Biography for
Noble Sissle

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Mini Biography

Handsome Noble Sissle is one of the unsung Legends of Ragtime/Blues/and early Jazz. He and his Band had a easy-listening, hot and breezy sound unlike any other band which you immediately knew. When you went to see Noble Sissle you got more then a ear full of good music, you got good entertainment that would also put a smile on your face. He was an energetic, charismatic, humorous bandleader which was an ingredient for the success of his band because it rubbed off on his band. He was also a dancer, singer, and songwriter.

Noble Sissle was partners with another musical genius songwriter/bandleader/composer/arranger Eubie Blake, together they wrote the standard "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and other standards. Together they helped create the famous "Shuffle Along", "Chocolate Dandies", and "Harlem Calvacade" which in turn helped launch the careers of Florence Mills, Josephine Baker, Valaida Snow, Blanche Calloway, and other black performers. The dancing in the shows so impressed Florenz Ziegfield and George White that they paid the black artists in the show to come down and teach their white dancers how to dance.

During the 1930s and 1940s he and Band appeared in various films. Not only was the music energetic and hot, the band had energetic images that appealed to audiences. But, when the Big Band era ended, his tenure as bandleader ended.

He was involved in many things, like forming the Negro Actors Guild, for which he served as president. He continue working with his partner Eubie Blake until the end. A book was written about them called Reminiscing with Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake by Robert Kimball and William Bolcom.

Trivia

Was posthumously nominated for Broadway's 1979 Tony Award as Best Score for "Eubie!," his lyrics, along with the lyrics of several others, with the music of the musical's subject, Eubie Blake.

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