Home > Wilber Sweatman

Sweatman started out playing violin, then switched to clarinet. He toured with circus bands in the late 1890s, and developed a famous act of playing three clarinets at once. He spent time playing with the bands of W.C. Handy and Mahara's Minstrels . He led a dance band in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1902, where he made his first recordings on (now lost) phonograph cylindersThe earliest method of recording and reproducing sound was on cylinder phonograph recordings . Early development of the phonograph cylinder The very first recordings in the 1870s by Thomas Edison were done on the outside surface of a strip of tinfoil wrap that year or the following one. He wrote a number of rags, Down Home Rag being the most commercially successful. Sweatman moved to New York in 19131913 is a common year starting on Wednesday. click on link for calendar) Events January-March January 30 House of Lords rejects Irish Home Rule Bill February 1 New York City's Grand Central Station opens as the world's largest train station. February 3 Th, where he became close friends with Scott JoplinScott Joplin ( November 24, 1868 April 1, 1917) remains the best-known ragtime musician and composer, setting the standard for the many who followed. Joplin was born near Linden, Texas to Florence Givins and Giles (sometimes listed as "Jiles") Joplin., and Joplin named Sweatman as executor of his estate in his will. Sweatman enjoyed popularity with both White and Black audiences in New York, and started issuing recordings in 19161916 is a leap year starting on Saturday (link will take you to calendar) Events January 1 -The first successful blood transfusion using blood that had been stored and cooled. Impressionist Monet paints Water Lilies'. January 8 Allied forces withdraw from for Emerson RecordsEmerson Records was a record label active in the United States of America from 1916 to 1928. Emerson was founded by Victor H. Emerson, who had worked for Columbia Records since the 1890s. In 1916 he started his namesake company, producing 7 inch gramophon, then for PathéPathe Records was a France based international record label active from the 1890s through the 1930s. Pathe was founded by brothers Charles & Emile Pathe, who were owners of a successful bistro in Paris. About 1890 they saw an Edison phonograph demonstrate.

After the commercial success of the Original Dixieland Jass BandOriginal Dixieland Jass Band (after mid-1917 spelling changed to Jazz was a New Orleans band which, in 1917, was the first ever to make a jazz recording. It was also the first jazz band to achieve widespread prominence. The Original Dixieland Jass Band ar the following year, Sweatman changed the sound and instrumentation of his band along the line of the early New Orleans jazz bands such as the Original Creole Orchestra and the Original Dixieland Jass Band. Sweatman was the first African American to make recordings labeled as "Jass" and "Jazz". (Since Sweatman can be heard making melodic variations even in his 1916 recordings, it might be argued that Sweatman recorded an archaic type of jazz earlier than the Original Dixieland band.) Sweatman's was the leading jazz band for Columbia Records until his popularity was surpassed by that of Ted Lewis.

Sweatman opened the well known Harlem club Connie's Inn in 1923. He continued playing in New York through the early 1940s, then concentrated his efforts on the music publishing business.