W. C. Handy

Born on November 16, 1873, in Florence, Alabama, the son and grandson of Methodist ministers who considered secular music sinful, William Christopher Handy secretly saved money picking nuts and berries to purchase a rotary-valve cornet. As a young man, he worked as a schoolteacher and iron foundry worker while playing in brass bands and minstrel troupes. In 1903, while directing a Black brass band in Clarksdale, Mississippi, Handy experienced an epiphany at a railroad station in Tutwiler: he heard a ragged itinerant guitarist pressing a knife against guitar strings and singing a mournful, repetitive three-line lyric about 'goin' where the Southern cross the Dog'. Recognizing the emotional power of this folk expression, Handy began transcribing folk blues themes, adding orchestral harmonies and syncopated ragtime rhythms. In 1912, he published 'The Memphis Blues'—initially written as a campaign tune for mayoral candidate E.H. Crump—which became the first published blues song in American history. In September 1914, Handy published 'Saint Louis Blues', featuring its famous opening 'I hate to see de ev'nin' sun go down' and an innovative habanera tango rhythm interlude; it became an international phenomenon, performed by Bessie Smith, Louis Armstrong, and Glenn Miller, and one of the most recorded songs in music history. Handy moved to New York in 1917, founding the Pace & Handy Music Company on Broadway and later Handy Brothers Music. In 1928, he produced a landmark blues concert at Carnegie Hall. Despite suffering blindness in later life, Handy remained an active cultural advocate until his death on March 28, 1958, in New York City, where over 150,000 citizens lined the streets of Harlem for his funeral.