the latter of which recorded for Belvedere and Puritan Records. However, these endeavors were less successful, and in 1921 he lost his theater position on Broadway.
As a side note, when Wright was released on March 30, 1927, he, with his wife Lillie, went on to live in Roxbury, Boston, at 23 Haskins Street, working as an elevator operator, a danceband drummer, and a private drum teacher. Wright was the first music teacher for one particular 8-year-old Roy Haynes, who lived across the street at 30 Haskins.
Dabney's career (continued) and death.
After losing his job in 1921 at the New Amsterdam Theatre, Dabney continued working in New York, composing for three more decades. Notably, he scored all the music and co-wrote the lyrics for "Rang Tang" in 1927. His film credits include the 1934 film, "Social Register," and the 1943 film, "Stormy Weather" (as consultant). Dabney operated an entertainment bureau, and for many years, performed engagements in West Palm Beach and Newport.
Dabney was close friends with the family of Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall and was an honorary pallbearer for the funeral of Marshall's first wife, Vivian Burey Marshall (1911–1955).
Dabney died June 6, 1958, in Manhattan, at the Sydenham Hospital – after the death of W.C. Handy.
Works.
Songs and rags.
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Filmography.
"Shine"
"Honey Dear"
"The Castle Walk"
Chief collaborators.
As bandleader, songwriter, professional organization founder
As songwriter
As theater orchestra musical director
Dabney's legacy as a ragtime pianist.
In an effort to place Dabney as a ragtime pianist among peers, Elliott Shapiro (1895–1956), son of one of Dabney's publishers, Maurice Shapiro, in a 1951 article, offered a list of ragtime pianists — in two categories, (i) pioneers and (ii) later ragtimers. Shapiro included Dabney in the latter group.
Family.
Parents
Ford Thompson Dabney was born to John Wesley (J.W.) Dabney (1851–1924) and Rebecca C. Ford "(maiden;" 1854–1896). J.W. and Rebecca had married November 13, 1879, in Alexandria, Virginia. J.W. was a musician and celebrated barber, who, according to the "Washington Times" in 1903, had cut hair for President McKinley and President Theodore Roosevelt. Beginning around 1889, J.W. Dabney was often referred to as Capt. J.W. Dabney, reflecting his rank in a Washington, D.C.-based milita, exclusively African-American, known as the Washington Cadet Corps, founded June 12, 1880 – which in 1887, was the first unit to become a permanent part of the then newly established District of Columbia National Guard, Fifth Battalion. Capt. Dabney, nonetheless, as a professional, was chronicled as an innovative and successful tonsorial artist. Ford's step-mother, Capt. Dabney's second wife (married December 21, 1898) – Gertrude V. Dabney "(née" Gertrude V. Adams; 1876–1961) – sold J.W. Dabney's tonic products.
J.W. Dabney's barber shop, in the latter 1880s, was at the Hamilton House Hotel, 14th and K Streets, N.W. (same site as the Hamilton Hotel erected in 1922 at the northwest corner of Franklin Square). On November 15, 1888, J.W. Dabney opened a barber shop at Welckers Hotel (see photo below), 721 15th Street, N.W., between New York Avenue and H Street, N.W.
Dabney's stepmother, Gertrude, in 1929, held the distinction of serving on the first all-women jury in Washington, D.C. She was the only non-white.
WifeDabney married – on March 14, 1912, in Washington – Martha D. Gans, widow of boxer Joe Gans who had owned the Goldfield Hotel in Baltimore at the corner of East Lexington and Colvin Streets, just east of downtown, in the Pleasant View Gardens neighborhood. Joe Gans – according to boxing historian and "Ring Magazine" founder Nat Fleischer – was the greatest lightweight boxer of all-time.
Ford and Martha had a son, Ford Thompson Dabney, Jr. (1917–1983), who became a certified public accountant.
Uncle and step-aunt: James H. and Ruby H. DabneyGertrude's sister (Ford Dabney's step-aunt), Ruby H. Dabney "(née" Ruby Adams; 1872–1901) (see photo below), was the second of three wives of one of Ford's uncles, James H. Dabney (1846–1923), a prominent and affluent Washington, D.C.-based undertaker and philanthropist. Ruby, in 1898, earned a professional degree from the Massachusetts College of Embalming, Boston – notable for being the first African American woman in the history of Washington, D.C., to earn a college diploma.
Uncle: Wendell Phillips DabneyDabney's uncle, Wendell Phillips Dabney (1965–1952), who is chronicled as having been one of his music teachers, became founding president of Cincinnati chapter of the NAACP, author, and newspaper editor and publisher of the "Ohio Enterprise," later named "The Union," both late of Cincinnati. During the early 1890s, Prof. Wendell Phillips Dabney was of the most notable musicians in Richmond, Virginia. He had studied attended music in 1883 at the Oberlin Conservatory of Music. Part of his influence on Ford Dabney, as his student, may be found in the 1914 composition, "Castle Valse Classique," humoreske, an adaptation by Dabney of Antonin Dvořák's Humoresque, Op. 101, No. 7 (of 8), "Poco lento e grazioso" in G major. Prof. Dabney, in 1895, contacted Dvořák, who was director the National Conservatory of Music of America, an institution in New York that, like Oberlin, accepted African Americans. At Dvořák's home, Prof. Dabney, among other things, introduced one of his own compositions, a plantation melody, "Uncle Remus."
Great uncle: John Marshall DabneyOne of Dabney's great uncles, John Marshall Dabney (1824–1900), was honored in November 2015 in Richmond, Virginia, at the Quirk Hotel, as a caterer and bartender – known as the world's greatest mint julep maker. The event was attended by notable community members and one of his great-great granddaughters, Jennifer Hardy "(née" Jennifer Dehaven Jackson). Jennifer's mother (great-granddaughter-in-law of John Marshall Dabney), Mary Hinkson (1925–2014), was an internationally celebrated modern dancer. His legacy was the subject of the a 23-minute documentary released in 2017, "The Hail-Storm: John Dabney in Virginia," by Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren.
One of John Marshall Dabney's sons (Dabney's 1st cousin, once removed)John Milton Dabney "(né" Milton Williamson Dabney; 1867–1967) was a player in the Black baseball leagues. Alexander "Buck" Spottswood, as manager, and J. Milton Dabney as team captain, reorganized, in 1895, the Manhattan Baseball Club of Richmond, Virginia. J.M. Dabney also played for the Original Cuban Giants of St. Augustine, Florida, and Trenton, New Jersey – the first professional African-American baseball team.