The Original Blues by Lynn Abbott

Author:Lynn Abbott
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Published: 2017-08-22T04:00:00+00:00

Indianapolis Freeman, June 2, 1917.

Mr. Overstreet, who presides at the piano during what may be called a recital, proved his efficiency at that instrument. He is a highly successful composer of playlets as well as of music. He is so successful that he finds it difficult to keep his own stuff when he produces it. Others take it, but he seems to be good natured about it, and is willing enough if they make a good job of it. Miss Harris says the same thing. She does not mind imitators of herself if they are good ones. Mr. Overstreet is particular about his jazz band production and he is right, since it is one of the best productions of the day—the best of the kind, if not the only one.588

Later that summer Harris and Overstreet traveled to Gibson’s Standard Theater in Philadelphia: “Miss Harris is one of the most successful of the many ‘shouters’ in vaudeville and ranks right up there with such stars as Sophie Tucker, Eva Tanguay and others. Her rendition of Overstreet’s new number, ‘The Alabamalevi [sic, Alabama Levee] Glide,’ was a near riot.… The act will open in New York soon, where they will feature the great hit, ‘The Jazz Dance.’”589

By late October Harris and Overstreet had dropped into the Tidewater section of Virginia, where Overstreet became musical director of the Ivy Theater in Newport News.590 In November they made a quick jaunt to Richmond to produce a version of the old S. H. Dudley Smart Set vehicle Dr. Beans From Boston, on behalf of the local Elks Lodge.591 They were still working out of the Ivy in the spring of 1918, when news came that “Miss Harris’s latest song hit, ‘The Alabama Jazbo Band,’ has been released and can be obtained from Will Rossiter Pub. Co., Chicago.”592 That summer they returned to Chicago and topped a bill at the Monogram.593 By fall they were “laying off in St. Louis,” where they may have finally parted ways.594

In the spring of 1919 Overstreet served as musical director of Gibson’s New Standard Theater in Philadelphia; and he remained there, on and off, for the next several years.595 References in the entertainment columns of the African American press indicate that he enjoyed steady employment throughout the 1920s. In the spring of 1930 he was running a “nice little studio” in Milwaukee, “where he teaches piano, modern trick and jazz style of playing.”596

Overstreet is present on at least a few commercial recordings. In 1927 he backed blues singer Elnora Johnson on four sides, and in 1929 he cut four tracks with Sam Theard.597 Though confined to the role of accompanist, his playing tends to confirm his prowess.

In the spring of 1919, Overstreet’s song hit “The Alabama Jazzbo Band” was said to be “creating a sensation in the east. The song is being featured by Stella Harris, and is a real riot everywhere.”598 Late that summer, Harris appeared at the Lincoln Theater in Harlem with a “little company” headed by Sandy Burns: “Stella Harris says that she has so many offers she don’t know which one to take.

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