Bernard Addison

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Bernard Addison (born April 15, 1905 in Annapolis , Maryland , † December 22, 1990 in Rockville Center , New York ) was an American jazz guitarist and banjo player.

Live and act

Addison played the mandolin and violin as a child ; In 1920 his family moved to Washington, DC , where Claude Hopkins was a classmate. Worked with him in the 1920s, as well as with Rex Stewart and the Mills Blue Rhythm Band . He then moved to New York, played in Small's Paradise as a sideman and also headed his own bands; In 1928 he switched from banjo to guitar and played with Art Tatum in the Milton Senior Band .

In 1930 he accompanied Adelaide Hall and joined Louis Armstrong's band , in which the guitarist's place had become vacant. This brought him into the scene of the jazz greats of the time and played over the years with Sidney Bechet , Jelly Roll Morton , Luis Russell , Sam Wooding and Coleman Hawkins . Addison later worked with Fats Waller , Fletcher Henderson (1933-34), Adrian Rollini 1935, the Mills Brothers from 1936 to 1939 (for example London Rhythm ' 1937, Long About Midnight 1939) and toured Europe with them; In 1939/40 he played with Stuff Smith and led his own formation until he was drafted into the US Army. After World War II he played with Snub Mosley and The Ink Spots , in 1959 with Eubie Blake . At the end of the 1950s he was increasingly active as a classical guitarist. In the last phase of his life, Addison only worked sporadically as a freelance musician, but mostly as a music teacher.

Addison was considered one of the best rhythm guitarists in the 1930s, who, in addition to elegant solos with changing chords, masterfully understood single string playing . A particularly characteristic, brilliant example of his chord solo style interspersed with 'single notes' is 'Toledo Shuffle' (with Ellington trumpeter Freddie Jenkins and clarinetist Albert Nicholas ).

literature

  • Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
  • Richard Lieberson, "The Guitar in Jazz. An Anthology," 1996. (Brief description of Addison's career on p. 109).

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Addison, Bernard
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz guitarist and banjo player
DATE OF BIRTH April 15, 1905
PLACE OF BIRTH Annapolis , Maryland , USA
DATE OF DEATH December 22, 1990
Place of death Rockville Center , New York