10 The Southern Syncopated Orchestra

The SSO was as much concerned with proving to the public that black musicians could attain high musical standards as with making converts, to the music of their own community.

Albert McCarthy

Much of the spirit of the Jazz Age can be traced to African-American music that countered the restraints and strait-laced Victorian era. Influenced by Freud and the sexual revolution, the postwar years were a time of defiant heavy drinking despite Prohibition, of a liberating dance called the Charleston, and of syncopated music that traveled from the bordellos of New Orleans to the nightclubs of Chicago and New York. African Americans became a symbol of that freedom from restraint which others longed to acquire.¹Close

Such was the social backdrop for the rise of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra—an all-black group of 50 formally attired men, with a few women, who played and sang a diverse repertoire of light classics, popular songs, ragtime, spirituals, and waltzes. Just two generations after slavery, the orchestra aimed to encourage, preserve, and uplift African-American culture and to help obliterate racial discrimination by modeling democratic ideals through instrumentation, personnel, and programming. It was hoped that those who heard this fine, talented group perform works by such composers as Johannes Brahms and Harry T. Burleigh would change their attitudes for the better regarding black Americans.

Since Cook’s advanced age of 50 made him ineligible for service in the armed forces, he was available to fill the conducting void created by James Reese Europe’s death. The New York Syncopated Orchestra (which later came to be known as the Southern Syncopated Orchestra) appears to have been a renaming of the Clef Club ensemble that toured the northeastern United States under Cook’s baton in November 1918. Cook entered into a partnership with lawyer and businessman George Lattimore, who provided the necessary contacts, allowing Cook to concentrate on directing, composing, and providing artistic arrangements.

Two months later the New York Syncopated Orchestra embarked upon its first, five-week tour of the Eastern and Midwestern states, performing in such venues as Orchestra Hall in Chicago, Pabst Theatre in Milwaukee, and Carnegie Hall in Pittsburgh. During the fall, winter, and spring they also entertained in exclusive homes in Boston, Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, and Providence.²Close

This unusual performing group adopted the term “orchestra” as it was used in its earliest and broadest sense: a group of mixed instruments playing together, with more than one instrument on a single part. The 50 players and singers consisted of violins, saxophones, trombones, trumpets, mandolins, banjos, guitars, abass horn, tympani, and drums, in addition to a double male quartet and a soprano soloist. The unorthodox instrumentation was no doubt a result of using the entire Clef Club membership of former musical comedy and minstrel musicians.³Close

Guest stars billed with the orchestra included Buddy Gilmore, the celebrated drummer of the Vernon Castle Dance Tours; Frank Withers, the trombonist featured in advertisements as having introduced the blues to New York; the female saxophonist Mazie Mullins; the original Lenwood Quartet of Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolics; the African-American baritone singer George Jones; and the exponents of syncopation known as the Exposition Jubilee Four. Tom Fletcher was also a member of the group for four months and served as assistant manager, stage manager, leading comedian, and sometimes advance agent.⁴Close

The SSO’s concerts were similar to other nineteenth-century theatrical entertainments encompassing the full range from farce to tragedy, juggling to ballet, and minstrelsy to opera, all in one evening. The orchestra demonstrated versatility and flexibility by performing sacred and secular, art and folk, written and unwritten music with equal effectiveness and skill. The programs epitomized democracy in art. Their wide-ranging repertoire of classical waltzes, blues, marches, and spirituals included such popular songs as Will Marion Cook’s “Exhortation,” “Rain Song,” and “Swing Along”; W. C. Handy’s “Memphis Blues” and “St. Louis Blues”; and such spiritual arrangements as Nathaniel Dett’s “Listen to the Lambs.”

Early twentieth-century audiences remained proudly independent, insisting upon receiving what they had been promised, while judging openly what they had heard. It should come as no surprise then that the orchestra’s repertoire was not always satisfying to its listeners. In Ohio the Youngstown Daily Vindicator’s headline read: “A Negro Orchestra, But Little Negro Music.” It continued: “The Colored music masters played at the Park Theatre last night to an audience that comfortably filled the house. But practically everyone was disappointed, because they had expected to hear jazz. While the artists were present who could jazz, they did little jazzing. Billed as the jazziest of jazz orchestras, it proved anything but that.” When the orchestra returned to Ohio, their program was altered to be more appealing to the audience, incorporating a lighter fare and a noticeable trend toward syncopated numbers.⁵Close The orchestra often used the classics as a basis for improvisation, taking operatic excerpts and improvising around them. At a certain point, Cook would say, “Take it! And they’d cut loose!”⁶Close

The majority of the music was written out and arranged by Will Marion Cook, including slides, glissandos, and lip slurs.⁷Close The orchestra was also expected to transpose at a moment’s notice. At one concert the pianos were given a low tuning during the audience’s applause, Mr. Cook passed a quick word among the players for the encore to be played a tone lower—in the key of E-flat instead of F. Occasionally they were given the key changes and were expected to fill in the harmonies extemporaneously. They also made extensive use of call-and-response techniques (one instrumental phrase answered by another). The orchestra knew whether their harmonic renderings were acceptable or not by gauging Mr. Cook’s facial expressions. Unfortunately, to date no manuscripts of these arrangements have come to light.

The American tour concluded with a week’s engagement that began March 17, 1919, at Nora Bayes’s Theatre on 44th Street in the heart of Broadway. Lester Walton of The New York Age described the group as “presenting an enjoyable entertainment of ragtime, jazz, syncopation and song.”⁸Close It had been years since a black aggregation had been housed in a Broadway theater, and the presence of the New York Syncopated Orchestra was considered a happy omen. After this engagement, the orchestra was scheduled to leave on its second Western tour, which climaxed on Easter Sunday, April 20, with a return engagement to Chicago’s Orchestra Hall. (See appendix 4 for itinerary.) The group’s popularity had increased so much that it attracted an audience of more than 2,500 people, 25 percent of them Chicago Symphony subscribers. The Syncopated Orchestra was featured in yet a third appearance at Orchestra Hall, when the Russian Symphony Orchestra canceled for the following week.⁹Close

All these appearances prepared the ensemble for widened exposure abroad. In February 1919 London theater manager André Charlot arrived in New York to scout for unusual talent for European audiences. He was introduced to the New York Syncopated Orchestra and its conductor, Cook. Before long, a six-month engagement at London’s Philharmonic Hall was negotiated for the orchestra.¹⁰Close

London was primed for the kind of entertainment that would provide release from the tensions brought on by World War I plus lingering unemployment and material shortages. Since the tour in the 1870s, the London public had shown an affinity for Southern sounds of the Fisk Jubilee Singers. The freely syncopated rhythms and sounds of the New York Syncopated Orchestra would more than meet the audience’s expectations.

In June 1919, 25 members of the orchestra’s personnel arrived in Liverpool. They sailed on two ships—the Northland from Philadelphia, which arrived on June 12, and the Carmania from New York City, which arrived on June 14.¹¹Close

It was on this tour that the orchestra’s name was changed from the New York Syncopated Orchestra to the American Southern Syncopated Orchestra. The SSO opened at Philharmonic Hall on July 4, 1919. The debut received almost no advance notice. “But the very high quality of playing and singing furnished by the 35 negroes under the efficient direction of Will Marion Cook was quickly whispered about town by the first night audience,” noted Variety.  ¹²Close

So well received was the SSO that they gave over 300 consecutive performances, purportedly a new record in the concert world; and subsequently put on more than 1,200 performances in England, Scotland, and France. During the Philharmonic Hall engagement, the group performed nightly with two weekly matinees on Saturdays and Sundays. The program changed approximately every three weeks.¹³Close

The orchestra’s personnel included trumpeter Arthur Briggs, clarinetist Sidney Bechet, and violinist Paul Wyer. Besides the dedicated singers, some instrumentalists doubled as vocalists. The group’s core remained largely the same as that which had performed in the States, with a few replacements. Business manager George Lattimore, for example, recruited Haitian flautist Bertin Salnave while the latter was studying at the Paris Conservatory.¹⁴Close

One of those who frequently heard the orchestra was Swiss conductor Ernst-Alexandre Ansermet. He commented in the Revue Romande

The first thing that strikes one about the Southern Syncopated Orchestra is the astonishing perfection, the superb taste, and the fervour of its playing. … The musician who directs them and to whom the constitution of the ensemble is due, Mr. Will Marion Cook, is moreover a master in every respect, and there is no orchestra leader I delight as much in seeing conduct.¹⁵Close

Ansermet further recognized the virtuosic genius of the clarinetist Sidney Bechet.

One of Cook’s important legacies was his inclusion of Bechet, who is said to have introduced authentic blues to European audiences. Bechet’s unusual talent helped to bring unique fame to the Southern Syncopated Orchestra. While on this London tour, Bechet made the transition from clarinet to straight soprano saxophone and became one of the few to master it.¹⁶Close

On August 9, members of the SSO were invited to perform at a private afternoon party for servants of the Royal Household and their families, given by King George V and Queen Mary. Cook took a quarter of the orchestral members as well as a quartet featuring Sidney Bechet as soloist. Other performers were cornetist Arthur Briggs, trombonist William Forrester, bandolinist Lawrence Morris, and drummer Robert Young. Carroll Morgan sang “I’ve Got a Robe,” and Lottie Gee also performed “Mammy O’ Mine.” Other selections included “Jessamina,” “Peaches Down in Georgia,” “It’s Me, O Lord,” “Exhortation,” and “Swing Along.” The King enjoyed most Bechet’s rendition of “Characteristic Blues.¹⁷Close

Not all of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra’s experiences were amiable. In fact, considerable dissension had arisen among the members by the end of their Philharmonic performances on December 6,1919.¹⁸Close Dissatisfaction after business manager George Lattimore failed to share his profits fairly with the orchestra led to litigation and a Cook-Lattimore split. Cook recruited local talent for his ensemble while Lattimore secured orchestral replacements from America for his group.¹⁹Close André Charlot was sued for breach of contract, and judgment was entered for $8,655 and court costs. After engaging the orchestra for the Folies Marigny in Paris at $15,000 for a month, Charlot repudiated the contract. There was dissatisfaction as to the amount of remuneration, and the orchestra also wanted Cook reinstated as conductor.

Mr. Lattimore decided to keep the settlement for his expenses, hence the dissolution of the orchestra into two distinct groups, one with Lattimore and the other with Cook. Abbie Mitchell, Cook’s former wife, joined Cook’s faction in London, breaking her contract with the Lafayette Players in New York.

This internal turmoil of distrust in late 1919 and throughout 1920 made Will Marion Cook’s tenure as orchestral director a sporadic affair. As early as November 12,1919, the SSO concert program lacked the name Will Marion Cook as musical director, instead listing trumpeter E. E. Thompson in that role. Cook did, however, conduct the orchestra during its appearance in Liverpool on April 15, 1920, and for at least two other engagements: at the London Coliseum on May 10 - 23 andJune21-July4,1920. A small ensemble known as Will Marion Cook’s Syncopated Orchestra was featured from July 5 to September 18 in the Australian Pavilion at London’s Crystal Palace. During the engagement on August 16, Will Cook and Abbie Mitchell joined the Colored Players (probably SSO members) and opened as a double act at the Olympia in Liverpool.²⁰Close

Under lawyer and business manager Lattimore, the orchestra filed for bankruptcy in December 1920. Whatever the group’s artistic success, the Southern Syncopated Orchestra—plagued by personnel disputes, a depression in theater going, a lack of capital, and players’ strikes—had proved a financial failure.²¹Close Further disaster struck a year later when a large number of SSO members were drowned when the S. S. Rowan sank on October 9, 1921. They had just completed a two-month engagement at the Lyric Theatre in Glasgow and were scheduled to open at the Scala Theatre in Dublin. The ship was rammed in a dense fog by the American steamer West Camak, then severed by the British steamer Clan Malcolm while it was attempting a rescue. More than thirty SSO members were on board;²²Close reports of those missing or dead differed, ranging from eight to eighteen. In addition to the tragic loss of life, many musical instruments and scores were destroyed. The shipwreck, along with the bankruptcy, guaranteed the orchestra’s demise, for no group performing under that name survived far into 1922, and the last ensembles using the name included no one from the original Southern Syncopated Orchestra.

By 1922, however, several spin-off groups emerged, including the Jazz Kings, the Royal Southern Singers, and the Rector’s Red Devils. After the Southern Syncopated Orchestra’s demise, ten former members remained in Europe much longer—including trumpeters, a clarinetist, drummers, pianists, and a banjo player. They contributed to the spread of African-American music throughout the continent. One such ensemble—which included Benny Peyton, Frank Withers, and Sidney Bechet—was reportedly the first jazz group to play in the Soviet Union.²³Close

During these various reorganizations, a number of British musicians who later continued in the jazz arena performed with the group, including Tom Smith, Ted Heath, and Billy Mason. The racially integrated makeup of the SSO brought musical benefits to the players. White trombonist and trumpeter Ted Heath later revealed, for example, that African-American drummer Buddy Gilmore taught him different approaches and techniques essential to jazz.²⁴Close

As the catalyst of the original Southern Syncopated Orchestra, Will Marion Cook played a notable role in extending the dissemination of African-American musical traditions to broader international audiences. In the SSO concerts, diverse groups were brought together for an evening featuring a new and vital popular music that offered a way out of many of the limitations of early twentieth-century society. The song lyrics contained themes of nature, love, hope, and freedom, as well as plantation images of cotton, banjos, Mammy, and home. In the United States their music provided vital entertainment for audiences coping with the transition from rural to urban life, and from slavery to freedom. Within the musical and social context of the Southern Syncopated Orchestra and its offshoots, there were no lines of demarcation between the sacred and the secular, between the highbrow and the lowbrow, between the instrumentalists and the vocalists, and between blacks and whites. This orchestra was trying to place the musical art of the African American in the sphere where it properly belonged. Their billing affirmed that “in the democracy of art, the prejudices of race must disappear.”²⁵Close And so they did within the context of the orchestra and its racially mixed audiences.