Mary Lou Williams is probably the most
important female African-American jazz pianist. Williams was also a fine
songwriter and arranger and she worked with major figures in jazz including
Benny Goodman and Duke Ellington. Williams was born Mary Scruggs in Atlanta, Georgia,
in 1910.
Williams played with Duke Ellington’s band,
The Washingtonians, in 1925. By the late Twenties she was pianist in the Andy
Kirk’s band, “The Twelve Clouds of Joy.” While with Kirk, Williams supplied the
band with the songs, “Cloudy,” and “Little Joe from Chicago.” Williams made her first recordings
with Kirk in 1929/30 and recorded the piano solo sides, “Drag ‘Em” and “Night
Life.” These solo sides would see Williams become a national name and brought
her to the attention of Benny Goodman, Earl Hines, and Tommy Dorsey who all
hired her as an arranger.
Williams became involved in the bebop
movement of the Forties and wound up as a mentor of sorts for the likes of
Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker.
In the Sixties, Williams began recording
religious jazz music, and she continued recording prolifically until her death
in 1981.
Williams best recordings can be heard on
the following albums: “Mary Lou Williams Trio” (1944), “Signs of the Zodiac”
(1945), “Piano Solos” (1946), “Black Christ of the Andes” (1964), “Zoning”
(1974), “Mary Lou’s Mass” (1975), “The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou
Williams 1927-1940” (1995), “The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams
1944-1945” (1998) and The Chronological Classics: Mary Lou Williams 1945-1947”
(1999).
Nehemiah Curtis James was born near Yazoo
City, Mississippi, in 1902. James was raised just south of the Mississippi
Delta near Bentonia, on the Whitehead plantation, where his mother was the
plantation cook. James’s friends named him “Skippy” due to his peculiar style
of dancing. Skip’s father, a guitar-playing bootlegger, abandoned his family
when Skip was a young boy.
In 1931, after years of work as a laborer,
bootlegger, and sometimes musician, James entered a singing competition at a
store in Jackson, Mississippi. James had just begun to play his song, “Devil
Got My Woman,” when he was awarded the prize-a train ticket to Grafton,
Wisconsin, and a recording session with Paramount Records.
Paramount was famous for the poor quality
of its recordings, and sadly, many fine performances were poorly recorded by
the label, including those by James. James recorded several songs with guitar during
his first session, and eight piano songs during the second session. James
recalls recording 26 sides in all, though only 18 have been found. Among the
classic recordings he made at those sessions were, “Devil Got My Woman,” “I’m
So Glad,” “Hard Time Killing Floor Blues,” “22-20 Blues,” and “Special Rider Blues.”
James was only paid 40 dollars for his efforts, and as the recordings were made
during the height of the depression, only a few sides were ever released.
Disillusioned with the music business, James quit and turned to religion.
Little is known about his life during the 33 years between his Paramount
recordings and his rediscovery in the mid-Sixties.
James played his first show in 33 years at
the 1964 Newport Folk Festival. His performance was a brilliant one and it
seemed that his powers were still completely intact despite his long lay off.
Many believed that James performance at the festival topped all others who
appeared.
Despite his huge popularity at Newport,
James did not have a recording deal. When Cream recorded “I'm So Glad” on their
Fresh Cream album, James, now ailing, used his royalties to get into a good
hospital in Washington, DC, where he could have the surgery that extended his
life by three years.
James recorded the excellent albums, “Today!”
(1966) and “Devil Got My Woman” (1968). James died in 1969, in Philadelphia.
James
Price Johnson was born in New Brunswick, New Jersey, in 1894. He was a ragtime
turned stride pianist whose composition, “The Charleston,” became one of the
anthems of the “jazz age” of the Twenties. Johnson and Jelly Roll Morton were
probably the two pianists most responsible for taking ragtime music and turning
it into jazz via the piano.
Although
he started out playing ragtime music in the tradition of Scott Joplin, Johnson
became the innovator of a jazz sub-genre of piano playing that was dubbed, “stride.”
This piano style got its name from the walking or “striding” sound produced by
the pianist’s left hand. Stride piano incorporated elements of the blues and it
allowed for on the spot improvisation which is an essential characteristic of
jazz music. Ragtime was a rigidly composed form of music which stifled improvisation.
A future
jazz star, Fats Waller, would become Johnson’s protégé’, adopt his stride style,
and later expose it to the masses.
Johnson
was a prolific composer, and he wrote some of the most familiar compositions of
the roaring Twenties. Aside from the Charleston, he penned, “You’ve Got to Be
Modernistic,” “If I Could Be with You One Hour Tonight,” “Carolina Shout,”
“Keep Off The Grass,” and “Old Fashioned Love,” among others. In addition to
jazz and pop tunes, Johnson wrote waltzes, ballets and symphonic pieces.
Johnson’s
finest recordings can be found on a number of compilation albums including the
multi-volume “Chronological Classics: James P. Johnson” (1996) series and “Snowy
Morning Blues” (1991), “Harlem Stride Piano” (1992), and “Father of Stride
Piano” (2001).
The Original Dixieland Jazz Band was originally
an off-shoot of Stein’s Dixie Jass Band and started out under the leadership of
cornetist, Nick LaRocca. By 1917, the band had moved from Chicago to New York,
where in February of that year, they would make the first-ever jazz recording,
“Livery Stable Blues/Dixie Jass Band One Step” for Victor.
The recording was a huge commercial
success, and it introduced jazz to a nationwide audience. The huge sales of
that first recording motivated other record labels to record jazz and thus
sparked the spread of the music.
The initial incarnation of the band
recorded several other excellent sides including, “Darktown Strutter’s Ball,” “Ostrich
Walk,” and “Tiger Rag.” Their music was typical early Dixieland jazz, but the
ODJB had some of the finest musicians in jazz music at the time including
Larocca on cornet, “Daddy” Edwards on trombone, Henry Ragas on piano, and Larry
Shields on clarinet.
The ODJB was a white band, and Larocca was
a proud member of the white race who always maintained that it was not African-Americans
who had created jazz, but white musicians. Larocca’a overt racism has probably
hurt the reputation of the ODJB and encouraged many observers to write them off
as simply a bunch of second-rate white musicians who only had the opportunity
to make the first jazz recording due to the institutionalized racism of the
time. However, this is clearly not the case. Freddie Keppard, an
African-American cornetist, turned down the opportunity to make the first jazz
recording, in 1916.
The ODJB reunited several times in the Thirties and toured Europe. Drummer Tony
Sbarbaro was the only original member to appear on all the band’s recordings
between 1917 and 1938.
Several compilations of the band’s early
sides can be found including, “The Complete Original Dixieland Jazz Band
(1917-1938)” (1995). The band also appears on several compilations of early
recorded jazz.
Tommy Johnson
was country blues singer and guitarist from Terry, Mississippi. Johnson was
born in 1896, and by the Twenties he was an established figure in Mississippi
blues. The Sixties blues rock band, Canned Heat, took their name from the
Johnson song, “Canned Heat Blues.”
Johnson was a
dissolute figure who actively cultivated a sinister image through excessive
drinking and stories that he had sold his soul to the devil in exchange for his
musical mastery. A similar mythology would later be attached to Robert Johnson.
Johnson made his
first recordings for the Victor label in 1928 with the sides, “Canned Heat
Blues” and “Big Road Blues.” Johnson also recorded for Paramount Records in two
sessions, one from 1928 and another from the following year. These recordings
proved Johnson to be a vocalist of great depth and a fine guitarist.
Unfortunately, his recordings for Paramount, are of lo-fidelity.
Johnson’s
classic sides can be found on the compilation, “Complete Recorded Works in
Chronological Order (1928-1929)” (1994).
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Most jazz
critics consider Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge as the successor of Louis Armstrong in the evolution
of jazz trumpet players. Armstrong is almost universally considered as the
greatest jazz trumpeter in history; however, Eldridge is viewed as the musician
who took the hot New Orleans style of Armstrong and turned it into something
new.
Eldridge was
notable for his rough and speedy technique, particularly when playing high
notes on the trumpet. A now almost forgotten trumpeter, Jabbo Smith, who rivaled
the virtuosity of Armstrong in the late Twenties, was a huge influence on
Eldridge, as was Armstrong.
In terms of jazz
cornet/trumpet greatness, the progression is loosely as follows: Buddy
Bolden-Freddie Keppard-King Oliver-Louis Armstrong-Roy Eldridge-Dizzy
Gillespie-Miles Davis-Clifford Brown.
Eldridge was
born to a musical family in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, in 1911. As a child,
Eldridge became a drummer in the band of his brother, Joe, before his brother
convinced him to pick up the trumpet. By the age of 20, he had started his own
band in Pittsburgh and then left that band to join the band of Horace
Henderson, brother of the great New York bandleader, Fletcher Henderson.
Shortly thereafter, in 1930, Eldridge moved to New York City.
In New York, Eldridge
found work with a number of dance bands, and by 1935, while as a member of the
Teddy Hill Orchestra, Eldridge made his first recordings. Eldridge would
eventually land a gig with the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra from 1935-36,
becoming Henderson’s star soloist by lending his hot solos to the Henderson
classics, “Christopher Columbus” and “Blue Lou.”
Eldridge later
moved on to work with white bands led by Gene Kroupa, and later, Artie Shaw.
The presence of an African-American musician in a white band was a rarity in
the segregated America of the Thirties. In the post-war era, Eldridge became one
of the leading musicians that toured under the banner of “Jazz at the
Philharmonic.” He also freelanced with the bands of Count Basie, Ella Fitzgerald
and Benny Goodman.
Eldridge’s best
recordings include, “Drummer Man” (1956) with Gene Kroupa, “Rockin’ Chair”
(1956), “Little Jazz” (1989), anda
number of compilations dedicated to his music. Eldridge died in 1989.
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Sidney Bechet was a musical child prodigy born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1897. Bechet was so musically advanced as a child that he had already played with many of the top bands in New Orleans. Bechet was one of a few jazz musicians of his generation who could rival Louis Armstrong’s brilliance as a soloist.
In 1917, Bechet moved to Chicago. After a tour of Europe, Bechet returned to America with a new instrument, the soprano saxophone and he soon established himself as a master of the instrument. Bechet made his recording debut in 1923 with Clarence Williams. He appeared with Louis Armstrong on a classic session with the Clarence Williams Blue Five that produced superb sides such as “Cake Walkin’ Babies from Home.”
From 1925 to 1929, Bechet lived and played in Europe. While in Paris, Bechet became involved in a daylight gun fight with another musician that resulted in injuries to innocent bystanders. Bechet was imprisoned for a year as a result, and was deported upon release.
During the depression, Bechet supplemented his income by running a tailor shop with trumpeter Tommy Ladnier. Bechet and Ladnier subsequently recorded several outstanding sides of New Orleans jazz under the name, “New Orleans Feetwarmers.” In 1938, Bechet scored a big hit with his stirring rendition of the standard, “Summertime.”
Bechet returned to France in 1952 and continued to record hit jazz records. Bechet died in Paris, in 1959.
Bechet’s recordings can be found on a number of fine compilation albums, including the great two-volume, “Jazz Classics” (1950) and "Chronological Classics."
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Benny
Goodman and long-time rival, Artie Shaw, are the two greatest and best-known
white clarinetists in the history of jazz. Both men achieved huge commercial
and critical success during their respective careers. It was Goodman, however,
who would forever be identified with the title, “King of Swing,” for his role
in the invention of the most popular jazz subgenre during the height of the
music’s popularity.
Benny
Goodman was born in Chicago,
Illinois, in 1909. His parents
were Jewish immigrants from the Russian Empire who struggled to provide for
their large family. Despite the family’s relative poverty, David Goodman
arranged for music lessons for three of his sons, including Benny, at a local Chicago synagogue. After
a year’s training, Benny Goodman, aged eleven, joined a boys’ club band and
received further musical training from the club’s director, and later from a
classically-trained clarinetist. With this solid foundation, Goodman would
launch a career that would span seven decades and would span musical genres
from early classic jazz to classical music.
Goodman’s
began his jazz career as a clarinetist in the Ben Pollack Orchestra at the age
of sixteen. He would make his first recording with the Pollack Orchestra in
1926. He would continue performing and recording with the Pollack Orchestra and
its various off-shoots until 1929. During this frenetic period, Goodman also
recorded with nationally- known bands of Ben Selvin, Red Nichols, and Ted
Lewis. He also recorded under his own name with trombonist Glenn Miller and
others as “Benny Goodman’s Boys.”
In the
early Thirties, John Hammond of Columbia records arranged for Goodman to record
in the company of other stellar jazz musicians in a jazz “all star” band. Other
members of the band included pianist Teddy Wilson and drummer Gene Kroupa, two
musicians that would form the core of the rhythm section of Goodman’s later orchestra.
In 1935, Goodman expressed interest in appearing on the nationwide radio dance
music show, “Let’s Dance.” At the advice of John Hammond, Goodman secured
“swinging” arrangements of songs from Fletcher Henderson, leader of one of New York’s best jazz
orchestras. These arrangements helped make Goodman a hit with the West Coast
audience that heard his performance.
On the
strength of the Let’s Dance performance and the rave reviews of Goodman’s
recordings of “King Porter Stop” and “Sometimes I’m Happy” with Fletcher
Henderson arrangements, a large and enthusiastic crowd of young fans were
waiting in Oakland, California when the band played a show there
in August of 1935. When the Goodman band began to play, the crowd went wild.
The same reaction greeted the band in Los
Angeles during the debut of a three week engagement at
the Palomar Ballroom in August, 1935. During the three-week engagement the “Jitterbug”
dance was born, and along with it, the “Swing Era.”
In the
wake of the tremendous success of the Goodman band in California, Fletcher Henderson disbanded his
great orchestra and become Goodman’s full-time arranger. With the addition of
Henderson and pianist Teddy Wilson, both African-Americans, Goodman’s band became
the first racially-integrated jazz band in America. Goodman would later add
another African-American, the great Charlie Christian, on guitar.
Goodman was
coined, “The King of Swing” in 1937, and was secured as such when his orchestra
became the first jazz band to play New
York’s Carnegie Hall, in 1938. The concert, which
included members of Count Basie’s and Duke Ellington’s orchestras, was a true
test for jazz music as an art form. If the high-brow Carnegie Hall set could be
moved by jazz, the music would earn a much needed stamp of approval from the
music establishment. After an uninspired start, the Goodman Orchestra slowly
built momentum and climaxed with an epic version of “Sing, Sing, Sing”
featuring spectacular solos by Goodman and pianist, Jess Stacy.
In 1939,
John Hammond introduced the electric guitarist, Charlie Christian, to Goodman
as a prospective band member. Despite initial doubts, Goodman was greatly
impressed with Christian’s playing and included him in the Benny Goodman Sextet
for the next two years. The sextet recordings with Christian including “Rose
Room,” “Breakfast Feud,” and “Grand Slam” are some of the finest recordings in
jazz history.
Goodman
continued to have tremendous success as a big band leader until the mid-Forties
when swing music began to lose steam. Goodman flirted with be-bop music and
even formed a bebop band before finally denouncing the music. In 1949, at the
age of 40, Goodman turned his back on jazz to devote himself to the study of
classical music. Following a lengthy retirement from jazz, Goodman died of a
heart attack in 1986.
