Blackbirds of 1928

Blackbirds of 1928 was the idea of impresario Lew Leslie, who planned to build the show around Florence Mills in New York City after her success in the hit 1926 show Blackbirds in London. Mills died from tuberculosis in 1927 before rehearsals for the new show had started and Hall was enlisted to replace her.

Blackbirds of 1928 started its life as a floorshow at Les Ambassadeurs Club on 57th Street, New York with songs written by Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields.

Fields recalled,^[2] "Lew Leslie (the producer) hired us to do a show called Blackbirds of 1928. First, we'd written songs for a show of his in a club called Les Ambassadeurs, where we had Roger Wolfe Kahn (Otto Kahn’s son) and his orchestra, and a lovely lady named Adelaide Hall, who sang".

McHugh recalled, "I knew about Roger Wolfe Kahn wanting to close the club, and I told Lew Leslie, and Lew went up and made arrangements to take it over. This was the start of the show called Blackbirds of 1928. Leslie opened Les Ambassadeurs with the first half of the show". The show was a great hit. McHugh continued, "From there we wrote a second half and we took the show to Atlantic City".

After the tryout in Atlantic City the show opened on Broadway. It was the first Broadway show for which Fields and McHugh had written the entire score and turned out to be a milestone in their respective careers and was one of the most successful shows they were ever connected with.

 

The show originally opened on January 4, 1928, under the heading The Blackbird Revue at Les Ambassadeurs Nightclub in New York, before transferring in May 1928 to the Liberty Theatre on Broadway,^[3] where Lew Leslie changed the shows name to Blackbirds of 1928.^[4] The original Broadway production opened at the Liberty Theatre on May 9, 1928, where it ran for 518 performances, becoming the longest running all-black show on Broadway. It was directed by producer Lew Leslie and starred Adelaide Hall,^[5] Bill Bojangles Robinson.^[6] Aida Ward, Tim Moore, Blue McAllister, the Blackbirds Beauty Chorus and the Famous Blackbirds Orchestra conducted by Felix Weir. Also in the cast were Johnny Hudgins, Eloise C. Uggams, Elisabeth Welch, Mantan Moreland, Cecil Mack, Evelyn Anderson, and Nina Mae McKinney. Orchestral arrangements were by Will Vodery.

On 7 June 1929, the original Broadway production opened at the Moulin Rouge, Paris, France, where it became the hit of the season. In Paris it ran for three months before returning to the US for an American road tour.

• The Call of the South
• Shuffle Your Feet
• Dixie

Aunt Jemima Stroll

Scene in Jungleland

• Diga Diga Do

Bear Cat Jones Last Fight

I Can't Give You Anything But Love

• Song
• Trio

What a Night

Bandanna Babies

Playing According to Hoyle

Three Bad Men From Harlem

Porgy (with apologies to the Theatre Guild and Dorothy and DuBose Heyward)

• Porgy

Finale (part one)

Magnolia's Wedding Day

Earl Tucker Giving His Conception of the Low-Down Dance

Picking a Plot

Doin' the New Low-Down

Getting Married in Harlem

I Must Have That Man

Here Comes My Blackbird

• Song
• A Memory of 1927

Finale (part two)

• Adelaide Hall, accompanied by George Rickson (piano), "Baby" & "I Must Have That Man". Victor Rec, June 21, 1928 (test)^[4]
• E-28059 Adelaide Hall with Lew Leslie's Blackbird Orchestra. "I Must Have That Man" & "Baby". Brunswick 4031. August 14, 1928^[4]
• B12773-A. Adelaide Hall with Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra-"I Must Have That Man" & b/w "Baby". Blu Disc T1001. December 21, 1932^[4]
• Warren Mills and His Blue Serenaders recorded Gems from Blackbirds of 1928, being three titles, "I Can't Give You Anything But Love", "Doin' the New Lowdown" and "I Must Have That Man". This orchestra of 25 musicians included Arthur Whetsel, Bubber Miley and Freddie Jenkins on trumpet, Joe Nanton on trombone, Barney Bigard, Johnny Hodges and Harry Carney on reeds, Duke Ellington on piano, Fred Guy on banjo, Wellman Braud, bass, Sonny Greer, drums, an unknown female vocalist plus the 10-voice Hal Johnson choir, and Matty Malneck, violinist and conductor. See Luciano Massagli and Giovanni M. Volonté, The New Desor, An updated edition of Duke Ellington's Story on Records 1924-1974, Milano, 1999 session DE2819 and Dr. Klaus Stratemann, Duke Ellington, Day by Day and Film by Film, Jazzmedia ApS, Denmark, p. 1. December 20, 1928,

In February 1933, Jack Kapp of Brunswick Records assembled an all-star group of Brunswick artists to record the entire score. Issued on six 10" 78s (6516 through 6521), available in an album set (the first such set of popular music from a Broadway show) and also sold individually:

• 6516 Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra - "Blackbirds Medley, parts 1 and 2"
• 6517 Ethel Waters with Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra - "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" b/w Mills Brothers with Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra - "Doin' The New Lowdown"
• 6518 Adelaide Hall with Duke Ellington and his Famous Orchestra - "I Must have That Man" & b/w "Baby". Brunswick. January 7, 1933
• 6519 Mills Brothers - "I Can't Give You Anything But Love" b/w Mills Brothers with Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra - "Diga Diga Doo"
• 6520 Bill Robinson with Don Redman & His Orchestra - "Doin' The New Lowdown" b/w Don Redman & His Orchestra with Harry and Donald Mills - "Shuffle Your Feet (And Just Roll Along)" and "Bandana Babies"
• 6521 Ethel Waters with Duke Ellington & His Famous Orchestra - "Porgy" b/w Cecil Mack Choir with Ethel Waters - "St. Louis Blues"

• Williams, Iain Cameron (2002). Underneath A Harlem Moon ISBN 0-8264-5893-9
• Williams, Iain Cameron. The KAHNS of Fifth Avenue, iwp Publishing, February 17, 2022, ISBN 978-1916146587 - chapters 10 & 11 cover the staging of Blackbirds of 1928.

• ​Blackbirds of 1928​ at the Internet Broadway Database
• ​Lew Leslie's Blackbirds​ (1930) at the Internet Broadway Database
• ​Blackbirds of 1933​ at the Internet Broadway Database
• ​Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of 1939​ at the Internet Broadway Database
• sepiarecords.com