Wilbur Sweatman

Wilbur Sweatman appears to be the first black musician to record under the name of jazz. He recorded with his "Jass Band" for Pathé in March 1917. This alone might insure his legacy but, at the time, Sweatman was already a show business veteran, a clarinetist and composer of nearly 20-years experience whose work anticipated many jazz conventions. Wilbur C. Sweatman was born in Brunswick, MO, on February 7, 1882. His early training with his sister was on violin, but he later switched to clarinet. It has been suggested that Sweatman was largely self-taught, but that seems unlikely since he had a legitimate technique and would later direct orchestras, compose, and orchestrate music. Sweatman's early experience in the late 1890s was with circus bands. He soon afterward joined Mahara's Minstrels, where trumpeter Crickett Smith was also a member. In 1901, Sweatman led the Forepaugh and Sells Circus Band, being the youngest orchestra leader on the road. 1902 found Sweatman in Minneapolis, where he organized an orchestra that featured some of the musicians from the circus band. About 1903 or 1904, Sweatman, while in Minneapolis, allegedly recorded at least one and maybe two cylinder records, "Maple Leaf Rag" and "Peaceful Henry," for the Metropolitan Music Store. Many experts have questioned this story, but jazz historian Len Kunstadt once reported having seen the shattered remains of a wax cylinder of "Peaceful Henry." Sweatman arrived in Chicago in 1908 where, according to writer William Howland Kenney, he played "mixed programs of classical music, gypsy melodies and hot syncopated numbers." Kenney mentions that "Sweatman performed with William Dorsey on piano and George Reeves on drums at the Pekin Inn, the Monogram Theater and the Grand Theater, the South Side's largest...