Sippie Wallace was another of the early
female blues singers who started her recording career in the Twenties on the
heels of Mamie Smith’s 1920 recording of “Crazy Blues,” the first-ever blues
recording. Wallace was born Beulah Thomas in Houston, Texas, in 1898.
Wallace made her first recordings for the
Okeh label in 1924 with “Leaving Me Daddy is Hard to Do.” She enjoyed a number
of hits with Okeh during the Twenties with the songs, “I’m a Mighty Tight
Woman,” “Jack O Diamonds Blues,” “Dead Drunk Blues,” and “Lazy Man Blues.” Wallace,
like Alberta Hunter and Ida Cox, would enjoy a lengthy career and continue to
perform well into old age. Wallace died in Detroit in 1986.
Her music is best heard via the
compilations, “Complete Recorded Works, Vol. 1 (1923-1925)” (1995) and “Complete
Recorded Works, Vol.2 (1925-1945)”
Joe “King”
Oliver is among the seminal figures in the history of jazz music. Oliver was an
influential musician in the early days of jazz whose hot cornet playing
influenced all those who followed in his footsteps including Louis Amstrong,
Oliver’s student, charge and employee. It was Oliver who convinced Armstrong to
leave New Orleans for Chicago, and play second cornet in Oliver’s
Creole Jazz Band took the first steps on a journey that would see Armstrong
revolutionize jazz and American popular music.
Oliver was born
in New Orleans
in 1885 and was blinded in one eye as a child. He often played cornet while
wearing a derby hat in such a way as to obscure his bad eye. Oliver was one of
the first cornetists to use a mute to alter the sound of his cornet. Using a
mute, he was able to produce a wide variety of sounds including the whinnying
of a horse.
Oliver started
his professional career in New Orleans
around 1908. He was a member of several marching bands, and he worked at
various times in Kid Ory’s band. Ory began referring to him as “King” Oliver
around 1917.
In 1919, Oliver
moved to Chicago
with Kid Ory and played in Bill Johnson’s band at the Dreamland Ballroom. Oliver
formed “King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band” in 1922, and landed a residency at Chicago’s LincolnGardens. His new band
featured some of the best jazz musicians of the time including clarinetist Johnny
Dodds, trombonist Honore Dutrey, pianist Lil Hardin, drummer Baby Dodds, and
Louis Armstrong on second cornet.
King Oliver’s Creole
Jazz Band 1923 recording sessions for the Gennet label produced some of the best-ever
recordings of jazz with “Chimes Blues,” “Just Gone,” “Dippermouth Blues,” and “Snake
Rag.” These recordings revealed the brilliant dual cornet playing of Armstrong
and Oliver, and introduced Armstrong’s virtuosity to the world. Armstrong soon
headed to New York City
to join Fletcher Henderson Orchestra and the Creole Jazz Band would cease to be
in 1924.
Oliver took over
Dave Peyton’s band in 1925, renamed it the “Dixie Syncopators,”and moved the
band to New York
in 1927. Once in New York,
Oliver passed up a chance to have the Dixie Syncopators become the house band
at the Cotton Club. Duke Ellington took the job and went on to fame and riches.
In 1929, Luis Russell took over the Dixie Syncopaters and changed their name to
“Luis Russell and his Orchestra.”
Oliver recorded
until 1931, but his New Orleans
hot jazz style was falling out of fashion. Oliver finally settled down in Georgia, where
he worked as a poolroom janitor until his death in 1938.
Oliver’s classic
sides are available on the following compilations: “King Oliver’s Jazz Band
1923” (1975), “King Oliver’s Creole Jazz Band: The Complete Set” (1997), and
the series, “The Chronological Classics: King Oliver” (1991).
James Reese Europe was one of the earliest figures of jazz music. He was a great bandleader
and an inspiration to African-Americans in the early years of the last century.
Europe was the leader of Europe’s Society Orchestra that first recorded in
1913. That orchestra ostensibly played ragtime music, the forerunner of jazz;
however, Europe’s orchestra played a highly- improvised version of ragtime
which could easily be classified as jazz. Europe took ragtime music and speeded
it up considerably, making it a frenetic and highly infectious and danceable
music.
Europe was
the first African-American bandleader to ever make a commercial recording and
in 1914, Europe and the Society Orchestra recorded Castle’s Lame Duck” and “Castle
House Rag” for the Victor label.
During
World War One, Europe was enlisted in the U.S, army as a lieutenant with the
African-American 369th Infantry Regiment that was dubbed the “Harlem
Hellcats.” Europe also directed the regimental band and with them made
recordings for the Pathe brothers while stationed in France. Europe and the
band also performed concerts, making a hit of the number, “Memphis Blues.”
Shortly
after returning to America at the conclusion of the war, Europe was stabbed in
the neck with a pen by one of his drummers during the intermission of a concert
in Boston. Europe succumbed to the wound, and became the first African-American
citizen to be honoured with a public funeral in New York City.
Most jazz
critics consider Roy 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.
Leon Redbone is one of the most unique
musical performers of the last 40 years. He is one of the few current
performers of ragtime music, although he is generally classified as a
folk/blues singer. Redbone was born in Cyprus in 1949 and appeared in the
early Seventies as something of a musical curio of mysterious origin.
In 1975, Redbone recorded his debut album,
the delightful and utterly original, “On the Track,” an album of cover songs
that were in some cases, more than 50-years-old. The album is a collection of
blues, jazz, and ragtime standards sung in Redbone’s signature deep nasal baritone.
In 1977, the album, “Double Time,” appeared, featuring more blues and ragtime
classics including Blind Blake’s “Diddy Wah Diddy.”