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Harry Pace didn't necessarily set out create a jazz-and-blues label when he introduced the first major black- owned and operated record label in the spring of 1921. His initial Black Swan catalog offered art songs, hymns, and polite dance tunes, with a handful of vaudeville-style blues by the likes of Ethel Waters to liven the mix. In August of that year, Pace told the Talking Machine World, "while it is true that we will feature to a great extent 'blue' numbers…we will also release many numbers of a higher standard."

The astounding success of Ethel Waters' and Trixie Smith's blues releases soon overshadowed Black Swan's more conventional offerings, however. A handful of Pace's pop and concert stars went on to attain international reputations. Others faded in the later 1920s and are just now being rediscovered by collectors. Some, like Carlton Boxill, Hattie King Reavis, and Helen Woodruff, remain stubbornly obscure.

Despite Pace's claim to use only black talent, he routinely used artist pseudonyms to disguise white performers on his label, and those names will be found in White Performers on Black Swan. Those fictitious performers - like "Lorenzo Wells," who was actually the white freelance tenor Charles Hart - obviously do not belong in this list of pioneering, if now largely forgotten, black performers.

BESSIE ALLSION was an original member of the Shuffle Along cast in 1921 and went on to appear in the 1925 edition of The Plantation Revue (later replaced by Ethel Waters) and in the integrated cast of Lucky (1927). She made radio broadcasts in New York as early as 1925, traveled for a time with the Show Boat road company, and sang at the Cotton Club (New York) in the late 1920s.

In 1929 Allison married Savoy Ballroom owner Charles Buchanan and retired from entertainment. In the 1950s she began a new career in New York politics, representing Harlem in the state legislature, and later serving as Commissioner of the New York State Division of Human Rights.

CARLTON BOXILL had a single Black Swan release (2027) in December 1921. In the late 1920s he recorded briefly for Grey Gull, but virtually nothing is known of his life.

IVAN H. BROWNING sang lead tenor with the Four Harmony Kings, with whom he recorded in the United States and Europe from 1921 through 1929. He is thought to be present on their Black Swan recordings of 1921 and 1923. He starred in the 1924 Broadway production of Chocolate Dandies. Browning's single Black Swan release (2033), issued in late 1921, is of Christian material and was reissued on Paramount.

C. CARROLL CLARK was a pioneer Denver-born black concert artist and the first black performer to make commercially successful records of concert and light classical material. A Chicago Defender article dated May 7, 1921, documented Clark's struggle to gain acceptance as a serious vocalist:

"A white phonograph corporation employed him and...insisted that if they granted his request to have his picture published it must not be identified with the finer ballads, but with the type of song that has come to be associated in the popular mind with the sophisticated 'coon.' Mr. Clark, a cultured Negro ... justly rebelled against this imposition and left the employ of the white concern."

Clark recorded eighteen titles for Columbia between 1908 and 1910, some of which were also reissued (often anonymously) on D&R, Harmony, Silvertone, Standard, and other Columbia client brands.

In 1921, Clark recorded six titles for Black Swan label. He was featured on their second release (2002, issued in mid-1921), with accompaniment by Fletcher Henderson (piano) and Cordie Williams (violin). California Ramblers director Eddie Kirkeby contracted a Clark session to Pathé in 1923, but the results apparently were not issued. Clark returned to Columbia on December 10, 1923, recording several titles with piano accompaniment by Henderson. He filled another Columbia session on February 5, 1924, and later made several electrical recordings for Columbia.

Clark appeared at the Lafayette Theater (New York) in 1925 and is alleged to have performed with the Allie Ross Orchestra in Harlem. By 1929, he was performing primarily in restaurants and churches.

FLORENCE COLE-TALBERT was a pioneer black concert and operatic soprano. Cole was born in Detroit, graduated from the Chicago Music College in 1916, and made her professional debut at Aeolian Hall (New York) in 1918. She was married to pianist-director Wendell P. Talbert, who originally was associated with Hann's Jubilee Singers (see the Four Harmony Kings entry). Cole-Talbert went to Europe in 1924, where she was acclaimed for her performance in the role of Aïda. She returned to the United States in 1927.

Cole-Talbert became a subject of controversy in the 1980s, when Allen Debus and Brian Rust stated in the second edition of their Complete Entertainment Discography that she used the pseudonym "Flo Bert" for popular recordings on Gennett and Paramount. In fact, Flo Bert — who was a contralto, not a soprano, and whose vocal style bore no resemblance to Cole-Talbert's — was a popular white vaudeville headliner, and even starred in an early Vitaphone short. Her stage appearances, usually with husband El Brendel, were well-documented in Variety and other entertainment papers of the day.

Cole-Talbert had at least one title issued on the Broome label (the first black-owned record label) that might predate her Black Swan releases. Black Swan issued three Cole-Talbert sides (single-sided 7103 and double-sided 7104) in March 1922, all of which were later reissued by Paramount. One of her Black Swan masters was also issued on the mail-order National Music Lovers label under the pseudonym "Maria Pecelli."

J. HENRY CREAMER is best known as a lyricist and one-half of the team of Creamer & Layton. Born in Richmond, Virginia, in 1879, Creamer eventually moved to New York, where he co-founded the Clef Club in 1910. In 1920 he co-composed the score to The Three Showers with his vaudeville partner, J. Turner Layton. By 1922 he headed the Creole Producing Company, which produced the Broadway hit Strut Miss Lizzie as a starring vehicle for himself and Layton. Creamer quickly lost financial control of the company, however, and the show failed under new management.

Creamer wrote the lyrics to Strut Miss Lizzie, After You've Gone, Dear Old Southland, Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, and If I Could Be With You, and other hits. His first two recordings, with Layton, were released on Black Swan 2007 in mid-1921. He and Layton later recorded for Paramount in the United States before the team split in 1924. He died in New York in 1930.

HARRY A. DELMORE was a Boston native who specialized in Irish and sentimental songs as well as concert adaptation of spirituals. He is known to have been performing in New York by 1921, and his last documented public performance was at New York's Grace Congregational Church on February 3, 1929. He operated the Delmore Studio of Singing in New York after retiring from concert work.

Delmore's first known recordings were issued on Black Swan 2009 in mid-1921. He later recorded electrically for Grey Gull, and the masters were widely distributed on Grey Gull, Radiex, Supreme, Van Dyke, and other cheap labels, sometimes under pseudonyms, in the late 1920s.

THE FOUR HARMONY KINGS were an outgrowth of William A. Hann's Jubilee Singers. According to Noble Sissle's unpublished memoirs, they were recruited by James Reese Europe in Chicago in April 1919 and were featured with Europe's Hell Fighters Band, at which time the personnel included Ivan H. Browning (lead tenor), William Howard Berry (second tenor), Charles Exodus Drayton (baritone), and Hann (bass). They recorded for Pathé as "Lt. Jim Europe's Four Harmony Kings." In September 1921 Sissle & Blake added them to the cast of Shuffle Along, their ground-breaking Broadway hit, replacing a previous group, the Palm Beach Four. James Weldon Johnson and J. Rosamund Johnson singled out the quartet in the 1925 edition of their Book of American Negro Spirituals, saying, "No one who has heard Shuffle Along can forget the singing of the Four Harmony Kings."

The Four Harmony Kings later appeared in the Broadway productions of In Bamville and Chocolate Dandies (1924), with George Jones replacing Drayton. Hann left the group in mid-1925 to organize his Emperors of Song and was replaced by John Crabbe. The group toured England, where they recorded for Edison Bell Winner (1926) and Dominion (1929), and remained together through at least 1932.

The Four Harmony Kings recorded two sides for Black Swan in 1921 (Goodnight, Angeline / Ain't It a Shame) and one side in early 1923 (Love's Old Sweet Song). They also appaeared on Emerson, Paramount (from the Black Swan masters), and Vocalion in the early 1920s. Gennett recorded them again in 1929, but the masters remained unissued.

ARTHUR J. GAINES was a black concert tenor popular on the New York-area church recital circuit. Gaines later made the switch to Broadway, appearing in Roseanne (1924) and Tan Town Topics (1926). He made several trips to England with the Kentucky Jubilee Singers from the late 1920s through 1932, then toured Europe, Australia, and Hawaii through the 1930s. Gaines' two 1921 Black Swan solos (2013) were later reissued on Paramount.

ANTOINETTE GARNES was a notable black concert performer who trained at Howard University and the Chicago Music College. She later taught voice at Hampton Institute and Wilberforce University and in 1937 was appointed head of the music department at Lincoln University. She died at Cape Girardeau, Missouri, on June 25, 1938.

Garnes was featured in operatic arias from La Traviata and Rigoletto on two single-sided Black Swan releases (7101 and 7102), released in 1922 and later reissued on Paramount.

EDDIE GRAY was born in Covington, Kentucky, in the early 1890s and reportedly ran off with the Primrose & West Minstrels at the age of nine. He eventually landed in Chicago, where he performed at the Pekin and De Luxe Cafes. By 1920 he had moved to New York and joined the Clef Club. During the spring of 1921 he toured the Southern states with W. C. Handy's Orchestra. Gray had roles in productions of Runnin' Wild and 7-11 (1923) but spent the later 1920s performing in New York-area restaurants and night clubs. He died in New York on October 27, 1930.

Black Swan released solos by Gray (2011, 2022) in 1921, some of which were later reissued on Paramount and related labels. An alternative version of Black Swan 2011, teaming Gray with Inez Richardson, was reported in Jazz Finder many years ago, but no copies have been reliably reported. Gray also appeared on Claxtonola and Paramount under the pseudonym Frank Evers.

REVELLA HUGHES was chosen for Black Swan's debut release (2001, At Dawning / Thank God for a Garden) in 1921. Her four Black Swan sides, all of concert material, belie her Broadway credentials.

A West Virginia native, Hughes was featured in concert work in 1921 and 1922, then appeared in the New York production of Runnin' Wild in 1923. By 1925 she had moved to Chicago, where she performed with Dave Peyton's Symphonic Syncopators. She appeared with Will Marion Cook's troupe in 1926, but a bout of typhoid fever forced her into temporary retirement in February 1927.

Hughes returned to the stage in 1929, garnering roles in the New York productions of Bamboula (1929), Load o' Coal (1929), and Hot Rhythm (1930). She continued to work in the musical theater through 1931, but was hospitalized following an operation in West Virginia in 1932. By 1933 she had recovered sufficiently to organize her own symphonic company, which toured West Virginia during 1933–1934. In later years, Hughes performed primarily as a piano and organ soloist. Her last public appearance was as a Hammond organ soloist at Small's (New York) in 1949.

Black Swan issued four sides by Hughes in 1921, which were subsequently reissued on Paramount.

J. TURNER LAYTON was a noted black vocalist, pianist, composer, and music publisher. He toured in vaudeville with Henry Creamer, and the team was featured in the short-lived 1922 Broadway production of Strut Miss Lizzie (1922). In 1924 Layton split with Creamer and moved to England. There he teamed with Clarence Johnstone in a popular music-hall act billed as "The American Duettists."

Layton is best remembered for his collaborations with lyricist Creamer, including After You've Gone, Strut Miss Lizzie, Dear Old Southland, Way Down Yonder in New Orleans, and Down by the River. He also wrote material for several short-lived Broadway productions, including Three Showers (1920, 48 performances), Spice of 1922 (73 performances), and Some Party (1922, 17 performances).

Layton's first two recordings, made with Creamer, were released on Black Swan 2007 in 1921. He made one solo with piano accompaniment by Fletcher Henderson as a Victor test, which remained unissued, on March 24, 1923. Beginning in 1924, Layton recorded as a piano soloist for Columbia in London and also recorded a number of duets with Johnstone in England for Columbia and Parlophone.