Happy Birthday, Don Redman July 29 1900-November 30, 1964....Redman is considered one of the first great jazz arrangers and is often credited with creating the jazz-oriented Big Band sound. Born in West Virginia to musical parents, he was playing the trumpet at age three, joined his first band at age 6 and had mastered just about every wind instrument plus the piano by the age of 12. He got his start with a brief stint with Billy Page's Broadway Syncopaters in New York, moving on to Fletcher Henderson's orchestra in 1923.
Hired initially to play clarinet and saxophone, Redman soon took on the job of arranging for Henderson's orchestra. His unique approach to formulating the arranged hot-jazz sound was sophisticated and highly innovative and laid the groundwork for much of the big band writing that was to come. Redman also sang/spoke and his recording of "My Papa Doesn't Two-Time" in 1924 was the first scat vocal recorded, predating Louis Armstrong. When Armstrong joined Henderson's orchestra, Redman was inspired to loosen up and really start swinging his arrangements which resulted in several classics including "Sugar Foot Stomp" and "The Stampede".
In 1927 Gene Goldkette persuaded Redman to leave Henderson to direct McKinney's Cotton Pickers. The little known band soon became a strong competitor of Henderson's and recorded some future standards like "Gee, Baby, Ain't I Good To You." and "Cherry". He also did some arranging and recording with Louis Armstrong's Savoy Ballroom Five in 1928. In 1931 he formed his own band which got a residency at Connie's Inn, a famous jazz club in New York and signed with Brunswick records making some classic recordings with the label from 1931-1934. Redman's orchestra continued to play and record until 1940.
After disbanding his orchestra, Redman continued to arrange for various bands throughout the swing era including Count Basie, Jimmy Dorsey and Harry James. In 1946 he led an all-star orchestra that was the first big band to tour Europe after WW2. In the 1950's he was the music director for Pearl Bailey and in the early sixties he played soprano sax with Eubie Blake and Noble Sissle's band. He did record a few sessions in the late 50's but Redman's main contribution to the development of jazz remains his work of the 1920's and 30's.
Happy Birthday, Cootie Williams 1911-1985...Born in Mobile, Alabama, Charles Melvin "Cootie" Williams started his professional career at the age of 14 playing with the Young Family band (which included Lester) as they traveled the south with a vaudeville troupe. He made his first recordings in 1928 with James P. Johnson in New York and made brief appearances in the bands of Fletcher Henderson and Chick Webb.
When Bubber Miley finally wore out the patience of Duke Ellington and was asked to leave the band, it was Cootie Williams who stepped in to lend his own brand of wah-wah trumpet to Ellington's "jungle" style. Williams joined the band in 1929 and stayed with Ellington for the next 11 years recording many classics including "Echoes of Harlem", "Rockin' in Rhythm" "Concerto for Cootie". He also lead his own sessions during that time, recording with Lionel Hampton, Teddy Wilson and Billie Holiday.
When he was asked to play with Benny Goodman's band at his Carnegie Hall Concert in 1938, it set the ball rolling for a switch over to the Goodman orchestra in 1940. Williams' sound had become such an integral part of the Ellington orchestra that his move to Goodman's band created a huge stir in the jazz community. Composer and band leader Raymond Scott commemorated the event with a song called "When Cootie Left the Duke". His stay was short lived and a year later Williams formed his own group which over the years employed Charlie Parker and Bud Powell among other young up-and-coming players. The band toured coast to coast and had several hits including "Round Midnight" which some historians say Williams co-wrote with Thelonious Monk who played piano briefly with the band.
As big bands fell out of favor, Williams cut his band down to a sextet, moving on to R&B and playing regularly at the Savoy Ballroom and touring on occasion but eventually falling into obscurity. In 1962, after a 22 year absence, Williams rejoined Ellington as a featured soloist recording and touring with the band until 1978.
Jazz historian Dave Krikorian sums up Williams, contribution to jazz this way, "Cootie is remembered as a master of the plunger mute. Yet he was far more than a 'trick' trumpeter: blessed with a melodic gift that rivaled Louis Armstrong's and an unusual depth of musical skill, the man with the slouched horn advanced the trumpet from the New Orleans sound into Big Band Swing and beyond."
Happy Birthday, Louis Jordan 1908-1975..."The King of the Jukebox", Louis Jordan was one of the most successful African American recording artists in history and one of the first to achieve crossover popularity with a white audience-remarkable, especially, because he crossed color lines in an era of segregation. Along with Duke Ellington and Count Basie, Jordan ranked as one of the most popular bandleaders of his day.
Born in Brinkley, Arkansas, Jordan learned clarinet, piano and later alto sax from his band leader father. He joined his father's band, The Rabbit Foot Minstrels, as a child and played professionally in local bands. At the age of 24 he left for Philadelphia and New York to play for Clarence William's band where he caught the attention of Chick Webb. In 1934 he was invited to join Webb and his band at the Savoy Ballroom, a major milestone in his career. Jordan's ebullient personality made him extremely popular as a singer in Webb's band and he often sang duets with the young Ella Fitzgerald ( they repeated that partnership in later recordings after both had achieved stardom). Jordan was fired from the band in 1938 after he tried to convince Fitzgerald and other members to join the new band he was forming.
Jordan's band, The Tympany Five, made it's first recordings in 1938-1939 but it was an engagement in 1941 at Chicago's Capitol Lounge backing the Mills Brothers that would set Jordan's fortunes in motion. In April of 1941, Decca Records decided to launch it's Sepia Series of recording artists they thought might reach a crossover audience. Jordan's band, along with the Nate King Cole Trio and a few others were removed from the "Race" records division and added to Sepia. "Knock Me a Kiss" was the first big seller for Jordan, later covered more successfully by Roy Eldridge and Jimmy Lunceford's orchestras. "I'm Gonna Move to the Outskirts of Town" was his next big hit, also covered more successfully by Lunceford.
Recordings made in 1942 fed his popularity, finally landing high on the charts with "Five Guys Named Moe" which established his swinging R&B style and would later be used as the title of a long running stage show paying tribute to Jordan and his music. Jordan moved his band to Los Angeles, working local venues and making "soundies" (the music videos of the era). During the 40's, Jordan released dozens of his raucous hit songs including "G.I. Jive", "Buzz Me", "Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby". "Blue Light Boogie", "Ain't Nobody Here But Us Chickens", "Choo Choo Cha Boogie", "Caldonia" and "Saturday Night Fish Fry" (in 1950) which is a contender for being one of the earliest rock and roll recordings. The band also recorded prolifically for the Armed Forces Radio Service and the V-Disc program.
By 1948 Jordan and his band had gone from making the standard union wage of $70 a week in 1941 ($35 for Jordan and the other $35 split between the band members) to $70,000 in just two weeks when he played the Golden Gate Theater in San Francisco. Unfortunately, Jordan made the decision to form a big band right at the time large bands were on the decline. It only lasted a year in 1951 but it put a dent in Jordan's popularity that he could never quite recover from. He continued to perform and record sporadically, his infectious, upbeat energy still intact, up until the 70's but he had lost his momentum in the new era of rock and roll.
From 1942 to 1951 Jordan had scored 57 R&B chart hits. His rollicking style and driving rhythms were the R&B blueprint and early influence for bands like Bill Haley and the Comets, James Brown and Chuck Berry. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame describes Jordan as "the Father of Rhythm and Blues" and the "Grandfather of Rock and Roll". Some critics also describe Jordan's spoken word hits "Beware (Brother Beware) and "Look Out (Sister)" as the first true recorded "raps" in popular music.
James Brown, a big admirer of the multifaceted Jordan, stated that Jordan had influenced him, "...in every way. He could sing, he could dance, he could play, he could act. He could do it all."
Happy Birthday, Thomas Andrew Dorsey aka Georgia Tom 1899-1993...This Cat had two lives! Georgia born Dorsey was the son of a preacher and a piano playing mother but it wasn't hymns that first got him interested in music, it was "The Devil's Music"-the blues. His family relocated to Chicago during WW1 and Dorsey began studying at the Chicago College of Composition and Arranging and took a job as an agent for Paramount Records.
Dorsey put together a band for Ma Rainey called "The Wild Cats Jazz Band" in 1924, putting himself on piano for a time. He was a prolific song writer and he was soon performing at rent parties and Al Capone's Chicago speakeasies as Texas Tommy, Barrelhouse Tom and most famously as Georgia Tom. He teamed up with slid guitarist Tampa Red and together they recorded one of the most popular blues tunes "Tight Like That" in 1928, selling over seven million copies. In all he wrote over 460 Rhythm and Blues and Jazz songs.
Dorsey also began recording gospel music in the mid 1920's which lead him to eventually turn away from the blues and to pour his talents into more spiritual music. He became discouraged with the treatment of black song writers and the old methods of trying to peddle his sheet music. He opened his own music publishing company in 1932, Dorsey House of Music, becoming the first independent publisher of black Gospel music. Although the subject of his music was now his devotion to God, he retained the rhythms of jazz and the blues, changing the feeling of the music so much that songs written in the new style were sometimes referred to as 'dorseys'.
His most famous composition, "Take My Hand, Precious Lord" was written after the death of his wife and infant son in childbirth. It was most memorably recorded by Mahalia Jackson but others as diverse as Tennessee Ernie Ford, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans and Elvis recorded it as well. It was the favorite gospel song of both Martin Luther King, Jr., who asked that it be sung at the rally the night before his assassination, and Lyndon B. Johnson who asked that it be sung at his funeral. Another composition, "Peace in the Valley" also became a gospel standard. In all, Dorsey wrote over 1.000 songs and is considered the undisputed "father of black gospel music." His gospel songs are now included in hymnals throughout the world and his racy blues tunes are still played today.
