The Versatile Four

Also known at times as the Versatile Three, the Versatile Four was an Afro-American string band that grew out of the Versatile Entertainers Quintet, an ensemble that performed at James Reese Europe's Clef Club in May 1910. The core players were banjoist Anthony Tuck, born in Danville, VA around 1880; pianist Charles Wenzel Mills, born in Quincy, IL circa 1883; and Chicago drummer Charles Wesley Johnson, believed to have been born in 1885. In yet another professional link with James Reese Europe, these three were hired to accompany exhibition dancers Vernon and Irene Castle during their summer 1913 tour of France. By November of that year the instrumentalists were in London collaborating with banjoist Gus Haston to form the Versatile Four. Haston was born in St. Louis around 1879, studied music in Toronto, toured Europe in 1905 playing mandolin with Ernest Hogan's Memphis Students, and settled in London shortly thereafter. The Versatile Four toured England and Europe, retreating to the U.S. after the outbreak of the First World War but returning to the U.K. after discovering how little paying work there was for black entertainers in the United States at that time. They played the London Pavilion and Murray's Club in early 1915 and made their first disc recordings in February 1916, using banjolines, piano, snare drum and woodblock. Beginning in 1915 saxophones became part of the act, and there is evidence that the group performed as a saxophone quartet in 1917. Charlie Johnson went back to the U.S. in December 1917. The Versatile Three now began working at times with drummer George Archer or an Afro-British percussionist from Liverpool named Gordon Stretton. In February 1919 the Versatile Three made the first of a series of recordings for the Edison Bell Winner label. By...