Brymn James (2 results)

A striking ragtime-era dance publication for "The Tar-Heel Blues," composed by the African American bandleader and composer J. Tim Brymn (James T. Brymn, 18811946). The cover features a posed studio photograph of the well-known ballroom dancers Maurice and Florence Walton, who are credited on the sheet as introducing the piece. Such dance teams played a major role in promoting new popular dance compositions during the 1910s, when foxtrots and ragtime-influenced social dances were widely circulated through sheet music and stage performances. Brymn was one of the most prominent Black bandleaders active in New York during the early twentieth century. Born in Kingston, North Carolina, he studied music at the National Conservatory of Music and later led orchestras at several major entertainment venues including Ziegfeld's Midnight Frolic and the famed Reisenweber's Paradise Ballroom. In the early 1920s he organized the Black Devil Orchestra, an ensemble of African American musicians that toured Europe and made recordings for the Vocalion label. Brymn's compositions and arrangements helped bring ragtime and early jazz idioms into mainstream dance music during the period immediately preceding the jazz age. Light handling wear; excellent condition overall. Folio sheet music, illustrated color pictorial cover featuring a photographic image of society dancers Maurice and Florence Walton. 5 pp. (including cover). Approximately 13 ½ x 10 ½ inches.

Condition: Very good to excellent. Sheet music for "Build a Nest for Birdie," with music by James Tim Brymn (18811946) and lyrics by Richard C. McPherson (18731944), better known as Cecil Mack, prominently featuring an inset photographic portrait of singer, dancer, and choreographer Ada Overton Walker (18801914), widely billed as the "Queen of the Cakewalk." Walker, a central figure of early twentieth-century African American musical theatre, was closely associated with the Williams and Walker company and appeared in landmark productions including In Dahomey (1903), Abyssinia (1906), and Bandanna Land (1908); she frequently introduced new songs through stage performance. Brymn and Mack were frequent collaborators, producing popular songs such as "Good Morning, Carrie" (1901), "Josephine, My Jo" (1902), and "Please Go 'Way and Let Me Sleep" (1902). Mack, an important lyricist and entrepreneur within early Black commercial music networks, co-founded the Gotham Music Company with composer Will Marion Cook; in 1905 the firm merged with the Attucks Music Company to form Gotham-Attucks, one of the most significant African Americancontrolled publishing enterprises of the era. The company played a key role in promoting Black composers, performers, and theatrical material at a time when mainstream publishing houses often marginalized African American creators, issuing titles such as Bert Williams and Alex Rogers' "Nobody" (1905) and Cecil Mack, Lew Brown, and Ford Dabney's "That's Why They Call Me Shine" (1910). OCLC locates six institutional holdings. Sheet music measuring 10 ½ x 13 ½ inches. 6 pp including covers. Wrinkling and small tears and chips to bottom margin, some wrinkling to top right. Manuscript pencil "H Williams" on cover, erased.