Wilber Sweatman
| Wilbur Sweatman | |
|---|---|
| Born |
February 7, 1882 Brunswick, Missouri, U.S. |
| Died | March 9, 1961 (aged 79) New York City |
| Genres | Dixieland, ragtime |
| Occupation(s) | Musician |
| Instruments | Clarinet |
| Years active | 1890s–1950s |
| Labels | Emerson, Columbia |
| Associated acts | W.C. Handy, Scott Joplin |
Wilbur Coleman Sweatman (February 7, 1882 – March 9, 1961) was an African-American ragtime and dixieland jazz composer, bandleader, and clarinetist. Sweatman was one of the first African-American musicians to have fans nationwide. He was also a trailblazer in the racial integration of musical groups.
Sweatman was born February 7, 1882 in Brunswick, Missouri to parents Matilda and Coleman Sweatman. Wilbur's father ran a barbershop in the riverside town to provide for his family, which also included daughters Eva and Lula. His mother was apparently of mixed racial background as she and the children were listed as mulatto on some census reports. While Wilbur was still a toddler his father abandoned the family, moving to St. Joseph, Missouri and starting a new family. His mother persevered, continuing to operate the barbershop as well as taking in boarders. Wilbur received his education at the segregated Elliott School in Brunswick and helped out around the barbershop after school. His older sister Eva was responsible for much of Wilbur Sweatman's early music training, teaching him to play piano. Later Sweatman would become a self-taught violinist, and then taking up the clarinet. Over the years he would also learn to play trombone, bass clarinet and organ.
Wilbur Sweatman's professional music career began in the late 1890s when, still a teenager, he toured with circus bands, first with Professor Clark Smith's Pickaninny Band from Kansas City, then with the P.G. Lowery Band. By 1901 he had become the youngest orchestra leader in America by fronting the Forepaugh and Sells Circus band. Sweatman briefly played with the bands of W.C. Handy and Mahara's Minstrels before organizing his own dance band in Minneapolis, Minnesota by late 1902. It was there that Sweatman made his first recordings on phonograph cylinders in 1903 for the Metropolitan Music Store. These included what is reputed to have been the first recorded version of Scott Joplin's "Maple Leaf Rag"; no copies of these are known to exist today. In 1908 Sweatman moved to Chicago, playing around the city in places like the Pekin Inn and the Monogram Theater before becoming the bandleader at the Grand Theater, and began to attract notice; a 1910 article referred to his nickname, "Sensational Swet."
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