Selected Bibliography: Eubie Blake

"In Columbia, South Carolina, Eubie refused to play because they made the Negro officers sit in the back of the theater. The officers were supposed to sit in the third or fourth row, but the MPs got up and made the Negro captains and lieutenants move back. Eubie said, 'Wait a minute. We don't play.' A warrant officer came up. 'Mr. Blake, this is scheduled to go on.' 'No.' 'Why not?' 'Not without those officers sitting where they're supposed to sit. You don't do that to me.' So Eubie turned to us and said, 'Come on, out of the pit.' About five minutes later the colonel came down and confronted Eubie. Eubie stood his ground, and the colonel had to go and see that the officers could return to their seats. Eubie played 'The Star Spangled Banner,' and it was on with the show." Garvin Bushell and Mark Tucker, Jazz from the Beginning, p. 108-9. [see below]

Papers and Biographies

Eubie Blake's papers can be found at The Maryland Historical Society and Harvard University

The finding aid for the Duke Ellington Collection at the Smithsonian mentions original Eubie Blake manuscripts.
Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center
Carter, Lawrence T. Eubie Blake: keys of memory. Detroit: Balamp Pub., 1979.
Kimball, Robert and William Bolcom. Reminiscing with Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. NY: Cooper Square Press, 2000 (paper). 1st ed. Reminiscing with Sissle and Blake NY: Viking Press, 1973.
Rose, Al. Eubie Blake. NY: Schirmer Books, 1979. Out of print
Eubie Blake's Broadway credits courtesy of the Internet Broadway Database.
Eubie Blake's gravesite courtesy of FindAGrave.com (search by name)

Interviews and anecdotes

Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz with guest Eubie Blake TJA-12006 Jazz Alliance [CD]
Max Morath interviews Eubie Blake courtesy of GMU's "History Matters" project.
Text of James Standifer's video oral history of Eubie Blake, courtesy of the University of Michigan School of Music Nathaniel C. Standifer Archive of Oral History
Terry Gross, Vernel Bagneris, and Dick Hyman talk about Eubie Blake on NPR's Fresh Air
Al Jolson and Eubie Blake [No direct link -- choose "Friends and Links" from the home page; scroll down to Eubie link.]

Books with material about Eubie Blake

Badger, Reid. A life in ragtime: a biography of James Reese Europe. Oxford, New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Blesh, Rudi. Combo, USA: Eight lives in jazz. NY: DaCapo Press, 1979. 1st ed. Philadelphia: Chilton Book Co., 1971. Out of print.
Bushell, Garvin and Mark Tucker: Jazz from the beginning NY: DaCapo Press, 1998. On pg. 108-109 Bushell talks about how Eubie Blake handled discrimination during a USO show that Bushell played with Blake's band. [see quotation at top of this page.]
Charters, Samuel B. and Leonard Kunstadt. Jazz: a history of the New York scene.. New York: DaCapo Press, 1981. Chapter 9: Shuffle Along.
Fell, John L. and Terkild Vinding. Stride! Fats, Jimmy, Lion, Lamb, and all the other ticklers. Scarecrow Press Inc./The Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers, 1999. Chapter 9 is on Eubie Blake's stride style.
Gourse, Leslie. Striders to Beboppers and beyond: The art of jazz piano New York:Franklin Watts, 1997. One Gourse's series of jazz biographies for high school students.
Hennessey, Thomas J. From jazz to swing: African-American jazz musicians and their music, 1890-1935. Detroit: Wayne State University Press, 1994.
Jasen, David A. and Gene Jones. Black Bottom Stomp: eight masters of ragtime and early jazz. New York : Routledge, 2002.
Levin, Floyd. Classic Jazz : A personal view of the music and musicians. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2000. Excerpt about Eubie Blake from the University of California Press website.
Riis, Thomas L. Just before jazz: Black musical theater in New York, 1890-1915. Washington and London: Smithsonian Institution Press, 1989. Material on Blake and Shuffle Along
Shapiro, Nat. ed. The jazz makers: essays on the greats of jazz. New York: Da Capo Press, 1979.
Shapiro, Nat. ed. Hear me talkin' to ya: the story of jazz by the men who made it. New York: Rinehart, 1955.
Shaw, Arnold. The jazz age: popular music in the 1920's. New York; Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1989 1987. Chaper 8: Shuffle Along
Waldo, Terry with forward by Eubie Blake. This is Ragtime. New York: DaCapo Press, 1991; 1976.

Photographs

Info about Eubie Blake and photos from "Shuffle Along", courtesy of the University of Alabama at Little Rock.
Photo of the "Shuffle Along" Orchestra courtesy of Duke University Library's William Grant Still exhibit.

Music

From Library of Congress American Memory project:
- Good Night Angeline
- Mammy's lit'l choc'late cullud chile: song (From the Collections of the John Hay Library, Brown University)
From Duke University: Chevy Chase Fox Trot
The Swedish Ragtime Page has excellent resources about ragtime music, including a list of publishers of ragtime music pieces.
Hal Leonard is the publisher of "Sincerely, Eubie Blake" a collection of 9 pieces by Eubie. [Do a quicksearch on keyword EUBIE]

Recordings

The Greatest Ragtime of the Century [CD] Biograph BCD103. Features three selections from piano rolls made by Eubie Blake: Charleston rag (1917), It's right here for you (1921); Fare thee honey blues (1921).
Memories of You [CD] Biograph BCD112 (Eubie Blake piano rolls)
Tricky Fingers [CD] Quicksilver Records 9003 1974 (Eubie at age 90)
Eubie Blake and his orchestra/Frank Tanner and his Rhythm Kings [LP] 780808 Harrison Records; Blake's orchestra recorded April-Sept. 1931.
The Eighty-six years of Eubie Blake [LP] Columbia C2S 847 Liner notes
Sissle & Blake's Shuffle Along: An archival re-creation of the 1921 production featuring members of the original cast. [LP] New World Records NW260