After Midnight (Ford Dabney’s Syncopated Orchestras)

As a founding member of the all-Black Clef Club, Washington DC-born-and-raised Ford T. Dabney helped revolutionize 1910s society dance music with his chief collaborator, James Reese Europe. In 1916, his syncopated orchestra began a multi-year residency with Flo Ziegfeld’s Midnight Frolic, an after-hours show staged in New York’s New Amsterdam Theatre rooftop garden. Subsequently, Dabney’s Band made several dozen records for the Aeolian-Vocalion Company, pioneers in vertically-cut longer-playing records. When Prohibition forced the Frolic to close, Dabney moved on musically as well as professionally, making a few standout jazz records for the famed Paramount label. Highlights of the 48 tracks on these two CDs include “That’s It,” “The Dancing Deacon,” “Bugle Call Blues,” “Lassus Trombone,” “Slidin’ Sid,” “Rainy Day Blues,” and “Camp Meeting Blues.” Notes in the 36-page booklet by Tim Brooks, author of Lost Sounds.