RED NICHOLS IN THE 1920s

1920s' New York was full of young jazz musicians who’d rolled in from somewhere else. Ernest Loring Nichols, a redheaded kid from Utah fell into partnership with a studious-looking trombone player from nearby Long Island named Miff Mole. Instantly they clicked, and together set the standard for hot recording bands of the early 20s. They recorded under an ever-changing roster of goofy names like The Arkansas Travelers, or The Tennessee Tooters—names that seem at odds with the polished skill and urban sound of their hits.

By 1925 Red Nichols was the man to see if you were a musician in New York and needed a job. He was the 'go to' guy, equally connected to record labels needing talent and top-flight musicians looking for work. A well-schooled musician tutored by his bandmaster father, Red could pick up a violin, sit down at the piano or play the cornet. His cornet style has been praised for its “ringing tone and springy, punchy, rhythmic drive.”

When George and Ira Gershwin mounted their 1930 Broadway musical Strike Up the Band, they turned to Red Nichols to put their orchestra together. Nichols filled the chairs in the pit band with rising stars in the jazz world. On opening night as the curtain parted, first-nighters were treated to the sound of Jack Teagarden, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey and Glenn Miller—all under the baton of Red Nichols.

Red Nichols was a skilled talent scout. His studio sessions were a magnet and proving ground for top, young, white jazz players. Many would go on to become star bandleaders of the Swing Era. In the late summer of 1927 Jack Teagarden had finished a gig in a society dance band at San Antonio’s Gunther Hotel. Impulsively the 25-year-old trombonist hit the road for New York in a Cadillac belonging to the wife of one his band mates. One warm August evening they landed in Times Square. Dropped off at a phone booth in mid-town with his bags and instrument case, the first person Jack called was Red Nichols. Always on the lookout for something new to offer the record-buying public, Red was quick to capture Jack Teagarden’s soulful, blues-driven sound and playful vocals on disc.

Pint-sized with flame-red hair, Red Nichols was a go-getter with a good head for business. And he was clean and precise in his playing, a modernist always exploring new territory. But Nichols’ popular success drew criticism from some who called him an 'entertainer' rather than an 'artist.' Critics saw his success as “selling out” or somehow inauthentic, not true to the spirit of hot jazz as it was played by Jazz Age cornet hero, Bix Beiderbecke.

Saxophonist Bud Freeman and his friends often worked in studio groups led by Red Nichols but would not agree with Sudhalter about Nichols' musicianship. Freeman once said, “In the opinion of our group, Nichols was a synthetic player. He was a clever musician and made a lot of records, but he was a very mechanical player.”

This week on Riverwalk Jazz The Jim Cullum Jazz Band tells the story of Red Nichols and his Five Pennies, illustrated with numerous historical recordings of Nichols and the ensembles he led.

In spite of the controversy surrounding his work, Red Nichols was the most recorded and successful musician-bandleader in New York in the 1920s. He led enormously popular bands featuring some of the most creative white jazz players of that time, under names such as The Five Pennies, The Red Heads, and Miff Mole and His Little Molers. This voluminous output of recorded work—Red appeared on about 4,000 recordings in the 1920s—is recognized today as a major expansion and refinement of the harmonic and compositional possibilities in jazz...

DOCUMENTARY: BLACK COFFEE - SWING'S HIDDEN GEMS

 

THE EARLY YEARS OF FATS WALLER

Before the world knew him as “Fats,” the jovial jazz virtuoso with a grin as wide as his stride piano style, Thomas Wright Waller was just a boy growing up in the vibrant, music-soaked streets of Harlem, New York. Born on May 21, 1904, to Adeline, a church organist, and Edward Waller, a Baptist lay preacher, young Thomas was surrounded by both discipline and melody—a combination that would shape his life in unexpected ways.

From the age of six, Thomas was drawn to the piano like a moth to flame. He played the reed organ at his father’s open-air sermons, absorbing the rhythms of gospel and the structure of classical music. His mother, a talented musician herself, introduced him to the works of J.S. Bach, while his grandfather, Adolph Waller, a respected violinist from Virginia, added another layer of musical heritage to the boy’s upbringing. 

But Harlem in the early 1900s was more than just church music—it was becoming the beating heart of Black artistic expression. As the Harlem Renaissance began to bloom, so did the young Waller’s curiosity. He was captivated by the sounds spilling out of clubs and rent parties, where jazz was being born in real time. Despite his father’s disapproval—he called jazz “music from the Devil’s workshop”—Thomas couldn’t resist the pull. 

By his early teens, he was working in a grocery store to pay for music lessons, and soon dropped out of DeWitt Clinton High School to pursue music full-time. His first steady gig was as an organist at Harlem’s Lincoln Theatre, and it wasn’t long before he caught the attention of James P. Johnson, the legendary stride pianist who became his mentor. Johnson introduced him to the world of rent parties, where Waller’s infectious energy and dazzling technique quickly made him a favorite. 

The nickname “Fats” came early—an affectionate nod to his size, but also to his larger-than-life personality. He was already composing, performing, and charming audiences with a mix of virtuosity and humor that would become his trademark. By the time he was 20, he had written his first hit, “Squeeze Me”, and was well on his way to becoming one of the most beloved figures in American music. 

In those early years, Waller wasn’t just learning music—he was living it, absorbing the pulse of Harlem, the discipline of classical training, and the improvisational spirit of jazz. His story is one of joy, rebellion, and genius, all wrapped in the rhythm of a piano that never stopped swinging....

CAB CALLOWAY: THE HI DE HO MAN

In 1931, Cab Calloway recorded his most famous song, "Minnie the Moocher". It is the first single song by an African American to sell a million records. The Old Man of the Mountain", "St. James Infirmary Blues", and "Minnie the Moocher" were performed in three Betty Boop cartoons: "Minnie the Moocher" (1932), "Snow White" (1933), and "The Old Man of the Mountain" (1933). Through rotoscoping, Calloway performed voice over for these cartoons, but his dance steps were the basis of the characters' movements. He scheduled concerts in some communities to coincide with the release of the films to take advantage of the publicity.

When Calloway originally recorded "Minnie The Moocher" in the 1930s, the chorus lyrics were simply "Ho-dee-hody" rather than the lengthened "Hody-hody-hody ho". In an interview, Calloway explained that one time when he was singing the song, he suddenly forgot the words, so he immediately shouted "Hody-Hody-Hody-ho!", and carried on the song that way. That proved to be more popular with fans than the original, so he had been singing it that way ever since.

As a result of the success of "Minnie the Moocher", Calloway became identified with its chorus, gaining the nickname "The Hi De Ho Man". He performed in the 1930s in a series of short films for Paramount. Calloway's and Ellington's groups were featured on film more than any other jazz orchestras of the era. In these films, Calloway can be seen performing a gliding backstep dance move, which some observers have described as the precursor to Michael Jackson's moonwalk. Calloway said 50 years later, "it was called The Buzz back then." The 1933 film "International House" featured Calloway performing his classic song, "Reefer Man", a tune about a man who smokes marijuana.

Calloway remained a household name through the 1960s due to TV appearances and occasional concerts in the US and Europe. In 1961 and 1962, he toured with the Harlem Globetrotters, providing halftime entertainment during games., and was cast as Yeller in the film "The Cincinnati Kid" (1965) with Steve McQueen, Ann-Margret, and Edward G. Robinson. In 1967, he co-starred with Pearl Bailey as Horace Vandergelder in an all-black cast of "Hello, Dolly!" on Broadway during its original run.
In 1978, Calloway released a disco version of "Minnie the Moocher" on RCA which reached the Billboard R&B chart. Calloway was introduced to a new generation when he appeared in the 1980 film "The Blues Brothers" performing "Minnie the Moocher". When recording the soundtrack, he was needed to record his hit "Minnie the Moocher" in better quality than his original album. When he came into the studio, he was prepared to do the disco version, which had just been released. The filmmakers asked for the original version, which Calloway reluctantly gave them....

RIP: MARK CEDERQUIST

Last week one of my fellow record collector friends passed away. He was more than a collector. He loved vintage jazz and big bands. He is the one that got me started on my You Tube channel. He was a wonderful man that will be sorely missed.

I never met Mark face-to-face, but in the eight years I knew him, he felt like a friend. A friend that always would be there. One of his favorite jazz artists was Lionel Hampton, and he reintroduced me to Hampton's music. We rarely talked about deep personal things, because our love of music that we shared was enough.

Here is Mark's obituary:

The world, in general, and the music world, specifically, suffered a sudden and unexpected great loss on Tuesday, 25 February 2020. Mark “Swingman” Cederquist passed away, peacefully, in his sleep of natural causes. He was 48 years young.

As an audio engineer, The Swingman was unrivaled in his restoration and remastering talents. His passion was always Big Band and Jazz artists and groups. His knowledge in those areas was amazing. Just by listening to the music of those genres, he could rattle off the artist(s), the group and members present when a recording was made, including where it was first recorded, the date, and many times the time of day.

He made great contributions to music fans by remastering, recording, and uploading more than 1000 YouTube videos for all to enjoy.

In addition, he was a passionate Phoenix Suns fan…and his knowledge of that organization and team was amazing. He could rattle off stats and stories better than most. His emotions regarding the Suns spanned the spectrum from complete elation to disgust…a sign of a true fan.

But…as extraordinary as those talents were, his greatest talent was the caring, compassion, and helpfulness he freely gave to his many friends and followers. Those who truly know him realize what an impact he had on them.

He is and will be truly missed, but his soul will always be with us and his memories will endure forever.

He is survived by his mother, Phyllis Duran, his father, Brent Cederquist; his step-mother, Kathleen Cederquist; his sister, Lisa Heidke; his step-sister, Monica Furst; two nephews, Connor and Shane Heidke; and his niece Nikoya Madsen.

RIP Swingman...

THE FILMS OF BILLIE HOLIDAY

It is sad that with the racism in Hollywood in the 1930s and 1940s that more African American actresses and actors were not allowed to make their mark on Hollywood. One such star that I think had the potential to make great films was Billie Holiday. She could have been the black Judy Garland. Like Garland, Billie had her share of pain and sorrow that could have transcribed to Hollywood nicely. However, throughout Billie's career, she was only in a few movies.

The first movie she appeared in was as an extra in The Emperor Jones from 1933. The Emperor Jones is a 1933 American pre-Code film adaptation of the Eugene O'Neill play of the same title, was made outside of the Hollywood studio system, financed with private money from neophyte wealthy producers, and directed by iconoclast Dudley Murphy, who had sought O'Neill's permission to film the play since its 1924 production in New York. He cast Paul Robeson in his first film role, Dudley Digges, Frank H. Wilson, and Fredi Washington. The screenplay was written by DuBose Heyward and filmed at Kaufman Astoria Studios with the beach scene shot at Jones beach Long Beach, New York. Robeson starred in the O'Neill play on stage, both in the United States and England, a role that had helped launch his career. Good luck spotting Billie in the film though.

Two years later, Billie appeared with Duke Ellington in Symphony In Black. The film is a nine-and-a-half minute musical short produced in 1935 that features Duke Ellington’s early extended piece, "A Rhapsody of Negro Life". The short was directed by Fred Waller and distributed by Paramount Pictures. Symphony in Black represents a landmark in musical, cultural, and entertainment history as well as significant progress in Ellington’s own biography. It is a member of the first generation of non-classically arranged orchestral scores and perhaps most importantly, one of the first films written by an African-American describing African-American life to reach wide distribution.

A decade would pass before Billie would make her biggest movie appearance in New Orleans (1947). New Orleans is a 1947 American musical romance film featuring Billie Holiday as a singing maid and Louis Armstrong as a bandleader; supporting players Holiday and Armstrong perform together and portray a couple becoming romantically involved. During one song, Armstrong's character introduces the members of his band, a virtual Who's Who of classic jazz greats, including trombonist Kid Ory, drummer Zutty Singleton, clarinetist Barney Bigard, guitar player Bud Scott, bassist George "Red" Callender, pianist Charlie Beal, and pianist Meade Lux Lewis. Also performing in the film is cornetist Mutt Carey and bandleader Woody Herman. The music, however, takes a back seat to a rather conventional plot. The movie stars Arturo de Córdova and Dorothy Patrick, features Marjorie Lord, and was directed by Arthur Lubin.

Billie's only other movie appearance was in another short called Sugar Chile in 1950. The film  presented five jazz numbers in a 15-minute running time. The film includes Billie Holiday performing "God Bless the Child" and "Now, Baby or Never", the Count Basie Sextet performing "One O'Clock Jump", and juvenile performer Frank "Sugar Chile" Robinson performing "Numbers Boogie" and "After School Boogie". The film was directed by Will Cowan and produced and released by Universal-International Pictures. 

More screen roles were becoming available to African American actresses in the 1950s, and some great actresses emerged like Dorothy Dandridge and Ruby Dee, but by the mid 1950s Billie's life was spiraling out of control, and she had a hard time remembering lyrics let alone lines of dialogue. The film career of Billie Holiday should have better, but luckily her voice did the acting for her during her career...

RIP: BOB WILBER

Jazz revival clarinet and saxophonist Bob Wilber, who explored the sound of Sidney Bechet, and at times stood beside him died August 4th, he was 91. Wilber founded The Wildcats in 1945, when he was just 17, as a New York City compliment to the growing West Coast revival around the bands of Lu Watters and Turk Murphy. Their home base was Jimmy Ryan’s, a Dixieland club on 52nd Street.

The Wildcats trio included pianist Dick Wellstood and trombonist Ed Hubble, the first of a long string of notables Wilber would work with during an active career spanning 75 years. He shared stages with Muggsy Spanier, Baby Dodds, Danny Barker, Bud Freeman, Tommy Benford, Kaiser Marshall, Joe Thomas, Sidney Catlett, Billy Strayhorn, Eddie Condon, Vic Dickenson, Ruby Braff, Ralph Sutton, Cliff Leeman, Pee Wee Russell, George Wettling, Jimmy McPartland, Wild Bill Davison, and James P. Johnson. Players from the earliest years of jazz, and musicians still carrying on his influence today.

He was a pupil of Sidney Bechet, in the truest sense, even living with him for several months in the mid-40s. He was even sent to France in Bechet’s place to appear at the first Nice Jazz Festival in 1948. Wilber was not a mere copycat though and developed his own unique sound which demonstrated the relevance of classic forms in the modern era. The Wildcats expanded into a full band and were a hit in clubs in Boston and New York into the early 50s. Wilber would continue to play nuanced and exciting jazz for decades to come.

Wilber sought to extend his knowledge of jazz as it developed and studied under the cool jazz, bebop, and Avant-garde pianist Lennie Tristano. In 1954 he formed The Six, a group that combined elements of traditional and modern jazz. He also joined Eddie Condon’s band and toured with him to England. He spent the late 50s with Bobby Hackett’s band in New York and touring with Benny Goodman.

In the early 60s, Wilber was based in New York playing with Ruby Braff, Bud Freeman, and others including Jackie Gleason with Max Kaminski’s band. He was nominated for a Grammy in 1968 for an LP titled The Music of Hoagy Carmichael..

In 1969 he helped form the World’s Greatest Jazz Band, led by Yank Lawson and Bob Haggart, which featured Bud Freeman, Billy Butterfield, Ralph Sutton, and others. In 1974 he left to form Soprano Summit with fellow reedman Kenny Davern. The original band was rounded out by a rhythm section of Dick Hyman, Bucky Pizzarelli, Bobby Rosengarden, and George Duvivier.

Inspired by the success of an impromptu arrangement of The Mooche for two Soprano Saxes at Dick Gibson’s Colorado Jazz Party their unique sound caught on and during six hot years the band toured several continents. Their LPs were instant collector’s items. Marty Grosz would replace Pizzarelli after the second album, and they dropped the piano making the core of their sound two reeds and a guitar. Reunion concerts were a success in the 1990s.The Anderson twins with Bob Wilber (Lynn Redmile photo)

During the 1980s Wilber held a popular residency at the Rainbow Room in New York City. In 1981 he formed the Bechet Legacy Band with his wife, English jazz singer JoAnne “Pug” Horton. He also set up his own record label which released tributes to Bechet, King Oliver, and others. He arranged Duke Ellington’s music for Francis Ford Coppola’s movie The Cotton Club, and won a Grammy for it in 1984. He was on the board of the New York Repertory Orchestra and later was the first director of the Smithsonian’s Jazz Repertory Ensemble. He also wrote a memoir, Music Was Not Enough.

In 1988 he led concerts in New York and London to mark the 50th anniversary of Benny Goodman’s famous Carnegie Hall concert and in 2009 led a concert with the Smithsonian to mark Goodman’s centennial. His 1980 tribute album to Benny Goodman, Dizzyfingers, is considered a classic among clarinetists...

SOURCE

PAST OBITS: DUKE ELLINGTON

It's hard to believe but jazz genius Duke Ellington died on this day 45 years ago. This obituary appeared in The New York Times on May 25th...

Duke Ellington, who expanded the literature of American music with compositions and performances that drew international critical praise and brought listening and dancing pleasure to two generations, died here yesterday at the age of 75.

He entered the Columbia Presbyterian Medical Center's Harkness Pavilion at the end of March for treatment of cancer of both lungs, a condition that was complicated last Wednesday when he developed pneumonia.

At his death, the phrase “beyond category,” which Edward Kennedy Ellington had used as his highest form of praise for others, could quite literally be applied to the Duke himself, whose works were played and praised In settings as diverse as the old Cotton Club, Carnegie Hall and Westminster Abbey,

Mr. Ellington was born in Washington on April 29, 1899, the son of James Edward Ellington and the former Daisy Kennedy. His father was blueprint maker for the Navy Department, who also worked occasionally as a butler, sometimes at the White House.

In high school, the Duke, whose nickname was given to him by an admiring neighborhood friend when he was years old, was torn between his interests in painting and in music. He won a poster contest sponsored by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and in 1917 was offered a scholarship by the Pratt Institute of Applied Art. He turned it down, however, to devote himself to music.

He wrote his first composi“Soda Fountain Rag,” “en, while he was working after school as a soda jerk at thePoodle Dog Cafe. Some piano lessons he had received at theto age of 7 comprised the only formal musical education hehad. He learned by listening to the “two‐fisted piano play‐‐‐” of the period, paying particular attention to Sticky Mack, Doc Perry, James P. Johnson and Willie (The Lion) Smith.

By the time he was 20 he was making $150 a week playing with his small band at parties and dances. In this year, 1919, Sonny Greer became Mr. Ellington's drummer and remained with him until 1950, setting a pattern of longevity that was to be followed by Ellington sidemen. many

In 1922 Wilbur Sweatman, then a successful bandleader, asked Mr. Greer to join his band in New York. Mr. Ellingtop and three other members the group went along, too, ‘3’ but jobs in New York were so scarce that soon they were all back in ‘Washington. However, the visit gave Mr. Ellington an opportunity to hear the Harlem pianists who became prime influence on his own playing — Willie (The Lion) Smith, James P. Johnson and Johnson's protege Fats Waller.

At Mr. Waller's urging, Diike Ellington and his men returned to New,York in 1923. This time they got a job playing at Barron's in Harlem with Elmer Snowden, the group's banjoist, as nominal leader. When they moved downtown to the Hollywood Club (later known as the Kentucky Club) at Broadway and 49th Street, Mr. Snowden left the group and Mr. Ellington assumed the leadership.

During the four and a half years that Ellington's Washingtonians remained at the Kentucky Club, the group made its first records and ‘ did its first radio broadcasts. Late in 1927, when the band had’ expanded to 10 men, the Cotton Club, gaudy Harlem showplace, found itself in sudden need of an orchestra when King Oliver, whose band was scheduled to open there, decided he had not been offered enough money.

Mr. Ellington got thebooking, but first he had to be released from a theater engagement in Philadelphia. This was arranged when the operators of the Cotton Club asked some associates in Philadelphia to call on the theater manager with a proposition: “Be big or you'll be dead,” He was big and Duke Ellington began five‐year association with the Cotton Club.

A crucial factor in spreading the fame of the Ellington hand was a nightly radio broadcast from the Cotton Club that was heard across the country, introduced by the Ellington signature theme “East St. Louis Toodle‐Oo,” with Bubber Miley's growling trumpet setting the mood for the stomping and often exotic music that followed. Mr. Ellington's unique use of growling brass (identified as his “jungle” style) and the rich variety of tonal colors that he drew from his band brought musicians of all schools to the Cotton Club.

In 1930 the Ellington band appeared in its first featurelength movie, “Check and Double Check,” and in 1933 it went ‐overseas for the first time, to ‘Britain and Europe. During the thirties, the band appeared in several more films —“Murder at the Vanities,” “Belle of the Nineties” and The Hit Parade” — and made a second European tour ‘ in 1939.

When the furor over swing bands rose in the late thirties, the Ellington band was overshadowed by the glare of publicity that fell on the bands of Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw and Glenn Miller. But as the swing era faded, the Ellington band hit one of its peaks in 1941 and 1942, years when all the greatest of Mr. Ellington's star sidemen (except Bubber Miley) were together in the band and when Mr. Ellington himself was in an extraordinarily creative. period as a composer.

By 1943, however, he was leaving the early phases of his career, behind him and turning to the extended compositions and concert presentations that would be an increasingly important part of his work.

In the fifties, when Interest in big bands dropped So low that all but a handful gave up completely or worked on a part‐time basis, Mr. Ellington kept his band together even when the economic basis became very shaky. The fortunes of the Ellington band started to rise again in 1956 when, at the Newport Jazz Festival, a performance of a composition Mr. Ellington had written 20 years before, “Diminuendo and Crescendo in Blue,” propelled by a 27chorus. solo by the tenor ,saxophonist Paul Gonsalves, Set off dancing in the aisles that reminded observers of the joyous excitement that Benny Goodman had generated at’ New York's Paramount Theater in the thirties.

During the next 15 years, Mr. Ellington's orchestra was heard in all areas of the world, touring the Middle East, the Far East and the Soviet Union under the auspices of the State Department, playing in Africa, South America and Europe. Mr. Ellington wrote !scores for five ‘films — “Paris !Blues,” “Anatomy of a Murder,” “Assault on a Queen,” “Change of Mind” and a German picture, “Janus.”

He composed a ballet, “The River,” in 1970 for Alvin Ailey and the American Ballet Theater. In 1963 he wrote a pageant of black history, “My People,” which was presented in Chicago. He had also written for the theater earlier in his career —a musical, “Jump for Joy,” produced in Los Angeles in 1941, and a score with lyrics by, John Latouche for “Beggar's Holiday,” an adaptation of John Gay's “Beggar's Opera” on Broadway in 1947.

Honors were heaped on him. In 1969, at a celebration of his 70th birthday at the ‐White House, President Nixon awarded him. the Presidential Medal of Freedom. President Georges Pompidon of ‘France in 1973 gave ‘him the Legion of ??

Through all ‐this, Mr. Ellington kept up the steady pace of composing and performing and traveling that he had maintained since the late nineteentwenties. Everywhere he went, his electric piano went with him, for there was scarcely a day in his life when he did not compose something.

“You know how it is,” he said. “You go home expecting to go right to bed. But then, on the way, you go past the piano and there's a flirtation. It flirts with you. So, you sit down and try out a couple of chords and when you look up, it's 7 A.M.”

Quite logically Mr. Ellihgton called his autobiography, published in 1973, “Music Is My Mistress.”

“Music is my mistress,” he wrote, “and she plays second fiddle to no one.”

Mr. Ellington married Edna Thompson in 1918. Their son, Mercer, was born the following year. The couple were divorced in 1930 and Mr. Ellington's second m'arriage, to Mildred Dixon, a dancer at the Cotton Club, also ended in divorce.

Surviving besides his son, Mercer, is his widow, Bea (Evie) Ellis; a sister, Ruth, and three grandchildren.

Funeral services will be held on Monday at 1 P.M. at the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, Amsterdam Aveye and 112th Street.

Mr. Ellington's body went on view last night at the Walter B. Cooke funeral chapel at Third Avenue and 85th Street. Viewing hours will continue between 8 A.M. and 10 P.M. today and tomorrow...

PHOTOS OF THE DAY: FATS WALLER

Fats Waller (1904-1943) was one of the true greats of jazz. He lived life to the fullest, and he lived large. I guess that is why he died so young at 39. His memory lives on in all of his wonderful recordings, and in these wonderful pictures of him through the years...

with Willie Smith (1910-1967)

BUNNY BERIGAN: TRAGEDY ON THE TRUMPET

Every musical field has their share of talent and genius that burn out way too quickly. In the world of jazz, there are a lot of greats that just self destructed even though the talents they had should have outweighed their inner demons. One such great was Bunny Berigan. Like so many before him and after him, Bunny died too early.

Berigan was born in Hilbert, Wisconsin in 1908, the son of William Patrick Berigan and Mary Catherine (Mayme) Schlitzberg, and raised in Fox Lake. Having learned the violin and trumpet by 14, Berigan played in local orchestras by his mid-teens. He attended the University of Wisconsin, teaching trumpet and playing in dance bands after school hours before joining the successful Hal Kemp orchestra in 1930. His first recorded trumpet solos came with it, which toured England and a few other European countries later that year. He also appeared as featured soloist with bands fronted by Rudy Vallee, Tommy Dorsey, Abe Lyman, Paul Whiteman and Benny Goodman.

Shortly after the Kemp unit returned to the U.S. in late 1930, Berigan, like fellow trumpeter Manny Klein, the Dorsey Brothers and Artie Shaw, became a sought-after studio musician in New York. Fred Rich, Freddy Martin and Ben Selvin were just some conductors who sought his services for record dates. He joined the staff of CBS radio network musicians in early 1931. Berigan recorded his first vocal, "At Your Command", with Rich that year. From late 1932 through early 1934, Berigan was a member of Paul Whiteman's orchestra, before playing with Abe Lyman's band briefly in 1934.

He returned to freelancing in the New York recording studios and working on staff at CBS radio in 1934. He recorded as a sideman on hundreds of commercial records, most notably with the Dorsey Brothers and on Glenn Miller's earliest recording date as a leader in 1935, playing on "Solo Hop". At the same time, however, Berigan made an association that began his ascent to fame in his own right: he joined Benny Goodman's Swing band. Legendary jazz talent scout and producer John H. Hammond, who also became Goodman's brother-in-law in due course, later wrote that he helped persuade Gene Krupa to re-join Goodman, with whom he had had an earlier falling-out, by mentioning that Berigan, whom Krupa admired, was already committed to the new ensemble. With Berigan and Krupa both on board, the Goodman band made the legendary, often disheartening tour that ended with their unexpectedly headline-making stand at the Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles, the stand often credited with the "formal" launch of the swing era. Berigan recorded a number of classic solos while with Goodman, including on "King Porter Stomp", "Sometimes I'm Happy", and "Blue Skies".

 In 1937, Berigan assembled a band to record and tour under his name, picking the then-little known Ira Gershwin/Vernon Duke composition, "I Can't Get Started" as his theme song. He made three attempts to organize a band of his own, his last try meeting success, playing trumpet in nearly every number while directing the band. Berigan's bravura trumpet work and curiously attractive vocal made his recorded performance of it for Victor the biggest hit of his career. Berigan modeled his trumpet style in part on Louis Armstrong's, and often acknowledged Armstrong as his idol. Still, his trumpet sound and jazz ideas were unique, earning Armstrong's praise both before and after Berigan's death.

Berigan got the itch to lead his own band full-time and did so from early 1937 until June 1942, with one six-month hiatus in 1940, when he became a sideman in Tommy Dorsey's band. Some of the records he made with his own bands were equal in quality to the sides he cut with Goodman and Dorsey. But a series of misfortunes as well as Berigan's alcoholism worked against his financial success as a bandleader. Bunny also began a torrid affair with singer Lee Wiley in 1936, which lasted into 1940. The various stresses of bandleading drove Berigan to drink even more heavily. Nevertheless, musicians considered him an excellent bandleader.

Berigan's business troubles drove him to declare bankruptcy in 1939, and shortly after to join Tommy Dorsey as a featured jazz soloist. By September 1940, Berigan briefly led a new small group, but soon reorganized a touring big band. Berigan led moderately successful big bands from the fall of 1940 into early 1942, and was on the comeback trail when his health declined alarmingly. On April 20, 1942, while on tour, Berigan was hospitalized with pneumonia in Allegheny General Hospital Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania until May 8. But his doctors discovered worse news: that cirrhosis had severely damaged his liver. He was advised to stop drinking and stop playing the trumpet for an undetermined length of time. Berigan couldn't do either. 

He returned to his band on tour, and played for a few weeks before he returned to the Van Cortlandt Hotel where he made his home in New York City and suffered a massive hemorrhage on May 31, 1942. He died two days later in Polyclinic Hospital, New York, at age 33. He was survived by his wife, Donna, and his two young daughters, Patricia, 10, and Joyce, 6. Funeral services were conducted Jun 3 at St. Malachy's Church, New York. He was buried in St. Mary's Cemetery south of Fox Lake.

In compliance with Berigan's wish, the band was kept intact under his name. Mrs. Donna Berigan, his widow, maintained his financial interest in it. Tenor sax player Vido Musso became the leader. The world lost quite a talent when Bunny died in 1942. He never found the happiness in his own life despite bringing happiness to millions of fans...

RIP: BUDDY BREGMAN

Buddy Bregman, an arranger and composer who scored and/or orchestrated such films as The Pajama Game, The Wild Party and Born Reckless, died Sunday evening in Los Angeles after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. He was 86.

Bregman’s death was confirmed by his daughter, The Young and the Restless actress Tracey Bregman.

Before his film work, Bregman got his start, at age 25, as the head of A&R at Norman Granz’s Verve Records. While there, he worked as an arranger with such artists as Rosemary Clooney, Bing Crosby and Fred Astaire. He arranged two of the now-classic albums in Ella Fitzgerald’s song book project as well as several of her early Verve Records singles. Bregman later became Ethel Merman’s personal arranger.

Following his tenure at Verve, Bregman became the musical director of NBC’s The Eddie Fisher Show, and was the first American director hired for the BBC. In 1966, he was appointed head of light entertainment for the weekday ITV company Redifussion London, and later worked as a television producer and director in the United States and Europe.

In addition to his daughter, he is survived by son Barry Bregman, former wife Suzanne Lloyd, four grandsons, a great grandson and a brother and sister-in-law...

THE LAST DAYS OF THE DORSEY BROTHERS

When Jimmy Dorsey and 17 sidemen strode into New York's Capitol Records studio on Nov. 11, 1956, they had no illusions of bringing back the glory days of the big bands. Theirs was at best a twilight rear guard action, perhaps an act of faith, perhaps an act of defiance, perhaps nothing more than a handful of people who loved the music of their youth saying that music would not surrender simply because today's youth culture had moved on to rock 'n' roll. Certainly Dorsey had no illusions, for by November of 1956 he was not sure he would outlive even the last remnants of big band music.

At 54, he had lung cancer. Still, he wasn't giving up. Just three years earlier he had reunited with his brother Tommy, from whom he had been estranged for 18 years, and that reunion had provided a modest rejuvenation for both their careers at a time when big band players everywhere were struggling. Now Jimmy was getting a shot at something else he hadn't had for a while: a record deal. Harry Carlson, a songwriter, one-time bandleader and now owner of a photography studio in Cincinnati, had started a label of his own, Fraternity Records. After he had a hit with Cathy Carr's "Ivory Tower," he approached Dorsey, whose swing tunes Carlson had loved for years. There is some evidence Carlson was wildly optimistic about this project, that he felt just a few modernizing adaptations would enable the big band sound to compete with Elvis Presley and Little Richard.

He wasn't thinking small. He and Dorsey rounded up four trumpets, four trombones, two alto saxes, two tenor saxes and one baritone, plus piano, guitar, drums and bass - in addition, of course, to Dorsey's own alto. They also brought in the Arthur Malvin Singers, a group intended to conjure the old mellow sound of the Modernaires with a snappier, hipper touch. The session would include four songs: "Sophisticated Swing," a Mitchell Parish/Will Hudson tune; "Mambo en Sax," a Latin-flavored number by one of the hottest lights of the moment, bandleader Perez Prado; "It's the Dreamer in Me," which Dorsey wrote years earlier with Jimmy Van Heusen, and "So Rare," a Jerry Hersey/Jack Sharp song that had been a top-five hit for Guy Lombardo and Gus Arnheim in 1937. Dorsey had played "So Rare" on stage over the years. But for the Fraternity session, perhaps because of his health or because he hadn't been in a studio for a while, he played it a little differently - with more of what musicians called a growl, apparently influenced by the then-popular style of rhythm and blues saxman Earl Bostic.

The band did two takes of "So Rare" and decided to issue the second one. It wasn't the most memorable Jimmy Dorsey song, but it was pleasant enough, and it clearly evoked the musical spirit of yesteryear. In fact, it evoked yesteryear so well that Carlson couldn't find any major pop radio station that would play it. Finally he went back home to Cincinnati, called in some favors, and got enough spins so it drew a little notice - which wasn't all that surprising, as radio still had many deejays with a strong fondness for the big band era. But by the time "So Rare" started to appear on the charts, Jimmy Dorsey's life had further crumbled.

On November 26, 1956  just 15 days after the "So Rare" session, Tommy Dorsey choked to death in his sleep at his home in Greenwich, Conn. - a bad blow for Jimmy, despite the fact he and Tommy had not always gotten along. In the early days, when they'd played in bands together, they were known to settle things with their fists, and their breakup in 1935 was big band legend. Tommy was counting off the tempo to "I'll Never Say 'Never Again' Again" on stage at the Glen Island Casino and Jimmy, working on a hangover, suggested it was too fast. Tommy said, fine, do it your way, picked up his trombone and walked off. For the next 18 years they each fronted enormously successful bands of their own and barely spoke. Still, they were brothers and partners, and it was fine with Jimmy that Tommy led the reunited band, since Tommy liked being the main man and Jimmy didn't.

A few weeks later after Tommy's death, Jimmy entered the hospital for what the newspapers were told was the removal of a "common nonmalignant wart" from his lung. Actually, the doctors had taken out the whole lung, in a desperate and futile attempt to stop the cancer. He returned to playing, but then he collapsed on a bandstand in Wichita and was flown back to Doctors Hospital in New York, where the newspapers were told he had neuritis. When he had to return to the hospital later, the newspapers were told he was visiting his ill mother. In reality, he was looking at the end. Doctors who had ordered him to stop drinking several years earlier told him to go ahead, it didn't matter anymore.

On June 10, 1957, trumpet man Lee Castle visited Jimmy at Doctors Hospital and presented him with a gold record, the fifth of his career. "So Rare" had sold a million copies. Jimmy died two days later. A few days after that, Carlson had Castle reassemble the rest of the band from the Nov. 11 sessions and record eight more sides so he would have enough material to release an album. It yielded only one modest hit, "June Nights. It was the end of the Dorsey brother era as we knew it...

SOURCE

BORN ON THIS DAY: LOUIS ARMSTRONG

My long suffering wife celebrates her birthday on August 4th. I wanted to see who she shared a birthday with. The little lady is lucky enough to share her birthday with Louis "Satchmo" Armstrong. They were born more than seventy five years apart, and apart from the birthdate they have very little in common. However, they both can relax me with their voices alone!

Armstrong often stated that he was born on July 4, 1900, a date that has been noted in many biographies. Although he died in 1971, it was not until the mid-1980s that his true birth date of August 4, 1901 was discovered by researcher Tad Jones through the examination of baptismal records. Armstrong was born into a very poor family in New Orleans, Louisiana, the grandson of slaves. He spent his youth in poverty, in a rough neighborhood of Uptown New Orleans, known as “Back of the Town”, as his father, William Armstrong (1881–1922), abandoned the family when Louis was an infant and took up with another woman. His mother, Mary "Mayann" Albert (1886–1942), then left Louis and his younger sister Beatrice Armstrong Collins (1903–1987) in the care of his grandmother, Josephine Armstrong, and at times, his Uncle Isaac. At five, he moved back to live with his mother and her relatives, and saw his father only in parades.

He attended the Fisk School for Boys, where he likely had early exposure to music. He brought in some money as a paperboy and also by finding discarded food and selling it to restaurants, but it was not enough to keep his mother from prostitution. He hung out in dance halls close to home, where he observed everything from licentious dancing to the quadrille. For extra money he also hauled coal to Storyville, the famed red-light district, and listened to the bands playing in the brothels and dance halls, especially Pete Lala's where Joe "King" Oliver performed and other famous musicians would drop in to jam.

After dropping out of the Fisk School at age eleven, Armstrong joined a quartet of boys who sang in the streets for money. But he also started to get into trouble. Cornet player Bunk Johnson said he taught Armstrong (then 11) to play by ear at Dago Tony's Tonk in New Orleans, although in his later years Armstrong gave the credit to Oliver. Armstrong hardly looked back at his youth as the worst of times but instead drew inspiration from it, “Every time I close my eyes blowing that trumpet of mine—I look right in the heart of good old New Orleans... It has given me something to live for.”

He also worked for a Lithuanian-Jewish immigrant family, the Karnofskys, who had a junk hauling business and gave him odd jobs. They took him in and treated him as almost a family member, knowing he lived without a father, and would feed and nurture him. He later wrote a memoir of his relationship with the Karnofskys titled, Louis Armstrong + the Jewish Family in New Orleans, La., the Year of 1907. In it he describes his discovery that this family was also subject to discrimination by "other white folks' nationalities who felt that they were better than the Jewish race... I was only seven years old but I could easily see the ungodly treatment that the White Folks were handing the poor Jewish family whom I worked for." Armstrong wore a Star of David pendant for the rest of his life and wrote about what he learned from them: "how to live—real life and determination". The influence of Karnofsky is remembered in New Orleans by the Karnofsky Project, a non-profit organization dedicated to accepting donated musical instruments to "put them into the hands of an eager child who could not otherwise take part in a wonderful learning experience."

Armstrong with his first trumpet instructor, Peter Davis, in 1965.Armstrong developed his cornet playing seriously in the band of the New Orleans Home for Colored Waifs, where he had been sent multiple times for general delinquency, most notably for a long term after firing his stepfather's pistol into the air at a New Year's Eve celebration, as police records confirm. Professor Peter Davis (who frequently appeared at the Home at the request of its administrator, Captain Joseph Jones) instilled discipline in and provided musical training to the otherwise self-taught Armstrong. Eventually, Davis made Armstrong the band leader. The Home band played around New Orleans and the thirteen-year-old Louis began to draw attention by his cornet playing, starting him on a musical career. At fourteen he was released from the Home, living again with his father and new stepmother and then back with his mother and also back to the streets and their temptations. Armstrong got his first dance hall job at Henry Ponce’s where Black Benny became his protector and guide. He hauled coal by day and played his cornet at night.

He played in the city's frequent brass band parades and listened to older musicians every chance he got, learning from Bunk Johnson, Buddy Petit, Kid Ory, and above all, Joe "King" Oliver, who acted as a mentor and father figure to the young musician. Later, he played in the brass bands and riverboats of New Orleans, and began traveling with the well-regarded band of Fate Marable, which toured on a steamboat up and down the Mississippi River. He described his time with Marable as, "going to the University," since it gave him a much wider experience working with written arrangements.

In 1919, Joe Oliver decided to go north and resigned his position in Kid Ory's band; Armstrong replaced him. He also became second trumpet for the Tuxedo Brass Band, a society band. The rest is sweet musical history, and Armstrong would continue a exciting and monumental jazz career for the next fifty years...

BILLIE HOLIDAY IN THE 1940S

Billie Holiday has one of those voices that people either love or hate. I am one of millions of people that absolutely love her. Her voice, while never strong, had a sensitivity and warmth that few voices had. I wanted to research Holiday's most successful years in the 1940s to take a look at her most prolific decade in her career.

 In 1940, Holiday's mother Sadie Fagan, nicknamed "The Duchess," started her own restaurant called Mom Holiday's. Fagan used the money her daughter earned while shooting dice with members of the Count Basie band, whom she was on tour with in the late 1930s. "It kept mom busy and happy and stopped her from worrying and watching over me," Holiday said. Soon, Fagan began borrowing large amounts of money from Holiday because the restaurant wasn't turning a profit. Holiday obliged, but soon fell upon hard times herself. "I needed some money one night and I knew Mom was sure to have some," Holiday said. "So I walked in the restaurant like a stockholder and asked. Mom turned me down flat. She wouldn't give me a cent." The two argued and then, Holiday, in a rage, hollered "God bless the child that's got his own," and stormed out of the restaurant. With help from Arthur Herzog, Jr., a pianist, the two wrote a song based on the line "God Bless the Child" and added music.

"God Bless the Child" became Holiday's most popular and covered record. It reached number 25 on the record charts in 1941 and ranked third in Billboard's top songs of the year, selling over a million records. In 1976, the song was added to the Grammy Hall of Fame. Herzog later claimed that Holiday contributed little to the lyrics of her music, adding only a few lines. He also stated that Holiday came up with the line "God Bless the Child" from a dinner conversation the two had.

On June 24, 1942, Holiday recorded "Trav'lin Light" with Paul Whiteman. Because she was still under contract with Columbia records, she couldn't release the song under her own name and instead used the pseudonym "Lady Day." The song was a minor success on the pop charts, reaching number 23, but hit number one on the R&B charts, which were called the Harlem Hit Parade at the time. In September 1943, Life magazine complimented Holiday on her work. They wrote, "she has the most distinct style of any popular vocalist and is imitated by other vocalists."

Milt Gabler eventually became an A&R man for Decca Records, in addition to owning Commodore Records, and he signed Holiday to the label on August 7, 1944, when Holiday was 29. Her first recording for Decca was "Lover Man" (#16 Pop, No. 5 R&B), one of her biggest hits. The success and wide distribution of the song made Holiday a staple in the pop community, allowing her to have her own solo concerts, a rarity for jazz singers in the late 40s. Gabler commented on the song's success, saying, "I made Billie a real pop singer. That was right in her. Billie loved those songs." Jimmy Davis and Roger "Ram" Ramirez, "Lover Man"'s songwriters, tried to get Holiday interested in recording the song in 1941, but she didn't take interest. In 1943, a flamboyant male torch singer by the name of Willie Dukes began singing "Lover Man" on 52nd Street. Because of Duke's success with the song, Holiday decided to add it to her live shows. The song's B-side is "No More", a song Holiday considered one of her favorites.

In 1946, Holiday recorded "Good Morning Heartache". Although the song failed to chart, it remained a staple in her live shows with three known live recordings of the song. In September 1946, Holiday began work on what would be her only major film New Orleans. She starred opposite Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman. Plagued by racism and McCarthyism, producer Jules Levey and script writer Herbert Biberman were pressured to lessen Holiday and Armstrong's role in the film as to not give the impression that black people created jazz. Their attempts failed because in 1947 Biberman was listed as one of the Hollywood Ten and sent to jail.

Holiday was not pleased that her role was reduced to that of a maid: "I thought I was going to play myself in it," she said. "I thought I was going to be Billie Holiday doing a couple of songs in a nightclub setting and that would be that. I should have known better. When I saw the script, I did." Before filming, Holiday was assigned a dramatic coach who coached her on how to properly say "Miss Marylee", the lead character's name. "So this coach was trying to get the right kind of tom feeling into this thing," Holiday said. At one point, after feeling cornered and unable to walk off the set, she burst out into tears. Louis Armstrong tried comforting her. "Better look out," he said. "I know Lady, and when she starts crying, the next thing she's going to do is start fighting." Several scenes were deleted from the film. "They had taken miles of footage of music and scenes," Holiday said, "[and] none of it was left in the picture. And very damn little of me. I know I wore a white dress for a number I did... and that was cut out of the picture." She recorded the track "The Blues Are Brewin'", for the film's soundtrack. Other songs included in the movie are "Do You Know What It Means to Miss New Orleans?" and "Farewell to Storyville".

Unfortunately, Holiday's drug addictions were a growing problem on the set. She earned more than a thousand dollars a week from her club ventures at the time, but spent most of it on heroin. Her lover Joe Guy traveled to Hollywood while Holiday was filming and supplied her with drugs. When discovered by Joe Glaser, Holiday's manager, Guy was banned from the set. Louis Armstrong also tried to talk sense to Holiday, but the drug abuse was becoming a major problem.

By 1947, Holiday was at her commercial peak, having made a quarter of a million dollars in the three years prior. However, her world would start crashing down. On May 16, 1947, Holiday was arrested for the possession of narcotics in her New York apartment. On May 27, 1947, she was in court. "It was called 'The United States of America versus Billie Holiday'. And that's just the way it felt," Holiday recalled. During the trial, Holiday received notice that her lawyer was not interested in coming down to the trial and representing her. "In plain English that meant no one in the world was interested in looking out for me," Holiday said. Dehydrated and unable to hold down any food, she pled guilty and asked to be sent to the hospital. The D.A. spoke up in her defense, saying, "If your honor please, this is a case of a drug addict, but more serious, however, than most of our cases, Miss Holiday is a professional entertainer and among the higher rank as far as income was concerned." At the end of the trial, Holiday was sentenced to Alderson Federal Prison Camp in West Virginia, more popularly known as "Camp Cupcake". Holiday was released early on March 16, 1948, but the damage to her life being jailed was only the beginning of the end for one of the greatest vocal talents the jazz world has ever know...