Duke Ellington

Happy Birthday, Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington 1899-1974...Ellington's childhood was a comfortable one filled with music and refinement seldom available to the African American community of the day. His mother Daisy arranged piano lessons for her young son and surrounded him with her elegant sisters and friends who taught him manners and comportment. His father made blue prints for the Navy and occasionally worked in his family's catering business so food was always available on a well set table.  Ellington's childhood friends noticed his easy charm and dapper ways and gave him the nickname "Duke".

As a teen he created his first compositions but played them from memory because he couldn't read or write music.  Clandestine visits to a local pool hall at the age of 14 where rag time pianists provided the entertainment rekindled his interest in piano and he began to study music seriously with  local Washington, D.C. bandleader Oliver Perry (he would later take lessons from Will Marion Cooke, Fats Waller and Sidney Bechet in New York). He started playing gigs in and around D.C. at the age of 17, turning down an art scholarship to Pratt University to continue pursuing music.

Ellington became a popular pianist on the local scene, first with other ensembles and then with a group of his own.  The band was popular with both black and white audiences, which was unusual for the times, and Ellington was able to buy a house of his own. When his drummer Sonny Greer was invited to join the Wilbur Sweatman Orchestra both young men made the leap into the burgeoning, competitive Harlem arts scene. After a rough start Ellington landed a four year engagement at the Hollywood Club with Elmer Snowden's band in 1923 where he would meet Bubber Miley. Ellington took over the band a year later and renamed it the Washingtonians. After a fire at the club it was reopened as the Club Kentucky and Ellington debuted his new distinctive arrangements, greatly influenced  by the growls, squeals and wah-wahs of Bubber Miley's trumpet. It was dubbed "Jungle Music" and when King Oliver turned down a permanent position at the Cotton Club, Ellington jumped at the chance to showcase his sound as the house band.

With a live radio broadcast from the Cotton Club, Ellington's band was a huge success. White audiences flocked to hear him and his recordings made at that time were a big hit, especially "Creole Love Song" with Adelaide Hall vocalizing the tune which became an international sensation. Ellington and his band played all of the music for the musical revues, the lyrics written by Dorothy Fields and music by Jimmy McHugh with some of Ellington's original tunes mixed in. Besides playing at the Cotton Club, the band recorded on nearly every label and played on Broadway, with the Ziegfeld Follies, in a short film called "Black and Tan" and with Maurice Chevalier at the Roseland Ballroom.

Ellington and his band survived the Depression by going on the road and frequent radio broadcasts kept his popularity alive. He hired Ivie Anderson as his vocalist in 1931. She would stay with the band for eleven years until her asthma forced her to retire. She would be replaced with many vocalists over the years including Herb Jeffries and Al Hibbler. The band also made tours of England and Europe in 1933 and 1934 where Ellington was encouraged to take his music to a more formal level and to compose longer works by members of the classical music community. At the same time, the swing era was emerging and although Ellington's band could certainly "swing" (he recorded "It Don't Mean a Thing If It Ain't Got That Swing" three years before the style became popular and gave the music and the era it's name), it was known primarily for mood, nuance and composition. Always the astute businessman, Ellington recorded with smaller groups made up out of his 15 piece orchestra, focusing on the talents of individual musicians with his compositions to satisfy the growing swing audience. He was quoted as saying, "jazz is music; swing is business".

Ellington had many big hits in the 30's including "Mood Indigo", "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart",  "It Don't Mean a Thing if It Ain't Got That Swing", "Sophisticated Lady", "In a Sentimental Mood" and "Take the A Train" which was written by Billy Strayhorn. Strayhorn joined Ellington as a lyricist in 1939 and became an intrical part of the Ellington organization until his death in 1967. Strayhorn was more than Ellington's lyricist and arranger, he would also sit in for Ellington, conducting or rehearsing the band, playing the piano and heading recordings. Ellington called him, "my right arm, my left arm, the eyes in the back of my head, my brain waves in his head and his in mine."

With Strayhorn at his side and an array of talented, creative musicians, the 1940's became a stand out time in Ellington's music. Dozens of three minute masterpieces flowed out of the group including "Cotton Tail", "Harlem Airshaft", "Main Stem" and "Jack the Bear". Ellington also began to seriously work on his long term ambition to take his compositions beyond the limit of the 3 minute 78 recordings and with Strayhorn's help, began to compose longer thematic pieces aimed at more of a concert environment. His first, "Black, Brown and Beige", was dedicated to the role of slavery and the church in the life of African Americans. It was debuted at Carnegie Hall in January of 1943 but the audience at the time was not receptive to it or any of the other longer thematic pieces Ellington composed at the time.

As the 40's came to a close, the recording bans and taxes on dancing in clubs caused a major shift in music styles and the big bands gave way to solo vocalists like Frank Sinatra and Ella Fitzgerald and to bebop, which featured smaller ensembles creating more profits for club owners. Some of Ellington's best musicians left to form bands of their own and and he was forced to keep afloat by playing one-nighters and what ever came his way. Ellington continued with his extended compositions including "Harlem" which he played for Harry Truman, presenting the music-loving President with the score.

In 1956, Ellington's Orchestra made a stunning comeback at the Newport Jazz Festival which gained them  recognition from a new audience and international publicity. The album recorded of the concert, "Ellington at Newport", would become the best selling album of Ellington's career. Ironically, much of the album was actually recorded in a studio the next day with added crowd noise because the live recording was too poor. Ella Fitzgerald recorded her "Duke Ellington Songbook" in the late 50's with Ellington and Strayhorn providing original pieces for the album, placing Ellington's music among the pantheon of great American songwriters. This period was also a productive time for his movie soundtracks. His scores for "Paris Blues" and especially, "Anatomy of a Murder," received glowing critical acclaim. 

In the 60's Ellington began to record with musicians who had been friendly rivals or those who were younger and working in different jazz styles. He made albums with Count Basie, Louis Armstrong, John Coltrane, Coleman Hawkins, Max Roach and Charles Mingus. He reached out to international artists and recorded with Alice Babs, Dollar Brand and Sithima Bea Benjamin, performing and touring all over the world. He wrote and performed what he considered his most important piece, the Sacred Concerts, a blend of jazz and religious music, in 1965 followed by "The Far East Suite" in 1966, "The New Orleans Suite" in 1970 and "The Afro-Eurasian Eclipse" in 1971 and recorded his only album with Frank Sinatra in 1967.

Ellington died of lung cancer shortly after his 75th birthday in 1974 leaving an enduring legacy of music. In his career of over 50 years he wrote over a 1,000 compositions which elevated jazz to a level on a par with other traditional music. His last words describe his devotion to his art, "Music is how I live, why I live and how I will be remembered."

                                           

Ma Rainey

Happy Birthday, Ma Rainey (Gertrude Pridget) 1886-1939)..."Born in a trunk" to parents who worked the minstrel shows in the south, Rainey made her stage debut at age 12 in a talent contest and began to perform in traveling tent shows soon after that. As the shows toured the south, Rainey got her first exposure to the blues. At the age of 16 she married another performer, William Rainey and they began calling themselves "Ma" and "Pa" Rainey and were billed as "Rainey and Rainey, Assassionators of the Blues". Their act was the first to included authentic blues songs with the popular music of the day. Author Daphane Harrison  noted,"Her ability to capture the mood and essence of black rural southern life of the 1920's quickly endeared her to throngs of followers throughout the south."

The Rainey's toured with Tolliver's Circus, The Musical Extravaganza and The Rabbit Foot Minstrels where Ma Rainey would befriend a young Bessie Smith. Rainey, with her gold teeth and ample figure would be known as the ugliest woman in show business, while Smith was billed as the most beautiful. In 1916, Rainey separated with her husband and began to tour with her own band, Madame Gertrude "Ma" Rainey and Her Georgia Smart Sets featuring a chorus line and a Cotton Blossoms show. Her nickname "Madame" came from the often bawdy songs she sang dealing with love and sexuality.

In 1920, when Mamie Smith became the first black woman to record, the record companies rushed to find the next Blues Star, creating the great decade of female blues singers. Rainey was signed by Paramount in 1923 and made her first 8 recordings in Chicago including "Bo-Weevil Blues". "Bad Luck Blues and Moonshine Blues."She would go on to make over 100 more recordings over the next five years giving her presence far beyond the South. She was accompanied on the recordings by many noted jazz musicians including Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Kid Ory, Lovie Austin and Coleman Hawkins as well as bluesmen Tampa Red and Blind Blake. Her tours of the South and Midwest were sensational money makers and Rainey was able to save enough money to not only buy her own tour bus but to purchase two theaters in her hometown of Columbus, Georgia. When her energetic, moaning style of blues singing fell out of popularity in the early 30's she was able to retire in comfort. She died of heart failure at the age of 53.

Rainey left behind a monumental recorded legacy which continues to inspire and influence blues, country western and rock and roll musicians to this day.

Ella Fitzgerald

Happy Birthday, Ella Fitzgerald 1917-1996..."First Lady of Song", "Queen of Swing","Lady Ella" is considered by many as the finest female jazz singer of all time. Her three octave, warm and inviting voice always projected how happy she was to be singing (sometimes to the detriment of more downbeat songs). Listening to her swinging and scatting with such joy it's hard to believe that her early life was as difficult as Billie Holiday's.

Born in Newport News, Virginia, Fitzgerald's parents separated shortly after her birth. Fitzgerald and her mother moved to Yonkers, New York to be with her mother's boyfriend a few years later. When Fitzgerald was 15 her mother died of a heart attack which traumatized the young Ella. Her stepfather began abusing her at the same time and Fitzgerald ran away to live with an aunt, working as a look out at a bordello at one point. Authorities eventually caught up with her and put her in an overcrowded orphanage, then moved her to a state reformatory where she escaped and lived homeless.

Fitzgerald wanted to be a dancer but she loved listening to jazz singers, especially Connee Boswell. Fitzgerald would say of Boswell, "My mother brought home one of her records and I fell in love with it...I tried so hard to sound just like her." She was still living homeless when she made her singing debut at the Apollo Theater at the age of 17 in 1934. She originally planned to dance but was intimidated by the Edwards Sisters who did a dance routine before she went on. She decided to sing instead and performed "Judy" and "The Object of My Affection" in the style of Connee Boswell and won first prize.

Three months later she won the opportunity to sing with Tiny Bradshaw's band at the Harlem Opera House where she was introduced to Chick Webb. Webb was reluctant to take her on at first because, "she was gawky and unkempt, a diamond in the rough" but she was soon singing with the band at the Savoy Ballroom. Webb and his wife would become close friends and helpful allies for the young, shy Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald and Chick Webb's band recorded several hits including "Love and Kisses" and "A-Tisket, A-Tasket" a song she co-wrote which finally put her on the charts in 1938. "Undecided" followed shortly and Fitzgerald's star began to rise. In 1939, Chick Webb died and it was decided that Fitzgerald would head the band even though she had little to do with the repertoire or the hiring and firing of musicians. The band would be known as "Ella and her Famous Orchestra", making over 150 recordings, most of them pop and novelty tunes.

In 1942, Fitzgerald broke up the band and began a solo career, recording with the Ink Spots,  Louis Jordan and The Delta Rhythm Boys and performing regularly for Norman Grantz's Jazz at the Philharmonic. Grantz would eventually become her manager. As the swing era declined, Fitzgerald began experimenting with the new bebop sound, touring with Dizzy Gillespie's big band and adding scat singing to her repertoire. Fitzgerald stated, "I just tried to do what I heard the horns in the band doing."  Her scat recording in 1945 of "Flying Home" was lauded by the New York Times as, "one of the most influential jazz vocal records of the decade." Her bebop recording of "Oh, Lady Be Good" in 1947 cemented her reputation as one of the leading jazz vocalists.

Fitzgerald married bassist Ray Brown in 1949 (they divorced in 1953) and used his trio as back-up as well as recording with Ellis Larkins on piano doing Gershwin songs that predated her Great American Songbook series. She would finally leave Decca in 1956 and Grantz created Verve records for her. She had come to a place in her career where she felt she had taken bop as far as she could and Grantz suggested she turn to songs written by some of the great American songwriters. She recorded the first in the series, "Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Cole Porter Songbook" in 1956. The series was immensely popular and was the perfect vehicle for Fitzgerald to reach out to listeners beyond the jazz audience

"Ella Fitzgerald Sings the Duke Ellington Songbook" was the only set of records where the composer she was covering played with her. Ellington and Billy Strayhorn appeared on half of album's tracks and wrote two new pieces of music specifically for the recording. The Songbook series turned out to be her most critically acclaimed and successful recordings and although they were not "Jazz" in the traditional sense, the albums were important for putting a spotlight on the individual composers and elevating popular music as a musical form to be more seriously explored. There were eight different composers covered in the series. While recording the Songbooks she was also touring the United States and internationally 40-45 weeks a year.

During the 50's and 60's Fitzgerald would record other studio albums and in 1955 played the Macambo nightclub in Hollywood  after Marilyn Monroe intervened with the manager on her behalf. In 1960 she recorded "Ella in Berlin" (still one of her most popular albums) where she sang "Mack the Knife" and forgot the lyrics, making them up as she sang along. Her recording "Jazz at Santa Monica Civic '72" was another enormous hit but her voice was beginning to lose it's clarity and tone.

She made a few films in her lifetime, most notably a part in "Pete Kelly's Blues" which was panned as a movie but Fitzgerald's appearance was lauded. She appeared frequently on television and made several commercials including a famous one for Memorex cassette tapes that featured her voice breaking a glass. Her last commercial was for American Express which was photographed by Annie Leibovitz.

During the 70's her voice began to fade due to health problems and she recorded and toured only sporadically during the 80's but she never lost her joy and sense of swing. She made her last recording in 1991 and her last public appearance in 1993. She died of congestive heart failure and complications from diabetes at the age of 79. Over her lifetime she sold over 40 million copies of her 70-plus albums, won 13 Grammy awards and was honored with the National Medal of Arts and the National Medal of Freedom.

Jimmy Noone

Happy Birthday, Jimmy Noone 1895-1944...Along with Johnny Dodds and Sidney Bechet, Noone was part of the trilogy of second generation New Orleans jazz clarinetists considered the greatest of their time. His playing was less blues influenced or flamboyant than the other two. His sound was more romantic and lyrical with a sweeter tone. He was a major influence on Benny Goodman and Artie Shaw.

He started off playing guitar as a child. He switched to clarinet at age 15, taking lessons from Lorenzo Tio, Jr. (who taught so many musicians of the day) and a 13 year old Sidney Bechet. Noone progressed quickly and was playing professionally with Freddie Keppard, Kid Ory and Buddy Petit by 1912. He joined the Original Creole Orchestra in Chicago in 1917 followed by King Oliver's band the next year.

In 1920 he joined Doc Cook's Dreamland Orchestra and played with them for 6 years and although he recorded with Cook, his rise to fame would come when he started his own band at the Apex Club in 1927. It was an unusual quintet with Noone on clarinet, Joe Poston on alto sax (always playing the melody behind Noone) and Earl Hines on piano. They would record some early classics including "Sweet Lorraine" and "Four or Five Times".

The band worked steadily through the 30's, adding trumpeter Charlie Shavers on some recordings and a young Joe Williams on vocals (sadly, he never recorded with the band). In 1935, Noone moved to New York to start a band and club with Wellman Braud which was not successful, sending him back to Chicago to play in various clubs until 1943 when he moved to Los Angeles.

In Los Angeles, Noone joined Kid Ory's band, which for a time was featured on a radio program hosted by Orson Wells. Noone played only a few times on the program before he unexpectedly died of a heart attack at the age of 48. Ory's Band played a blues piece on the air in his tribute (titled Blues for Jimmy Noone by Welles) which became a regular number for Ory's band.  Noone's legacy would be his substantial influence on clarinetists of the swing era.

Lionel Hampton

Happy Birthday, Lionel Hampton 1908-2002...He wasn't the first jazz musician to take up the vibraphone but he was the first to record it and bring it to prominence as a jazz instrument. Considered one of the Jazz Giants, Hampton had the knack of being able to adapt to many styles without ever losing his own ability to swing.

Born in Louisville, Kentucky, Hampton's family spent time in Wisconsin and Alabama before ending up in Chicago. As a teenager he took xylophone and drum lessons from Jimmy Bertrand, one of his idols, and played drums for the Chicago Defender Newsboys Band.

Around 1927 he moved to California and began playing drums for the Dixie Land Blues-Blowers, making his first recordings with The Quality Serenaders. His next move would be to Culver City where he would play with Les Hite's band at Sebastian's Cotton Club. He was already gaining a reputation for showmanship, juggling and twirling multiple drum sticks without missing a beat. He also began experimenting with the vibraphone (similar to the xylophone only equipped with metal resonators and electric fans which produce vibrato). It was during this time that Louis Armstrong came to California and hired Hite's band to play with him. He invited Hampton to play vibes on two recordings, "Memories of You" and "Shine" which made Hampton the first jazz improvisor to record on vibes. Hampton's admiration for Armstrong would last his lifetime.

Hampton left Hite and formed his own band, playing at the Paradise Club in Los Angeles. In 1936, Benny Goodman came to see him at the urging of John Hammond and shortly thereafter asked Hampton to join his trio. Benny Goodman's Quartet included Teddy Wilson and Gene Krupa as well as Goodman and Hampton and was among one of the first racially integrated jazz groups to record and play to diverse audiences; a powerhouse small group in an era of big bands.

When in New York, Hampton recorded a number of sides with members of other orchestras known as "The Lionel Hampton Orchestra". In 1940, he left Goodman's band to form his own big band, scoring his first big hit with a version of "Flying Home" (he would record several) featuring Illinois Jacquet on tenor playing early Rhythm and Blues. From the mid 1940's through the 50's Hampton's popular band had a rollicking, extroverted style which leaned towards Rhythm and Blues. Many of his young members would go on to achieve their own fame including, Charles Mingus, Dinah Washington, Wes Montgomery, Dizzy Gillespie, Jimmy Cleveland, Snooky Young, Clifford Brown, Johnny Griffin, Quincy Jones, Art Farmer, Art Tatum, Annie Ross and Oscar Peterson among others. Hampton also recorded with a number of small groups and toured Europe in 1953. In 1956 he was featured in "The Benny Goodman Story" playing himself.

During the 60's the music tastes had changed but Hampton kept his bands afloat through the 90's on his enormous popular appeal, repeating his hits "Hamp's Boogie" (featuring his own rapid two finger playing on piano) "Hey Ba-Ba-Re-Bop" and "Flying Home" to a smaller but still devoted audience. Through the years he recorded on nearly every label including two of his own, Glad-Hamp and Who's Who, and received dozens of medals and honors including The National Medal of Arts. 

He was a devoted husband to his wife Gladys who took care of much of the business end of things. (apparently Hampton was terrible with money). In the 70's the couple completed a couple of philanthropic initiatives, the Lionel Hampton Project Houses in Harlem and The Gladys  Hampton Project Houses in Newark. In the 1980's Hampton also built the Hampton Hills project in Newark.

A series of strokes in the 90's did not stop Hampton from performing and despite a lose of power and strength he remained a force on the jazz scene. He died of congestive heart failure at the age of 94. When asked what kept him going, Hampton replied, "Music is my fountain of youth. It keeps me contemporary."

Bessie Smith

Happy Birthday, Bessie Smith 1894-1937...Known as "The Empress of the Blues", Smith lived the hard life she sang about. She was born into poverty in Tennessee and had lost both parents by the age of nine. She and her younger brother Andrew would sing and dance on street corners to earn money to live on. Her older brother Clarence began traveling with a minstrel show and within a couple of years he arranged an audition for his talented younger sister.

Smith was 18 when she joined the Moses Stokes traveling minstrel show, The Rabbit Foot Minstrels,  but they already had a singer, the bawdy, soulful Ma Rainey. Smith was taken on as a dancer and was taken under the wing of the older Rainey who helped her develop her stage presentation. It wasn't long before Smith was also singing in the show.The show circuit was a difficult life: low wages, late hours, fighting, gambling and abusing drugs and alcohol were common place events. Despite the difficulties, Smith's voice could fill a hall with it's expressive sound and earthy tones and she soon developed a following throughout the south and along the eastern seaboard.

She settled in Philadelphia in 1923 and made her first recordings for Columbia, "Gulf Coast Blues" and "Downhearted Blues" (written by Alberta Hunter) accompanied by Clarence Williams. They were a huge success, selling over 750 thousand copies in 6 months. From 1923 to 1931 Smith would record over 160 titles for Columbia and would establish herself as the most popular Blues singer of the 1920's. She would also work with some of the most celebrated jazz musicians of the day including Fletcher Henderson, James P. Johnson, Coleman Hawkins, Don Redman and Louis Armstrong. Her rendition of "St. Louis Blues" with Armstrong is considered by most critics as one of the finest recording of the 1920's.

Smith would become the highest paid African-American entertainer of the era, making two thousand dollars a week. Her traveling show was an extravaganza with 40 cast members and Smith singing and dancing throughout. They traveled in a personal train car to avoid the dispiriting effects of the racism encountered on the road. Adoring fans greeted her at each stop but in spite of her commercial success, Smith's life echoed the blues she sang. Her marriage to Jack Gee was stormy and both partners were unfaithful (Gee was never able to accept her bisexuality) and Smith struggled with alcohol addiction.

By the end of the 20's, Smith's raw, uncut country blues style had faded in fashion and the depression undermined her recording ability. Nevertheless, she continued to travel and perform, finding ways to reshape her act, adding Tin-Pan Alley tunes for more popular appeal. In 1929 she starred in a two reel film, "St. Louis Blues", that was semi biographical which stayed in circulation through 1932.

Her lean years ended in 1937 when the recording industry began to soar again on the popularity of the new swing music. Smith was asked by Okeh records to record 4 sides, her last, and they would stand as the possibilities that might have been as Smith shifted from the blues to swing.  Not long after, Smith would die as a result of a car crash at the age of 43.

Smith's recordings would go on to influence blues, jazz and rock and roll singers in the future, most notably Billie Holiday, Dinah Washington, Sarah Vaughn, Aretha Franklin and Janis Joplin, who in tribute, paid to put a head stone on her unmarked grave.

Ann Miller

Happy Birthday, Ann Miller (Johnnie Lucille Collier) 1923-2004...Ann Miller began dancing lessons at an early age to ease her rickets. She was considered a child dance prodigy but some of that legend could have been of her own making.

By some accounts Miller was dancing at the Black Cat Club in San Francisco at the age of 13 (she reportedly lied about her age) where she was discovered by Lucille Ball and a talent scout which led to her signing a contract with RKO in 1936 doing minor parts in films until 1940. As a 13 year old, she would have had to convince RKO executives that she was 18 but some accounts say she was, in fact, 18. She signed with Columbia Pictures the following year and over 4 years made 11-B movie musicals, ending her contract with a final A movie, "The Thrill of Brazil" in 1946.

Her next films with MGM made her a star, showcasing her tapping skills in "Easter Parade". "On The Town" and "Kiss Me Kate". She was famous for her "fast feet" and studio publicists claimed she could tap 500 times per minute. In reality the ultra fast taps were overdubbed later as Miller watched herself on film and tapped on a board. Miller wore rubber soled shoes in the films because the shiny, glamorous floors were too slippery for taps.

Miller was more famous for her winning personality and lovely legs than for her acting talent and when the MGM style musicals went out of style, her career floundered in the late 50's. She continued to work the nightclub circuit until 1970 when she starred in a Busby Berkeley style soup commercial choreographed by Hermes Pan which brought her back in the public eye. In 1979 she wowed the audiences with her co-star Mickey Rooney in "Sugar Babies" on Broadway which would go on to tour the country extensively.

She continued to perform on stage and television until 1993 and was the author of two autobiographies, "Miller's High Life" (which was a chatty account of her three marriages) and "Tapping the Force" (which dealt with her fascination with the occult). She died of lung cancer in 2004.

Nick LaRocca

Happy Birthday Nick LaRocca 1889-1961...Towards the end of his life, LaRocca wrote numerous letters to newspapers, radio and television shows claiming that he was, "The Creator of Jazz", "The Christopher Columbus of Music" and "The most lied about person since Jesus Christ." In truth, he did accomplish some "firsts" in early jazz but his insistence that he was the sole creator of the music form angered many jazz fans and players and overshadowed his accomplishments.

LaRocca was self taught and wasn't much of an improviser but he had good tone and a strong lip that allowed him to play for long periods or several gigs in a day. From 1910 to 1916 he was a regular player with Papa Jack Laine's brass bands in New Orleans. In 1916 he was a last minute replacement for a job in Chicago with Johnny Stein's band. Three months later he broke away from Stein and formed the Original Dixieland Jass Band which became very popular in Chicago.

LaRocca moved the band to New York in 1917 and became the first jazz band to record with "Livery Stable Blues". The recording was a huge success, selling over one million copies and making the band members instant celebrities. Their music sounds very primitive now. There was no improvisation, no solos and lots of repetition from chorus to chorus but they were unique in their day. The tunes were wacky and novelty based but they introduced a new audience to the new sound.

Between 1919 and 1920, LaRocca led the band on tours of the United States and England, introducing Europe to the new music sensation. But he was also very concerned about competition from other bands taking the trek out of New Orleans to the north and suffered a nervous breakdown in the early 1920's. He retired from music and became a contractor in New Orleans.In 1936 he reunited the band, touring successfully and making several new recordings but personality conflicts broke the band up and LaRocca retired from music permanently in 1937.

Besides making the first jazz recording and helping to introduce jazz to Europe, many of LaRocca's compositions have become classics. "Tiger Rag", written in 1917 is one of the most influential early jazz standards, covered by 136 different artists by 1942 alone. Other popular compositions by the band are "At the Jazz Band Ball", "Fidgety Feet" and "Jazz Me Blues".

Billie Holiday

Happy Birthday, Billie Holiday (Eleanora Fagan) 1915-1955...Her intensely  personal style melded the blues with a sophisticated  take on traditional melody lines and musical timing which would revolutionize traditional popular music. She turned the Tin Pan Alley songs she was forced to sing in her early career into something  uniquely her own by phrasing behind the beat and creating harmonies inspired by her favorite horn players, Louis Armstrong and Lester Young.

Information about her childhood is sketchy and often debated but it is known that her father was a teenaged musician who later played with Fletcher Henderson and her mother was 13 when Holiday was born. For the first ten years of her life she was raised by the mother-in law of her mother's half-sister while her mother took jobs as a worker on passenger trains. Holiday was put into protective custody in a Catholic reform school when she was 11 after being raped by a neighbor. She was 12 when she was finally released to her mother who once again left Holiday in the care of relatives. Holiday got a job cleaning in a brothel and heard the music of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith for the first time. Those artists would remain her biggest influences; "I always wanted Bessie's big sound and Pop's feeling."

Holiday at age 2

When Holiday was 14 her mother was working as a prostitute in a brothel in Harlem and within days of joining her there, she was working too, at $5 a time. The house was raided and both women spent time in a workhouse. Holiday starting singing in clubs around Harlem after that, taking her stage name from the then popular actress Billie Dove and her birth father's sur-name of Halliday-later changing it to Holiday.

She got her first big break when the producer John Hammond heard her and wrote her up in a review for Melody Maker magazine and brought Benny Goodman to hear her. At the age of 18 she made her recording debut with Goodman singing "Your Mother's Son-In-Law" and "Rifflin' the Scotch." Hammond is quoted saying of Holiday, "Her singing almost changed my music tastes and my musical life, because she was the first girl singer I'd come across who actually sang like an improvising jazz genius."

Holiday spent the next year moving up the New York club scene ladder, appearing in a short with Duke Ellington's band singing "The Saddest Tale" and performing at the Apollo Theater. She was signed to Brunswick records and made her first recordings with Teddy Wilson's band. "What A Little Moonlight Can Do" was a revolutionary success and the company began treating Holiday as an artist in her own right, letting her record under her own name  with some of the finest swing musicians of the day,  including Lester Young. The record company was struggling and to save money there were no expensive arrangements written for the musicians which meant that everything was improvised and Holiday was given a flat fee instead of royalties. Holiday's recordings under her own name and with Teddy Wilson from 1935 to the early 40's became important additions to the jazz vocal historic library.

In 1937 Holiday worked briefly with Count Basie's band. Ella Fitzgerald, touring with Chick Webb's band, was her biggest rival at the time (the two women would later become good friends) and competed against each other in the battle of the bands at the Savoy Ballroom. Metronome magazine declared Fitzgerald and Webb the winners, Downbeat magazine declared Holiday and Basie the winners but a straw poll of the audience gave the victory to Fitzgerald and Webb. Holiday was fired from Basie's band (conflicting reasons were given) and a month later she was picked up by Artie Shaw.

Touring with Artie Shaw placed her in the unusual position of being an African-American performer in an all-white band. It also made things difficult, especially in the racially divided south where Shaw fought constantly to allow her on the bandstand with the rest of the band. The stress of the situation and the fact that Shaw played mostly instrumentals giving her little singing time on stage ended her time with the band in 1938.

In 1939 she was singing at the legendary Cafe' Society when she was introduced to the song "Strange Fruit" based on a poem by a Jewish school teacher from the Bronx named Abel Meeropol. At first she was afraid of retaliation for the song's strong lyrics portraying a lynching but it soon became her most famous song. When she sang it in the nightclub she had all of the waiters silence the audience, the lights dim with only a small spotlight on her face and at the end of the song the club would go black. Holiday would be gone when the lights came back up. Her two years at Cafe' Society made her a star.

During the early 40's Holiday recorded many hits including "Travelin" Light", "Lover Man", and her own composition with Arthur Herzog, Jr., "God Bless the Child". Another of her compositions, "Don't Explain " was written and recorded in 1944 after finding lipstick on her husbands collar. In 1946 she appeared in the film "New Orleans" with Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman but her part and Armstrong's were cut drastically (she ended up playing a maid) so as not to give the impression that black people had anything to do with the creation of jazz. Her drug problems were also beginning to affect her performance.

On May 16, 1947 Holiday was arrested for possession of heroin. 11 days later, sick and dehydrated, Holiday got notice while she stood on trial that her lawyer was not interested in representing her. She plead guilty and the D.A. intervened on her behalf and she was sent to a minimum security prison in West Virgina for nearly a year.

Her manager arranged for a comeback concert at Carnegie Hall and with a great deal of trepidation, Holiday agreed. The concert was a sold out success with Holiday singing over 30 songs from her repertoire, passing out from the experience after the third curtain call. In 1948 she starred on her own Broadway show "Holiday on Broadway" but despite critical acclaim it folded after three weeks. She was arrested again for drug possession  in San Francisco at the Mark Twain Hotel in 1949. As a result of her drug convictions her Cabaret Card was revoked making it impossible for her to perform any place where alcohol was served. Her money making ability was greatly curtailed and even though she was still recording and still popular with her audience she was not making much from the proceeds due to bad management.

By the 1950's drugs and alcohol and her relationships with abusive men began to take a toll on her health and her voice. Her recordings for Verve at the time were as popular as ever but her voice had coarsened and sounded fragile, without it's former vibrancy. Her autobiography, "Lady Sings the Blues",  was ghost written by  New York Post journalist William Dufty in 1956. Dufty based the book on conversations he had with Holiday along with interviews of people she was close to. To accompany the release of the book, Holiday recorded a complimentary album of the same name with several new songs and new versions of old favorites.

On November 10, 1956, Holiday gave two concerts at Carnegie Hall to sold out audiences. The recording of the second concert would be released posthumously in 1961. Holiday rose to the occasion and thrilled the crowd with her stunning elegance and undiminished personal singing style. The critic Nat Hentoff of Downbeat magazine wrote of her performance," The beat flowed in her uniquely sinuous, supple way of moving the story along; the words became her own experiences; and coursing through it all was Lady's sound-a texture simultaneously steel-edged  and yet soft inside; a voice that was almost unbearably wise in disillusion and yet still childlike again at the center."

In early 1959, Holiday was diagnosed with cirrhosis of the live and was told to stop drinking. She did for a short time but took it up again. In May she was taken to Metropolitan Hospital suffering from cirrhosis and heart  disease. As she lay dying she was arrested for drug possession and police raided her hospital room. She remained under police guard until her death on July 17, 1959 at the age of 44.

Frank Sinatra, who was a great admirer told Ebony magazine, "With few exceptions, every major pop singer in the U.S. during her generation has been touched in some way by her genius."

Dorothy Donegan

 Happy Birthday Dorothy Donegan 1922-1998...Trained as a classical pianist, Donegan was an eclectic virtuoso who played stride, boogie-woogie, bop, swing and classical piano styles, sometimes all in the same chorus. She started piano lessons at the age of 8 in her hometown of Chicago, taking lessons from Alfred M. Simms and later, Walter Dyett (who also taught Dinah Washington, Gene Aamons and Von Freeman among others).

She made her first recordings in 1942 and was sensational in the film "Sensations of 1945" with Cab Calloway but didn't catch on. She was popular, however, in the clubs around her native Chicago. She became a protege of Art Tatum who called her, "the  only woman who could make me practice." Donegan would say of Tatum, "(He) was supposed to be blind...I know he could see women."

She was the first African-American to perform in Chicago's Orchestra Hall in 1943. She said of her performance, "In the first half I played Rachmaninoff and Grieg  and in the second I drug it through the swamp-played jazz." But despite her prodigious talent she remained in obscurity, releasing only 6 largely ignored albums from 1954-1963. It would not be until the 80's that she would receive notice in the jazz world with the release of a recording done at the 1987 Montreux Jazz Festival at the age of 65. Her recordings from that point on until her last in 1995 would continue to receive critical acclaim.

Most critics who saw her would say that to experience her as a performer she was best seen live. She had a flamboyant style, often dancing while she played, twisting into contortions, while she combined spontaneous medleys of unrelated songs in several different styles all at once. A New York Times critic said of her, "her flamboyance helped her find work in a field that was largely hostile to women. To a certain extent it was also her downfall; her concerts were often criticized for having an excess of personality."

Donegan made no bones about speaking out against the sexism she experienced and felt that her insistence on being paid the same as male musicians had limited her career. She received an American Jazz Master fellowship from the National Endowment of the Arts in 1992 and an honorary doctorate from Roosevelt University in 1994. She died of lung cancer in 1998.

Muddy Waters

Happy Birthday Muddy Waters (McKinley Morganfield)  1913-1983...He took the musical influences of the Deep South and infused them with fierce, electrical energy, pioneering the Chicago Blues style and burning his name in the history books as a peerless singer, a gifted songwriter, consummate guitar player and an undeniable influence on rock and roll, hard rock, folk, jazz, country and of course, the blues.

The details of the year and place of his birth are often debated but it is known that his mother died when he was 3 and he was raised by his grandmother in Clarksdale, Mississippi. The south was a hotbed for the blues in the 1920's and 30's and Waters got his first eduction by listening to his neighbor's recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Lonnie Johnson and Tampa Red. He began playing the harmonica at fish fries and house parties at the age of 13, switching to the guitar at the age of 17 after hearing Son House, Robert Johnson and Charley Patton.

In 1940, Waters spent a short time in Chicago, moving back to Mississippi to run a juke joint with gambling, moonshine and a jukebox. In 1941, Alan Lomax, the great ethnomusicologist, came to Mississippi and recorded Waters for the first time. He later sent him a couple of the records and $20. Hearing his recorded voice for the first time had a huge impact. In Water's words, "He sent me two copies of the pressing and a check for 20 bucks, and I carried that record up to the corner and put it on the juke box. Just played it and played it and said, "I can do it, I can do it." Lomax recorded Waters again in 1942 and those recordings would be released as "Down on Stovall's Plantation" and re-released in the 90's.

Waters headed back to Chicago in 1942 to try to make it as a professional musician but the going was tough. He pulled day jobs and played any house party or bar that would have him. Big Bill Broonzy took a liking to him and had him open for him in the rough and rowdy clubs he played. In 1945 his uncle bought him his first electric guitar and his artistry could finally be heard above the noisy crowds.

In 1946, Waters had recorded for two small labels with no success but he caught the attention of the Chess brothers and in 1948 he had his first hit recordings with "I Can't be Satisfied", "Going Home" and "Rollin' Stone". Initially the Chess brothers insisted on providing their choice of a back up band for him but by 1953 they had relented and Waters was recording with his own legendary band with  Little Walter Jacobs, Jimmy Rogers, Elgin Evans,  Otis Spann and with the occasional help of Willie Dixon. Little Walter went on to form his own group but continued to support Waters on recordings. Waters. Little Walter and Howlin' Wolf would rein over the Chicago blues scene in the early 50's and Water's bands would be a proving ground for  musicians who would go on to form their own bands.

By the end of the 50's, rock and roll had supplanted blues and Waters found his career floundering. A tour of England in 1958 shocked audiences with his amplified sound and an appearance at the Newport Jazz Festival in 1960 left him in dismay after realizing that his African-American audience was turning away from his music. Chess records was making a move toward rock music too and Waters flowed with the times, recording rock influenced albums but to not much success.

In 1975, Chess records folded and Johnny Winter was instrumental in signing Waters onto Blue Sky Records. In 1977 he would record "Still Hard", a masterful album that would rekindle new interest in his music and earn him a Grammy. He also performed a stunning rendition of "Mannish Boy" with The Band during their last concert in San Francisco, caught on film in Martin Scorsese's "The Last Waltz" which boosted his career and had him touring again sharing the stage with Eric Clapton and The Rolling Stones (who took their name from his song).

He continued to record and tour through the 70s but his health began to fade n the 80's. His final live performance was with Eric Clapton in Florida in the fall of 1982.

James "Bubber" Miley

Happy Birthday James "Bubber" Miley 1903-1932...As a child he sang for money on the streets of New York, taking up the coronet and trombone at the age of 14. After a very brief stint in the Navy, he started playing professionally in 1920, touring the south and later joining Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds, replacing Johnny Dunn. While touring with Smith in Chicago, he heard King Oliver's Creole Jazz band and took special note of the use of mutes and the rest, as they say, was history.

Miley experimented with both the plunger and straight mutes as well as a derby or two and found his own unique growl that became a signature sound in the Duke Ellington band from 1923-1929. "Black and Tan Fantasy", "East St' Louis Toodle-Oo", "Doin' the Voom Voom" and "Creole Love Call" feature Miley prominently and were inspired by his melodic inventions which were in turn inspired by Baptist hymns sung in his church. Many jazz critics credit Miley with being a major part of Ellington's early success at the Cotton Club with his "Jungle Music" sound.

Miley was known for his charm and fun-loving personality but he was also just as famous for his unreliability and heavy drinking. His alcoholism would eventually lead him to exit Ellington's band in 1929 but his influence continued as new trumpeters with the band did their best to imitate him.

After leaving Ellington's band he joined Noble Sissle's Orchestra for a one month tour of Europe. On returning to New York he recorded with groups led by King Oliver, Jelly Roll Morton, Hoagy Carmichael and Zutty Singleton, recording 6 sides under his own name for Victor in 1930. He was also the only African-American who played with Leo Reisman's society dance band and but had to wear an usher's uniform and stand offstage or play behind a screen.

Miles' alcohol addiction eventually undermined his health and at the age of 29 he died of tuberculous in New York.

Charles "Honi" Coles

Happy Birthday Charles "Honi" Coles 1911-1992...Coles was a tap dancer of exceptional elegance and precision. Historian Sally Sommer described his dancing this way, "He was a supreme illusionist. He appeared to float and do nothing at all while his feet chattered complex rhythms below." He learned to tap dance on the streets of  Philadelphia as a child where dancers challenged each other in time step "cutting" contests, honing his skills enough to make his New York debut with the Three Millers, a group that performed intricate, precision moves atop 6 foot high platforms, in 1931.

He returned to Philadelphia determined to perfect his technique when he learned that his partners had hired another dancer to replace him. He returned to New York in 1934 with new confidence, performing at the Harlem Opera House and The Apollo Theater. He was reputed to have the fastest feet in show business, able to cram a flurry of steps into a bar of music (unusual for someone of his height of 6'2") and he was hailed as one of the most graceful dancers ever seen at the Hoofers Club, a seriously competitive club for tap dancers.

From 1936-1939, Coles performed with the Lucky Seven Trio, a group that tapped on large cubes shaped like dice with as many as ten costume changes during the performance. The trio toured with Count Basie and Duke Ellington as Coles continued to polish his style, mixing high speed tapping with an easy elegance where the legs and feet did all of the work. It was in 1940 while working as a soloist with Cab Calloway that Coles met Charles "Cholly" Atkins, also working with Calloway. Both men participated in WW2 and returned home to form Coles and Atkins, a partnership that would last for 19 years.

Coles and Atkins was a class act with elegant, tailored suits and a routine that would showcase the individual talents and perfectly synchronized partnership of the two dancers. A typical performance would start off with a fast-paced song and tap routine moving into a precision swing dance and soft shoe then ending with a tap challenge. Throughout the 40's the duo appeared with Calloway, Louis Armstrong, Lionel Hampton, Charlie Barnet, Billy Eckstine and Count Basie. In 1949 they appeared on Broadway in "Gentlemen Prefer Blonds", stopping the show with the number "Mamie is Mimi", to which choreographer Agnes DeMille added a ballet dancer-a harbinger of the change that would come to Broadway dancing.

When the show closed in 1951, more balletic dancing integrated  into the plot had taken the place of tap in most shows and the big band era was coming to a close. Coles opened a dance studio with tap dancer Pete Nugent from 1954-1955, closing due to the decline in interest in tap dancing. Coles and Atkins ended their partnership in 1960 and for the next 16 years, Coles worked as the production stage manager for the Apollo Theater, served as the president of the Negro Actors Guild and continued his association with the Copasetics, a fraternity of tap dancers which he had helped to found in 1949.

In the 1970's Cole collaborated with Brenda Bufalino in their duet concert of the Morton Gould Tap Concerto, touring the United States and England, reintroducing tap as an art form. He joined the touring production of "Bubblin; Brown Sugar" in 1976, had solo performances at Carnegie Hall and Town Hall. and performed with the Joffrey Ballet in Agnes DeMille's "Conversation on the Dance" in 1978. At the age of 72, he won  a Tony Award Fred, Astaire Award and a Drama Desk Award for his performance in "My One and Only." In 1991, a year before his death, he was awarded the National Metal of Arts.

Coles and Atkins

                                                      

                                  "Taking a Chance on Love" was their famous soft shoe routine.
                                                             Coles is the taller dancer

Alberta Hunter

Happy Birthday Alberta Hunter 1895-1984...When she was 12 she left her home in Memphis to claim her fame as a singer in Chicago but Chicago was already overrun by young girls trying to make it big and even lying about her age wasn't enough for club owners to give her a try. She got a job peeling potatoes that came with room and board and kept her dream alive until 1911 when she got a job at Dago Frank's, a tough bordello frequented by pimps and criminals. More jobs at low-rent establishments followed as she slowly climbed her way up, saving enough money to bring her mother to live with her in Chicago.

She married briefly but the marriage was never consummated, Hunter claiming she didn't want to have sex in the same house as her mother. In truth she was a lesbian and her husband soon left for the south. She met Lottie Taylor, the niece of Bert Williams, not long afterwards and the two became lovers and companions for many years.

She was hired by the Elite Cafe where the openly gay New Orleans Ragtime pianist Tony Jackson played. She helped to popularize many of Jackson's songs including "Pretty Baby" which was written for his boyfriend. Her star began to rise and in 1915 she was hired by the Panama Cafe, an expensive all-white establishment  that was soon closed because of a murder. She was soon working at the Dreamland Cafe, a prestigious venue for black entertainers, where King Oliver's Creole Jazz Band played, making friends with his pianist Lil Hardin. She was a featured soloist at Dreamland for 5 years and billed as "The Sweetheart of Dreamland". She often played at other nightclubs after hours and it was at one of those clubs that her pianist was shot and killed on stage.

Hunter left the violence of Chicago for New York in 1921. She made her first recordings that year with Black Swan Records backed by Fletcher Henderson's Novelty Orchestra, the first blues recordings made by that label. She switched to Paramount Records a year later with Fletcher Henderson continuing to back her. She recorded nearly 35 sides in less than 2 years, many of them of her own compositions. She wrote "Downhearted Blues" while at Paramount but they sold the rights to the song to Columbia Records without her knowing it. The song became Bessie Smith's first big hit and Hunter switched her record label, but not before becoming the first black singer to be backed by a white band, The Original Memphis Five, in 1923.

Hunter continued recording with musicians such as Sidney Bechet, Louis Armstrong, Fletcher Henderson, Fats Waller, Eubie Blake and Lovey Austin, altogether making over 80 sides before 1930. She performed in several musical reviews during this time as well, replacing Bessie Smith in "How Come?" establishing herself as a star in New York.

In 1927 she left to tour Europe, appearing with Paul Robeson in the first London production of Showboat as well as in other musical reviews. Her travels took her to Paris, Nice, Monte Carlo, Copenhagen, Russia and the Middle East, effectively keeping her away from the troubles at home during the Depression. Returning home in 1935 she still found an audience for her live performances but recording dates were hard to come by. During WW2  and into the early 50's she traveled throughout Asia, the South Pacific Islands and Europe on the USO circuit, keeping her fan base going with engaging live performances. 

After the death of her mother in 1954, Hunter gave up the music business, faked a high school diploma, shaved years off her age and enrolled in nursing school at the age of 59. Only once during her 20 years working at a NYC hospital was she lured out of "retirement", to record with her friends Lovey Austin and Lil Hardin Armstrong. None of her work colleagues or patients knew anything about her former fame and travels which she preferred. 

The hospital retired her when they thought she was 65 (she was 81) and Hunter found herself once again lured into the world of music. She was offered  two weeks at the Cookery, a NY restaurant in the Village, which became an ongoing  engagement. She began recording again, gaining new fans with her gritty, down and dirty presentation, wrote the music for and appeared in the Robert Altman film "Remember My Name", fought for and won better royalties for her earlier recordings, made television appearances and performed once again in Europe and in South America. Her comeback lasted 6 years.