The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1901-03-15
THE BAND THAT ExcELLHp soUsA
Memories of the Halcyon Days When
Old Frank Johnson's Orchestra Dis
coursed Music That Was Not CLASH
ioal.
Frank S. Woodson in Newport News
Morning Herald.


Sousa came and he captured the
town. Sousa is a great man and he
has a great band. His music is some
thing wonderful. 1 sat there in the
Academy OF Music simply entranced,
for a while, but really before he had
gotten through with the programme
and the encores 1 a begun to get a
little more IA enough. That was
not Sousa's fault 1 guess, but rattle
the faul of my very faulty musical
education and training.
L love to hear good music and 1
simply dote on a band but 1 confess
that 1 got tired of Sousa. Well, as 1
was coming out of the academy I
heard a young lady say: "Oh, why
Will Sousa play SO much classical
music; why does he not confine him
self to his own grand marches" /
hadn't thought of it before, but mavhe
his playing is too classical for my ear.
But this / well know and know quite
well: in the years long gone by 1 was
never known to get tired OF old Frank
Johnson'S band.
Old Frank Johnson's band, My
My!i My!!! What memories the
mere mention of that wonderful mus
zeal aggregation brings up, Why,
away back yonder when l was a bare
footed village boy, 1 could follow mat
band for miles or sit and listen to it's
sweet music for hours, yes, for days.
if it could nave played SO long, and 1
never got tired, either.
Old Frank Johnson was a negro
slave owned by a wealthy Roanoke
river farmer, whose broad acres were
located in Northampton county, N. c..
He bought himself, on a credit, and
IN a like mannan nIIrnho cod Tho fraa
dom of his wife. His old master
threw in the five or six children, all
boys, for good measure. Johnson
was a natural-bOrn musician and could
play any instrument he had ever seen.
but his s~peciaIties were the fiddle, ono
violins in those good old days, but
fiddles) the clariOnet and the cornet.
He earned the money to pay for his
and his family's freedom by fiddling
for balls and dances, and then made a
gOOdIy fortune.
He was known as "Old' Frank
Johnson when l was born and | don't
know how long before. 1 never knew
him to be called by any other name.
He was as black as the ace of spades,
but be it understood he was no COM
mon musician, no ordinary fiddler.
He was an aristocrat, too, he was; a
regular fore de wah' aristocrat and
ii any "pO' white trash" had offered
to employ him to furnish band music
for a poor folks picnic or orchestra
music for a ountry dance that 'pO'
white trash would have been smoth-
cred beneath the whitening Scorn and
righteous Indignation of this ebony
hued old Roanoke river aristocrat. He
played only for ariStocrats, and was
always well paid.
All of his sons were musicians and
back yonder in the fifties when, 1,
then but a tot, first knew of Old Frank
Johnson he had ten S0nS and fO11r or
five musically inclined nephews, all
named ohnsO and all tolerably black,
none being brighter than ginger
K When / and forty other lads
of the village used to walk, not run,
miles to meet the band when it had
been announced that old Frank John
son is coming to town." l knew the
given names of all the sons, but I
have forgotten them now except ohm
and Edward and Cephas and Frank,
Jr.
Well. Old Frank Johnson made up a
brass band of this family of sons and
nephews, about fifteen or sixteen
strong. Old Frank blew the clariOnet:
John Johnson, his eldest son. the cor
net; Cephas, the tenor horn: edward
the big brass horn, and Frank, Jr.,
beat the snare drum. They also had
the big bass drum, the SymbalS and
the long drWn-Out trombone and all
the other horns and things that go to
make up a complete brass band. All
the JOhnSOnS were fiddlerS or banjo
pickers or flute blowers, and the bust
ness of this great North Carolina mus
zeal aggregation was to furnish field
and lawn music for aristocratic tour
naments, picnics, etc, and dancing
music for the inevitable grand ball
that followed at night. Sometimes
the band played at big democratic
barbacues and ~speakings; but never
at a Wing gathering. Old Frank
Johnson was a democrat as we'll as an
aristocrat, and he would have died
before he would have allowed his
band to play at a Wing meeting. Old
Frank JOhnson's band was known all
over Northampton. Halifax, Edge
combe, Warren, Mash and Granville
counties in North Carolina and was
always in demand
In summer time the band played at
the Springs and there was every year
a scramble between Kittrelfis springs
in Granville county, Jones and Shocco
Springs in Warren, and Buffalo springs
just across the Virginia line, for Old
Johnson's summer service
Generally either Shocco or Jones
would get him and sometimes (the two
places being only two miles apart
they took him jointly, the band play
ing at one place one day and one night
and at the other the next and that is
how I came to know all about OLD
Frank Johnson's band.
When the band was at Jones OIL
Shocco it came into the town of War
renton, eight miles distant, once q
week or maybe nee a fortnight tc
play in the court house yard in the
afternoon and for a ball at Brownlow's
hotel at night and the dancers at the
springs, and all the regions round
about, came in too.
What balls these were and wha'
balls those were at Shocco and Zones
No germans in those days-squart
dances all the time-and. o, my. how
Old Frank Johnson could a the fig
ureS: Balance ALL" Swing You
Partner" Ladies Change" "Bacl
Again. Doocee-do," Swing Corner:
ALL" etc. etc.
And when the great long ball room
in BrownIow's hotel was filed will
Nhnco hannN dannarc thara rraS O Snank