Music: Black Spectacle

In the beginning God created man and set him in the realm of nature. . . . And Africa, most rich, most terrible, through the slow centuries shaped her race, and the long struggle made the African. . . . God gave to the African a special gift, and made him wise in the magical rhythms of the day and the night. . . . And the African carried into his long captivity a pulse as of strong hearts beating. . . .

Almost as white as the white robe he wore, Negro Actor Richard B. Harrison (“De Lawd” of The Green Pastures) sat under a spotlight before 30,000 spectators in Chicago’s Soldier Field one night last week. Three blacks to one white, they were there to see and hear 0 Sing a New Song, a gigantic three-act pageant of the Negro race. The solemn words of Narrator Harrison put in motion a sight & sound spectacle that required the voices of 5,000 U. S. blacks, the wild antics of a handful of Basuto tribesmen brought from Africa for the occasion.

Lights first reveal primitive huts, naked, sleeping savages. Sentries stand guard. Tom-toms sound the dawn. The chorus wails as the witch doctor worships the sun. An orchestra crashes and a storm with electric lightning sends the frightened tribesmen cowering. After the storm, hunters clad in red, purple and orange fell a lion, the Dread of the Jungle. The tom-toms beat again as a human sacrifice is prepared. But at the last moment King Mumbra releases the maiden. But neither he nor his witch doctor can prevent the Portuguese traders from capturing his people.

. . . And freedom, which the new land heralded, they found denied—to them and to their children. Still they laughed, and wept, and sang, while through the South the cotton fields bloomed white beneath their patient labor. And then, amid the clamor of the guns, a voice proclaiming Freedom, and the chains fell off and a light flooded over them—free—free! . . .

Before a shimmering white mansion actors in brown and green hold up white cotton stalks. King Mumbra is now a house servant. The White Mistress tells the story of Moses in Egypt. A rifle sounds. The lights flash back to the cotton field. The chorus sings “Nobody Knows the Trouble I’ve Seen” against a mounting counterpoint of cannon roar. “John Brown’s Body” alternates with “Dixie.” A clash of cymbals brings sudden silence. A Negro Abraham Lincoln reads excerpts from the Emancipation Proclamation. From the cotton fields the crouching figures straighten up to sing ”Rise, Shine, Give God the Glory.”

Slowly the gate of the, new destiny swung open. And the strong heart throbbed with a beat of gladness, and the foot that had been shackled, danced. . . . On the path that leads into the fuller life our feet are set. Follow it singing—and singing a new song.

Booker T. Washington stands at Tuskegee. Minstrels sing spirituals. The pageant becomes modern Harlem medley. Irene Castle McLaughlin explains her old-time dances, the “Bunny Hug,” the “Hesitation,” the ”Maxine.” A chorus dances them. Orchestra Leader Noble Sissle recalls the War with his ”On Patrol in No Man’s Land.” Bill Robinson does a tap dance, brings down the house, encores again and again. W. C. Handy leads his “St. Louis Blues.” All 5,000 voices break into a tremendous chant:

0, let us sing a new song,
0, let us sing a true song.
Let’s help each other,
Sister and brother
To sing a new song.

When Irene Castle made her pre-War fame, the late Jim Europe’s band played for her. In it was a young Negro banjoist from Indianapolis named Noble Sissle. Sissle followed Europe to France during the War where they were members of the 15th New York Infantry’s “Black Devil Band” and whence they returned after Armistice to tour the U. S. Later in Boston, a shell-shocked drummer boy shot and killed Europe.

Noble Sissle, with Irene Castle’s help, has become Jim Europe’s inheritor. He, more than anyone else, was responsible for 0, Sing a New Song.

Noble Sissle has been twice bankrupt, many times successful. During one of his flush periods, he met Alfred Stern, son-in-law of the late Julius Rosenwald. Last week the Rosenwald Fund helped out Sissle’s pageant to the tune of $3,000. Sissle wrote the book for the show, gathered around him such Negro musicians as N. Clark Smith, son of an African tribesman and an authority on African music, William Vodery, who arranged most of Ziegfeld’s Show Boat music. Will Marion Cook (“Ghost Ship”), Harry Lawrence Freeman (“Voodoo”), Harry T. Burleigh (“Deep River” ). J. Rosamund Johnson (“Lazy Moon,” “Under a Bamboo Tree”), W. C. Handy. No member of the cast of 5,000 was paid a cent. Proceeds will go toward developing young Negro talent.