James Hubert “Eubie” Blake (February 7, 1887 – February 12, 1983), was an American composer, lyricist, and pianist of ragtime, jazz, and popular music. In 1921, he and his long-time collaborator Noble Sissle wrote Shuffle Along, one of the first Broadway musicals 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 opened on Broadway in 1978, featured his works. Blake was born February 7, 1887, at 319 Forrest Street, in Baltimore, Maryland. Of the eight children of former slaves Emily “Emma” Johnstone (1861–1927) and John Sumner Blake (1838–1917), he was the only one to survive infancy.

Blake’s musical training began when he was 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 a neighbor, Margaret Marshall, an organist for the Methodist church. At age 15, without his parents’ knowledge, he began playing piano at Aggie Shelton’s Baltimore bordello. Blake got his first big break in the music business in 1907, when the world champion boxer Joe Gans hired him to play the piano at Gans’s Goldfield Hotel, the first “black and tan club” in Baltimore. Blake played at the Goldfield during the winters from 1907-1914, spending his summers playing clubs in Atlantic City. During this period, he also studied composition in Baltimore with Llewellyn Wilson.