Oliver's as the crowning glory of the New Orleans tradition and one of the
great achievements in Jazz.
LOUIS IN NEW YORK AND BIG BANDS ARE BORN
That tradition, however, was too restricting for a creative genius like Louis
Armstrong. He left Oliver in late 1924, accepting an offer from New
York's most prestigious black bandleader, Fletcher Henderson
(1897-1952). Henderson's band played at Roseland Ballroom on
Broadway and was the first significant big band in Jazz history.
Evolved from the standard dance band of the era, the first big Jazz bands
consisted of three trumpets, one trombone, three saxophones (doubling all
kinds of reed instruments), and rhythm section of piano, banjo, bass (string
or brass) and drums. These bands played from written scores
(arrangements or "charts"), but allowed freedom of invention for the
featured soloists and often took liberties in departing from the written
notes.
Though it was the best of the day, Henderson's band lacked rhythmic
smoothness and flexibility when Louis joined up. The flow and grace of his
short solos on records with the band make them stand out like diamonds in
a tin setting.
The elements of Louis' style, already then in perfect balance, included a
sound that was the most musical and appealing yet heard from a trumpet; a
gift for melodic invention that was as logical as it was new and startling,
and a rhythmic poise (jazzmen called it "time") that made other players
sound stiff and clumsy in comparison.
His impact on musicians was tremendous. Nevertheless, Henderson didn't
feature him regularly, perhaps because he felt that the white dancers for
whom his band performed were not ready for Louis' innovations. During
his year with the band, however, Louis caused a transformation in its style
and, eventually, in the whole big band field. Henderson's chief arranger,
Don Redman, (1900-1964) grasped what Louis was doing and got some of
it on paper. After working with Louis, tenor saxophonist Coleman
Hawkins (1904-1969) developed a style for his instrument that became the
guidepost for the next decade.
While in New York, Louis also made records with Sidney Bechet, and
with Bessie Smith (1894-1937), the greatest of all blues singers. In 1925,
he returned to Chicago and began to make records under his own name
with a small group, the Hot Five. Included were his wife Lil Hardin
Armstrong (1899-1971) on piano, Kid Ory, Johnny Dodds, and guitarist
Johnny St. Cyr. The records, first to feature Louis extensively, became a
sensation among musicians, first all over the United States and later all
over the world. The dissemination of jazz, and in a very real sense its
whole development, would have been impossible without the phonograph.
KING LOUIS
The Hot Five was strictly a recording band. For everyday work, Louis
played in a variety of situations, including theater pit bands. He continued
to grow and develop, and in 1927 switched from cornet to the more
brilliant trumpet. He had occasionally featured his unique gravel voiced
singing, but only as a novelty. Its popular potential became apparent in
1929, when, back in New York, he starred in a musical show in which he
introduced the famous Ain't Misbehavin' singing as well as playing the
great tune written by pianist Thomas (Fats) Waller (1904-1943), himself
one of the greatest instrumentalists-singers-showmen in Jazz.
It was during his last year in Chicago while working with another pianist,
Earl (Fatha) Hines (1903-1983), that Louis reached his first artistic peak.
Hines was the first real peer to work with Louis. Inspired by him, he was
in turn able to inspire. Some of the true masterpieces of Jazz, among them
West End Blues and the duet Weatherbird, resulted from the
Armstrong-Hines union.
THE JAZZ AGE
Louis Armstrong dominated the musical landscape of the 20's and, in fact,
shaped the Jazz language of the decade to come as well. But the Jazz of
the Jazz Age was more often than not just peppy dance music made by
young men playing their banjos and saxophones who had little
understanding of (or interest in) what the blues and/or Louis Armstrong
were about. Still, a surprising amount of music produced by this
dance-happy period contained genuine Jazz elements.
PAUL WHITEMAN - King of Jazz?
The most popular bandleader of the decade was Paul Whiteman
(1890-1967), who ironically became known as the King of Jazz, although
his first successful bands played no Jazz at all and his later ones precious
little. These later bands, however, did play superb dance music, expertly
scored and performed by the best white musicians the extravagant
Whiteman paychecks could attract. From 1926 on, Whiteman gave
occasional solo spots to such Jazz-influenced players as cornetist Red
Nichols, violinist Joe Venuti, guitarist Eddie Lang (1904-1933), and the
Dorsey Brothers' trombonist-trumpeter Tommy (1905-1956) and
clarinetist-saxophonist Jimmy (1904-1957), all of whom later became
bandleaders in their own right.
In 1927, Whiteman took over the key personnel of Jean Goldkette's
Jazz-oriented band, which included a young cornetist and sometime pianist
and composer of rare talent, Bix Beiderbecke (1903-1931). Bix's very
lyrical, personal music and early death combined to make him the first
(and most durable) jazz legend. His romanticized life story became the
inspiration for a novel and a film, neither of them close to the truth.
Bix's closest personal and musical friend during the most creative period of
his life was saxophonist Frank Trumbauer (1901-1956). Fondly known as
Bix and Tram, the team enhanced many an otherwise dull Whiteman
record with their brilliant interplay or their individual efforts.
THE BEIDERBECKE LEGACY
Bix's bittersweet lyricism influenced many aspiring jazzmen, among them
the so-called Austin High Gang, made up of gifted Chicago youngsters
only a few of whom ever actually attended Austin High School. Among
them were such later sparkplugs of the Swing Era as drummers Gene
Krupa (1909-1973) and Dave Tough (1908-1948); clarinetist Frank
Teschemacher (1905-1932); saxophonist Bud Freeman (1906-1991);
pianists Joe Sullivan (1906-1971) and Jess Stacy (b. 1904); and
guitarist-entrepreneur Eddie Condon (1905-1973). Their contemporaries
and occasional comrades-in-arms included a clarinet prodigy named Benny
Goodman (1905-1986); and somewhat older reedman and character, Mezz
Mezzrow (1899-1972), whose 1946 autobiography, Really the Blues,
remains, despite inaccuracies, one of the best Jazz books.
Trumbauer, though not a legend like Bix, influenced perhaps as many
musicians. Among them were two of the greatest saxophonist in Jazz
history, Benny Carter (b.1907) and Lester (Prez) Young (1909-1959).
BLACK & WHITE
A great influence on young Goodman was the New Orleans clarinetist
Jimmie Noone (1995-1944), an exceptional technician with a beautiful
tone. Chicago was an inspiring environment for a young musician. There
was plenty of music and there were plenty of masters to learn from.
Cornetist Muggsy Spanier (1906-1967) took his early cues from King
Oliver. In New York, there was less contact between black and white
players, though white jazzmen often made the trek to Harlem or worked
opposite Fletcher Henderson at the Roseland. When a young Texas
trombonist, Jack Teagarden (1905-1964), came to town in 1928, he
startled everyone with his blues-based playing (and singing), very close in
concept to that of Henderson's trombone star, Jimmy Harrison
(1900-1931). These two set the pace for all comers.
Teagarden, alongside Benny Goodman, worked in Ben Pollack's band.
Pollack, who'd played drums with the New Orleans Rhythm Kings, was
quite a talent spotter and always had good bands. When Henderson
arranger Don Redman took over McKinney's Cotton Pickers in 1929 and
made it one of the bands of the `20s, his replacement was Benny Carter.
Carter could (and still can) write arrangements and play trumpet and
clarinet as well as alto sax. For many years, he was primarily active as a
composer for films and TV; but in the late 1970's, Carter resumed his
playing career with renewed vigor. (Editor's Note-Carter just turned
eighty and is still playing and recording.)
THE UNIQUE DUKE
Another artist whose career spanned more than fifty years is Duke
Ellington (1899-1974). By 1972, he was one of New York's most
successful bandleaders, resident at Harlem's Cotton Club--a nightspot
catering to whites only but featuring the best in black talent.
Ellington's unique gifts as composer-arranger-pianist were coupled with
equally outstanding leadership abilities. From 1927 to 1941, with very few
exceptions and occasional additions, his personnel remained unchanged--a
record no other bandleader (except Guy Lombardo, of all people) ever
matched.
Great musicians passed through the Ellington ranks between 1924 and
1974. Among the standouts: great baritone saxist Harry Carney
(1907-1974), who joined in 1927; Johnny Hodges (1906-1970), whose
alto sax sound was one of the glories of jazz; Joe (Tricky Sam) Nanton
(1904-1946), master of the "talking" trombone; Barney Bigard
(1906-1980); whose pure-toned clarinet brought a touch of New Orleans
to the band; Ben Webster (1909-1973), one of Coleman Hawkins' greatest
disciples; drummer Sonny Greer (1903-1982), and Rex Stewart
(1907-1967) and Cootie Williams (1910-1985), an incomparable trumpet
team. Among the later stars were trumpeter Clark Terry (b. 1920) and
tenor saxist Paul Gonsalves (1920-1974).
Ellington's music constitutes a world within the world of Jazz. One of the
century's outstanding composers, he wrote over 1,000 short pieces, plus
many suites, music for films, the theater and television, religious works and
more. He must be ranked one of the century's foremost musicians,
regardless of labels. His uninterrupted activity as a bandleader since 1924
has earned him a high place in each successive decade, and his
achievement is a history of Jazz in itself.
Three outstanding contributors to Ellingtonia must be mentioned. They are
trumpeter-composer Bubber Miley (1903-1932), the co-creator of the first
significant style for the band and, like his exact contemporary Bix
Beiderbecke, a victim of too much, too soon; bassist Jimmy Blanton
(1918-1942), who in his two years with Ellington shaped a whole new role
for his instrument in Jazz, both as a solo and ensemble voice; and Billy
Strayhorn (1915-1967), composer-arranger and Ellington alter ego who
contributed much to the band from 1939 until his death.
STRIDE & BOOGIE WOOGIE
Aside from the band, for which he wrote with such splendid skill,
Ellington's instrument was the piano. When he came to New York as a
young man, his idols were James P. Johnson (1894-1955), a brilliant
instrumentalist and gifted composer, and Johnson's closest rival, Willie
(The Lion) Smith (1898-1973). Both were masters of the "stride" school of
Jazz piano, marked by an exceptionally strong, pumping line in the left
hand. James P.'s prize student was Fats Waller. New York pianists often
met in friendly but fierce contests--the beginnings of what would later be
known as jam sessions.
In Chicago, a very different piano style came into the picture in the late
`20s, dubbed boogie-woogie after the most famous composition by its first
significant exponent, Pinetop Smith (1904-1929). This rolling,
eight-to-the-bar bass style was popular at house parties in the Windy City
and became a national craze in 1939, after three of its best practitioners,
Albert Ammons, Pete Johnson and Meade Lux Lewis, had been presented
in concert at Carnegie Hall.
KANSAS CITY SOUNDS
Johnson was from Kansas City, where boogie-woogie was also popular.
The midwestern center was a haven for Jazz musicians through-out the
rule of Boss Pendergast, when the city was wide open and music could be
heard around the clock.
The earliest and one of the best of the K.C. bands was led by Bennie
Moten (1894-1935). By 1930 it had in its ranks pianist Count Basie
(1905-1984) who'd learned from Fats Waller; trumpeter-singer Oran (Hot
Lips) Page (1908-1954), one of Louis Armstrong's greatest disciples; and
an outstanding singer, Jimmy Rushing (1903-1972). The city was to put its
imprint on Jazz during the `30s and early `40s.
DEPRESSION DAYS
The great Depression had its impact on Jazz as it did on virtually all other
facets of American life. The record business reached its lowest ebb in
1931. By that year, many musicians who had been able to make a living
playing Jazz had been forced to either take commercial music jobs or leave
the field entirely.
But the music survived. Again, Louis Armstrong set a pattern. At the helm
of a big band with his increasingly popular singing as a feature, he recast
the pop hits of the day in his unique Jazz mold, as such artists as Fats
Waller and Billie Holiday (1915-1959), perhaps the most gifted of female
Jazz singers would do a few years later.
Thus, while sentimental music and romantic "crooners" were the rage
(among them Bing Crosby who had worked with Paul Whiteman and
learned more than a little from Jazz), a new kind of "hot" dance music
began to take hold. It wasn't really new, but rather a streamlining of the
Henderson style, introduced by the Casa Loma Orchestra which featured
the arrangements of Georgia-born guitarist Gene Gifford (1908-1970).
Almost forgotten today, this band paved the way for the Swing Era.
THE COMING OF SWING
As we've seen, big bands were a feature of the Jazz landscape from the
first. Though the Swing Era didn't come into full flower until 1935, most
up-and-coming young jazzmen from 1930 found themselves working in big
bands.
Among these were two pacesetters of the decade, trumpeter Roy (Little
Jazz) Eldridge (1911-1989) and tenorist Leon (Chu) Berry (1908-1941).
Eldridge, the most influential trumpeter after Louis, has a fiery mercurial
style and great range and swing. Among the bands he sparked were
Fletcher Henderson's and Teddy Hill's. The latter group also included
Berry, the most gifted follower of Coleman Hawkins, and the brilliant
trombonist Dicky Wells (1909-1985).
Another trend setting band was that of tiny, hunchbacked drummer Chick
Webb (1909-1939), who by dint of almost superhuman energy overcame
his physical handicap and made himself into perhaps the greatest of all Jazz
drummers. His band really got under way when he heard and hired a
young girl singer in 1935. Her name was Ella Fitzgerald (b. 1917).
THE KING OF SWING
But it was Benny Goodman who became the standard-bearer of swing. In
1934, he gave up a lucrative career as a studio musician to form a big band
with a commitment to good music. His Jazz-oriented style met with little
enthusiasm at first. He was almost ready to give it up near the end of a
disastrous cross-country tour in the summer of `35 when suddenly his
fortunes shifted. His band was received with tremendous acclaim at the
Palomar Ballroom in Los Angeles.
It seems that the band's broadcasts had been especially well timed for
California listeners. Whatever the reason, the band, which included such
Jazz stars as the marvelous trumpeter Bunny Berigan (1908-1942) and
drummer Gene Krupa, not to mention Benny himself, now scored success
after success. Some of the band's best material was contributed by
arrangers Fletcher Henderson and his gifted younger brother Horace.
As the bands grew in popularity, a new breed of fan began to appear. This
fan wanted to listen as much as he wanted to dance. (In fact, some
disdained dancing altogether.) He knew each man in each band and read
the new swing magazines that were springing up--Metronome, Down Beat,
Orchestra World. He collected records and listened to the growing number