Noble Sissle

Noble Sissle (born July 10, 1889, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S.—died December 17, 1975, Tampa, Florida) was an American lyricist, vocalist, and bandleader who is best known today for his work with pianist and composer Eubie Blake. Sissle and Blake cocreated Shuffle Along, the 1921 musical comedy that broke from the caricatured imagery of blackface minstrelsy to restore authentic Black artistry to the American stage. The production was a landmark of the Harlem Renaissance. Sissel also became, in 1937, the first president of the Negro Actors Guild of America, which he helped to found.

Early life and education

Sissle’s father was a minister, and his mother was a teacher and a probation officer in juvenile courts. As a boy, Sissle sang soprano in his father’s church and at various school festivals, and as a teenager he sang tenor in his high-school glee club. After graduation he joined the Edward Thomas Male Quartet, which played the chautauqua circuit throughout the U.S. Midwest.

Sissle also traveled as far west as Denver and as far east as New York City as a member of Hann’s Jubilee Singers before attending college at DePauw University (1913) in Greencastle, Indiana, and Butler University in Indianapolis (1914–15).

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Sissle and Blake’s first song

Sissle met Blake in 1915 as an aspiring lyricist and singer when they were both hired for an engagement with Joe Porter’s Serenaders at Riverview amusement park in Baltimore. They quickly formed a songwriting partnership—one that would last for 60 years. Their first song was “It’s All Your Fault,” introduced by the popular club singer Sophie Tucker.

Later in 1915 Sissle joined Bob Young’s sextet, which had a winter booking at the Royal Poinciana Hotel in Palm Beach, Florida; it was the first dance ensemble to play there full-time.

In 1916 Sissle—again with Blake—found work with James Reese Europe’s high-society dance orchestras. Together the two musicians wrote songs and performed as a piano-vocal duo at weddings, debutante parties, and soirées for Europe’s most exclusive clients.

World War I

During World War I, Sissle and Europe enlisted in the army, where they organized a regimental band as part of the 369th Infantry Division, better known as the Harlem Hellfighters. Although Blake did not enlist, claiming he was too old to serve, the three musicians nevertheless continued to work together, producing (and later publishing) such notable songs as “Mirandy (That Gal o’ Mine)” (1918),“Good Night Angeline” (1919), and “On Patrol in No Man’s Land” (1919).

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Early in 1919 Europe’s band returned to the United States in triumph and began touring the country to acclaim. However, on May 9, in Boston, a crazed drummer in the band attacked Europe with a knife and killed him.

Shuffle Along

After Europe’s death, Sissle and Blake went into vaudeville. As the Dixie Duo, they were the first African American act to perform without darkening their faces with burnt cork in the style of blackface minstrelsy. During their extensive tours they met Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, a veteran comedy and dance duo who had gotten their start in theatrics at Fisk University in Nashville, one of America’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities.

The two acts joined forces, expanding Miller and Lyles’s sketch “The Mayor of Dixie” (later called “The Mayor of Jimtown”) and adding songs by Sissle and Blake to create the musical Shuffle Along. After a helter-skelter tryout, the show opened in New York City at the 63rd Street Music Hall (renamed Daly’s 63rd Street Theatre the following year) on May 23, 1921, as the first all-Black musical to be presented on Broadway in more than a decade.

Shuffle Along was sensationally popular. It became one of the few Broadway shows of its time to run for some 500 performances, and after closing on Broadway it toured the country until March 1924. The production exerted an enormous influence on American show business by introducing jazz dancing to Broadway; launching the careers of Florence Mills, Josephine Baker, and many other dancers and singers; and opening doors to further efforts by African American pianist-composers such as James P. Johnson and Fats Waller. More than 25 years after its debut, Shuffle Along even provided Harry S. Truman with his campaign song for the 1948 U.S. presidential election, “I’m Just Wild About Harry.”

From bandleader to mayor of Harlem

Later in 1924 Sissle and Blake followed up with the more elaborate but less successful The Chocolate Dandies, which Blake always thought had a better score than Shuffle Along. In 1925 Sissle and Blake traveled to Europe and worked extensively in the United Kingdom. While Blake returned to the United States after the eight-month tour and performed in vaudeville, Sissle worked in Europe for several years.

In 1932 Sissle and Blake reunited with Miller (Lyles had died earlier that year) to create Shuffle Along of 1933, a new show evoking the familiar title. Opening on Broadway during the worst period of the Great Depression, it lasted for only 15 performances, despite a strong musical score.

Sissle’s career as a bandleader, which had begun in the 1920s in Paris at the urging of composer-lyricist Cole Porter, among others, continued into the 1940s.

Meanwhile, he helped found the Negro Actors Guild of America and became its first president in 1937. In 1950 he assumed the honorary post of mayor of Harlem.

In 1952 Sissle, Blake, and Miller headed the cast of Shuffle Along of 1952, a four-performance debacle that compared unfavorably with the 1921 original and was described by Blake as “the turkey.”

As a duo, Sissle and Blake enjoyed a comeback that began in the late 1960s. During his last years Sissle appeared frequently with Blake and joined him on the 1969 album The Eighty-six Years of Eubie Blake.

Legacy

Sissle’s legacy includes a number of recordings that reveal his stellar tenor voice, most notably “On Patrol in No Man’s Land” (1919), “Love Will Find a Way” (1921), and “Baltimore Buzz” (1921). As a songwriter, he was admired for his pleasingly conversational lyrics. Sissle also worked with and encouraged many prominent musicians, including saxophone and clarinet virtuoso Sidney Bechet, trumpeter Tommy Ladnier, and clarinetist Buster Bailey. He also helped advance the career of singer and actress Lena Horne.

Sissle’s most significant contribution to American music and theater, however, was his role in bringing Shuffle Along to Broadway—and to lasting fame.