Noble Sissle

Noble Lee Sissle, born on July 10, 1889, in Indianapolis, Indiana, was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer, playwright, and Broadway performer whose career on the New York stage spanned from 1921 to 1952. His father, the Reverend George A. Sissle, served as pastor of Indianapolis's Simpson M. E. Chapel, and his mother, Martha Angeline (née Scott) Sissle, worked as a school teacher and juvenile probation officer. As a young man, Sissle sang in church choirs and performed as a soloist with his high school glee club in Cleveland, Ohio. He attended De Pauw University in Greencastle, Indiana, on scholarship before transferring to Butler University in Indianapolis, after which he pursued music full-time.

In early 1916, Sissle joined one of the society orchestras organized by bandleader James Reese Europe in New York. He persuaded Europe to hire pianist and composer Eubie Blake, whom Sissle had first met in Baltimore in 1915. Later that year, Sissle helped Europe organize a regimental band for the 15th Infantry Regiment (Colored) of the New York National Guard, which became the 369th Infantry "Hell Fighters" Regiment. The unit served in France during World War I, with Europe holding the rank of lieutenant and Sissle serving as sergeant and lead vocalist. The band played syncopated music and is credited with introducing jazz to France. Sissle left the army after the war as a second lieutenant with the 370th Infantry Regiment. He had begun recording for the Pathé label in early 1917 and sang several vocals on Pathé discs recorded by Europe's 369th Infantry Band in early 1919, after it had transitioned to a civilian ensemble.

On May 9, 1919, James Europe was murdered by a disgruntled band member in Boston, Massachusetts. Sissle, with Blake's assistance, took temporary charge of Europe's band. Shortly thereafter, Sissle and Blake formed a vaudeville music duo called "The Dixie Duo." The pair subsequently developed the jazz musical revue Shuffle Along, which incorporated songs they had written together, with a book by F. E. Miller and Aubrey Lyles. When it premiered in 1921, Shuffle Along became the first hit musical on Broadway written by and about African Americans and the first all-black show to reach the Broadway stage in over a decade. The production featured a teenage Josephine Baker among its performers and introduced songs including "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and "Love Will Find a Way."

Sissle's Broadway credits extended well beyond Shuffle Along. He appeared in and contributed to the revue Andre Charlot's Revue of 1924, the musical Elsie, and The Chocolate Dandies. In 1952, he was involved with a revival of Shuffle Along. A 1979 Tony Award nomination for Best Original Score recognized his work on Eubie!, a Broadway musical built around the songs he had written with Blake.

Beyond the stage, Sissle maintained an active presence in film and radio. He and his band appeared in a 1931 British Pathétone Weekly filmed at Ciro's nightclub in London, performing "Little White Lies" and "Happy Feet." In 1932, Sissle appeared alongside Nina Mae McKinney, the Nicholas Brothers, and Eubie Blake in Pie, Pie Blackbird, a Vitaphone short released by Warner Bros., and also appeared in the Vitaphone film That's the Spirit, featuring Cora La Redd and Miller and Moreland. In February 1931, he accompanied Adelaide Hall on piano at the Palace Theatre in New York during her 1931–32 world tour. He collaborated with artists including Lena Horne and Duke Ellington and counted Ethel Waters, Cab Calloway, and Nat King Cole among his friends. In 1954, New York radio station WMGM, then owned by Loew's Theatre Organization, signed Sissle as a disc jockey, and his program featured the music of African-American recording artists.

Sissle was a member of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity. He died on December 17, 1975. In 2018, he was the subject of the documentary Noble Sissle's Syncopated Ragtime, directed by Daniel L. Bernardi and David de Rozas.