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Welcome New Update 24.03.2024 in Swing Jazz

Johnny Smith / Swing Jazz

Johnny Smith



Johnny Henry Smith II (June 25, 1922 – June 11, 2013) was an American cool jazz and mainstream jazz guitarist.[1] He wrote "Walk, Don't Run" in 1954. In 1984, Smith was inducted into the Alabama Jazz Hall of Fame.

During the Great Depression, Smith's family moved from Birmingham, Alabama, where Smith was born,through several cities, ending up in Portland, Maine.

Smith taught himself to play guitar in pawnshops, which let him play in exchange for keeping the guitars in tune. At thirteen years of age he was teaching others to play the guitar. One of Smith's students bought a new guitar and gave him his old guitar, which became the first guitar Smith owned.

Smith joined Uncle Lem and the Mountain Boys, a local hillbilly band that travelled around Maine, performing at dances, fairs, and similar venues. Smith earned four dollars a night. He dropped out of high school to accommodate this enterprise.

Having become increasingly interested in the jazz bands that he heard on the radio, Smith gradually moved away from country music towards playing jazz. He left The Mountain Boys when he was eighteen years old to join a variety trio called the Airport Boys.

An extremely diverse musician, Johnny Smith was equally at home playing in the Birdland jazz club or sight-reading scores in the orchestral pit of the New York Philharmonic.[1] From Schoenberg to Gershwin to originals, Smith was one of the most versatile guitarists of the 1950s.

As a staff studio guitarist and arranger for NBC from 1946 to 1951, and on a freelance basis thereafter until 1958, Smith played in a variety of settings from solo to full orchestra and had his own trio, The Playboys, with Mort Lindsey and Arlo Hults.
His playing is characterized by closed-position chord voicings and rapidly ascending lines (reminiscent of Django Reinhardt, but more diatonic than chromatically-based).

Smith's most critically acclaimed recording was of the song "Moonlight in Vermont", and featured tenor saxophonist Stan Getz.
The single was the second most popular jazz record in DownBeat's readers' poll for 1952.
Initially released as a track on the 10-inch LP "Jazz at NBC" (Roost 410), "Moonlight in Vermont" was later made the title track of a 1956 12 inch LP. From 1952 and into the 1960s he recorded for the Roost label, on whose releases his reputation mainly rests. Mosaic Records issued the majority of them in an 8-CD set in 2002.

His best known musical composition is the track "Walk Don't Run", written for a 1954 recording session as a contrafact to "Softly, as in a Morning Sunrise". Guitarist Chet Atkins covered the track, recording a neo-classical rendition of the song on the electric guitar for his Hi Fi in Focus album which preceded the Ventures' hit by three years. He played his arrangement fingerstyle, including the bass notes A, G, F, and E which later became the basis for the Ventures' arrangement. The musicians who became The Ventures heard the Atkins version, simplified it, sped it up, and recorded it in 1960. The Ventures' version went to No. 2 on the Billboard Top 100 for a week in September 1960.

In 1957, Smith's wife died in childbirth, along with his second child. He sent his young daughter to Colorado Springs, Colorado to be cared for temporarily by his mother, and the following year he left his busy performing career in New York City to join his daughter in Colorado. There, Smith ran a musical instruments store, taught music, and raised his daughter while continuing to record albums for the Royal Roost and Verve labels into the 1960s.
He told The Colorado Springs Independent in 2001 (as quoted in his New York Times obituary) "In the end, everything came down to the fact that I loved my daughter too much to let my career put her at risk. But there were other factors, too. I loved New York musically, but I hated living there." Paul Vitello observed that "Smith continued to record, and sometimes performed in Colorado nightclubs, but declined almost all invitations to tour. One exception was for Bing Crosby, whom he accompanied on a tour of England in 1977 that ended shortly before Mr. Crosby's death.



Benny Goodman / Swing Jazz

Benny Goodman



Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader known as the "King of Swing".

From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing big bands in the United States. His concert at Carnegie Hall in New York City on January 16, 1938, is described by critic Bruce Eder as "the single most important jazz or popular music concert in history: jazz's 'coming out' party to the world of 'respectable' music.

Goodman's bands started the careers of many jazz musicians. During an era of racial segregation, he led one of the first integrated jazz groups, his trio and quartet. He performed nearly to the end of his life while exploring an interest in classical music.

Goodman was the ninth of twelve children born to poor Jewish emigrants from the Russian Empire. His father, David Goodman (1873–1926), came to the United States in 1892 from Warsaw in partitioned Poland and became a tailor.
His mother, Dora Grisinsky,(1873–1964), came from Kaunas. They met in Baltimore, Maryland, and moved to Chicago before Goodman's birth. With little income and a large family, they moved to the Maxwell Street neighborhood, an overcrowded slum near railroad yards and factories that was populated by German, Irish, Italian, Polish, Scandinavian, and Jewish immigrants.

Money was a constant problem. On Sundays, his father took the children to free band concerts in Douglass Park, which was the first time Goodman experienced live professional performances. To give his children some skills and an appreciation for music, his father enrolled ten-year-old Goodman and two of his brothers in music lessons, from 1919, at the Kehelah Jacob Synagogue.[4] Benny also received two years of instruction from the classically trained clarinetist and Chicago Symphony member, Franz Schoepp.
During the next year Goodman joined the boys club band at Hull House, where he received lessons from director James Sylvester. By joining the band, he was entitled to spend two weeks at a summer camp near Chicago. It was the only time he could get away from his bleak neighborhood.
At 13, he got his first union card. He performed on Lake Michigan excursion boats, and in 1923 played at Guyon's Paradise, a local dance hall.

In the summer of 1923, he met Bix Beiderbecke. He attended the Lewis Institute (Illinois Institute of Technology) in 1924 as a high-school sophomore and played clarinet in a dance hall band. When he was 17, his father was killed by a passing car after stepping off a streetcar.
His father's death was "the saddest thing that ever happened in our family", Goodman said.



Charlie Christian / Swing Jazz

Charlie Christian




Charles Henry Christian (July 29, 1916 – March 2, 1942) was an American swing and jazz guitarist. He was among the first electric guitarists and was a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. He gained national exposure as a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra from August 1939 to June 1941. His single-string technique, combined with amplification, helped bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront as a solo instrument. For this, he is often credited with leading to the development of the lead guitar role in musical ensembles and bands.


Christian was born in Bonham, Texas. His family moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, when he was a small child. His parents were musicians. He had two brothers: Edward, born in 1906, and Clarence, born in 1911. Edward, Clarence, and Charlie were all taught music by their father, Clarence Henry Christian. Clarence Henry was struck blind by fever, and in order to support the family he and the boys worked as buskers, on what the Christians called "busts." He would have them lead him into the better neighborhoods, where they would perform for cash or goods. When Charles was old enough to go along, he first entertained by dancing. Later he learned to play the guitar, inheriting his father's instruments upon his death when Charles was 12.

He attended Douglass School in Oklahoma City, where he was further encouraged in music by an instructor, Zelia N. Breaux. Charles wanted to play tenor saxophone in the school band, but she insisted he try trumpet instead.As he believed playing the trumpet would disfigure his lip, he quit to pursue his interest in baseball, at which he excelled.

In a 1978 interview with biographer Craig McKinney, Clarence Christian said that in the 1920s and 1930s, Edward Christian led a band in Oklahoma City as a pianist and had a shaky relationship with the trumpeter James Simpson. Around 1931, Simpson instructed guitarist "Bigfoot" Ralph Hamilton to secretly school the younger Charles in jazz. Hamilton taught him to solo on three songs, "Rose Room", "Tea for Two", and "Sweet Georgia Brown". When the time was right, he took Charles to one of the many after-hours jam sessions along "Deep Deuce" in Oklahoma City, where Edward's band was performing, and after some encouragement, Edward allowed Charles to play. Edward was surprised that Charles knew the tunes, which were well received by the club.

Charles soon was performing locally and on the road throughout the Midwest, including states as far away as North Dakota and Minnesota. By 1936 he was playing electric guitar and had become a regional attraction. According to the record producer John Hammond, Christian jammed with many of the big-name performers traveling through Oklahoma City, including Teddy Wilson , Art Tatum, and Mary Lou Williams, the pianist for Andy Kirk and His Clouds of Joy.





Glenn Miller / Swing Jazz

Glenn Miller



Alton Glen "Glenn" Miller (1 March 1904[citation needed]; disappeared 15 December 1944; declared dead 16 December 1945) was an American big band conductor, arranger, composer, trombone player, and recording artist before and during World War II, when he was an officer in the US Army Air Forces.
His civilian band, Glenn Miller and His Orchestra were one of the most popular and successful bands of the 20th century and the big band era.
His military group, the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra, was also popular and successful.

Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was the best-selling recording band from 1939 to 1942. Miller's civilian band did not have a string section as his military unit did, but it did have a slap bass in the rhythm section. It was also a touring band that played multiple radio broadcasts nearly every day. Their best-selling records include Miller's theme song – "Moonlight Serenade" – and the first gold record ever made, "Chattanooga Choo Choo". The following tunes are also on that best-seller list: "In the Mood", "Pennsylvania 6-5000" (printed as "Pennsylvania Six-Five Thousand" on record labels), "A String of Pearls", "Moonlight Cocktail", "At Last", "(I've Got a Gal In) Kalamazoo", "American Patrol", "Tuxedo Junction", "Elmer's Tune", "Little Brown Jug", and "Anvil Chorus". Including "Chattanooga Choo Choo", five songs played by Miller and His Orchestra were number one hits for most of 1942 and can be found on the List of Billboard number-one singles of 1942. In four years, Miller scored 16 number one records and 69 top 10 hits, more than Elvis Presley (40) and the Beatles in their careers.
His musical legacy includes multiple recordings in the Grammy Hall of Fame. His work has been performed by swing bands, jazz bands, and big bands worldwide for over 75 years.

The son of Mattie Lou (née Cavender) Miller and Lewis Elmer Miller, Alton Glen Miller was born in Clarinda, Iowa. He added the second n to "Glenn" during high school.
Like his father (Lewis Elmer) and his siblings (Elmer Deane, John Herbert and Emma Irene), Miller went by his middle name, Glenn.
As Dennis Spragg of the Glenn Miller Archives confirms, "Miller's use of his first name, Alton, was necessary for legal and military purposes, which is logically why it shows up in formal documents such as his military documents, driver’s licenses, tax returns, etc.

He is listed as Alton G. Miller in the Army Air Forces section of the Tablets of the Missing in Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial in Cambridge, England. His name is engraved as Major Alton Glenn Miller, US Army (Air Corps) on his Government-issued (G.I.) memorial headstone in Memorial Section H at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia. His last military unit has a memorial tree in section 13 on Wilson Drive. The American Holly was dedicated on December 15, 1994, the 50th anniversary of Miller's death, for the veterans of the Major Glenn Miller Army Air Forces Orchestra.



Tommy Dorsey / Swing Jazz

Tommy Dorsey



Born in Mahanoy Plane, Pennsylvania, Thomas Francis Dorsey Jr. was the second of four children born to Thomas Francis Dorsey Sr., a bandleader, and Theresa (née Langton) Dorsey.
He and Jimmy, his older brother by slightly less than two years, became known as the Dorsey Brothers. The two younger siblings were Mary and Edward, who died young.
Tommy Dorsey studied the trumpet with his father but later switched to trombone.

At age 15, Jimmy recommended Tommy to replace Russ Morgan in the Scranton Sirens, a territory band in the 1920s. Tommy and Jimmy worked in bands led by Tal Henry, Rudy Vallee, Vincent Lopez, and Nathaniel Shilkret. In 1923, Dorsey followed Jimmy to Detroit to play in Jean Goldkette's band and returned to New York in 1925 to play with the California Ramblers.
In 1927, he joined Paul Whiteman. In 1929, the Dorsey Brothers had their first hit with "Coquette" for OKeh Records.

In 1934, the Dorsey Brothers band signed with Decca, having a hit with "I Believe in Miracles".
Glenn Miller was a member of the Dorsey Brothers Orchestra in 1934 and 1935, composing Annie's Cousin Fanny, Tomorrow's Another Day, Harlem Chapel Chimes, and "Dese Dem Dose", all recorded for Decca, for the band. Acrimony between the brothers led to Tommy Dorsey walking out to form his own band in 1935 as the orchestra was having a hit with "Every Little Moment".Dorsey's orchestra was known primarily for its renderings of ballads at dance tempos, frequently with singers such as Jack Leonard and Frank Sinatra.

Dorsey was married three times. His first wife was 16-year-old Mildred "Toots Kraft, with whom he eloped in 1922, when he was 17. The couple had two children, Patricia and Thomas F. Dorsey III (nicknamed "Skipper"). In 1935, they moved to "Tall Oaks", a 21-acre (8.5 ha) estate in Bernardsville, New Jersey. They divorced in 1943 after Dorsey's affair with his former singer Edythe Wright.

Dorsey's second wife was film actress Patricia Dane in 1943, and they were divorced in 1947, but not before he gained headlines for striking actor Jon Hall when Hall embraced her.
Finally, Dorsey married Jane Carl New on March 27, 1948, in Atlanta, Georgia. She had been a dancer at the Copacabana nightclub in New York City. Tommy and Jane Dorsey had two children, Catherine Susan and Steve.



 
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