Ford Dabney

Ford Dabney
Born
Ford Thompson Dabney

(1883-03-15)March 15, 1883
Washington, D.C.
DiedJune 6, 1958(1958-06-06) (aged 75)
Manhattan
Alma mater    Washington, D.C.
M Street High School (1900–1902)
Spouse
Martha J. Davis
​
(m. 1912)​
(maiden; 1877–1961), widow of boxer Joe Gans
Parent(s)
John Wesley Dabney (1851–1924)
Rebecca C. Ford (maiden; 1854–1896)
Musical career
Occupation(s)
Theater owner (film house and vaudeville), theater orchestra leader, bandleader, ragtime pianist, composer, arranger
Years active1903–1944
LabelsParamount, Aeolian Vocalion, Belvedere, Puritan

Ford Thompson Dabney (15 March 1883 – 6 June 1958) was an American ragtime pianist, composer, songwriter, and acclaimed director of bands and orchestras for Broadway musical theater, revues, vaudeville, and early recordings. Additionally, for two years in Washington, from 1910 to 1912, he was proprietor of a theater that featured vaudeville, musical revues, and silent film. Dabney is best known as composer and lyricist of the 1910 song "That's Why They Call Me Shine,"[1] which for eleven point four decades, through 2023, has endured as a jazz standard. As of 2020, in the jazz genre, "Shine" has been recorded 646 times[2] Dabney and one of his chief collaborators, James Reese Europe (1880–1919), were transitional figures in the prehistory of jazz that evolved from ragtime (which loosely includes some syncopated music) and blues — and grew into stride, boogie-woogie, and other next levels in jazz. Their 1914 composition, "Castle Walk" – recorded February 10, 1914, by Europe's Society Orchestra with Dabney at the piano (Victor 17553-A, Matrix: B-14434) – is one of the earliest recordings of jazz.[3][4][5][Note 1]

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  3. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hill 2002 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  4. ^ Cite error: The named reference Castle-Walk discography Victor B-14434 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Cohen-Stratyner 2012 May 18 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).


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