Music and Some Highly Musical PeopleTrotter, James M.
History
Music and Some Highly Musical People
Trotter, James M.
African American musicians -- Biography; African Americans -- Music
"The Cincinnati Inquirer" says,--
"It is an unusually fine company, and superior to any that
visit here."
"The Baltimore News" says,--
"There is no approach to vulgarity. Their audiences are the
most fashionable. No minstrel company can compare with
Callender's."
"The Brooklyn Union" says,--
"They are superlatively excellent."
"The Memphis Appeal" says,--
"They are masters of minstrelsy."
"The Baltimore American" says,--
"All other companies are tame in comparison with these."
William Lloyd Garrison writes,--
"It is gratifying to see that no imputation is brought
against them of presenting any thing offensive to the eye or
ear."
Mr. P.T. Barnum says,--
"They are extraordinary, and the best I ever saw. They fully
deserve their large patronage."
Said Dexter Smith, the eminent song-writer,--
"Boston has unconditionally yielded to the Georgia
Minstrels. If you wish to see the brains, beauty, and
fashion of the musical metropolis, a peep into Beethoven
Hall will give you an insight of it. Never has a minstrel
troupe created such enthusiasm in any American city as the
Georgia Minstrels have done in Boston."
And the Boston "Folio," that excellent journal of music,--
"The Georgia Minstrels, who are nightly appearing before
crowded houses at Beethoven Hall, deserve more than a
passing notice, on account of their excellence, and the
utter absence of aught that could offend the most
fastidious. 'The Traveller' expresses our sentiments so
exactly, that we cannot indorse them better than by
quoting:--
"'There is a freshness and a completeness about the whole
performance which entitle it to the fullest praise. As for
the whole evening's enjoyment, it may be characterized as
novel from the fact that it is native and not imitative,
commendable because it is wholly refined, and most pleasant
because it is always artistic. The comedians are very
numerous, and all unite in giving a perfection to the
rendering of the whole bill.'"
"The Boston Herald" said,--
"Beethoven Hall was well filled last evening by admirers of
Ethiopian delineations, assembled to see and hear the
original Georgia Minstrels, who have returned from a very
successful tour in Europe, and are now located at the
above-named hall for a short season. The company is a
novelty from the fact that all the members are colored, and
their performances possess a genuineness which no burnt-cork
artists can fully imitate. Their music, both vocal and
instrumental, is excellent. Each performer seems to be not
only a natural, but a cultured artist; and all have the
faculty of being exceedingly mirthful, without overstepping
the bounds of refinement. In fact, each performer seems
perfect in his _role_; and all appear to be masters of
minstrelsy."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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