Dorsey Brothers Orchestra

Both Dorsey Brothers were major figures in the development of jazz music and especially, swing. Tommy Dorsey is the man who gave a young Frank Sinatra’s burgeoning career a major boost.

Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. was born in Shenandoah, Pennsylvania, in 1905. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey, who was born in Shenandoah the previous year. Both brothers would become huge big band music stars. Both boys studied music as children, with Jimmy playing saxophone, trumpet and clarinet, while Tommy concentrated on  trombone. At Jimmy's recommendation, 15-year-old Tommy replaced Russ Morgan in the Scranton Sirens.

The brothers worked with many bands during the Twenties including a stint with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, before recording their first side “Coquette,” on the Okeh label in 1928. They were signed to Decca Records in 1934, and enjoyed a major hit with “I Believe in Miracles.”

Conflict between the brothers, which at times escalated to fistfights, resulted in Tommy dissolving the partnership and forming his own orchestra in 1935. Teaming up with former members of the Joe Haymes Orchestra, he signed with RCA/Victor in 1935 and released the first in a string of major hits, “On Treasure Island.”

In 1940, Tommy Dorsey acquired Frank Sinatra from The Harry James Orchestra, resulting in more hits and the establishment of Sinatra as a star.

During the Forties, Tommy Dorsey’s orchestra featured some of the best musicians in swing such as Bunny Berigan and Gene Kroupa. Jimmy Dorsey dissolved his own band in 1953, and joined Tommy’s band, with the two becoming “The Dorsey Brothers” once more.

In 1956, Tommy Dorsey died of choking. His former orchestra has continued into the 21st century, with Jimmy Dorsey taking charge until his death, in 1957.

Compilations of the Dorsey Brothers recordings and those of the bands of Tommy and Jimmy Dorsey are easily found.

Anthony Braxton: Saxophone Improvisation

Anthony Braxton is among the most learned of jazz musicians and is currently a professor of music at Wesleyan University in Connecticut. He is also a jazz composer, saxophonist, flautist, pianist, and clarinetist. Braxton was born in Chicago, Illinois, in 1945.

Early in his career, Braxton became involved with The Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians, and recorded his debut album, “3 Compositions of New Jazz,” in 1968. The album was a free jazz excursion that is probably too far removed from mainstream music to be of interest to those who are not free jazz fans.

In 1971, Braxton recorded the album “For Alto” which consisted of Braxton solo on alto-saxophone without accompaniment. The album is a double-disc offering of free jazz sax solos that while lauded by critics is definitely not for everyone.

Braxton has been extremely prolific over the years, and he has recorded dozens of albums of free jazz and avant-garde jazz since the mid-Sixties. Braxton has also recorded with numerous fellow musicians such as Chick Corea, George Lewis, Fred Frith, and John Zorn.

Among the best albums from Braxton extensive catalogue are those mentioned above and the following: “Saxophone Improvisation Series F” (1972), “Trio and Duet” (1975), “Four Compositions” (1973)” (1977), “Performance 9/1/79” (1981), “Quartet (London) 1985” (1988), “Six Monk’s Compositions” (1987)” (1988), “Seven Compositions (Trio) 1989” (1990), “Dortmund (Quartet) 1976” (1991), “Willisau (Quartet) 1991” (1992), “Quartet (Coventry) 1985” (1993), “Creative Orchestra (Kohl) 1978” (1995), “Quintet (Basel) 1977” (2001), “23 Standards (Quartet) 2003” (2004), and “9 Compositions (Iridium) 2006” (2007).

Roy Eldridge: Little Jazz

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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), and  a number of compilations dedicated to his music. Eldridge died in 1989.

Sidney Bechet: Clarinet Genius

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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."

Lonnie Johnson Blues

Lonnie Johnson

Johnson was one of the best of the early acoustic blues guitarists. He possessed a technical proficiency that separated him from his peers, and he was always in high demand as a session guitarist for blues and jazz recordings. Johnson was a fine vocalist as well, and his prodigious chops made him a hot recording property in the Twenties.

The place and date of his birth are the subject of some debate, although many believe his birthplace to be New Orleans. It is known for sure that Johnson was raised in New Orleans and later moved to St. Louis in the Twenties where he began recording for Okeh Records. That label would release his first side, “Mr. Johnson’s Blues,” in 1925. Johnson recorded numerous sides for the label including, “Very Lonesome Blues,” “Lonesome Jail Blues,” Five o’clock Blues,” “Backwater Blues,” and many others.

Johnson lent his nimble guitar skills to Louis Armstrong’s Hot Five recordings in 1927. The next year, Johnson and the white jazz guitarist, Eddie Lang, made some of the first racially-integrated jazz recordings. Johnson’s career suffered during the Depression Era of the Thirties when Okeh went bankrupt and he relocated to Canada. Johnson died in 1970, in Toronto, from injuries he had suffered in a car accident.

Like most other musicians of his era, Johnson’s work is best heard on any number of compilation albums. “Blues in My Fingers: The Essential Recordings of Lonnie Johnson” (1994), and “Complete Recorded Works 1925-1932” (1991) are the best compilations available for this artist.

George Gershwin Songs

George Gershwin was an American pianist and modern classical composer whose contributions to popular music fall within the realm of jazz. Gershwin was the first classical musician or composer who embraced the new 20^th century music of jazz and melded it with classical music.

Gershwin was born Jacob Gershowitz in Brooklyn, New York, in 1898, to Russian/Ukrainian parents. He studied piano from age ten under the tutelage of classical pianist Charles Hambitzer, who would remain Gershwin’s mentor until Gershwin was around 20-years-old.

Gershwin began his music career upon dropping out of high school at age 15, finding work as a songwriter of pop tunes in New York City’s famed Tin Pan Alley. His first successful song was the ragtime hit, “Rialto Ripples,” in 1917. Two years later he penned the famous song, “Swanee,” which would become a huge hit for Al Jolson. Gershwin also produced piano rolls for player pianos for the Aeolian company.

Gershwin began writing jazz songs in the early Twenties with lyricist Buddy DeSylva and his brother, Ira Gershwin. The team’s early songs included “Oh, Lady Be Good” and “Fascinating Rhythm.” These classic songs were followed by “Funny Face,” “I Got Rhythm,” and “Of Thee I Sing.”

In 1924, Gershwin wrote the jazz-infused modern classical masterpiece, “Rhapsody in Blue.” This famous work was introduced to the world by the Paul Whiteman Orchestra in a New York City performance. Gershwin then headed to Paris with the ambition of furthering his classical training, but was rejected by several prospective mentors including Maurice Ravel. While in Paris, Gershwin penned another jazzy classical masterpiece, “An American in Paris,” which made its debut at New York City’s Carnegie Hall in 1928.

In 1929, Gershwin turned his attention to Hollywood and the burgeoning film industry that required his musical talents to write scores. He wrote the score for the film, “Delicious,” in 1929, but was upset when much of the music he wrote was scrapped by the film’s producers.

Gershwin, embittered by the treatment of the Delicious score, switched his efforts back to classical music and wrote the American folk opera masterpiece, “Porgy and Bess,” which contained some of Gershwin’s most brilliant compositions including, “It Ain’t Necessarily So,” “I Got Plenty of Nuttin’,” and “Summertime.” Porgy and Bess was a commercial failure at the time, but has since become a staple of American opera and popular music.

Gershwin returned to Hollywood and wrote film scores, including the one for the Fred Astaire musical, “Shall We Dance.” In 1937, Gershwin died suddenly from the effects of a brain tumor.

Gershwin’s music is best heard on the following collections: “Rhapsody in Blue/An American in Paris (New York Philharmonic; The Columbia Symphony/ Leonard Bernstein)” (1959), ‘S Marvelous: The Gershwin Songbook” (1994) and “The Essential George Gershwin” (2003).

Kid Ory Muscrat Ramble

Kid Ory, born in La Place, Louisiana, in 1886, was the king of the trombone in the early years of jazz music in New Orleans. He started out played banjo, but later switched to trombone. Ory would become known for his “tailgate” style that had the trombone playing rhythmic lines underneath the free soloing of clarinets and cornets. From 1912 to 1919, Ory led an extremely popular band in New Orleans which had as members, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong, Johnny Dodds, Sidney Bechet and Jimmie Noone.

Ory moved to California in 1919, and in 1922, King Ory’s Creole Orchestra became the first African-American jazz band to make a recording when they recorded the songs “Ory’s Creole Trombone” and “Society Blues.” In 1925, Ory moved to Chicago, joining the migration of New Orleans jazz musicians who were seeking fame and fortune in the Windy City. In Chicago, Ory played with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz band, Louis Armstrong and his Hot Five and Hot Seven and later with Jelly Roll Morton’s Red Hot Peppers.

During the Depression, Ory found himself out of work along with many of his colleagues. For several years he ran a chicken ranch with his brother and returned to music when the New Orleans style jazz revival happened in the Forties. He reformed the Kid Ory’s Creole Jazz Band in 1943, and Ory was able to play jazz until he retired in 1966, and he died at a ripe old age in 1973.

The compilation albums, “Ory’s Creole Trombone: Greatest Recordings 1922-1944” (1995) and “The Chronological Classics: Kid Ory 1922-1945” (1999) are among the best available compilations of his music.

Johnny Dodds Music and Biography

Clarinettist Johnny Dodds was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, in 1892. Johnny Dodds was one of the greatest jazz clarinetists of the Twenties and he possessed a very soulful and emotional style of playing. Dodds and Louis Armstrong complimented each other perfectly when the two musicians worked together in King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band and later in Armstrong’s Hot Five and Seven recording bands.

Dodds played in many of the leading jazz bands of the classic jazz era. Dodds played in Kid Ory’s band in New Orleans from 1912 to 1919, and like Armstrong, he played on riverboats with Fate Marable before moving to Chicago in 1921 to play with King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band. Dodds also lent his fine clarinet chops to Jelly Roll Morton’s band, The Red Hot Peppers. Dodds appeared on most of Armstrong’s classic Hot Five recordings and recorded numerous excellent sides under his own during the Twenties.

The best of Dodds’ solo recordings include, “Clarinet Wobble,” “Wild Man Blues,” and “Piggly Wiggly.” Dodds continued to play and record in Chicago throughout the Thirties, and also ran a taxi cab company with his brother, drummer Baby Dodds, until his death in 1940.

 The 2009 compilation, “The Complete Johnny Dodds,” is the best collection of his works. Dodds is also included on “The Chronological Classics: Johnny Dodds” series from 1991/1992.



Johnny Doods (third from right) with the Fate Marable  Band

Joni Mitchell Albums and Songs

Among the ranks of female singer/songwriters, no woman has equaled the artistry or output of Joni Mitchell. Mitchell’s catalogue includes a slew of classic albums that run the musical gamut from folk to rock to jazz.

Mitchell was born in Fort MacLeod, Alberta, Canada, in 1943. She began her career as folk singer in her native Canada before moving south to Los Angeles to begin her recording career in California. She recorded her debut album, the pleasant folk effort, “Joni Mitchell (AKA Song to a Seagull)” in 1968. Another solid album,” Clouds” would appear the following year.

It was her third release, “Ladies of the Canyon” (1970) that established her as something special. The album was full of well-written story songs which were all presented with stripped-down production featuring just Mitchell on acoustic guitar. The album contained the first of the songs that would make Mitchell famous, “Woodstock,” a song which would become a hit for Crosby Stills Nash and Young, and “Big Yellow Taxi,” which would become a minor hit for Mitchell herself.

Mitchell’s next effort, “Blue” (1971), would be declared her first masterpiece. Blue is an often dark and emotional exorcism on heartbreak, although it is punctuated by lighter moments. “One song here, “This Flight Tonight,” would later become a hit for the Scottish hard rock band, Nazareth.

In 1974, Mitchell recorded another masterpiece, albeit a more upbeat one, “Court and Spark.” The album was critically-acclaimed as were her previous efforts, but this album had commercial legs that would see Mitchell establish herself as something of a pop star. Thanks to a pair of hits, “Help Me” and “Free Man in Paris,” Mitchell’s fame spread into the mainstream of the music-listening public. Another strong track, “Raised on Robbery,” featured the Band’s Robbie Robertson on guitar and received significant airplay.

Mitchell continued to record fine albums throughout the remainder of the Seventies including, “The Hissing of Summer Lawns” (1975), “Hejira” (1976), and collaboration with the legendary jazz bassist and composer, Charles Mingus, “Mingus” (1979).

The Mingus album would see Mitchell delve into jazz for a good part of the Eighties during which she acquired new fans, but lost more of her older fans. She returned to her folkier roots in the Nineties with the release of a couple of decent albums, “Night Ride Home” (1991) and “Taming the Tiger” (1998).

Mitchell continues to record sparingly. After she had announced that she was retiring completely from music, she returned in 2007 with the album, “Shine.”

Joni Mitchell in concert

Charlie Parker Ornithology

Saxophonist Charlie Parker is considered by many to be the best musician in the history of jazz. He is one of the few jazz musicians who could rival the technical brilliance and originality of Louis Armstrong and Art Tatum. Parker’s drug-addicted life and early demise is jazz legend and a tragic example which would be repeated by several jazz musicians who followed him.

Parker was nicknamed “Yardbird” which was eventually shortened to simply, “Bird.” Many of his compositions, including “Yardbrid Suite” and “Ornithology” would be inspired by that nickname.

Charlie Parker was born in Kansas City, Missouri, in 1920. He began to play the saxophone at age 11, and had joined a musician’s union instead of attending high school. He practiced diligently in the late Thirties, and by 1938, he was good enough to join the band of pianist Jay McShann. While in his teens, Parker had become addicted to morphine after being administered the drug in hospital after a car accident. His morphine addiction would lead to a heroin addiction which would contribute to his early death at age 34.

Parker quit the McShann band in 1939, and headed to New York City to begin a solo career. In the early Forties, Parker was experimenting with soloing methods. His experimentation constituted some of the early developments of be-bop music, a subgenre of jazz with which he would forever be linked. He would soon be collaborating with Dizzy Gillespie, Max Roach, Bud Powell, and others. In summer 1945, Parker and his friends recorded “Ko-ko” and other sides at a session for the Savoy label. That session and its recordings would become a watershed moment for bebop music.

By this time, Charlie Parker’s heroin addiction was causing him to miss gigs, and he resorted to busking on New York City streets to support his addiction. Parker then moved to Los Angeles where heroin was difficult to find, and he began to drink heavily to compensate. He was often in bad shape at recording sessions and needed, at times, to be physically supported by others. Parker moved back to New York City where he died, in 1955.

The best original albums and collections of Charlie Parker’s music include, “Charlie Parker with Strings” (1950), “Charlie Parker with Strings Vol.2” (1950), “Charlie Parker” (1953), “Big Band” (1954), “Summit Meeting at Birdland” (1977), “At Storyville” (1985), “The Genius of Charlie Parker” (1954), “The Charlie Parker Story” (1956), “The Genius of Charlie Parker” (1957), “Anthology” (1974), “Charlie Parker on Dial” (1974), “Bird/The Savoy Recordings (Master Takes)” (1974), “The Very Best of Bird” (1977), “The Complete Studio Savoy Recordings” (1978), “Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve” (1988), “Bird: The Original Recordings of Charlie Parker” (1988), “Masterworks 1946-47” (1990),”Yardbird Suite: The Ultimate Collection” (1997), “The Complete Savoy and Dial Studio Recordings 1944-1948” (2000), “The Essential Charlie Parker” (2004).

Bird

Benny Goodman: The Birth of Swing

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.

A plethora of fine collections are available for Goodman’s recordings at various phases of his career including the fine four volume “Chronological Classics: Benny Goodman and His Orchestra” (1996) while “The Famous 1938 Carnegie Hall Jazz Concert Vol.1-2” (1950) is one of the finest live recordings of popular music ever made.



Benny Goodman (third from left) and his band















The Ink Spots: Gypsy

The Ink Spots were a hugely-influential jazz vocal group that forms a direct link from the jazz and popular music of the Thirties to the R&B music of the Forties and rock and roll of the Fifties. The group consisted of various members during a lengthy 20-year run, but the vocal lead was usually handled by singer Bill Kenny on most of the group’s recordings.

The original Ink Spots came together in Indianapolis, Indiana, in 1933, with members Orville Jones, Ivory “Deeks” Watson, Jerry Daniels, and Charlie Fuqua. Bill Kenny joined the fold in 1936.

The group made their first recordings for Victor, in 1935, with versions of “Swingin’ on Strings” and “You’re Feets Too Big,” the Fats Waller song.

The early singles of the Ink Spots sold surprisingly poorly, but the group scored a huge hit in 1939 with the song, “If I Didn’t Care.” The single sold 19 million copies and featured the Ink Spots signature “top and bottom” style in which Bill Kenny sang the lead and Orville Jones performed the “talking bass” below the lead vocal.

During the Forties, the Ink Spots scored a slew of hits including many that hit the top position on the pop charts. Of these hits, “Gypsy” proved to be the biggest, remaining at the top of the charts for 13 weeks.

The original Ink Spots disbanded in 1953, just before the dawn of the rock and roll era. Many groups adopted the name, “Ink Spots,” and claimed kinship to the original group.

The original Ink Spots recordings are best heard via the following collections: “The Best of the Ink Spots” (1955), “The Best of the Ink Spots” (1965), “The Ink Spots in Hi-Fi” (1967), and “The Anthology” (1998).

Frank Sinatra: In the Wee Small Hours

Prior to the meteoric rise of Elvis Presley and rock and roll, Frank Sinatra was the biggest male singing phenomenon that popular music had ever seen. Sinatra’s rise to prominence was accompanied by the same female hysteria that would be heard with the rise of Presley and The Beatles in later decades.

Sinatra was born in Hoboken, New Jersey in 1915. He got his start as a big band jazz vocalist with the Harry James Orchestra in 1939. His first recording with James was “From the Bottom of My Heart.” Sinatra would stay with James for about one year and record other sides such as “Here Comes the Night” and “My Buddy.” In 1940, Tommy Dorsey lured Sinatra away from James, and it was with Dorsey that Sinatra would find stardom. Sinatra’s first recording with Dorsey was, “The Sky Fell Down.” Sinatra would stay with Dorsey for five years and record dozens of hit singles including, “Stardust,” “It’s Always You,” “Blue Skies,” and “Embraceable You.”

By the time Sinatra left the Dorsey Orchestra, he was already a pop star and was ready to move on to recordings and performances with himself getting top billing. Sinatra continued to record scads of hit songs throughout the mid-late Forties and early Fifties and branch out as an entertainer by acting in movies. He eventually formed the infamous “rat pack” with show business cronies, Sammy Davis Jr. and Dean Martin.

By the mid-Fifties, when rock and roll was beginning to replace swing and vocal jazz as America’s new pop music, Sinatra openly railed against the new music for being primitive and crude causing Elvis Presley to publically express his dismay at the comments.

Sinatra would begin to record his own albums in 1945, with his first notable effort being “The Voice of Frank Sinatra” (1946) on Columbia Records with The Nelson Riddle Orchestra. Several albums would follow, and then in 1954, Sinatra would record his first

classic album, “Songs for Young Lovers” The following year Sinatra would record the album that is generally cited as his masterpiece, “In the Wee Small Hours” in which Sinatra delivers sixteen songs of heartbreak in inimitable style.

Numerous other essential albums would follow for the next twenty years with the best being, “Songs for Swingin’ Lovers!” (1956), “A Swingin’ Affair” (1957), “Frank Sinatra Sings for Only the Lonely” (1958), “September of My Years” (1965), and “Sinatra at the Sands” (1966).

Sinatra on the town

Ethel Waters: Sweet Man Blues

Ethel Waters was one of the most popular African-American singers and actresses of the Twenties. She was born in Chester, Pennsylvania, in 1896. Waters attained success of a level that saw her eventually become the highest-paid female entertainer of her day, an unheard of accomplishment for an African-American woman in the early years of the 20^th century.

Waters moved to New York in 1919, following several years of touring in vaudeville shows as a singer and a dancer. In 1921, she made her first recordings for Cardinal Records. Later, she switched to the African-American run Black Swan label, and recorded “Down Home Blues” which would be the first blues recording for the label. Waters recorded blues and vaudeville numbers for the label including “Oh Daddy,” “Royal Garden Blues,” “Jazzin’ Baby Blues,” “Sweet Man Blues,” and “Sugar.”

Waters appeared in a number of musical productions and films during the Twenties including, “Check and Double Check,” featuring Amos and Andy and Duke Ellington. By the end of the Thirties, she was a big star on Broadway.

In 1949, Waters received an Oscar nomination for best supporting actress for the film, “Pinky.” Waters died in 1977. A series of compilations called, “The Chronological Classics” are the best sources of her classic recordings.

Ethel Waters in 1940

Billie Holiday: Lady Day

Billie Holiday’s life is the stuff of jazz legend. She rose from poverty and abuse to become one of the biggest stars of jazz during the Thirties and Forties. Holiday was a great singer who did not possess a great voice. She employed her voice like a horn player would his horn, and had a reputation for taking mediocre songs and transforming them into greatness. Her singing style was influenced by Bessie Smith’s singing and Louis Armstrong’s trumpet playing. Fellow jazz musicians referred to her as simply, “Lady Day.”

Holiday was born in Baltimore, Maryland, in 1915. In 1933, she was discovered by the legendary John Hammond, talent scout extraordinaire. Hammond signed her to Columbia Records, and she recorded for some of the company’s subsidiary labels.

Despite being offered only mediocre material to record, she was supported by some of the finest musicians in jazz, including pianist Teddy Wilson and saxophonist, Lester Young, who would coin her “Lady Day” and become her closest friend and musical collaborator.

In 1937, Holiday toured with the Count Basie Orchestra and later joined Artie Shaw’s Orchestra. She stayed with Columbia Records until 1942, only leaving once for the Commodore label with which she recorded the classic and searing song about lynching, “Strange Fruit.” In 1942, she signed with Decca records and later ended up recording for Verve. One of her last sessions with Columbia produced the classic side, “God Bless the Child.”
In the late Forties, Holiday was convicted of heroin possession and spent several months in prison. Due to the conviction, she was unable to obtain a cabaret card, making it impossible for her to find work in New York City clubs. Suffering from both liver and heart disease, Billie Holiday died in a New York hospital, in 1959.

Holiday’s best recordings can be found on the following collections: “Lady Sings the Blues” (1956), “Songs for Distingue Lovers” (1958), “Lady in Satin” (1958), “The Billie Holiday Story” (1959), “The Golden Years” (1962), “Billie Holiday’s Greatest Hits” (1967), “Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia (1933-1944)” (2001), “Lady Day: The Best of Billie Holiday” (2001), “The Ultimate Collection” (2005), and “Lady Day: The Master Takes and Singles” (2007).

Lady Day

Artie Shaw: Begin the Beguine

Artie Shaw was the greatest white clarinetist of jazz, save perhaps, Benny Goodman. Like Goodman, Shaw was a classically trained musician that excelled at playing other styles of music besides jazz. Shaw had his own orchestra which rivaled Benny Goodman’s orchestra in popularity during the Thirties. Shaw had a huge pop hit with the song, “Begin the Beguine” in 1939.

Shaw was born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky in New York City. He faced a great deal of anti-Semitic discrimination during his youth in New Haven, Connecticut, so anglicized his name as Shaw. During the Thirties and Forties, Shaw was the rival of fellow clarinetist and band leader, Benny Goodman.

Shaw’s best work was with the small band he assembled called, The Gramercy Five. The Gramercy Five recordings are considered by jazz critics to be among the best ever jazz recordings.

Essential recordings by Shaw include the following studio albums and collections: The Great Artie Shaw” (1959), “This is Artie Shaw” (1971), “The Complete Gramercy Five Recordings” (1989) and “The Chronological Classics: Artie Shaw and His Orchestra 1938” (1998), and “The Chronological Classics: Artie Shaw and His Orchestra 1939” (1999).

Young Artie

Dizzy Gillespie Albums and Classic Sides

The great jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, was one of the musicians at the forefront of the development of be-bop music in the Fifties. He was born John Birkes Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina, in 1917. Gillespie earned the moniker, “Dizzy,” for his ebullient personality and antics while performing.

 After hearing the great Roy Eldridge on the radio as a child, Gillespie decide then and there that he, too, wanted to be a jazz trumpeter. Gillespie got his start in New York City, in 1935, playing in the bands of Teddy Hill and Edgar Hayes. It was with the Teddy Hill Orchestra that Gillespie would make his first recording, “King Porter Stomp.” Gillespie stayed with Hill for one year and then freelanced with several bands for a while before finally winding up in Cab Callaway’s Orchestra in 1939. Calloway would fire Gillespie three years later following an altercation between the two men.

In 1943, Gillespie would join Earl Hines band which featured Charlie Parker and was beginning to create a new music which would become bebop. From there, it was on to the Billie Ekstine band, which also featured Parker. He would later leave the Ekstine band because he wanted to play in a smaller ensemble.

In the mid-Forties, Gillespie, Parker and other jazz musicians such as Max Roach, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Kenny Clark would meet at clubs such as Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown to jam and experiment. It was at these jams that bebop was born.

Gillespie would become a member of the “Quintet,” the legendary be-bop supergroup formed in Toronto in 1953, with Parker, Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach. Following his one-show tenure with the Quintet, Gillespie would form his own Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra.

Among the best of the classic sides that Gillespie recorded in the Forties and Fifties are: “A Night in Tunisia,” “Salt Peanuts,” “Hot House,” “Manteca,” “Perdido,” and “Night and Day.”

Gillespie’s best albums begin with the Quintet. His “Salt Peanuts” from the album “Live at Massey Hall” is perhaps the best moment of many brilliant moments on that live recording of the Quintet’s only show. Other fine Gillespie albums include, “Dizzy In Paris” (1953), “For Musicians Only” (1958), ”Gillespiana” (1960), “Groovin’ High” (1953).

After Gillespie had had his fill of bebop, he became interested in Afro-Cuban music. Gillespie died in 1993.



Frankie Trumbauer Recordings and History

Frankie Trumbauer, born in Carbondale, Illinois, in 1901, is one of the first great jazz saxophonists. He became famous as a player of the rare C-melody saxophone, an instrument with a pitch that falls between an alto and tenor saxophone. Trumbauer was a saxophonist of considerable influence who is credited by many later greats of the instrument as an inspiration. Trumbauer was often referred to by the moniker, “Tram.” 

Trumbauer began his career with the Paul Whiteman Band in the early twenties. When he switched to the Jean Goldkette Orchestra, he met the great cornetist Bix Beiderbecke with whom he would later become a close friend and collaborator.

In 1927, Trumbauer formed his own orchestra and with Beiderbecke, Eddie Lang and Jimmy Dorsey produced some of the best jazz ever recorded. In a series of legendary sessions, the Frankie Trumbauer Orchestra would record, “Singing the Blues,” “Clarinet Marmalade,” “For No Reason at all in C,” “Riverboat Shuffle,” Ostrich Walk,” and others. Bix Beiderbecke’s work on these recordings is considered to be his best ever work. On the brilliant side, “Trumbology,” Trumbauer delivers one of the first true saxophone tour de forces in recorded jazz. Trumbauer died in 1956.

Trumbauer’s recordings can be found on the “Chronological Classics” series of jazz compilations and his recordings with Beiderbecke were considered good enough to warrant inclusion on the venerable collection of early jazz recordings, “The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz” (1973).