The Rag-Time Four was an American

Quartet In music, a quartet (, , , , ) is an ensemble of four singers or instrumental performers. Classical String quartet In classical music, one of the most common combinations of four instruments in chamber music is the string quartet. String quar ...

performance group circa 1898 to 1899, they were known for popularizing a version of the

cakewalk The cakewalk was a dance developed from the "prize walks" (dance contests with a cake awarded as the prize) held in the mid-19th century, generally at get-togethers on black slave plantations before and after emancipation in the Southern Unit ...

dance. The four members of the group were

Saint Suttle Saint Suttle (February 1870 – February 4, 1932), was an American composer and performer. Suttle was well known as a cakewalk artist and vaudeville performer in Chicago. An African American, he was a pioneering performer in early film of the la ...

Gertie Brown Gertie Brown Moore (born Gilberta Gertrude Chevalier, August 23, 1878 – February 24, 1934) was a vaudeville performer and one of the first African-American film actresses. Brown is most famous for her part in the 1898 silent film ''Something Go ...

, John Brewster, and Maud Brewster. Suttle and Brewster were called the "Blackville Twins", while their female partners were called "their best girls". The group performed

vaudeville Vaudeville (; ) is a theatrical genre of variety entertainment which began in France in the middle of the 19th century. A ''vaudeville'' was originally a comedy without psychological or moral intentions, based on a comical situation: a drama ...

in Chicago, along with in Milwaukee and Duluth. One of the groups cakewalk events was named Coontown 400.

History

The origin of the cakewalk was a way for enslaved people to mock their masters, during the

Antebellum South The ''Antebellum'' South era (from ) was a period in the history of the Southern United States that extended from the conclusion of the War of 1812 to the start of the American Civil War in 1861. This era was marked by the prevalent practic ...

-period. "The Two Real Ragtime Coons" was a name given to Suttle and Brown when they performed Vaudeville. The two were involved with many different projects together, with performance and minstrel shows in Chicago, including their involvement in the film

Something Good – Negro Kiss ''Something Good – Negro Kiss'' is an American short silent film from 1898 of a couple kissing and holding hands. It is believed to depict the earliest on-screen kiss involving African Americans and is known for departing from the prevalent an ...

(1898).

Songs attributed to The Rag-Time Four

* Shake Yo' Dusters

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rag-Time Four Musical groups from Chicago Jazz ensembles from Illinois