Side Show Sounds: Black Bandleaders Respond to Exoticism
The sights of elaborate costumes and death-defying stunts; the smell of animals and train engine fuel; the feel of white canvas. But the circus would not be complete without the sounds of the band permeating the atmosphere.
During the 1910s, these companies constituted a significant pathway for the dissemination of rag-times, blues, and jazz. Their success can be largely credited to an extraordinary group of African American bandmasters, Renaissance men whose musical prowess was matched by managerial skills, tough-minded perseverance, and a “ready adaptation to the duty required.” During the 1890s, exemplary band leaders like J. O. McNutt, James Wolfscale, and Solomon P. White helped clear the way for this avenue of professional opportunity. By the turn of the century circus sideshow annex companies were providing employment for a large and growing number of African American musicians and performers.1
Bandmaster P. G. Lowery is often credited as the broadcaster of African-American music. Less known are those whose sideshow leadership predates that of Lowery. The pioneering entrepreneurial-entertainment legacy of Professors like Solomon P. White, J. O. McNutt, and James Wolfscale set the stage for Lowery’s phenomenal success. This presentation investigates their personal histories in the context of mainstream and circus cultures; their indispensable contribution to the success of the circus and the popularization of African-American music; and their role as the sinew of African-American communities through newspaper distribution and correspondence. Like the whole community of Black entertainers, sideshow musicians were subjected to the commodification of otherness. But they fought back, not only in refusing demeaning demands of side work, but in crafting their shows to feed on the audience's desire to gaze upon the other.
Much of the story of the popularization of African American music, and those who made it possible in the 1890s onward, has already been crafted by Abbott, Seroff, and others. This chapter focuses on the work done farther back, in the 1880s. Though the 1920s was a time of explosion for the popularity of African American music, this chapter honors those musicians who grandfathered the explosion in the next century.
Striving to show the agency and self-hood of these performers, the white author of this chapter defers to those who actually had experience as a Black entertainer. This is an attempt to let people speak for themselves. This chapter is largely comprised of clippings from Black presses. The goal held when curating these clippings was to highlight the interiority of African American musicians – their lived experience while performing racial stereotypes – and the communities and enterprises they created for themselves in their desire to own themselves. There is struggle, yes, but more importantly there is joy and friendship and brilliance.