SEE BEE RECORDS: Pioneer Black Record Label of the 1920s

SEE BEE: Another pioneering black record label

Among early black-owned record labels, See Bee ranks as one of the most obscure. It appeared briefly around early 1922 and possibly produced nine or more releases before vanishing. The label might have gone largely unnoticed had it not issued the only commercial record by back-to-Africa advocate Marcus Garvey (See Bee 208).

The records were credited to the C. H. Bourne Recording Co., although it is by no means certain that the company played any role beyond marketing and distribution. No mention of Bourne or his company has yet been found in the phonograph trade papers of the day.

At least two other See Bee issues are known. See Bee 200 features the Five Harmoniques singing "Hallelujah to the Lamb" (ms. 484-4) and "Blue Sunday Blue Law Blues" (mx. 483-4). See Bee 206 features Wilson's Broadway Orchestra playing "Second-Hand Rose" (mx. S-107-2) and "When the Sun Goes Down" (mx. 449-1). The conductor is credited on the labels as Cleveland Jones, a minor band leader who worked in New York during the early 1920s. Neither the record nor the label is mentioned in Brian Rust's label book or discographies, although their existence was reported by Walter C. Allen as early as 1958.

No file documentation is known to have survived on these exceedingly rare records. Assuming there are no breaks in the numerical sequence, with a starting point at number 200, at least nine issues might have been produced. The S- prefixed matrix on Wilson's "Second-Hand Rose" suggests the involvement of Earle W. Jones—supplier of masters to Arto, Lyric, and many other short-lived brands in the early 1920s. Jones assigned S- prefixes to the many masters he licensed during this period through his Standard Records operation, a New York firm not connected to the earlier Standard Talking Machine Co. of Chicago. The 400-series matrices have not been traced to a source and are probably unique to See Bee.

Readers who own other examples of See Bee records, or who have any verifiable information about the company that produced them, are encouraged to contact us.

For information on more than 420 other historic 78 record labels, and the people and companies that produced them, see American Record Labels and Companies: An Encyclopedia (1891-1943). An ARSC award-winner, the book includes the American Record Label Image CD with color scans of 1,100 labels.

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