James Hubert Blake (February 7, 1883/1887 – February 12 1983), was a composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. With long time collaborator Noble Sissle, Blake wrote the Broadway musical Shuffle Along in 1921; this was one of the first Broadway musical ever to be written and directed by African Americans. Blake's compositions included such hits as, "Bandana Days", "Charleston Rag", "Love Will Find A Way", "Memories of You", and "I'm Just Wild About Harry". The musical Eubie!, which featured the collective works of Blake opened on Broadway in 1978.

Born James Hubert Blake at 319 Forrest Street in Baltimore, Maryland, on February 7, 1887, to former slaves Emma (1861-1927) and John Blake (1838-1917). He was their only surviving child; seven others died in infancy. In 1894, the family moved to 414 North Eden Street, and later to 1510 Jefferson Street. John Blake worked as a stevedore on the Baltimore docks, earning $9.00 a week.

Blake's musical training began when he was just four or five years old. While out shopping with his mother, he wandered into a music store, climbed on the bench of an organ, and started "foolin’" around. When his mother found him, the store manager said to her: "The child is a genius! It would be criminal to deprive him of the chance to make use of such a sublime, God-given talent." The Blakes purchased a pump organ for US$75.00 making payments of 25 cents a week. When Blake was seven, he received music lessons from their neighbor, Margaret Marshall, an organist from the Methodist church. At age fifteen, without knowledge of his parents, he played piano at Aggie Shelton’s Baltimore bordello.

Blake said he first composed the melody to the "Charleston Rag" in 1899, which would have made him 12 years old, but he did not commit it to paper until 1915, when he learned to write in musical notation.

In 1912, Blake began playing in vaudeville with Jimmy Europe's "Society Orchestra" which accompanied Vernon and Irene Castle's ballroom dance act. The band played ragtime music which was still quite popular at the time. Shortly after World War I, Blake joined forces with performer Noble Sissle to form a vaudeville music duo, the "Dixie Duo." After vaudeville, the pair began work on a musical revue, Shuffle Along, which incorporated many songs they had written. When it premiered in 1921, Shuffle Along became the first hit musical on Broadway written by and about African-Americans. The musical also introduced such hit songs as "I'm Just Wild About Harry" and "Love Will Find a Way."

In 1923, Blake made three films for Lee DeForest in DeForest's Phonofilm sound-on-film process. They were Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake featuring their song "Affectionate Dan", Sissle and Blake Sing Snappy Songs featuring "Sons of Old Black Joe" and "My Swanee Home", and Eubie Blake Plays His Fantasy on Swanee River featuring Blake performing his "Fantasy on Swanee River". These films are in the Library of Congress collection.

In July 1910, Blake married Avis Elizabeth Cecelia Lee (1881–1938), proposing to her in a chauffeur-driven car he hired. Blake and Lee met around 1895 while both attended Primary School No. 2 at 200 East Street in Baltimore. In 1910 Blake brought his newlywed to Atlantic City, New Jersey, where he had already found employment at the Boathouse nightclub.

In 1938 Avis was diagnosed with tuberculosis and died later that year at 58. Of his loss, Blake is on record saying, "In my life I never knew what it was to be alone. At first when Avis got sick, I thought she just had a cold, but when time passed and she didn’t get better, I made her go to a doctor and we found out she had TB … I suppose I knew from when we found out she had the TB, I understood that it was just a matter of time."

Blake continued to play and record until shortly before what everyone considered his 100th birthday (see below), actually his 96th. He died in 1983 in Brooklyn just five days after celebrating his 96th birthday. He was interred in the Cypress Hills Cemetery in Brooklyn, New York.

In later years Blake listed his birth year as 1883, and his 100th birthday was celebrated in 1983. Most sources, including the Encyclopædia Britannica, and a U.S. Library of Congress biography, incorrectly list his birth year as 1883. Every official document issued by the government records his birthday as February 7, 1887. This includes the 1900 Census, his 1917 World War I draft registration, 1920 passport application, 1936 Social Security application, and death records as reported by the United States Social Security Administration. A database search on James Blake, 113-05-1371 returns: JAMES BLAKE, 07 Feb 1887, Feb 2006, (V) 10017 New York, New York, 113-05-1371, New York.</bgref> Peter Hanley writes: "In the final analysis, however, the fact that he was only ninety-six years of age and not one hundred when he died does not in any way detract from his extraordinary achievements. Eubie will always remain among the finest popular composers and songwriters of his era."

In 1995 Eubie Blake was honored with a United States postage stamp. James Hubert Blake High School was built in Silver Spring, Maryland, in 1998. Eubie Blake HS has a strong focus on the performing arts, and its instrumental music ensembles are perennial award winners. He was inducted into the American Theatre Hall of Fame. His 1969 album, The Eighty-Six Years of Eubie Blake, was a 2006 entry into the Library of Congress' National Recording Registry.

* Age fabrication.

<div class="references-small"> * * * Salute to Eubie Blake; The Rag Times; May/June 1969 * New York Times; December 27, 1982, Monday. "Eubie Blake Birthday Party. In honor of Eubie Blake's 100th birthday, St. Peter's Church, at Lexington Avenue and 54th Street, will hold a 24-hour celebration beginning at midnight Feb. 6. The tribute to the composer will feature a host of musicians, vocalists and dancers, including Billy Taylor, Bobby Short, Dick Hyman, Honi Coles and the Copacetics, Bill Bolcom and Joan Morris, Max Morath, Marianne McPartland, Maurice Hines and Cab Calloway. Mr. Blake, born in Baltimore Feb. 7, 1882, may attend." * New York Times; February 13, 1983, Sunday. "Five days after his 100th birthday was celebrated with gala performances of his music, Eubie Blake, the composer and pianist whose career covered a span from the ragtime era in the 19th century to the contemporary Broadway theater a year ago, died yesterday at his home in Brooklyn" </div>

* * * * The Eubie Blake Collection at the Maryland Historical Society * * Eubie Blake & Ragtime includes transcription of 1970 interview with Blake * Biographical article by Peter Hanley * James Hubert Blake's WWI Draft Registration Card and essay