Trombonist Will Bradley, drummer-singer Ray McKinley, and pianist Freddie Slack only teamed up together for a relatively brief period of time, 18 months during 1939-41,
One of the great frustrations in studying early jazz is trying to understand how the music sounded near its beginnings. There is not only a
Of all of the swing era bandleaders, Glenn Miller had more hit records than anyone else in the jazz world, more than Benny Goodman, Artie
When one thinks of the top alto-saxophonists of the swing era, the names of Johnny Hodges, Benny Carter and perhaps Willie Smith (from the Jimmie
It was May 26, 1942 and 19-year old tenor-saxophonist Illinois Jacquet was set to be featured on “Flying Home” with the Lionel Hampton big band.
When one thinks of the great swing trumpeters of the 1930s and ’40s, the names of Louis Armstrong, Bunny Berigan, Henry “Red” Allen, Harry James,
Of all of the successful big band leaders of the swing era, Jimmie Lunceford had one of the most unusual beginnings. While most leaders were
Wingy Manone had an appealing image of a happy intuitive musician, a primitive who one day woke up and started playing the trumpet for the
In his career, Bing Crosby showed that he could sing practically everything other than opera. Whether it was classic American pop tunes, traditional Irish songs,
When one thinks of the top swing era bandleaders, the names of Benny Goodman, Duke Ellington, Count Basie, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, and Harry James
The violin was part of some of the earliest jazz bands in New Orleans but it was not taken seriously as a solo instrument in
Swing singer Maxine Sullivan and stride pianist Cliff Jackson may not have been the most logical matchup, but it was a marriage that worked. Both
Arguably the top jazz trumpeter or cornetist on records prior to 1923, Phil Napoleon has somehow managed to miss being prominently included in most jazz
Boogie-woogie, which has been said to have originated in Texas in the 1870s, started out as a piano music characterized by an “eight-to-the-bar” left-hand pattern
They were one of the most popular Dixieland bands of the 1950s and ’60s, performing and recording their enthusiastic brand of trad jazz for a
When one thinks of Hoagy Carmichael, it is often of the character that he portrayed in movies: a wisecracking pianist who offered homespun advice to
Everyone cherished Eubie Blake, particularly in his later years. A lovable character who had survived a long lean period, in the 1970s he was the
Isham Jones, whenever he is mentioned today, is cited as being a talented songwriter who added several standards to the Great American Songbook. However he
In 1920, the success of Mamie Smith’s recording of “Crazy Blues,” the first blues recorded by an African-American singer, was a major surprise to the
Banjoist Fred Van Eps cut his first released recordings in 1897 while his son, guitarist George Van Eps, made his final recordings in 1997, a
Jimmie Noone was one of the big three of New Orleans clarinetists to emerge on records in the 1920s, holding his own with Johnny Dodds
Guitarist Charlie Christian and bassist Jimmy Blanton never recorded together and it is quite possible that they never jammed on the same stage, but there
They were a bit of an odd couple. Red Norvo was thin and soft-spoken while Mildred Bailey was heavy and could be rather boisterous. But
During the swing era, there were two types of male singers that were employed by many big bands, and then there was Jimmy Rushing. While
