Jenkins Orphanage

Jenkins Orphanage band was a music band made ​​up of members of the Jenkins Orphanage in Charleston, South Carolina, which was from 1893 and musical styles of early jazz and ragtime made ​​known in Europe in the early 20th century.

The Baptist ministers (Minister ) and former slave David Joseph Jenkins ( 1861-1937 ) joined when transporting timber for a sawmill in 1891 close to a railway line on four black orphans who he took with him. That was the beginning of his orphanage " Jenkins Orphanage " for neglected African-American kids, which was originally in an old warehouse located (near the prison ) and from 1895 to 1939 in the Franklin Street No.20 (former, designed by Robert Mills Marine Hospital, today listed building), which gave him the city. Jenkins held to strict discipline and had an eye to the fact that the children could take care of himself. The Orphanage - the first of its kind in Charleston - was soon an institution, and has hosted the first year 360 children - at times there were more than 500

With donated musical instruments, he organized a brass band that he ( first to New York City ) sent in 1893 in the north to on street corners because they were not given performance opportunities to earn money through their game. First, he had little success and was in London, and even arrested after a crossing in the first year for disturbing the peace. However, they soon became very popular. In 1896 she toured regularly in summer to the East Coast and in the winter in Florida. They played on the 1904 World's Fair in St. Louis, on the parade for the inauguration of President Theodore Roosevelt in 1905 and that of President Taft in 1909, in London (eg on the Anglo-American Exhibition in 1914 ), Rome, Berlin, Vienna and Paris (still before 1905 ). Like other street bands they played spirituals, popular hits, military marches, Cakewalk, ragtime and other " hot" (or " ragged" ) arrangements. Added to this was the special influence of African-American music with a Caribbean Impact ( " Gullah " or " Geechie " ) from Charleston itself, in the dancing and music were closely connected. The " Geechie " Dances of the band ( presented at performances of one of the boys ) made ​​particularly in Harlem impression, where they encouraged James P. Johnson to several compositions, one of which is the "Charleston" who conquered the dance craze of the 1920s the world soon. The music was also immortalized in a then successful novel " Porgy " by DuBose Heyward (from George Gershwin's " Porgy and Bess " was ). One of the Jenkins Orphanage Bands played 1927/8 in the Broadway version of the play, with which they also went on tour in 1929 to the East Coast and in the Midwest.

In the band also talented soloists was given room to play. The band helped to make the music culture of the ( African ) American South in the north of the USA and Europe popular. Similar orchestra created on the model of Jenkins in other parts of the country. The former orphanage musicians were known for their good education ( in particular, they were able to play from sheet music ). Some well-known jazz musicians such as trumpeter Jabbo Smith (who in 1915 came from Savannah to the orphanage ), Cat Anderson, trumpeter Sylvester Briscoe (who later in Bennie Moten played ), Freddie Green, Rufus "Speedy" Jones, Freddy Jenkins, Tommy Benford, Arthur Briggs and many members of the Fletcher Henderson band ( such as Peanuts Holland ) grew out of the band. From the tape recordings themselves are known only from the 1940s