Fate+Marable

Original Author: Aimee Tacey, ENG346FL12 Revision Author:
 * Fate Marable **

On Dec. 2, 1890, Fate Marable was born in Paducah, Kentucky and the future of music was forever changed. Marablegrew to be a jazz musician, who today is considered one of the founding artists of steamboat jazz. He was also one of the first to assemble an all-black orchestra. His influence on jazz music is filtrated through the entire genre, as it was he who helped spread its popularity and inspired other jazz greats, such as Bix Beiderbecke and Louis Armstrong. Marable began and spent much of his long and influential career on the Mississippi River, between the banks of the cities that now make up the Quad Cities.

Good genes played a large part in Marable’s eventual success. Marable was born into a musical family. His mother was a piano teacher and taught her son to play. It was this gift that “became [Marable’s] life’s cornerstone” (Kenney 40). In addition to musical talent, Marableinherited an interesting look. Marable was a very light-skinned black man. He had “a light reddish shade of hair, light brown eyes, and a few freckles on skin of a pale hue”, which allowed him to pass for white (Kenney 40). Such an ability was just as important as Marable’s performance skills in securing him a position within the emerging steamboat music scene.

Marable got his start in 1907 “as a ragtime pianist on the Steamboat //J.S. No. 1//, owned by the Acme Packet Company, out of Rock Island, Ill.” (Schacht). Marable was hired by Captain Joe Streckfus, specifically due to the fact that “he did __not__ look Negro” (Bradley 77). In addition to playing piano, Marable also played, at Streckfus’ insistence (Kenney 41), a musical instrument consisting of a series of steam whistles played with a keyboardcalled the calliope. Marable played both of his instruments with a strictly all white ensemble until 1917, when it finally became culturally acceptable to hire blacks because of the growing popularity of jazz music (Bradley 77). Marable was “responding to the times, [by] disband[ing] his racially mixed group and for the first time organiz[ing] an all-black band” (Kenney 44). This fared Marable well after Streckfus set the band up with “the director of music at the Saenger Theater” (Kenney 45) for some training. Once they all learned to read music and thus brought their free style some structure, people really took notice. Their fame grew quickly and “in 1920 and 1921, Fate Marable’s band was considered the best dance band in the United States.” (Schacht).

This nationally revered band was considered Marable’s most famous. While made up of the one set of members, Marable’s band went by different names “depending on the crowd to be entertained” (Kenney 47). They were called the “Metropolitan Jaz-E-Saz Orchestra,” “Fate Marable and the Cotton Pickers,” or “Fate Marable’s Society Syncopators” (Kenney 47). In 1924 they recorded “Frankie & Johnny” under the name of “Fate Marable’s Society Syncopators”. It’s a lively tune that gets the toes a tapping ( [] ). It was just such catchy rhythms that caused the band’s popularity to grow. They drew large crowds of dancers. So large in fact that “for all of the customers to have an equal chance to enjoy the band, couples were encouraged to dance down one side of the floor, across the end, and then up the other side” (Kenney 46-7). //The Southeast Missourian// ran information on these J.S. Steamboat dancing excursions in 1929 and 1931 using the name “Marable’s Cotton Pickers”—see photo links. In the article they are referred to as “famous”, while the ad calls them the “Hottest—Sweetest Band—Ever.”Marable’s band consisted of Louis Armstrong, Warren “Baby” Dodds, George “Pops” Foster, Johnny St. Cyr, David Jones, Sam Dutrey, Joe Howard, and William “Bebe” Ridgley (Kenney 45).

Marable’s influence upon the jazz genre was great; "he was responsible for the development of many name Negro musickers" (Obit). He gave Armstrong his big break. Armstrong’s band had begun to make a name for themselves out of New Orleans. Marable heard of them and went to see them. He was so impressed he brought Streckfus to hear them. Streckfus was equally impressed and hired them. It wasn’t long after that Armstrong was playing with Marable (Kenney 45). While Marable can be considered directly responsible for Armstrong’s entrance into jazz history, Bix Beiderbecke was more indirectly influenced by Marable’s musical genius. Beiderbecke was possiblyentertained by Marable and his band, including Armstrong, in Davenport Iowa, Bix's hometown. Marable’s band played at Davenport’s landing and Beiderbecke was known to have “gravitated like Tom Sawyer to the riverfront” to hear the music “drift[ing] up from the riverbanks” (Kenney 122). However, there is no proof of this connection. Beiderbecke reveals, in a 1921 letter to his sister, that he first knowingly heard Marable in Louisiana, Mo. (Kenney 123). Although, Armstrong writes of meeting Beiderbecke in Davenport in 1919 when he was first there with Marable (Kenney 123). Either way, Marabledefinitely influenced Beiderbecke, who called Fate’s band “the talk of the river” (Kenney 123). Beiderbecke studied Marable’s playing, as he was “the one African American musicians [Beiderbecke] cultivated the most” (Kenney 124). Beiderbecke and Armstrong became legends of jazz, contributing to the genre in their own rights, but Marable was behind the success of them both.

While Marable got his start out of Rock Island with Streckfus, Davenport became known as a pretty big jazz hotspot with the Marable band playing the Davenport landing as well as on the river between the two towns. Marable made his mark on both sides of the river, and all up and down its banks. The Marable imprint can still be seen and heard here in the Quad Cities today. River Music Experience, located at 129 N. Main Street, Davenport, has a “scale model reproduction of the Streckfus Steam Line's flagship excursion boat,” the //S.S. Capitol//, (RME Web) which was one of the boats thatMarable played on.In fact, “the popularity of Marable's… band may have been the reason for its transfer to a bigger boat, [//the Capitol,//] in 1920. The //Capitol// was the largest of the Streckfus riverboats.”Marable played many of Streckfus’ boats, including one of his latest, the //President//. According to the website //The William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz,//“the //President// riverboatfeatured bands co-led by Charlie Creath and Fate Marable”. This is the same //President// that after hosting its last jazz concert in April 29, 1988 (TWRHANOJ Web), served Davenport,in more recent years,as a docked riverboat casino (SSM Web). The //President// was sadly demolished in 2009 after the casino was relocated (SSM Web). The Quad Cities still features music festivals today and is proud of its musical heritage. The area is rich in musical history with respected artists having emerged in a variety of genres, and much of that success can be attributed to Fate Marable and his river roots.


 * Works Cited **

Bradley, Arthur. On and off the bandstand. New York: iUniverse, 2005. Print.

Kenney, William Howland. Jazz on the river. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2005. Print.

Schacht, Beulah. “Story of Fate Marable: Legendary St. Louis Pianist Made Riverboat Jazz History.” //St. Louis Globe-Democrat//. 1945. Web. []

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Fate Marable Obituary.” //Billboard//. Nielsen Business Media, Inc., Feb 1, 1947. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|http://books.google.com/books?id=-UQEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA30&dq=fate+marable&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Xo-zUOObF6Xv0QH55IGwCQ&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=fate%20marable&f=false]

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Moonlight Excursion Ad.” //The Southeast Missourian//. Cape Girardeau. 15 Sept 1931, Tuesday evening edition: 8. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Legion to Sponsor Excursion on “J.S”.” //The Southeast Missourian//. Cape Girardeau. 29 August 1929, Thursday evening edition: 2. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Fate Marable's Society Syncopators. “Frankie & Johnny.” New Orleans. 16 March 1924. YouTube. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">“The S.S. President.” //The William Ransom Hogan Archive of New Orleans Jazz//. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|http://jazz.tulane.edu/exhibits/riverboats/gallery#President] <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">, <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[|http://jazz.tulane.edu/exhibits/riverboats/gallery#Capitol]

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">“Exhibits.” //River Music Experience//. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">“The Streckfus Excursion Boats.”//Steamboats.com Steamboat Museum//. Web. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">[]

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