After performing before George V and the future king at the time, Edward VIII, The Southern Syncopated Orchestra face the misfortune of their ship, the SS Rowan, sinking on October 9th, 1921. They made history as the first all-black orchestra to perform for the UK.

 

The Southern Syncopated Orchestra (the SSO), first established in the U.S. in 1918 and was founded by Will Marion Cook, was known as an early jazz group who brought black musicians into the UK. The band consisted of 27 black musicians and 19 singers, many of which were from Jamaica, Guyana, Barbados, Antigua, Ghana, and the U.S., this included: Louis Armstrong and Sidney Bechet on the clarinet. 

 

They were the first jazz band to visit the UK and Ireland, touring between 1919 and 1921, attracting 328,000 paid admissions to hear them perform at the Kelvin Hall in Glasgow, in 1920. This was one of their many successful annual tours around Britain and Europe, performing: classical music, rag tunes, blues, slave songs, and jazz. They performed before George V in 1919, then later asked by the future king ,Edward VIII to perform at Buckingham Palace.

 

During the 1921 Farewell Tour of Europe, they performed for the very last time together in the lyric theatre, Glasgow, during the October of 1921. The public were all stunned with the news of the SSOs ship, the SS Rowan, sinking on the way to their next venue in Dublin. The ship had been stuck by two other vessels leading to the death of 36 passengers, including nine of the SSO musicians, Frank Bates was one amongst many casualties.

 

At the time of the calamity, technology wasn’t advance enough to capture the orchestra’s music due to the number of members, consisting of over 40 musicians. As a result, none of their 500 songs had been recorded. This has led to most people today won’t have any idea of the wonder that they would’ve sounded like as a group. 

 

After the shipwreck, a handful of the members continued play, raising funds for people who had been horribly affected by the incident hoping to be able to be there for anyone who would need it after the mishap. However, the SSO were unable to ever fully recover from the misfortune never performing all together again.

 

After the event new famous bands and musicians rose from the orchestra creating their own independent music. Some of whom where; The jazz Kings whose key star was Sidney Bechet. Louis Armstrong also later produced his own music in years following the tragedy and is now a commonly known name in the jazzy community.

 

While the tragedy did lead to the rise of new jazz bands and musicians, the orchestra never had any of their songs recorded, and were unable to go back to how their lives were before the incident. However, they will always be remembered for their music and brining the first all-black jazz band to the United Kingdom and Europe.