{"id":283,"date":"2009-07-29T16:34:26","date_gmt":"2009-07-29T21:34:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/soupgreens.com\/?p=283"},"modified":"2009-07-29T16:34:26","modified_gmt":"2009-07-29T21:34:26","slug":"horace-weston-champion-banjoist-of-the-world","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/?p=283","title":{"rendered":"Horace Weston, Champion Banjoist of the World"},"content":{"rendered":"

From the August-September 1884 issue of S. S. Stewart’s Guitar and Banjo Journal<\/a> (PDF):<\/p>\n

\"S.<\/p>\n

Source is via University of Rochester<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Biography of Horace Weston at the Library of Congress<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Horace Weston (1825-90), was one of the biggest stars of the minstrel stage during its heyday in the late 19th century, along with James Bland, Billy Kersands, and Sam Lucas. A freeborn black from Connecticut and a virtuoso banjo player, he started with Buckley’s Serenaders in 1863, but spent most of his career with the Georgia Minstrels. In 1873 he became the first black performer featured in a special role when he toured overseas in a production of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. Late in his career, he performed with the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey (Circus) Greatest Show on Earth.<\/p>\n

One of Weston’s principal champions was Samuel Swain Stewart, a proponent of the banjo, who published pieces by Weston and other banjo players. Among Weston’s compositions are: “Horace Weston’s Home Sweet Home,” “Horace Weston’s New Schottische,” “Horace Weston’s Old-Time Jig,” “The Egyptian Fandango,” and “Weston’s Great Minor Jig.”<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

And over on the Library of Congress site for sheet music, here’s an 1883 composition by Weston<\/a> that is an incredibly early publication for a black American composer, way way before its time:<\/p>\n

\"Weston's<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From the August-September 1884 issue of S. S. Stewart’s Guitar and Banjo Journal (PDF): Source is via University of Rochester. Biography of Horace Weston at the Library of Congress: Horace Weston (1825-90), was one of the biggest stars of the minstrel stage during its heyday in the late 19th century, along with James Bland, Billy […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-283","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/283\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/thejoydrops.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}