Happy Birthday, Andy Kirk 1898-1992...Andy Kirk and his (delightfully named) Twelve Clouds of Joy were the epitome of the early Kansas City jazz sound. from 1929 to 1946. Kirk himself never really soloed on sax, instead he depended on his talented sidemen, especially pianist and arranger Mary Lou Williams, to create the band's successful, consistent sound.
Kirk grew up in Denver, Colorado where he took music lessons from Wilberforce Whiteman, Paul Whiteman's father. In 1921, he started playing with Terence Holder's Dark Clouds of Joy in Dallas, Texas, taking over the leadership of the group in 1929 and moving it to Kansas City. Kirk changed the name of the group to the Clouds of Joy but it was often called the Twelve Clouds of Joy because of the number of musicians. They made their first recordings for Brunswick that same year, adding the talented Mary Lou Williams when their pianist didn't show up. Brunswick was so impressed with Williams that she became a permanent member of the group.
The band made no recordings for five years then burst back on the scene in 1936 after moving to New York, recording ten titles including a huge hit, "Until the Real Thing Comes Along." Kirk's band would eventually make over 200 recordings with a variety of sidemen including John Williams (Mary Lou's husband), Claude Williams, Edgar "Puddinghead" Battle, Ben Thigpen, Fats Navarro, Charlie Parker, Hank Jones, Joe Williams and early electric guitarist Floyd Smith among others.
In 1948 Kirk folded the band and concentrated on acquiring real estate, occasionally playing pick up gigs. In 1958 he became manager of the Hotel Theresa in New York and served as an official in the Musician's Union. He died at the age of 94.
Happy Birthday Mamie Smith 1883-1946....Although she was really a vaudeville singer, Smith was the first African-American vocalist to record the blues. Her song, "Crazy Blues" sold 10,000 copies the first week and a million within 6 months and started the great decade of Ladies of the Blues in the 1920's.
Smith got her start in show business as a dancing 10 year old with a white vaudeville act called The Four Dancing Mitchells. As a teenager she joined Salem Tut Whitney's Smart Set staying with the company until 1913 when she left to sing in Harlem clubs.
Smith's recording was really an accident. Sophie Tucker was supposed to record "Crazy Blues" but was sick at the time the recording was scheduled. Perry Bradford who wrote the song persuaded Okeh records to take a gamble on Smith. The recording was a huge success and according to Angela Davis, "The recording of 'Crazy Blues' lead the way for the professionalization of black music, for the black entertainment industry, and indeed for the immense popularity of black music today." It connected to an audience the record companies, up to that point, had not served. There was enough of a black working class that was eager to buy records coming out of their own culture and with their wallets, convinced the recording industry of the value of "race music".
Smith began touring with her Jazz Hounds (which featured Coleman Hawkins, Bubber Miley and Johnny Dunn among others) as part of her "Mamie Smith's Struttin' Review", traveling throughout the U.S. and Europe. She was billed as "Queen of the Blues", a title that was later topped by Bessie Smith who called herself the "Empress of the Blues". In the 30's Smith also toured with Andy Kirk and Fats Pichon.
She made movies as well including Paradise in Harlem in 1939, Mystery in Swing and Sunday Sinners in 1940, Stolen Paradise and Murder on Lenox Avenue in 1941 and Because I Love You in 1943. She died in 1946 at the age of 63.
Because of it's historical significance, Smith's recording of "Crazy Blues" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1994 and was selected for permanent preservation in the National Recording Registry at the Library of Congress in 2005.
Happy Birthday Bill "Bojangles" Robinson 1878-1949...Born Luther Robinson, legend has it that he switched names with his younger brother Bill after using two-fisted persuasion but even that name didn't stick for long. His contentious nature earned him the slang nickname "jangler" which evolved into Bojangles as a stage name. At the age of 5 his was dancing in local beer gardens in his hometown of Richmond, Virginia, by the age of 6 he quit school and joined the vaudeville circuit performing in "The South Before The War".
In 1902 he joined forces with George W. Cooper. Bound by the "two colored" rule in vaudeville which restricted blacks to working in pairs, the two men worked the Keith and Orpheum circuits, eschewing the usual blackface makeup. Robinson was a gambler and in 1915, his hot temper and gold plated revolver got him arrested on an assault charge. That broke up his act and he began to work solo from that point on. Under the guidance of his manager, Marty Forkins, Robinson refined his act and began to make a name for himself in black nightclubs, earning up to $3,500 a week. In 1918 he introduced his famous Stair Dance, emitting a different pitch and rhythm with his feet on every stair. His dancing career was put on hold when he served as a rifleman with the Harlem Hellcats in France in WW1. He also served as the regiment's drum major.
Hailed as "The Dark Cloud of Joy" Robinson continued performing on the Orpheum circuit until he joined the cast of Blackbirds of 1928, a musical revue written by Dorothy Fields and Jimmy McHugh. He was 50 years old and it was the first time he would perform before a white audience. He starred with Adelaide Hall and introduced the song "Doin' the New Lowdown" and his Stair Dance. The two performers were an instant hit. The show ran for over a year and Robinson was proclaimed the greatest of all dancers by 7 New York newspapers. Brown Buddies in 1930 teamed Robinson and Hall again followed by Blackbirds of 1933, The Hot Mikado in 1939, All in Fun in 1940 and Memphis bound in 1945. He celebrated the opening of The Hot Mikado and his 61st birthday by dancing 61 blocks down Broadway.
As the appeal of black revues began to fade in the 30's Robinson made the leap to film, breaking the racial barrier. His first film in 1930, Dixiana, had a predominantly white cast but his next film, Harlem is Heaven in 1932, was the first all black film ever made. He would go on to make 14 films over the decade, remaining popular with white audiences but never breaking out of the nostalgic roles Hollywood cast him in. His series of films with Shirley Temple, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, The Littlest Rebel, Just Around the Corner and The Little Colonel (where he was the first black man on film to dance with a white girl) had him playing the same stereotypical antebellum butler. Stormy Weather in 1943, loosely based on his own life, was the last film he made. Although he no longer made films or appeared on Broadway, he continued to perform in clubs well into his 60's.
Robinson was a dedicated member of Harlem's Hoofers Club, encouraging and inspiring many young dancers. Throughout his lifetime he was a member of many clubs and civic organizations and was an honorary member of police departments across the U.S. He was appointed an honorary Mayor of Harlem and was the mascot of the New York Giants baseball team. He co-founded the New York Black Yankees baseball team in 1936 which was a successful part of the Negro Leagues until it was disbanded in 1948 when Major League Baseball was desegregated. His participation in charities and benefits was legendary, giving away most of his fortune as gifts or loans. He died penniless of heart failure at the age of 71. His funeral was arranged by his long time friend, Ed Sullivan, and was attended by over 32,000 people.
Constance Valis Hill describes his tap style this way,"Onstage, his open face, twinkling eyes and infectious smile were irresistible, as was his tapping, which was delicate and clear. Buck or Time Steps were inserted with skating steps or crossover steps on the balls of the feet that looked like a jig, all while he chatted and joked with the audience. Robinson danced in split clog shoes, ordinary shoes with a wooden half-sole and raised wooden heel. The wooden sole was attached from the toe to the ball of the foot and left loose, which allowed for greater flexibility and tonality."
In his honor, May 25 has been declared National Tap Dance Day.
On May 23, 1921 Shuffle Along opened at Daly's 63rd Street Theater and ran for an unprecedented 504 performances. It was the first musical written, performed, produced and directed by African-Americans after a decade of decline of black performers in theater. Langston Hughes described the play's importance this way, "The 1920′s were the years of Manhattan’s black Renaissance. It began withShuffle Along, Running Wild,and the Charleston... But certainly it was the musical revue,Shuffle Along, that gave a scintillating send-off to that Negro vogue in Manhattan, which reached its peak just before the crash of 1929, the crash that sent Negroes, white folks, and all rolling down the hill toward the Works Progress Administration." The show was written by Flournoy Miller and Aubrey Lyles with music and lyrics by Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake. The four men met on the vaudeville circuit in 1920 in Philadelphia during a benefit for the NAACP. Miller and Lyles had already begun thinking about an all-black musical and they felt the music that Sissle and Blake were doing would be perfect for what they had in mind. Miller felt the only way to put black performers in white theaters with dignity was through musical comedy and he presented the group with a sketch about the complicated maneuvers in a small town mayoral race.
The show was put together quickly using comedy routines and songs from their vaudeville routines with dance numbers, a somewhat circuitous plot and a love story thrown in (the love story would break a long-standing taboo against the depiction of romantic love between black characters). The men pooled what little money they had and sent out a casting call for a show that had no theater, no sets, no costumes and no assurance that it would go on at all. They were flooded with performers wanting to participate. Miller and Lyles had a connection to the Cort family which owned a crumbling theater empire. John Cort liked the songs of Sissle and Blake and agreed to find a theater, costumes and sets for the show. The theater was a dilapidated lecture hall without a proper stage and no orchestra pit. The costumes were left over from two former flops and still had the sweat stains under the arms. The stage was still being added to during the duration of the show. But the company went to work to make it home.
After a short stint on the road the company returned to New York to open there. The principles were worried about the reception the love song, "Love Will Find a Way" would have with the white audience. Noble Sissle remembered, "On opening night in New York this song had us more worried than anything else in the show. We were afraid that when Lottie Gee and Roger Matthews sang it, we'd be run out of town. Miller, Lyles, and I were standing near the exit door with one foot inside the theater and the other pointed north toward Harlem. We thought of Blake, stuck out there in front, leading the orchestra—his bald head would get the brunt of the tomatoes and the rotten eggs. Imagine our amazement when the song was not only beautifully received, but encored. During the intermission we told Blake what we had been doing, and he came near to killing us. But the biggest moment of all came near the end of the show, with a number called "The Baltimore Buzz.” I sang it while Blake and the orchestra played like fury and the girls danced up a storm. People cheered. I almost fell off the stage when I looked out into the auditorium there was old John Cort dancing in the aisles! His faith in us had been borne out. That night it looked like we were home."
Shortly after opening they started a special midnight show on Wednesday nights to attract the white theater performers who ordinarily couldn't see it. Word of mouth from those performers in the audience went a long way to publicize the show. The pit orchestra was a special attraction of it's own. None of the musicians played with sheet music. They had memorized the entire score. "We did that because it was expected of us," recalled Blake. "People didn't believe that black people could read music-they wanted to think our ability was just natural talent." Sissle and Blake and sometimes the entire orchestra were often hired after the show to perform for wealthy white patrons.
Shuffle Along launched the careers of many notable performers including a 16 year old Josephine Baker, Paul Robeson, Adelaide Hall and the sensational Florence Mills. For Noble Sissle the chorus girls were the heart of the show and others, besides Baker went on to fame. The jazz dancing in the show was a new sensation and Flo Ziegfeld and George White opened special studios and hired the dancers from the show to teach the steps to white chorus girls. Many of the songs from the show are considered standards today, "Love Will Find A Way", "In Honeysuckle Time", "Bandanna Days", "Daddy Won't You Please Come Home" and "I'm Just Wild About Harry" which became Harry Truman's campaign theme song. There were no cast albums made during that era but many of the songs were recorded by Sissle and Blake and other cast members. According to Harlem historian James Weldon Johnson, Shuffle Along marked a breakthrough for the African-American musical performer and legitimized the African-American musical, proving to producers and managers that mixed audiences would pay to see African-American talent on Broadway. The show would pave the way for nine more black musicals to open on Broadway between the years of 1921 and 1924.
Happy Birthday," Fats" Thomas Wright Waller 1904-1943...One of the most vivacious, entertaining singers, composers and pianists in jazz history, Waller was extremely popular during his lifetime and still is today. He was a prolific songwriter, creating over 450 songs, most of them sold cheaply to pay for debts and alimony and many of them claimed and made popular by other performers.
His father was a preacher in an open air church in Harlem. His mother played organ and by the time Waller was 10 he had taken over the duty, once angering his father with a jazzed up version of a hymn during services. When his mother died at age 14 he went to live with family friend and pianist, Russell Brooks, where he was introduced to his idol and mentor, stride pianist James P. Johnson. Not only did Johnson take his new student under his wing, he introduced him to his prestigious musician friends. At 15 Waller began his professional career playing for silent films at the Lincoln Theater as well as clubs and block parties with other up and coming Harlem musicians. Johnson also got him jobs making piano rolls.
Waller made his first recordings, "Muscle Shoals Blues" and "Birmingham Blues" for Okeh Records in 1922. By 1923 he had recorded with several blues singers including Alberta Hunter, had several compositions recorded by other musicians and had started broadcasting on radio in Newark, N.J. He would soon move over to WHN in New York where he would continue to broadcast as a singer and soloist throughout his life. Waller's approach to performing on radio initially made the broadcasters nervous. Instead of rehearsing heavily before going on like other groups, Waller insisted on allowing spontaneous creativity among his well trained musicians within a framework agreed upon verbally before the show. The lively improvised broadcasts became immensely popular with audiences.
In 1926 he signed with Victor records, remaining with the company throughout his life. While he recorded with various groups, including McKinney's Cotton Pickers and his own small interracial group Fats Waller's Buddies, his most influential recordings of the 20's were his solo stride piano recordings, "Smashing Thirds", "A Handful of Keys", "Numb Fumblin' " and "Valentine Stomp" He also collaborated with other lyricists, most notably Andy Razaf, to create songs "Crazy 'Bout My Baby", "Honeysuckle Rose" and "Black and Blue" which would find their way into shows like "Keep Shufflin' " , "Load of Coal" and "Hot Chocolates" which made it to Broadway, introducing the song "Ain't Misbehavin' " first sung by Cab Calloway and later Louis Armstrong.
In 1934 he began his biggest series of recordings with his own small group known as Fats Waller and his Rhythm Club. He also worked with Les Hite's band at The New Cotton Club in Los Angeles, making a couple of movies while he was there, "Hooray for Love" and "King of Burlesque". He would follow up with two more movies in the early 40's, "Ain't Misbehavin' " and "Stormy Weather" as well as several shorts.
He made several tours of Europe, even playing on the organ at Notre Dame. While in London he recorded his "London Suite", an extended series of six related pieces which indicated his desire to be taken more seriously as an artist, not just a pop music composer. He tour of Europe was cut short in 1939 when WW2 broke out.
The last few years of Waller's life saw him recording and touring the U.S. extensively but his heavy eating and drinking and the nervous strain of always being in financial trouble began to take it's toll. He was on his way back to California to do more film work when he came down with pneumonia and died on the train on December 15, 1943. He was 39 years old.
Happy Birthday, Sonny Clay 1899-1973...Born in Texas, he moved to Phoenix, Arizona when he was 8 and it was there he got his start playing piano and drums in local venues as a teenager. In 1917 he headed down to Mexico where he played with Jelly Roll Morton, heading back up to Los Angeles in 1921 where he joined Kid Ory's Original Creole Jazz band.
In 1923 he formed his own band and became the house band at the Plantation Club, playing and recording under the name Sonny Clay's Plantation Orchestra. The band also played regularly on radio which gave them more exposure and gave Clay a chance to polish his own compositions during the 4 years they played there.
What the band is most notable for, though, is introducing jazz to Australia. In 1928 Sonny Clay took his band to tour Australia with a vaudeville troupe named "Sonny Clay and the Colored Idea." The female singer in the group was Ivie Anderson who would later go on to join Duke Ellington's orchestra. The group took Australia by storm, the citizens having never seen a show of it's kind live. The excitement also spilled over into what happened off stage and reports of drinking, drug taking and cavorting with local white women resulted in a police raid and deportation. Clay was not there and was not involved in any of the behavior that caused the former Australian Prime Minister, Billy
Hughes, to call them the "scum of America" and note that they would have gotten a lynching in their native South for the same antics. Australia's Federal Cabinet barred the entry of all "colored" artists after that and it wasn't until twenty six years later in 1954, that Louis Armstrong & His All-Stars broke the ban.
When Clay returned he formed a new band called "The Dixie Serenaders" which recorded and played in the Los Angeles area for a few years before breaking up in 1930. He performed as a solo artist up until WW2 when he joined the army and lead a band in the Special Services Division. After the war he continued to play solo, calling it quits in the late 40's to go to work for the Post Office. In the late 50's, interest in his work forced him return to performing solo club gigs. He made his last recording in 1960.
Happy Birthday, Sidney Bechet 1897-1959...Wynton Marsalis called him "the poet of New Orleans music" and few would deny that title. Bechet was a child prodigy on clarinet. He studied with some of the local musicians sporadically but he was largely self taught. By the age of 12 he was playing seriously with a number of New Orleans bands including John Robichaux's orchestra and teaching clarinet to other musicians. By the age of 17 he was touring and traveling as far north as Chicago to play with bands led by Freddie Keppard, King Oliver and Lawrence Duhe'.
In 1919 he joined Will Marion Cook's orchestra and toured Europe for the first time. It's also where he bought his first soprano sax, making it his main instrument from that point on. Although his playing was received with much acclaim, his temperament landed him in jail in London for 13 days for assaulting a woman and he was deported back to the States.
Bechet joined Clarence Williams on his first recordings in 1923, making "Wild Cat Blues" and "Kansas City Man Blues", making him the first important jazz soloist to record, beating Louis Armstrong by a few months. For the next two years he would continue to make records backing blues singers and even playing with Duke Ellington's orchestra for a short period. In 1925 he joined the "Revue Negre", which also included Josephine Baker, and traveled to Europe again. He toured Europe with several small bands, making it as far as Russia, until 1928 when he lead his own small brand at Bricktop's Club in Montmartre, Paris.
Once again his temper got the best of him and he was jailed in Paris when a woman passer by was wounded in a shoot out with another musician. Legend has it that the other man accused him of playing a wrong chord and Bechet challenged him to a duel. Other reports say Bechet was ambushed by the other man. He was sent home after being released and landed in New York right after the stock market crash in 1929. Noble Sissle picked him up for his band and Bechet returned to Europe to tour again, largely avoiding the difficulties in the U.S. caused by the Depression.
Bechet returned to New York in 1932 and formed a band with Tommy Ladnier, playing at the Savoy Ballroom and in clubs but work began to become scarce. He opened a tailor shop with Ladnier to make ends meet but it operated more as a place for jam sessions than a business. In 1938 he had a huge hit with a recording of "Summertime" and went on to make several other strong recordings but by the 40's, jobs were not forthcoming. Once again he headed to Europe and this time, decided to relocate for good.
In 1950 he played at the Paris Jazz Fair and became a sensation over-night. Within a couple of years he became a huge celebrity and national hero in France, assuring himself plenty of well paying jobs. His hit records rivaled those made by pop stars of the day but he remained largely under appreciated in the U.S. Bechet's later life in Europe was filled with success including exciting concerts, popular recordings including his international hit "Petite Fleur", and a classic ballet score, "La Nuit est sorciere", and the occasional trip back to the U.S. He died in Paris of stomach cancer at the age of 62.
Bechet played with intensity and passion, with a wide vibrato that dominated. He played up front while the trumpets and other instruments took a backseat. He read music but often chose not too, being a master improvisor. Duke Ellington said of him, "Bechet to me was the very epitome of jazz...everything he played in his whole life was completely original. I honestly think he was the most unique man to ever be in this music."
Happy Birthday, Fred Astaire May 10, 1899- June 22, 1987...Born Freidrich Emanuel Austerlitz in Omaha, Nebraska to an Austrian father and an American mother who longed to leave the boredom of her life there. When his older sister Adele showed early singing and dancing talent, Astaire's mother put together a vaudeville act and recruited the four year old Fred as his sister's partner, changing their last name to something she felt was less cumbersome and more elegant. When his father lost his job, it gave his mother the excuse to pack up the family and move to New York to further the careers of the young Astaires.
Both children took dance and acting classes and Fred learned to play the accordion, clarinet and piano. Their first vaudeville act was called "Juvenile Artists Presenting an Electric Musical Toe-Dancing Novelty" and it was a big hit. They toured around the U.S. on the circuit but Adele began to grow taller than her brother and they took a two year break to let him catch up and to avoid the child labor laws.
When the act resumed, both performers had become more polished and they began to incorporate tap dancing into their act, inspired and taught by Bill Robinson. They also took ballroom dance classes from Aurelio Coccia (Rita Hayworth's father), learning the dances made popular by Vernon and Irene Castle. Adele was the acknowledged talent of the two siblings. Her dancing and stage presence was highly praised (sadly there is no footage of her performing). Fred was always on the lookout for new music and novelty dance steps to incorporate into the act.
At age 14, he met George Gershwin who was working as a song plugger and they would strike up a friendship that would greatly affect both of their careers. In 1917 the Astaires appeared in their first Broadway show, "Over the Top" and their dancing caught the attention of the critics. More shows followed and in 1920s the Astaire siblings starred in the Gershwin's "Funny Face" and "Lady Be Good" followed by "Band Wagon" in 1931. The shows traveled to London where the Astaire's became even bigger stars and where Adele would meet her future husband, Lord Charles Cavendish. They did a screen test for Paramount in the late 20's but were not considered movie material. An evaluation of Fred's first screen test stated, "Can't act, can't sing, balding, can dance a little."
In 1932, Adele married and retired from performing. Fred was crushed, never quite believing that he had the talent to go it alone. His starring role in the musical "The Gay Divorcee" proved him wrong, especially the dance number he created with his new partner Claire Luce to Cole Porter's "Night and Day" which stole the show. It was later performed in the film version in 1934 and changed the way dance was presented in movies. Offers from Hollywood began pouring in and Astaire decided to try it again.
In 1933 Astaire married Phyllis Potter and moved to Hollywood. Although the studio still it had it's doubts, David O. Selznick held out hope for the new talent he had signed in a memo, stating, "I am uncertain about the man, but I feel, in spite of his enormous ears and bad chin line, that his charm is so tremendous that it comes through even on this wretched test." Astaire had a brief part in a Joan Crawford movie before he was cast as a minor character with Ginger Rogers in "Flying down to Rio" in 1933, a movie and partnership that would change everything for the two young actors. The duo became film's most beloved dance team whose routines feature an amalgam of dance styles including ballroom, tap and ballet. Katherine Hepburn described their partnership, "Fred gave Ginger class and Ginger gave Fred sex."
The pair made 10 films together but Fred's perfectionism, grueling work schedule and reluctance to be tied to one dance partner broke up the duo in 1939. Astaire would go on to partner a list of beautiful and talented women, Rita Hayworth, Cyd Charisse, Judy Garland, Leslie Caron and Audrey Hepburn among others. The only dancer he truly felt could best him in tap was Eleanor Powell. In 1946 at the age of 47 he announced his retirement only to re-emerge in 1948 to replace an injured Gene Kelly in "Easter Parade". Astaire kept working, doing more musical films as well as taking on non-dancing roles and branching out onto television.
His final film role was in 1981.
He had a huge impact on dance on film, from his sparkling, precise, often romantic choreography, to his new innovations on how the scenes were photographed to his insistence that the dance be a further vehicle for the plot instead of just an adornment. Dancers and choreographers as diverse as Jerome Robbins, Rudolph Nureyev, Michael Jackson, Sammy Davids, Jr., Gregory Hines and George Balanchine acknowledge his influence and importance. He also influenced popular music and introduced many of the popular songs of the time including "Night and Day', "Fascinating Rhythm", "Funny Face", "I'm Putting All My Eggs In One Basket", "A Fine Romance", "Pick Yourself Up", "Shall We Dance", "The Way You Look Tonight" and "They Can't Take That Away From Me" among others. His personal style and elegance set the bar for men's fashion as well.
He was happily married to his wife Phyllis for 21 years with whom he had two children. After her death and after his final retirement he married jockey Robyn Smith who shared his love of horses and horse racing. Astaire die at the age of 88 of pneumonia. George Balanchine compared him to Bach, calling him, "the most interesting, the most innovative, the most elegant dancer of our times." Yet Astaire himself remained perpetually insecure about his artistry.Vincent Minnelli stated that, "He lacks confidence to the most enormous degree, of all people in the world...He always thinks he is no good." Astaire described his performances this way, "I've never yet got anything 100% right. Still, it's never as bad as I think it is."
The famous dancing on the ceiling scene from Royal Wedding
Happy Birthday, Joe "King" Oliver 1881-1938...A seminal figure in the history of jazz, Oliver put the "Hot" up front and inspired his protege, Louis Armstrong to say, "If it had not been for Joe Oliver, Jazz would not be what it is today".
Raised by a single mother, and later a half-sister, at 17, Oliver was working as a butler for a white family and playing his music at night. From 1908-1917 Oliver played coronet in New Orleans brass bands, party bands and in the red-light district of Storyville. He joined Kid Ory's band and got the nickname "King" because of his impressive mute techniques. He got a wide variety of sounds using plungers, bottles, cups and the derby hat he wore cocked over his bad eye (lost in a childhood accident). The Oliver-Ory band was considered the "hottest" band in New Orleans in the late 1910's and was hired across racial lines from black dance halls to white debutant balls.
In 1918, Storyville was closed down and Oliver moved his family to Chicago to escape the Jim Crow south. He joined Bill Johnson's band at the Dreamland Ballroom and by 1920 was leading his own band. After a brief stint in San Francisco, Oliver returned to Chicago to form his famous Creole Jazz Band featuring Louis Armstrong, Lil Hardin, Baby Dodds, Johnny Dodds, Honore' Dutrey and William Manuel Johnson. The recordings they made in 1923 introduced an exciting new sound for jazz and were extremely popular. Author Ted Gioia suggested that the band lacked the finesse of some New Orleans-bred, Chicago-based bands, but, "it's hot, dirty, swinging sound comes closest to the essence of the jazz experience." The recordings introduced Louis Armstrong to the world and other musicians flocked to hear them play.
The band broke up by 1924 and Oliver made a couple of recordings with Jelly Roll Morton then moved to New York with his new band, the Dixie Syncopaters in 1928 but the economy made jobs scarce and Oliver's love of sugar (he ate sugar sandwiches) began to rot his teeth which made it harder to play. He also made a fatal business decision, turning down the house band gig at the Cotton Club, giving Duke Ellington his important break. Work was hand to mouth and by the mid-30's he found himself stranded in Augusta, Georgia, taking a job as a janitor in a pool hall until his death a few years later at the age of 52.
Some of Oliver's compositions are still standards today. "Dipper Mouth Blues" (sometimes called Sugar Foot Stomp), "West End Blues", "Dr. Jazz" and "Snag it", among others, have been repeatedly recorded by newer generations of musicians. His recording of "WaWaWa", with it's repeated mute gave the name wah-wah to that technique and would show up in the playing of Bubber Miley, Muggsy Spanier and Tommy Ladnier.
Happy Birthday, Red Nichols 1905-1965...Critic Steve Leggett described him as,"an expert cornet player, a solid improvisor, and apparently a workaholic, since he is rumored to have appeared on over 4,000 recordings during the 1920's alone." Nichols was at the very least exuberantly engaged in the music he loved and took every opportunity to play.
Born in Ogden, Utah, Nichols' father was a college music professor who passed on his knowledge to his young son. Nichols was playing cornet in his father's brass band at the age of 12. Listening to the recordings of The Original Dixeland Jass Band and, especially, Bix Beiderbecke further helped him to hone a polished, clean style. In the early 20's he moved to the Midwest and joined the Syncopating Seven and then Johnny Johnson Orchestra, moving with them to New York in 1923.
New York would become Nichols' base and where he met and teamed up with trombonist Miff Mole. Together they would record numerous records with a variety of bands but most notably as Red Nichols and his Five Pennies. Nichols and his band were making anywhere from 10 to 12 records a week at one point. He was an excellent sight reader and hired top notch players including Jimmy Dorsey. Later in the 20's the band's personnel was nearly a who's who of white jazz musicians of the period. Players who rotated into the band included Benny Goodman, Glen Miller, Jack Teagarden, Pee Wee Russell, Eddie Lang, Gene Krupa and Joe Venuti .
During the rise of the swing era during the Depression there was less work for Dixieland musicians. Nichols kept himself afloat by playing in pit orchestras for Broadway shows, leading the orchestra for "Girl Crazy" and "Strike Up the Band". When his wife contracted polio in 1942, Nichols left the business and took a job in the wartime shipyards. At the close of the war, Nichols formed a new Five Pennies and began playing small clubs in the Los Angeles area.
Word got out among musicians that Nichols was back and soon many of them would show up, turning his gigs into jam sessions. The small engagements soon led to bigger ones and the band found itself playing finer clubs and hotels up and down the west coast. In 1959, Paramount released a a very loosely based film biography of Nichols called "The Five Pennies" starring Danny Kaye. Nichols played the coronet parts for the sound track and the picture was nominated for four Academy Awards.
Nichols and his band toured Europe as Goodwill Ambassadors and performed in two more films. He died of a heart attack in Los Vegas during an engagement at the new Mint Hotel. The band went on as scheduled but left his coronet in a spotlight on his seat as a tribute.
Happy Birthday, Alice Faye 1915-1998...At the peak of her career Faye was the most popular star in Hollywood, introducing twenty-three songs to the hit parade and gaining adoring fans across the globe, especially in England. She is also known as the star who did the seemingly impossible as she walked away from Hollywood at the height of her popularity to successfully raise a family.
Born in Hell's Kitchen in New York City, she began working in vaudeville as a pre-teen, moving on to Broadway in the 1931 edition of "George White's Scandals" in a featured role at the age of 16. She got her first major film break when Lillian Harvey abandoned the lead role in "George White's 1935 Scandals" and Faye was given the part.
She was an enormous hit with the 1930's audiences and would go on to star in dozens of the cookie-cutter musicals made during the Depression. In 1938 she made "Alexander's Ragtime Band" with her frequent co-stars Don Ameche and Tyrone Power. The film showcased over 20 Irving Berlin songs and and was considered a landmark in movie musicals, changing them from light entertainment to a more respectable genre. In 1943 she sang "You'll Never Know" in the film "Hello, Frisco, Hello". The song won the Academy Award for best song that year but because of her movie contract she was not allowed to record it. The song would go on to be big hits for Dick Haymes, Frank Sinatra and Rosemary Clooney. "Hello, Frisco, Hello" would also be Faye's last big movie.
She married musician and comedian Phil Harris in 1941 and had two daughters, relishing the family life at the same time her career was still burning bright. In order to spend more time with her daughters, Faye signed a new contact with Fox that allowed her to make only one movie a year with an option for a second one. She used this time to lobby for more serious roles and in 1945, was excited by her lead role in "Fallen Angel". Zanuck was promoting his new star Linda Darnell at the time and most of Faye's scenes ended up on the cutting room floor. Faye had considered her performance one of her best and when she saw the finished film she wrote Zanuck a letter of resignation, dropped off her dressing room keys at the studio gate and never went back.
Instead of films, she turned to radio with a successful comedy show, The Phil Harris-Alice Faye Show, based on her home life with her daughters and husband Phil Harris. The show featured both performers in musical interludes within the show's comedy format. The show served to increase Faye's popularity as her legions of fans could tune in once a week to hear her sing.
Faye returned to films later in her life making a popular appearance in "State Fair" and returning to Broadway in a revival of "Good News" in 1974. In her career she made 36 films and introduced almost twice as many hit parade songs as her closest competitors, Judy Garland (13), Betty Grable (12) and Doris Day (12). Irving Berlin was quoted as saying he would choose Faye over any other singer to introduce his songs and George Gershwin and Cole Porter called her, "the best female singer in Hollywood in 1937". Her legacy lives on most strongly in England where Alice Faye movies are still the most requested films for t.v. viewing.
Happy Birthday, Shelton Brooks 1886-1975...Brooks wrote some of the biggest hits of the early 20th century. His compositions fueled the era's dance craze and were performed by some of it's best known white singers including Al Jolson and Sophie Tucker. The songs were also popular among the musicians who introduced jazz to this country and the world making them standards that are still played today.
Brooks was born in Ontario, Canada to Native American and African-American parents. As a child he played the pipe organ in his father's church while his older brother pumped the bellows for him. The family moved to Detroit when he was 15 and it was there he began his career as a self-taught rag time piano player, playing in local clubs and cafes.
He developed into an accomplished vaudeville entertainer, primarily doing Bert Williams imitations, traveling throughout the U.S., Canada and England. In 1909 he began to compose his own material. His first big hit was "Some of These Days", which by his account came from overhearing an argument between a couple at a cafe. When the woman told her lover, "Some of these days, you're gonna to miss me, honey." Brooks realized the rhythm of the words fit a tune he had been working on and the song was born.
Brooks was introduced to Sophie Tucker by her maid, presenting the song to her backstage in a Chicago theater. Tucker had a reputation for being very open to African-American talent. She incorporated it into her act the next day, making it an overnight sensation and claiming it as her signature song for the rest of her life. She wrote, "I've turned it (the song) inside out, singing it every way imaginable, as a dramatic song, as a novelty number, as a sentimental ballad and always audiences have loved it and asked for it." Brooks and Tucker became lifelong friends which benefited other talented black artists through their association. Noble Sissle and Eubie Blake would be among them when their first song "It's All Your Fault" was published as a result of their connection with Brooks and Tucker. Tucker would benefit from the connection as well, adding creative new songs to fuel her career.
Brooks was a popular performer, singing, playing the piano and doing comedy routines. He also traveled with Danny Small's Hot Harlem Band as a trap drummer and around 1915, led a large syncopated orchestra for Chicago's Grand Theater where he would be inspired to write another huge hit, "The Darktown Strutter's Ball", published in 1917 and introduced on a recording by the Original Dixieland Jass Band.
The ball in the song was a real event in early 1900's Chicago. Once a year there was a dance put on by the black prostitutes and their associates. Formal attire, gowns, gloves, tuxedos and top hats were required and it was a big occasion looked forward to by thousands-to be a guest was a point of pride. Some of the most famous African-American bands and entertainers would fill the stage. It was the one night when denizens at the bottom of the social ladder could rise to the top.
In the 20's when blues recordings fueled the record industry, Brooks became interested in using the new medium, recording one of the first comedy records, "Darktown Court Room". He also performed and toured with many African-American musical reviews including "Dixie to Broadway" pairing with the extremely popular Florence Mills. When Mills died unexpectedly in 1927 he left the stage and began appearing in nightclub acts, touring one last time with Lew Leslie's Blackbirds of '32. He had a popular radio show during the 30's and in the 40's he was a regular in Ken Murray's salute to burlesque, "Blackouts".
Among the popular and jazz standards contributed by Brooks are, "Some of These Days", "At The Darktown Strutter's Ball", "Wonder Where My Easy Rider's Gone", "All Night Long", "Swing That Thing", "That Man of Mine" and "Walkin' the Dog" which sparked it's own dance craze.
Happy Birthday James Brown 1933-2006...The "Godfather of Soul" was born in a one room shack to a 22 year old father and a 16 year old mother in Barnwell, South Carolina. Brown spent his early life in turns at a brothel, with relatives and hanging on the streets dancing for pennies, shining shoes, washing cars or in the fields picking cotton in Georgia. He lived in extreme poverty, as he described it," I was 9 years old before I got a pair of underwear from a real store; all of my clothes were made of sacks and things like that. But I knew I had to make it. I had the determination to go on, and my determination was to be somebody."
Dismissed from school at age 12 for "insufficient clothing" Brown turned his part time jobs into full time work. He ironically turned to the church and religion for solace, singing in the choir, and to crime. At the age of 16 he was arrested for stealing a car and spent 3 years in prison. While incarcerated he formed a gospel choir and met the aspiring R&B singer and pianist Bobby Byrd.
After leaving prison Brown, who had always been athletic, focused his energies on boxing and playing semi-professional baseball for two years. When Bryd invited him to join his R&B vocal group, the Gospel Starlighters, Brown jumped at the chance and was soon the main attraction. They changed the name of the group to The Famous Flames and began playing local clubs around Macon, Georgia. In 1956 they signed a record contract with King Records on the strength of their demo of "Please, Please, Please". The recording was an instant hit. The band hit the road touring with B.B. King and Ray Charles but couldn't make another record that could match the popularity of their first.
Brown left for New York in 1957 and formed a new Flames group hoping to rekindle the magic. In 1958 he recorded "Try Me" and kick-started his career again, following with other hits like "Night Train" and "Prisoner of Love". He also toured relentlessly throughout the late 50's and early 60's, spreading his high energy sound throughout the country; performing 5 or 6 nights a week and earning himself the title of "The Hardest Working Man in Show Business". Brown's shows were exuberant, soulful, mesmerizing productions that caught his audiences up in rapturous delight. His saxophonist, Pee Wee Ellis, once said, "When you heard that James Brown was coming to town, you stopped what you were doing and started saving your money."
Brown was a masterful, demanding showman, asking as much from his back up singers and musicians as he did from himself. He would fine musicians for wrong notes or dancing out of sync and would call out to them during performances to improvise on the spot. He was also an incredible dancer, learning all of the new dances of the era and created his own, often on the spot during performances. A 1963 album "Live a the Apollo" became Brown's biggest selling recording followed by "I Got You (I Feel Good)", "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag" and "It's a Man's, Man's, Man's World " which, with it's percussive instrumentation and unique rhythmic quality, is considered the first precursor to funk. In 1967 he recorded his first true funk song, "Cold Sweat" which hit number one on the R&B chart. During this time Brown was using musicians and arrangers who had come up through the jazz tradition and he was known as a bandleader and a songwriter who could blend the complexities of jazz with the simple rhythms and drive of R&B.
Brown also became involved in social issues in the 60's, recording "Don't Be a Dropout"; a plea to the African-American community to place more focus on education (Brown himself barely finished 7th grade) and "Say It Loud, I'm Black and I'm Proud", an anthem of empowerment. He was a follower of Martin Luther King Jr. and a proponent of non-violence. After King's assassination, Brown gave out a televised concert to calm nervous citizens and would-be rioters in Boston, hoping to keep them home watching the concert instead of out in the streets.
Throughout the 70's Brown continued to tour and record, most notably "Sex Machine" and "Get Up Offa That Thing" but trouble with the IRS and the rise of disco saw a fall-off of his performance abilities and popularity by the late 70's. He had a comeback with his performance in the film "The Blues Brothers" in 1980 and his song "Living in America", featured in the film "Rocky IV" in 1986, was his biggest hit in decades but he began to slid into drug addiction and depression. he was cited several times for domestic violence, the worst being in May 1988 when he hit his wife with a lead pipe and shot at her in their car. In a satellite interview with Brown by an L.A. reporter about the incident, the singer appeared incoherent and the video went viral. In September, 1988 he was sent to prison for entering an insurance seminar high on PCP bearing a shotgun, then leading police on a high speed chase.
After his release from prison Brown continued to record, making his last bill board hit, "Can't Get Any Harder" in 1993 and he kept up his grueling concert schedule despite his age and failing health, performing all over the world. He died a month after his final television appearance in 2006 of complications from diabetes and congestive heart failure.
Brown's career spanned 60 years and inspired many different genres of music including soul, funk and hip-hop. He understood fully where he stood in the development of American pop music. In his words, "Others may have followed in my wake, but I was the one who turned racist minstrelsy into black soul-and by doing so, became a cultural force." "As I always said, if people wanted to know who James Brown is, all they have to do is listen to my music."
Ella Fitzgerald was 21 and on the road with Chick Webb's band in Boston when she was inspired by a nursery rhyme. The band was broadcast live every night and a great deal of pressure was put on the musicians to come up with new material each week. Here's the story of how A-Tisket, A-Tasket came about.
Van Alexander was a young arranger for Chick Webb's band beginning in 1936. He was learning how to arrange music and hanging out at the Savoy Ballroom when he got up enough nerve to approach Webb about working for him. Webb couldn't read music and had an incredible ear but he couldn't write the arrangements for the band. Alexander passed muster and began creating arrangements for Webb, The band was playing and recording frequently and he soon found himself creating three or four arrangements a week to satisfy the publishers of the music they were playing.
The band traveled to Boston to play the Flamingo Room in 1938 and the sets were broadcast coast to coast. Alexander was busy making three new arrangements a week when Ella Fitzgerald came to him with an idea for a new song based on the old nursery rhyme A-tisket, A-tasket. In Alexander's words, " What I did was put it into form, a 32 bar song. I put the release, the bridge to it, and all the novelty things to it and I brought it up to Boston and Ella and I went over it and she changed a lot of the words. I had written, in the middle part, "She was walkin' on down the avenue, without a single thing to do.", and Ella said, "Let's say she was truckin' on down the avenue" not walkin', truckin', cause that was a big word in those days, you know. She changed a few other lyrics also. Well, they put it on the air that night, and somebody called Robbins Music in New York and asked them to take [an acetate] off the air. They did and they got very excited about it, and two weeks later they returned to New York, to Decca Records and recorded it, May 2, 1938. It was a big hit that summer and was on the Hit Parade, which the big radio show in those days and it stayed #1 for 19 weeks."
A-Tisket, A-Tasket was the first number one hit for Ella as the vocalist for Chick Webb's band.
