{"id":61108,"date":"2021-07-16T18:20:38","date_gmt":"2021-07-16T18:20:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=61108"},"modified":"2021-07-16T18:20:38","modified_gmt":"2021-07-16T18:20:38","slug":"radio-diaries-harry-pace-and-the-rise-and-fall-of-black-swan-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/?p=61108","title":{"rendered":"Radio Diaries: Harry Pace And The Rise And Fall Of Black Swan Records"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/06\/30\/1011901555\/radio-diaries-harry-pace-and-the-rise-and-fall-of-black-swan-records\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em><strong>Radio Diaries: Harry Pace And The Rise And Fall Of Black Swan Records<\/strong><\/em><\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/programs\/all-things-considered\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">All Things Considered<\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">National Public Radio<\/a><br \/>\n2021-07-01<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/nelliegilles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Nellie Gilles<\/strong><\/a>, Managing Producer at Radio Diaries at Radio Diaries<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.mycahhazel.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><strong>Mycah Hazel<\/strong><\/a>, Radio Diaries Fellow<\/p>\n<table border=\"0\" width=\"550\">\n<tbody>\n<tr>\n<td><a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/06\/30\/1011901555\/radio-diaries-harry-pace-and-the-rise-and-fall-of-black-swan-records\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/media.npr.org\/assets\/img\/2021\/07\/01\/harry-h.-pace_portrait-courtesy-of-peter-pace--312e73e3bc707cc517725d1710e2113b084ce501-s1600-c85.webp\" width=\"550\" border=\"0\" \/><\/a><br \/>\n<small><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Harry_Pace\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harry Pace<\/a> started the first major Black-owned record label in the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/United_States\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">U.S.<\/a>, but his achievements went mostly unnoticed until recently, when his descendants uncovered his secret history.<br \/>\n<em>Courtesy of Peter Pace<\/em><\/small><\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"NPR embedded audio player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/player\/embed\/1011901555\/1012327732\" width=\"100%\" height=\"290\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>A century ago, around the dawn of the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Harlem_Renaissance\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harlem Renaissance<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/New_York_City\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">New York City<\/a> was brimming with music. Black artists like <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Eubie_Blake\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Eubie Blake<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Florence_Mills\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Florence Mills<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Fats_Waller\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Fats Waller<\/a> were performing in dance halls and nightclubs including Edmond&#8217;s Cellar and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Lincoln_Theatre_(Harlem)\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">The Lincoln Theatre<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Every block between 110th Street and 155th Street buzzed with creative energy,&#8221; says journalist <a href=\"mailto:paul@planetslade.com\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paul Slade<\/a>, author of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.mixedracestudies.org\/?p=61102\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><em>Black Swan Blues: the hard rise and brutal fall of America&#8217;s first black-owned record label<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Despite that energy, when it came to recording and selling music by Black artists, the opportunities were limited. White-owned record labels \u2014 <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Columbia_Records\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Columbia<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Victor_Talking_Machine_Company\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Victor<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Aeolian_Company\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Aeolian<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Edison_Records\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Edison<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Paramount_Records\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Paramount<\/a> \u2014 recorded few Black artists at the time, and when they did, it was often limited to novelty songs and <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Minstrel_show\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">minstrelsy<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;They were making a fortune off these negative portrayals of Black people,&#8221; says Bill Doggett, a specialist in early recorded sound.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Okeh_Records\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Okeh Records<\/a> was one of the first labels to break the mold. <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Perry_Bradford\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Perry &#8220;Mule&#8221; Bradford<\/a>, a Black composer, pushed Okeh to record <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mamie_Smith\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Mamie Smith<\/a> and her song &#8220;<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Crazy_Blues\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Crazy Blues<\/a>&#8221; in 1920. The record was a hit and entrepreneur <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Harry_Pace\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Harry Pace<\/a> took notice&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>Read the entire story <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2021\/06\/30\/1011901555\/radio-diaries-harry-pace-and-the-rise-and-fall-of-black-swan-records\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Harry Pace started the first major Black-owned record label in the U.S., but his achievements went mostly unnoticed until recently, when his descendants uncovered his secret history.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,24,2850,1245,459,8,6462,20],"tags":[2342,31637,31609,31607,31604,1392,31639,2309,31638,2833,31632,31636],"class_list":["post-61108","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","category-arts","category-audio","category-biography","category-history","category-media-archive","category-passing-2","category-usa","tag-all-things-considered","tag-bill-doggett","tag-black-swan-records","tag-harry-herbert-pace","tag-harry-pace","tag-music","tag-mycah-hazel","tag-national-public-radio","tag-nellie-gilles","tag-npr","tag-paul-slade","tag-radio-diaries"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61108","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61108"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61108\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61110,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61108\/revisions\/61110"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61108"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61108"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mixedracestudies.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61108"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}