Charleston

Duration: 7 minutes, or 5 minutes with optional cut

Instrumentation:
2.2.2.2 – 2.2.2.1 – 1 opt. perc – drum set – opt. banjo – opt. piano – strings
Percussion (optional): Wood block, cowbell

Orchestated by David Rimelis. Editing, engraving and arrangement by Nicholas Hersh.

Preview the score

Soon after Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle’s pioneering 1921 Broadway hit Shuffle Along broke many theatrical taboos for Black stage shows, Johnson teamed up with the comedians from that show, Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles, for an ostensible sequel. Called Runnin’ Wild, Johnson and lyricist Cecil Mack, a prominent figure in the Black musical world since the turn of the century, introduced a score that contained the tune that would shape the entire decade. The book of Runnin’ Wild was based on a comedy sketch of Miller and Lyles. The show opened on Boadway on October 29, 1923 to very favorable reviews. Most critics singled out the love song, “Old Fashioned Love,” as the probable hit. After a 27 week run and over 200 performances on Broadway, the show went on the road. Despite the initial acclaim and some popular success, “Old Fashioned Love” was eventually eclipsed ten-fold by the dance number from the show, “Charleston.” It was not the first tune to include the name Charleston, but Johnson’s conception extracting the elements from the ring shout and other dances he observed from immigrants from the Georgia and South Carolina Sea Islands as well as from the city of Charleston set off a world-wide craze. Johnson had heard and seen variations of the Charleston a decade earlier when he was playing in the San Juan Hill section of Hell’s Kitchen on Manhattan’s West Side. Curiously, except for two piano roll versions, Johnson never commercially recorded what is arguably his most famous tune. The only other preserved recording of him playing the tune is from a 1947 radio broadcast, the recording on which the arrangement is based. Johnson plays the rarely heard minor key verse as a piano solo, which is then followed by the lively orchestral rendition of the famous chorus. His apparent neglect of the tune that might have secured personal popular success had he chosen to tour the country with his own orchestra reflects his greater desire to be recognized as a composer rather than as a band leader.