Orpheus Myron McAdoo & tale of the 'Wimoweh' song

1900 Death in Sydney, Australia of Orpheus Myron McAdoo (Bill McAdoo; b. 1858), African-American 'black minstrel' singer who toured Europe, South Africa and Australia with McAdoo's American Minstrels and McAdoo's Alabama Cakewalkers.

In 1876 McAdoo graduated from Hampton Normal and Agricultural Institute (founded in 1868 at Hampton, Virginia by Northern philanthropists, notably General Samuel Chapman Armstrong) and taught in Virginia schools before returning to teach at his alma mater. In 1881 he took the place of his fellow student, African American educator and author Booker T Washington (1856 - 1915), in charge of the Native American boy students' dormitory.

Before commencing his own theatrical company in 1890 (mostly composed of fellow Hampton graduates ), he had been one of the troupe of the eminent bass singer Frederick J Loudin and the Fisk Jubilee Singers, who first arrived in Australia at Melbourne on May 14, 1886. The Fisk style of music included cakewalks and spirituals.

McAdoo took ill of unknown causes about 16 months before his death. He returned to the US, and came back to Sydney, apparently in good health, but on April 28 the Sydney Morning Herald reported that "During the week Mr. McAdoo has suffered from a somewhat serious attack of illness" ...


McAdoo, Solomon Linda and 'The Lion Sleeps Tonight'
Before McAdoo's death the McAdoo Jubilee Singers had extensive tours in South Africa until hostilities began in the Boer War ...

McAdoo's syncopations and American styles reached deep into South Africa, in mining towns and bush villages. It reached as far as Gordon Memorial School, above a valley called Msinga, in Zulu country about 300 miles southeast of Johannesburg. A generation later, the sounds influenced a pupil of that school, Solomon Linda, who formed a group called Solomon Linda and the Evening Birds.

Solomon Linda wrote a song called 'Mbube', Zulu for 'the lion', and recorded it in the Evening Birds' second session, in Johannesburg in 1939 after they had been 'discovered' by a talent scout. Pete Seeger, the American folk musician, heard the song and cut it himself with his band, The Weavers, calling it 'Wimoweh', which has been recorded by Jimmy Dorsey, Yma Sumac, Glen Campbell, They Might Be Giants, The Tokens and The Kingston Trio, with everyone making money off it – except Solomon Linda ...

Black and white minstrels in Oz
The McAdoo Jubilee Singers, who had become almost naturalised Australians, continued Down Under up until World War One, by which time they had toured all the states (including distant Western Australia), and New Zealand. By 1905 the minstrels included several white Australians, and Miss Claire Solly, a Western Australian Aboriginal contralto ...

Much more in the Book of Days.