The Father of the Blues
W. C. Handy, also known as the "Father of the Blues," was crucial in bringing structure, form, and legitimacy to the blues music genre. Besides being a cornetist and bandleader, Handy was also a composer and publisher. He made history by publishing one of the first blues compositions in 1912, a song called the Memphis Blues.
Handy was born on November 16, 1873, in a log cabin his grandfather had built in Florence, Alabama. His grandparents were among the first blacks to own property in the city. He grew up in a middle-class religious family that emphasized the importance of education. Both his father and grandfather were Methodist ministers. Despite their disapproval, Handy pursued his passion for music and published over 70 songs, including "The St. Louis Blues," which became the most recorded song of the first half of the twentieth century.
The Stlouis Blues was published in Memphis, Tennessee, in 1914
The song created stars Gilda Gray, Sophie Tucker, and Marion Harris. They were all trailblazers and were the first famous white singers to record a song written by a black composer beginning in the 1920s.
The St. Louis Blues made the orchestras of Rudy Vallee, Earl Fuller, and Paul Whiteman.
The song was played before the palace of Haile Selassie.
The St. Louis Blues became the Ethiopian war anthem when Italy invaded Ethiopia during World War II.
It was performed on bagpipes at Balmoral Castle before King Edward VIII and Mrs. Simpson.
Queen Elizabeth called the St. Louis Blues her favorite dance music.
The St. Louis Blues played at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1924, Carnegie Hal in 1939, and two World Fairs.
Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith were inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1993 for their 1925 version of the St. Louis Blues.
Handy fused a tangled beat with blues progressions using the one-two count of the marching band tempo.
William Christopher Handy was a prolific author who wrote five books on the blues, black folk music, and early African American composers. By the 1940s, he had achieved great wealth and lived on Striver's Row in Harlem. However, in 1943, Handy suffered a fall from a subway platform that caused him to become blind, which effectively ended his music and book-writing career. Handy passed away because of pneumonia in March 1958 at 84.
-Fruteland Jackson
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