Pee Wee Hunt
Pee Wee Hunt (* 10. May 1907 in Mount Healthy , Ohio as Walter Gerhardt Hunt ; † 22. June 1979 in Plymouth , Massachusetts ) was an American Dixieland jazz - trombone player , singer and bandleader.
Life
Pee Wee Hunt's mother played the banjo and his father the violin . As a teenager, Hunt performed as a banjo player in a local band while attending college at Ohio State University ; during this time he switched to the trumpet. In 1928 he became a member of Jean Goldkette's orchestra.
Pee Wee Hunt was one of the founding members of the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1929 and participated in their first recordings; he left the group in 1943 to work as a radio disc jockey in Hollywood. During the Second World War he was a member of the merchant navy .
After the war he returned to the West Coast in 1946 and had a number 1 hit in September 1948 with the "Twelfth Street Rag". The title stayed in the top ten for 32 weeks. He had another success in 1953 with the number "Oh!", Which reached number 3 in the charts and was in the Top Twenty for 23 weeks. As Pee Wee Runt and his All-Flea Dixieland Band , he was parodied in Tex Avery's MGM cartoon Dixieland Droopy (1954). One of his later bands also included drummer Danny D'Imperio . Other tracks by his orchestra, most of which Hunt recorded for Capitol , were “High Society”, “Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone”, “Lullaby of Birdland” / “It's All Been Done Before”, “Wabash Blues "(1947) and the" Basin Street Blues "(Regent, 1948),
Hunt died at the age of 72 after a long illness in Plymouth, Massachusetts , where his partner from the Casa Loma Orchestra, Glen Gray, also lived. Hunt was honored with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6838 Hollywood Blvd.
literature
- Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings . 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9 .
- Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ US catalog number: Capitol 15105; Whitburn, Joel: Top LPs 1945-1972 . Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin: Record Research, 1973, p. 27
- ↑ US catalog number: Capitol 2442
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Hunt, Pee Wee |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Hunt, Walter Gerhardt (real name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American Dixieland jazz trombonist, singer and band leader |
| DATE OF BIRTH | May 10, 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Mount Healthy , Ohio |
| DATE OF DEATH | June 22, 1979 |
| Place of death | Plymouth , Massachusetts |