In just one year, Black Swan had grown out of Pace’s basement to a staggering 30 employees, seven district managers in multiple cities, over 1,000 dealers and agents, and even its own 8-man orchestra. It wasn’t long before Black Swan was shipping thousands of records each day from their processing plant, making Pace the very first Black record mogul in a little under a year. This included Trixie Smith and Alberta Hunter.
She participated in shows with big names such as Louis Armstrong and Joe Smith, which helped grow her own popularity alongside the Black Swan label.īlack Swan would continue the trend of signing young singers that specialized in Blues music.
She signed a deal in the same year the company was founded, and her subsequent touring helped the Black Swan label grow immensely in popularity. Harry Pace would later sign Ethel Waters as the first major black artist on the Black Swan label. The name was a tribute to Elizabeth Taylor Greenfield, a well-known entertainer in the 19th century that was known to fans as the “Black Swan.” With $30,000 in borrowed capital, he quickly grew the company and also founded the label Black Swan Records. Thus, he founded Pace Phonograph Corporations Inc. Pace later moved to New York to manage a sheet music business but decided that he would instead form his own record company. Together with Handy, the two worked with composers like Fletcher Henderson and William Grant Sill. Pace would also meet his future wife, Ethlynde Bibb, during this period. They would write songs together and later founded the Pace and Handy Music Company. The two had become great friends since Pace moved to Memphis, and they both expressed a passion for music. Once he graduated, Pace worked at a printing company, in banking, and also for insurance companies across Atlanta and later Memphis. Du Bois, an American sociologist and historian, was one of Pace’s instructors throughout his academic life. Harry Pace graduated from elementary school at twelve and finished his studies at Atlanta university seven years later as a valedictorian. Pace’s father was a blacksmith by trade that passed away while he was still an infant, leaving his mother to be the only one to raise him. He was the son of Charles Pace and Nancy Ferris Pace. Harry Pace (full name Harry Herbert Pace) was born on January 6, 1884, in Covington, Georgia. But little is known about the label or its founder. Black Swan was the first black record label owned, operated, and marketed to African-Americans. It was a huge American jazz and blues record label founded in 1921 in Harlem, New York. Black Swan was essentially Motown before Motown existed. Not many have explored this far back in Black music culture.
However, few people remember or even know about the first Black record mogul, Harry Pace, and his record label, Black Swan. Sean “Diddy” Combs’ with his Bad Boy imprint and Quincy Jones are a few names that spring to mind. When talking about the most significant black music producers, songwriters, and record companies in history, we often think about modern names and labels. Harry Pace and his record label, Black Swan