Fate Marable (December 2, 1890 – January 16, 1947) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a majo ...

pianist and bandleader.

Early life

Marable was born in

Paducah, Kentucky Paducah ( ) is a home rule-class city in and the county seat of McCracken County, Kentucky. The largest city in the Jackson Purchase region, it is located at the confluence of the Tennessee and the Ohio rivers, halfway between St. Louis, Miss ...

to James and Elizabeth Lillian (Wharton) Marable, a piano teacher. Fate had five siblings, including two brothers, Harold and James, and three sisters, Mabel, Juanita, and Neona. Elizabeth Marable, known as "Lizzie," gave her son music lessons, both in reading music and playing piano.

Music career

At the age of 17, Marable began playing on the steam boats plying the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...

. John and Joseph Streckfus hired him to replace their piano player, Charles Mills, who had accepted an engagement in New York City. There was a catch: Marable's responsibilities would include playing a large steam

calliope In Greek mythology, Calliope ( ; grc, Καλλιόπη, Kalliópē, beautiful-voiced) is the Muse who presides over eloquence and epic poetry; so called from the ecstatic harmony of her voice. Hesiod and Ovid called her the "Chief of all Muses ...

. Steam streamed through the brass pipes and whistles at 80 pounds of pressure, the keys were hot and they were hard to hold down. Pitch varied with steam pressure, so there was a challenge of playing in tune. The calliope was designed to be clearly heard on shore, so the volume was overwhelming to the musician who was manipulating it. To prepare himself for playing the loud machine that spewed steam and water, Marable wore gloves, stuffed his ears with cotton, and donned raingear. Later in 1907, he became bandleader for a paddlewheeler on the Streckfus Line running between

New Orleans, Louisiana New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans

St. Paul, Minnesota Saint Paul (abbreviated St. Paul) is the capital of the U.S. state of Minnesota and the county seat of Ramsey County. Situated on high bluffs overlooking a bend in the Mississippi River, Saint Paul is a regional business hub and the center o ...

, a position he retained for 33 years.Kenney (2005), p. 39. Later, he spent late nights in New Orleans' clubs scouting for talent and playing at jam sessions. There he discovered Louis Armstrong blowing cornet, and recruited him to play for his band on evening riverboat excursions cruising around the Crescent City. As a bandleader, Marable shared the lessons from his mother with his musicians. Many of the musicians he hired played by ear, and he augmented their skills by teaching them to read music, and expected them all to learn how to play from sheet music on sight.Kenney (2005), p. 38. As his one-time drummer,

Zutty Singleton Arthur James "Zutty" Singleton (May 14, 1898 – July 14, 1975) was an American jazz drummer. Career Singleton was born in Bunkie, Louisiana, United States, and raised in New Orleans. According to his ''Jazz Profiles'' biography, his unusual ...

put it: "There was a saying in New Orleans. When some musician would get a job on the riverboats with Fate Marable, they'd say, 'Well, you're going to the conservatory.'" While he was training these musicians to better perform the dance arrangements for the steamboat passengers, he also boosted many of their careers when they were ready to move on. Streckfus Steamers' alumni went on to play with bandleaders such as

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Count Basie William James "Count" Basie (; August 21, 1904 – April 26, 1984) was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. In 1935, he formed the Count Basie Orchestra, and in 1936 took them to Chicago for a long engagement and th ...

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was ba ...

Jimmie Lunceford James Melvin Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and bandleader in the swing era. Early life Lunceford was born on a farm in the Evergreen community, west of the Tombigbee River, near Fulton, ...

, Fats Waller, and

Chick Webb William Henry "Chick" Webb (February 10, 1905 – June 16, 1939) was an American jazz and swing music drummer and band leader. Early life Webb was born in Baltimore, Maryland, to William H. and Marie Webb. The year of his birth is disputed. ...

Moonlight Cruises Steamer Sidney 1920 (cropped)

Members of Marable's bands were expected to be able to play a wide variety of music, from hot numbers to light classics, playing by memory or ear, and from

sheet music Sheet music is a handwritten or printed form of musical notation that uses musical symbols to indicate the pitches, rhythms, or chords of a song or instrumental musical piece. Like its analogs – printed books or pamphlets in English, A ...

. Above all they were expected to keep the dancers happy. Marable was a strict bandleader, demanding musical proficiency and rigid discipline from all his bandmembers, yet allowing them to develop their individual strong points. For instance, Louis Armstrong's gift for improvisation was recognised as such by Marable, and he allowed him to improvise his breaks rather than play them note for note. Marable's band served as an early musical education for many other players who would later become prominent in jazz, including

Red Allen Henry James "Red" Allen, Jr. (January 7, 1908 – April 17, 1967) was an American jazz trumpeter and vocalist whose playing has been claimed by Joachim-Ernst Berendt and others as the first to fully incorporate the innovations of Louis Arms ...

Baby Dodds Warren "Baby" Dodds (December 24, 1898 – February 14, 1959) was an American jazz drummer born in New Orleans, Louisiana, United States. He is regarded as one of the best jazz drummers of the pre-big band era, and one of the most important ...

, Johnny Dodds, Pops Foster, Errol Garner, Narvin Kimball,

Al Morgan Al Morgan (January 16, 1920 – March 3, 2011) was an American producer of ''The Today Show'' during the 1960s, and a novelist best known for his trenchant look at media personalities, ''The Great Man'' (Dutton, 1955), which reviewers compared ...

, Jimmy Blanton, Elbert Pee Wee Claybrook, , and

. In 1916, Marable published the only original composition of his career, ''Barrell House Rag'', co-written with Clarence Williams. A young George Russell, later the deviser of the ''Lydian Concept'', grew up listening to Marable's music.

Death

Fate Marable died of pneumonia in St. Louis, Missouri. He was 56 years old. He is buried in Oak Grove Cemetery in Paducah, Kentucky.

Notes

External links

Fate Marable - Pittsburgh Music History
{{DEFAULTSORT:Marable, Fate 1890 births 1947 deaths African-American pianists American jazz pianists American male pianists American jazz organists American male organists American jazz bandleaders Musicians from Paducah, Kentucky 20th-century American conductors (music) Jazz musicians from Kentucky 20th-century American pianists 20th-century organists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians 20th-century African-American musicians