Irving Jones
Irving Jones (1874–1932) was an American comedian and songwriter who specialized in a ragtime musical genre known as coon songs during their heyday in the late 19th and early 20th century.
A successful comic throughout his career, he has been hailed as a pioneer of ragtime music and both praised and criticized for his ability to take advantage of the popularity of the coon song genre, which often used stereotypical portrayals of African-Americans.
[3] In his early years, he was known mostly as a comic and was described as "a charming hustler" who expertly took charge of the craps games on the Creole Show's railroad sleeping car.
They also found favor with some African-Americans who appreciated their pointed humor and boisterous anger, compared to earlier more sentimental minstrel songs.
[8][6][7] Other Black critics and composers, however, lamented and lambasted the rise of the coon song genre and its use of derogatory language and negative stereotypes.
The song was picked up by fellow performer Ernest Hogan and rewritten as Pa Ma La, which became wildly successful.
[5] In 1898, he was invited to perform for Gussie Davis's Darkest America, where he introduced another hit song, Get Your Money's Worth.
By 1899, he had sold about 20 songs to more than a dozen publishers, including "Give me back my clothes," "If They Fought the War with Razors", and "I'm Living Easy."
[2] Also in 1900, he played the leading role in a short-lived operetta called "Jus Lak White Fo'ks" by Will Marion Cook and Paul Laurence Dunbar.
[5] In another verse about living well, from Ragtime Millionaire, he sings:[5] "Every tooth in my head is gold/ Make those boys look icy cold/ I brush my teeth with diamond dust/ And I don't care if the bank would bust/ All you little people take your hats off to me/
Corker admitted however that there were so few avenues available for Black performers to make money, that he was glad that Jones "had bagged some coin of the realm."
He also used comically veiled social commentary in his descriptions of Black life in Jim Crow America, with songs like "I Never Seen Such Hard Luck Before" , "Home Ain't Nothing Like This".
He drew from African-American folklore in his ballads like Pa Me La and wrote in the authentic idioms of Black Americans of the time.
"He enjoys a unique method, which, aside from his ability as a comedian, he is a wit; his monologue is full of bright, characteristic philosophy, showing close study of the humorous Negro character and his delineations were clearly defined as a well-cut cameo.
Ragtime offered unique rhythms, curious groupings of words and melodies which gave the zest of unexpectedness."
In 1922, the Kalamazoo Gazette published an interview with Jones that said that at that time the sale of one song with its royalties and recordings could set an entertainer up for life.
