Louis Jordan is another of the key figures
in the development of rock and roll and R&B. He was a talented and colorful
figure who was a saxophonist, songwriter, and bandleader. He has been credited
with creating a style of music called “jump blues” which is the direct
forerunner of R&B, the music which would later morph into rock and roll.
Jordan was born in Brinkley, Arkansas,
in 1908. He studied clarinet and saxophone and while still in his teens, and in
the Thirties, he was invited to join Chick Webb’s orchestra at New York’s Savoy
ballroom. As Webb was physically disabled, Jordan took over the leader’s usual
role of MC at shows. In 1938, Webb fired Jordan
after he suspected Jordan
of trying to take over control of the orchestra.
Jordan soon had a new band and a recording deal
with Decca Records. The first recording session for his new band, which would
later be dubbed, “The Tympany Five,” was in late 1938. His band contained an
ever-changing lineup of sidemen that would accompany Jordan’s singing and
saxophone on his Forties hits, “Five Guys Named More,” “Knock Me A Kiss,”
“Caledonia,” and a song which some claim to be the first rock and roll
recording, “Saturday Night Fish Fry.” Jordan’s recordings were raucous
and often humorous, with a solid narrative structure. His songs celebrated good
times, food, drinking, parties, and women.
Jordan became the most successful
African-American bandleader in the country save Duke Ellington and Count Basie.
He was one of the first African-American “crossover” artists as well. Unlike
other African-American artists who were known only to African-American
audiences, Jordan
was very popular with white audiences, too.
Jordan’s best recordings can be
found on the following collections: “The Best of Louis Jordan” (1975), “Louis
Jordan’s Greatest Hits” (1980), and “Rock and Roll” (1989).
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).
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 20th 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.
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).
