(February 7th 1882 - March 9th 1961)

Wilbur Coleman Sweatman, born in Brunswick, Missouri in 1882, was an early clarinetist and composer who began his professional career in the late 1890s. For a time he played in the orchestra of W.C. Handy before forming his own band in 1902. The following year he made his first recordings on Edison Cylinder and became a prominent bandleader at the Monogram at Grand Theaters after moving to Chicago in 1908. By 1911 Sweatman successfully broke into vaudeville with an act in which he was featured playing three clarinets at once. Wilbur Sweatman would become the first African-American musician from the United States to develop a nationwide fan base.