Jazz on record : the first sixty years

872 Pages·2003·81.577 MB·English

by  Scott Yanow

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handsome hardcover volume the
history of recorded: jazz through
1976. All the most important available
recordings by apc) all otfh e
significant jazz instrumentalists and
singers are explored in historical
context. The years of 1895 to 1976
(which include the 22 years that
preceded the first jazz recording) are
divided into 10 chapters that explore
each period's groundbreaking events
and various mainstream and revival
jazz movements. A painstakingly
researched guide for jazz fans,
scholars, and serious collectors,
Jazz on Record also provides an
entertaining and inspiring panorama
of this great art form’s developments.
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CALGARY PUBLIC LIBRARY—
MAR /ra /i 2004

Jazz on Record
The First Sixty Years
by Scott Yanow
4 Backbeat
Books
San Francisco
Published by Backbeat Books
600 Harrison Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
www.backbeatbooks.com
email: [email protected]
An imprint of the Music Player Network
Publishers of Guitar Player, Bass Player, Keyboard, and other magazines
United Entertainment Media, Inc.
A CMP Information company
CMP
United Business Media
Copyright © 2003 by Scott Yanow. All rights reserved. No part of this book covered by copyrights hereon may be reproduced or
copied in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in articles and
reviews. For information, contact the publishers.
Distributed to the book trade in the US and Canada by
Publishers Group West, 1700 Fourth Street, Berkeley, CA 94710
Distributed to the music trade in the US and Canada by
Hal Leonard Publishing, P.O. Box 13819, Milwaukee, WI 53213
Text Design and Composition by Happenstance Type-O-Rama
Cover Design by Damien Castaneda
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Yanow, Scott
Jazz on record : the first sixty years/by Scott Yanow
p.cm.
Includes index.
ISBN 0-87930-755-2 (alk. paper)
1, Jazz—Discography. 2. Jazz—History and criticism. I. Title.
ML156.4.J3Y36 2003
781.65'0266—dc22
2003062780
Printed in the United States of America
03 04050607 54321
Contents
Introduction 1939-1944: The War Years 181
Glenn Miller 182
1895-1920: The Lost Beginnings The Pacesetters: 1939-1944 184
A Few Basic Questions 22 Other Big Bands, from A to Z 203
Major Events of 1895-1920 The “From Spirituals to Swing” Concerts 211
Jazz’s First Star Boogie-Woogie Zale,
Ragtime Five Major Swing Combos 213
The Start of the Record Industry Other Swing Stars 27
Early Jazz: 1900-1916 Jazz Vocalists 223
—FWNF OPHW oF
Jazz Invades Europe European Jazz During the War Years 228
1920: Mamie Smith, the Start of the Special All-Star Groups 230
Blues Craze, and Paul Whiteman 14 The Start of Rhythm and Blues 231
The Comeback of New Orleans Jazz
1921-1925: Jazz Sweeps the Nation 23
and Dixieland 232
The Pacesetters: 1921-1925 24
The Beginnings of Bebop 244
The End of the ODJB 27
Various Artists: V-Discs, Blue Note,
The Classic Blues Singers oil
and Black & White 249
1926-1932: From Boom to Bust pil
1945-1949: Bebop Spoken Here 259
The Pacesetters: 1926-1932 52
What Is This Thing Called Bop? 255
Jazz in New Orleans og
Other Bop Pianists 260
Early Jazz: Black and White 60
Three Major Bebop Trumpeters 262
The World of Bix Beiderbecke as
The Other Bebop Trumpeters 264
Jazz Singing, from Bessie Smith to
Two Great Bop Trombonists 265
Bing Crosby 77
Four Bebop Clarinetists 266
1920s White New York Jazz: Hot Jazz
Jamming in L.A. 267
and Dance Bands 86
Other Bop Tenors 268
Black New York Jazz: Stride Pianists,
The Bop Altoists 270
Hot Soloists, and Harlem Big Bands 101
The Bebop Baritonists 270
Territory Bands es)
The Bebop Vibraphonists 271
Jazz in England 126
Guitarists After Charlie Christian 271
World Travelers 127
Bassists After Jimmy Blanton 272
Kansas City: The Beginnings of Swing 128
The Bebop Drummers 274
1933-1938: Swing’s the Thing 135 The Arrangers of the Bop Years 275
Benny Goodman: The King of Swing 136 The Jive Singers Zid
Gene Krupa and the Other Goodman The Bebop Era Vocalists 278
Sidemen 138 The Modern Big Bands 280
The Pacesetters: 1933-1938 140 The Collapse of the Big Band Era 286
Other Vocalists 158 31 Swing Bands and Their Struggle
Small Swing Groups and Top Soloists 161 to Survive the Bebop Years 287
A Bleak Time for Some 1920s Veterans 165 The Swing Singers as Singles 299
Western Swing 168 Small-Group Swing During the
Jazz in Europe 169 Bebop Era 303
Hints of a Revival 173 Three New Swing Pianists 313
Various Artists Collections We Jazz at the Philharmonic 314
Contents
New Orleans Jazz 315 Five Avant-Garde Giants 548
Stride Piano: Past and Future S29 Other Top Avant-Gardists 553
Rhythm and Blues 326 Miles Davis's Second Great Quintet 568
Cubop: The Beginnings of 12 Major Jazz Groups of 1961-1967 570
Afro-Cuban Jazz 328 Hard Bop and Soul Jazz 580
Cool Jazz 330 Afro-Cuban Jazz 639
Various Artists O52 The Birth of Bossa Nova 642
Vocalists 644
7 1950-1955: West Coast vs. East Coast 337
Big Bands 658
West Coast Jazz 340
Swing Survivors 663
Five Major West Coast Jazz Groups 342
Dixieland and New Orleans Jazz 671
Other Top West Coast Players 345
Looking Ahead: The Beginnings of
Cool Jazz on the East Coast 350
Fusion 681
Four Bebop Giants in the Post-Bop Era 357
Bebop to Hard Bop 360 1968-1976: Fusion and Beyond 685
The Jazz Vocalists og) Miles Davis: 1968-1969 687
The Dixieland Revival 386 Fusion: The Sons of Miles 688
Jazz at the Philharmonic 398 Miles Davis: 1970-1975 700
The Four Main Big Bands 398 The Beginnings of Pop-Jazz and
Swing: 1950-1955 402 Crossover
Latin Jazz 41] Free Jazz and the Avant-Garde After
Rhythm and Blues 412 Coltrane 708
A Few Various Artists Collections 415 Hard Bop, Soul-Jazz, and Post-Bop 720
Looking Ahead: Hints of the The CTI Label 748
Avant-Garde 415 Bop and Cool Jazz of 1968-1976 754
Vocalists 774
8 1956-1960: A Time of Giants 419
Big Bands 783
The End for Six Jazz Greats 420
Dixieland, New Orleans Jazz, Ragtime,
Ten New Jazz Giants 422
and Mainstream Swing 791
Bop, Cool Jazz, and Hard Bop 434
A Smaller World 808
Bop, Cool Jazz, and Hard Bop Soloists 445
Various Artists 816
Jazz Vocalists 505
Jazz Beyond 1976 818
Surviving Swing Stars 517
Dixieland BINS
About the Author 821
Latin Jazz: 1956-1960 534
Bibliography 822
9 1961-1967: The Race Toward Freedom 541
The Free Jazz Movement 547 Index 823
Introduction
TT here are few greater joys in the world than watching ac reative jazz band perform. Unlike in classical
music where the musicians recreate note for note the work of a composer, or in pop music where the
performers often do their best to play their hits in concert ina similar fashion to how they sound on record,
jazz is about spontaneity, constant invention, and self-expression.
Even when performing a popular song with a set melody, chord changes, and a general framework, jazz
musicians are constantly taking chances on stage. When a musician solos, he uses his accumulated knowl-
edge of his instrument, of the piece he is performing, and of his own musical history to create something
new. The artist may make mistakes and occasionally stumble (the danger is part of the excitement), but
quite often wrong turns lead to fresh directions. The very best jazz artists are constantly creating new ideas
before audiences, performing a high-wire act without a net, often ona nightly basis.
Only a small percentage of jazz performances make it on to records where they are saved forever. Whether
performed in recording studios or taken from concerts or club appearances, these snapshots form the
recorded history of jazz and allow today’s listener to hear music from the past just as it was played at the time,
even if it was 80 years ago. We cannot hear what Mozart or Liszt sounded like improvising on piano, but
King Oliver and Jelly Roll Morton are very much alive today due to their good fortune in being recorded.
The availability of recordings has also indirectly affected jazz history. Avant-garde bandleader Sun Ra
reportedly shifted his repertoire toward swing (although played in an eccentric way) in the 1970s after lis-
tening closely to the Fletcher Henderson four-LP set A Study in Frustration. The large number of reis-
sue programs that proliferated in the 1970s, making classic hard bop and bebop performances available to
a younger generation, indirectly resulted in the Young Lions movement of the 1980s, where skilled musi-
cians in their twenties (including trumpeter Wynton Marsalis) sought to find their voices in hard bop rather
than fusion or the avant-garde. Charlie Parker spent one summer woodshedding to some Count Basie
records that featured Lester Young. And many musicians in later years were able to master their horns more
quickly by jamming to Charlie Parker records.
It is now almost impossible to interview any musicians who were active in the 1920s (Benny Carter,
Artie Shaw, and the still-active violinist Claude Williams are among the very few who are still with us as of
this writing), and only a handful of performers are left from the 1930s. However, today’s listeners can expe-
rience the music of the 1920s and ’30s at least secondhand through the many surviving records, and it is for
the recordings that the late early greats of jazz will be remembered.
Introduction
One of the faults of many jazz history books is that already covered, but add a great deal of additional infor-
they tend to focus almost exclusively on the cutting edge mation and give listeners a sampling of the jazz events that
innovations of a certain period. Simplifying jazz’s evolu- took place in each individual year. “Voices of the Future”
tion has resulted in it often being said that a newer style sections have the birth dates and places of the musicians
was an “improvement” on the older one, as if the latter no and singers born in that period. This is usually the first
longer existed after it was “replaced.” Swing begat bebop mention of these significant performers in the book. Con-
begat cool jazz begat hard bop begat free jazz begat versely, the “Passings” sections, which list the performers’
fusion, etc. Despite all of the begatting, none of the older death dates and places, serve as a farewell to these irre-
styles ceased to exist. One may think of the second half placeable heroes. The emphasis throughout is on CDs
of the 1940s as being the bebop era, but in reality Dix- even though compact discs did not replace LPs until the
ieland was also going through a prime period at the same late 1980s, so nearly every CD referred to is actually a reis-
time. The 1950s may have seemed to be dominated by sue unless it was a long-lost session issued for the first time
cool jazz and hard bop, but mainstream swing (played by in a later period. If a cited recording is an LP, it says so;
veterans of an era that was considered dominant only a otherwise it is a CD. If it is an essential release, there is a
decade earlier) was enjoying a revival. There was a lot of O before the recording’ title, and it is also listed at the end
bebop being played during the so-called avant-garde of the chapter (unless already covered earlier in the book).
1960s, and one of the main events of the mid-1970s The reviews are in most cases purposely very brief, so as
when fusion was having its greatest impact, was the rise many recordings are covered as possible. I have also con-
of such young swing-oriented players as Scott Hamilton centrated on the most significant reissues (either complete
and Warren Vache. One should not forget that Benny compilations or superior samplers) because much of this
Goodman and Count Basie were still playing swing long material, particularly from the swing era, has been repack-
after Charlie Parker and John Coltrane were no longer aged a countless number of times.
alive. Things have only become more confused and Why does this book stop after 1976? While some of
crowded in the years since. In addition, using a simplified the nay-sayers seem to think that jazz's evolution, and
“great man’ theory skips over the hundreds (if not thou- therefore its relevance, stopped after the mid-1970s, I
sands) of important interpreters and original voices in have always felt the opposite. In reality, there have been so
favor of just emphasizing ten or fifteen top musicians. many record releases since that time that there was simply
Jazz on Record: The First Sixty Years, while covering not enough room in this book to adequately cover the
the most groundbreaking events of jazz’s first 60 years of past quarter-century. That may very well be the subject
recordings, also discusses the various mainstream and of another book in the future. As the sole author of Jazz
revival jazz movements and never makes the judgment on Record: The First Sixty Years, 1am solely responsible for
that new styles are superior to the older ones. The best any errors that might have crept in. If there is a breathless
jazz is timeless and never becomes dated or “old school” feel to this survey, it is because there has been an enor-
Nor are musicians who play creatively in older styles mous amount of high-quality jazz recordings released
deserving of being overlooked. through the years. I hope that my enthusiasm and love for
I have divided the years of 1895-1976 (covering the music always comes through.
the 22 years that preceded the first jazz recording in the Many people helped cheer me on during this ambitious
1895-1920 chapter) into ten time periods, with each project, giving me moral support and encouragement, and
chapter essentially being an independent book that sticks I am grateful to all of them. In addition, I want to person-
to that particular era. Not every single recording by every ally thank Matt Kelsey and Richard Johnston of Backbeat
single artist is discussed (this book would be many times Books for trusting me and believing in this important proj-
larger), nor is there a complete listing of personnel. That ect; Brian Ashley, who got me started in the jazz writing
is the work of other books, such as the All Music Guide to business back in 1976 when he formed Record Review; and
Jazz. But what is here is a sampling of the most important the much-maligned but invaluable jazz publicists (includ-
available recordings by virtually all of the significant jazz ing Ann Braithwaite, Lynda Bramble, Lori Hehr, Terri Hinte,
musicians and singers of each time period. and Don Lucoff) who make life much easier for jazz jour-
Each chapter has subsections dealing with a specific nalists. Greatly deserving of gratitude for their patience,
topic relevant to the period. Sprinkled throughout each support, and putting up with my 16-hours-a-day listening
chapter are Timelines that not only summarize the events schedule are my wife, Kathy, and daughter, Melody.