The story of an African American musician and band leader whose showmanship and versatility bridged the gap between ragtime and jazz

Wilbur C. Sweatman (1882-1961) is one of the most important, yet unheralded, African American musicians involved in the transition of ragtime into jazz in the early twentieth century. In That's Got 'Em!, Mark Berresford tracks this energetic pioneer over a seven-decade career. His talent transformed every genre of black music before the advent of rock and roll--"pickaninny" bands, minstrelsy, circus sideshows, vaudeville (both black and white), night clubs, and cabarets. Sweatman was the first African American musician to be offered a long-term recording contract, and he dazzled listeners with jazz clarinet solos before the Original Dixieland Jazz Band's so-called "first jazz records."

Sweatman toured the vaudeville circuit for over twenty years and presented African American music to white music lovers without resorting to the hitherto obligatory "plantation" costumes and blackface makeup. His bands were a fertile breeding ground of young jazz talent, featuring such future stars as Duke Ellington, Coleman Hawkins, and Jimmie Lunceford. Sweatman subsequently played pioneering roles in radio and recording production. His high profile and sterling reputation in both the black and white entertainment communities made him a natural choice for administering the estate of Scott Joplin and other notable black performers and composers.

That's Got 'Em! is the first full-length biography of this pivotal figure in black popular culture, providing a compelling account of his life and times.

Mark Berresford is a writer, rare record dealer, and editor of VJM's Jazz & Blues Mart, the world's oldest jazz and blues record trade magazine. He is the author of Parry Thomas and Pendine and co-author of Black Swan: The Record Label of the Harlem Renaissance.  His liner notes for the Rivermont CD 'Dance-O-Mania,' Harry Yerkes and The Happy Six'  was nominated in 2010 for a Grammy Award and the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.

240 pages (approx.), 6 x 9 inches, 24 b&w illustrations, foreword, bibliography, discography, 4 appendices, index.

978-1-60473-099-9 Cloth $50.00

Orders can also be placed direct with the University Press of Mississippi, where payment can be made either by credit card or Paypal. It is also available at http://www.upress.state.ms.us/about/ordering or www.amazon.com or www.amazon.co.uk

This page will shortly also be used to publish additions, corrections and new information on Wilbur Sweatman and his career, and you are requested to forward any information, photographs or documents you have for publication here.

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