The Harlem Jazz Orchestra, for hire
One hundred years ago today … Need a jazz group? The Harlem Jazz Orchestra was looking for gigs.
The New York Age Feb. 21, 1920, p. 5. Newspapers.com
Throughout 1920, The New York Age carried the above ad for the group, which could be hired by contacting business manager Henry S. Coshburn, who was apparently a civil servant temporarily under suspension; he was reinstated in April of 1920.
The band was led by William H. Dover Jr., a trombonist who had a chequered career, playing with important jazz ensembles throughout the 1920s in New York and Chicago, including recording with Perry Bradford, but not making a permanent name for himself. Eugene Chadbourne’s AllmusicGuide.com entry for him reports:
Dover’s later career seems to bring the concept of unpopularity to an all-time low. He moved to Chicago and eventually became an assistant or enforcer for the musicians' union, a job that required him to cruise the city's nightspots looking for infractions.