Charlie Spivak

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Charlie Spivak in the 1940s.
Photography by William P. Gottlieb .

Charlie Spivak (born February 17, 1907 Kiev , Ukraine , † March 1, 1982 in Greenville , South Carolina ) was an American big band leader and trumpeter of swing and dance music based on it.

Live and act

Spivak was born in the Ukraine, but came to the United States with his parents as a child and grew up in New Haven , Connecticut . At the age of 10 he began to learn the trumpet and in his youth he played in local bands and in Don Cavallaro's band . 1924-1930 he played in the big band of Paul Specht and thereafter until 1934, by Ben Pollack , 1934/1935 at the Dorsey brothers and Ray Noble to 1936. By the following year he worked as a studio musician for example, Glenn Miller , was 1938 with Bob Crosby , 1938/1939 with Tommy Dorsey and 1939 with Jack Teagarden . With the support of Glenn Miller, he made his first attempt at the end of 1939 to found his own big band in Washington, DC , which only succeeded after he took over someone else's band ( Bill Downer ).

Charlie Spivak & Orchestra - Original by Mona Lisa from 1950

Spivak's band had their first big engagement at the Glen Island Casino ( Sid Caesar played briefly in Spivak's band). It was one of the most popular dance bands in the 1940s: it also performed at the Hollywood Palladium and the New York Pennsylvania Hotel and existed until 1959. Les Elgart , Urbie Green , Peanuts Hucko , Willie Smith , Dave Tough , Rolf , among others , played in it Ericson , Harry DiVito and the trombonist Nelson Riddle , who also arranged for the band. Spivak also recorded a number of records for Okeh , Victor , London and Columbia . During the war years she appeared regularly on the Kate Smith Show and on the Coca-Cola-sponsored radio show Parade of Spotlight Bands and had appearances in some Hollywood films such as Pin Up Girl and Follow the Girls .

According to Feather and Gitler, Spivak himself, who was also an accomplished studio musician, was less of a jazz musician, but rather played in a way that appealed to the public. In the 1950s he lived in Florida , Las Vegas and South Carolina , where he occasionally led bands until the 1960s, with whom he a. a. performed in Las Vegas. In the early 1970s he still played regularly with a five-piece band in the Ye Olde Fireplace , a club where he lives in Greenville, South Carolina.

He was married to the singer Irene Daye (1918–1971), who first sang with Gene Krupa and later in the bands of Spivak.

literature

  • Leonard Feather , Ira Gitler : The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz. Oxford University Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0-19-532000-X .
  • Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac . Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978
  • Simon, George T .: The Big Bands . With a foreword by Frank Sinatra. 3rd revised edition. New York City, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co and London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1974, pp. 426-429

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ Sometimes 1905 is also given
personal data
SURNAME Spivak, Charlie
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Spivak, Charles
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American big band leader and jazz trumpeter
DATE OF BIRTH February 17, 1907
PLACE OF BIRTH Kiev
DATE OF DEATH March 1, 1982
Place of death Greenville , South Carolina