Ford Dabney

Dabney studied music privately first with his father, John Wendell Dabney, then with his uncle, Wendell Phillips Dabney (1865-1952), then Charles Donch (né Charles Bernard Donch; 1858–1948), William Waldecker (1857–1931), an organist for several churches in Washington, and Samuel Fabian (né Samuel Monroe Fabian; 1859–1921), a concert pianist.

George W. Hamilton (1871–1910) was general manager.

The theater's tagline in newspaper ads read, "Refined vaudeville and motion pictures."

James L. Marshall (1874–1925), with the assistance of his brother, George Marshall – both accomplished African-American bonifaces – operated the hotel from 1901 through 1914.

Ford Thompson Dabney (15 March 1883 – 6 June 1958) was an American ragtime pianist, composer, songwriter, and acclaimed director of bands and orchestras for Broadway musical theater, revues, vaudeville, and early recordings.

Effie King was the stage name of Anna Green (maiden; 1888–1944), who in 1907, married actor Frank Henry Wilson (1885–1956).

The church flourished from 1895 to 1926.

On June 22, 1901, Dabney was promoted from 1st year (grade 9) to 2nd (grade 10) for the fall of 1901.

Dabney moved from Washington, D.C., to New York around 1901, two or three years before James Reese Europe moved there.

In New York, Dabney studied music and played piano in parlors.

He played many piano engagements in drawing rooms filled to capacity with prominent society.

This was the same school that James Reese Europe graduated from in 1902.

Dabney then attended Armstrong Manual Training School in Washington.

In the first week of January 1904, he sailed to Haiti to fill a four-month post as pianist to the president, Pierre Nord Alexis (1820–1910), for $4,000.

His itinerary included a trip to France to play for President Émile Loubet, then to Germany.

His appointment in Haiti was extended through 1907.

The Colored Vaudeville Benevolent Association (compare to White Rats of America), when founded in 1909, was headquartered right across the street at 320 West 53rd Street.

Additionally, for two years in Washington, from 1910 to 1912, he was proprietor of a theater that featured vaudeville, musical revues, and silent film.

Dabney is best known as composer and lyricist of the 1910 song "That's Why They Call Me Shine," which for decades, through, has endured as a jazz standard.

The Clef Club – founded in 1910 by Europe, Dabney, and others – was initially headquartered next door, at 137 West 53rd Street, but eventually moved west two blocks to 334 West 53rd.

From around October 1910 through 1911, Dabney owned and operated a theater bearing his name, "Ford Dabney's Theater."

In 1910, Dabney formed several touring vaudeville groups, among which, he and violinist Willie Carroll (né William Thomas Carroll; 1881–1943) conceived and produced Dabney's Ginger Girls, who first performed at his theater before going on the road.

When Dabney's theater manager Hamilton died December 10, 1910, James H. Hudnell took over as manager.

Dabney's Theater received competition when the Hiawatha Theater, running vaudeville, opened in October 1910.

One year earlier, around August 1910, S.L. Jones and L. Kohler Chambers (né Luddington Kohler Chambers; 1874–1913) acquired the Chelsea, which had been "formerly owned and managed by white people."

In October 1911, the New York Age published an announcement that Dabney had purchased the Chelsea Theatre at 1913 M Street, N.W. (between 19th and 20th Streets, N.W.).

Louis Mitchell and J. West were the house managers.

Two months later, around December 1, 1911, Dabney's Theater changed hands and James H. Hudnell became sole manager.

The Ginger girls were a duet: Lottie Gee (née Charlotte O. Gee; 1886–1973), dancer and soprano, and Effie King, dancer and contralto (photo in New York Age, June 12, 1913, p. 6 Newspapers.com; subscription required).

Their 1914 composition, "Castle Walk" – recorded February 10, 1914, by Europe's Society Orchestra with Dabney at the piano (Victor 17553-A, Matrix: B-14434) – is one of the earliest recordings of jazz.

Dabney attended the business education division of Colored High School (aka M Street High School) in Washington, D.C., grades nine through eleven.

Robert Heberton Terrell was the Principal.

He sang in the church choir of St. Mary's Protestant Episcopal Chapel – a mission of St. John's Parish – 23rd Street, between G and H Streets, N.W. – the current campus of George Washington University.

St. Mark's M.E. Church, an African-American congregation, was one block east, at 231 West 53rd.

That same neighborhood, one block south — 52nd Street, between 6th and 7th Avenues — contained, from the late 1930s until the early 1960s, a remarkable concentration of jazz night clubs.

While in New York, Dabney won sponsorship of the Haitian consul to France, Joseph Jefford, who also was a special Haitian envoy to the United States.

It was located at the eastern edge of the Cardozo neighborhood, Washington, D.C., on the northeast corner of 9th and U Streets, N.W. (2001 9th Street, N.W.), around the corner from the current African American Civil War Memorial Museum.

It was also located in the Cardozo neighborhood at 2006-2008 11th Street, N.W. That theater ran until May 1922.

Dabney and Europe's early days in New York apparently overlapped because, reportedly, they often met at the Marshall Hotel in Midtown's Tenderloin District, at 127–129 West 53rd Street, between Sixth and Seventh Avenues – one of two avant-garde hotels for creative, intellectual black New Yorkers.

As of 2020, in the jazz genre, "Shine" has been recorded 646 times Dabney and one of his chief collaborators, James Reese Europe (1880–1919), were transitional figures in the prehistory of jazz that evolved from ragtime (which loosely includes some syncopated music) and blues — and grew into stride, boogie-woogie, and other next levels in jazz.