The Earliest Black String Bands Volume 1 (DOCD 5622) just went up on the Juke. It's a fascinating CD, though not, perhaps, what one would associate with "country blues", so I thought a bit of an introduction to the disc might be appropriate.
This disc features, as far as I can determine, the complete recorded works of bands led by Dan Kildare. Kildare was born in Jamaica in 1879. He'd emigrated to the United States by 1901, at which time he was musical director of "Gorman's Alabama Troubadours, one of the many African American shows that criss-crossed the country around the turn of the 20th century. As musical director, he and his band would have accompanied everything from ragtime "coon songs" to light opera. By 1910 he had become a protegee of bandleader James Reese Europe. In 1913 Europe provided music for the dance team of Vernon and Irene Castle (the Astaire and Rogers of their day), and after this, Kildare was approached to provide music for the dancer Joan Sawyer. The four songs by Joan Sawyer's Persian Garden Orchestra are recorded versions of this music. The recordings were made in 1914. There's nothing particularly "black" about this music - it could have come just as well from a white band of the time. But it gives an interesting insight into the kind of music that some black bands were making in the period when the blues were first becoming popular.
In 1915, Kildare led a seven man band to London for an extended engagement at Ciro's Club. The recordings by Ciro's Club Coon Orchestra were made in London in 1916 and 1917 by a shifting group of African American expatriates in England. Though there are still no blues here, some these songs have more of a string band flavor, especially the ones featuring both banjo and "banjoline". The repertoire here will be familiar to fans of string bands such as the Mississippi Mud Steppers or the Dallas String Band. Of the 14 songs recorded during this period, 4 are "Hawaiian", showing that interest in this music was still strong at the time. Those of us old enough to remember Ian Whitcomb from the mid 1960s might recognize "Where Did Robinson Crusoe Go With Friday On Saturday Night?", as Whitcomb had a minor hit with this song and lip-sync'ed it on Shindig in 1965 (Shindig was a mid 60s American TV show featuring a variety of rock , pop, and soul acts each week).
In 1918, Kildare married the proprietress of a London pub. Unfortunately, he was an alcoholic and possible drug user. In 1920, after an argument with his wife, he killed her, her sister, and then himself.
Eight recordings by Kildare's bands remain undiscovered.
