Black Swan Records
Parent companyJazzology
Founded1921 (1921)
FounderHarry Pace
Defunct1924 (1924)
Distributor(s)George H. Buck Jr. Jazz Foundation
GenreJazz, blues
Country of originU.S.
LocationNew Orleans, Louisiana
Official websitewww.jazzology.com

Black Swan Records was an American jazz and blues record label founded in 1921 in Harlem, New York. It was the first widely distributed label to be owned, operated, and marketed to African Americans. Founded by Harry Pace with W.C. Handy, Black Swan Records was established to give African Americans more creative liberties.[1] Eighteen months earlier, in 1919, the Broome Special Phonograph Records was the earliest label owned and operated by African American George W. Broome in Medford, Massachusetts, featuring Black classical musicians including Harry T. Burleigh and Edward Boatner.[2][3][4] Black Swan was revived in the 1990s for CD reissues of its historic jazz and blues recordings.

History

Black Swan's parent company, Pace Phonograph Corporation, was founded in March 1921 by Harry Pace and was based in Harlem.[5] The new production company was formed after Pace's music publishing partnership with W. C. Handy, Pace & Handy, had dissolved.[5] Black Swan, which sought to specialize in classical recordings, served as an investment opportunity for the Talented Tenth. As recognized by Thomas Brothers, "luminaries like Jack Nail and James Weldon Johnson served on the Black Swan board of directors", and The Crisis, the journal then edited by W.E.B. Du Bois, and published by the NAACP, invested its profits in the company.[6]

Bert Williams was an early investor in Pace Phonograph. Williams also promised to record for the company once his exclusive contract with Columbia Records ended, but he died before that could occur.

Pace Phonograph Corporation was renamed Black Swan Phonograph Company in the fall of 1922. Both the record label and production company were named after 19th century opera star Elizabeth Greenfield, who was known as the Black Swan.[7]

1921 record by Alberta Hunter

Former employees of Pace & Handy staffed the new company: Fletcher Henderson, who functioned as the recording manager, provided piano accompaniment for singers and led a small band for recording sessions. William Grant Still was named arranger and later musical director.[7] Ads for Black Swan often ran in The Crisis.[8]

Black Swan proved moderately successful. It recorded African American musicians, but as the label grew in popularity, Pace believed competing white-owned labels such as Columbia Records sought to "obstruct the progress and curtail the popularity of Black Swan Records".[9] Although advertising for Black Swan Records claimed all its musicians and employees were African American, it sometimes used white musicians to back some of its singers.

The production company declared bankruptcy in December 1923, and in March 1924 Paramount Records bought the Black Swan label. The Chicago Defender reported the event by detailing important accomplishments of Black Swan in a short career span, including: pointed out—to the major, all white-owned, record companies—the significant market demand for black artists; prompted several major companies to begin publishing music by these performers. In addition, the Defender credited Pace with showing the majors how to target black audiences and to advertise in black newspapers. Paramount discontinued the Black Swan label a short time later.

The Black Swan label was revived in the 1990s for a series of CD reissues of historic jazz and blues recordings originally issued on Black Swan and Paramount. These CDs were issued by George H. Buck Jr's Jazzology and GHB labels under the control of the George H. Buck Jr. Jazz Foundation, which gained rights to the Paramount back-catalogue but not the Paramount name. Rights to the name "Black Swan Records" were also transferred to GHB.

Artists

See also

Bibliography

Notes

  1. ↑ Suisman 2004.
  2. ↑ Sutton & Nauck, 2000, pp. 21, 27.
  3. ↑ Key, Jessica R (1 February 2013). "Significant Black accomplishments in business". The Indianapolis Recorder. pp. S14–S15. ProQuest 1288021302.
  4. ↑ "Broome Special Phonograph Records". www.vialibri.net. Retrieved 2023-04-10.
  5. 1 2 3 4 Weusi, 1996.
  6. ↑ Brothers, 2014, pp. 127–129.
  7. 1 2 Brooks, 2004, pp. 168–169.
  8. ↑ Crisis, November 1922, p. 44.
  9. ↑ Dallas Express, January 14, 1922, p. 1.
  10. 1 2 Settlemier, "2000 Series".
  11. ↑ Crisis, July 1922, p. 139.
  12. ↑ Gibbs, December 12, 2012, p. 105.
  13. ↑ Smith, 1996, pp. 130–133.
  14. 1 2 "White Performers," 2005.
  15. ↑ Settlemier, "Miscellaneous Series".

References

  • Dallas Express (The). "Black Swan Company to Sue Columbia Record Company – Pace Company Alleges That New Singer Under Contract Is Being Featured by Columbia Company as Its Exclusive Artist, Will Sue". Vol. 41, no. 18. p. 1 (cols. 6–7, top).
    1. Access option 1 (PDF) – via Fultonhistory.com Free access icon.
    2. Access option 2 – via The Portal to Texas History Free access icon.
    3. Access option 3 – via Newspapers.com.
    1. Via Internet Archive.
    2. Via Google Books (limited preview).
    1. 1st ed.. 1971 – via Internet Archive. LCCN 77-98891; ISBN 0-3930-2156-4.
    2. Southern, Eileen; Southerland, William M. (1983). 2nd ed.. ISBN 9780393952797 – via Internet Archive (ARChive of Contemporary Music). LCCN 82-25960; ISBN 0-3939-5279-7.
  • Suisman, David (2004). "Co-Workers in the Kingdom of Culture: Black Swan Records and the Political Economy of African American Music". The Journal of American History. 90 (4): 1295–1324. doi:10.2307/3660349. JSTOR 3660349. OCLC 5322045005.
  • Sutton, Allan; Nauck, Kurt (2000). American Record Labels and Companies – An Encyclopedia (1891–1943) (1st ed.). Denver: Mainspring Press. p. 417. ISBN 0-9671819-0-9.
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