Charlie Straight

Charlie Straight also in the name variant Charley Straight (born January 6, 1891 in Chicago , Cook County , Illinois , United States , † September 21, 1940 ibid) was an American trumpeter and pianist big band leader in the field of Chicago jazz and of popular dance music .

Charlie Straight founded a Territory Band in Chicago in 1917 , which had an engagement in Rainbow Gardens in Chicago in the late 1920s and otherwise played exclusively in the Midwest ; she was one of the first bands (along with the bands of Isham Jones , Bennie Krueger and Ted Weems and the Coon-Sanders Nighthawks ) to be signed to the newly founded Music Corporation of America (MCA). Her performances were broadcast on radio stations; Records were released by Brunswick and Paramount Records . The Charlie Straight Orchestra 's hit titles included Henpecked Blues, Sweet Henry From Tennessee (both 1923) and Minor Gaff (1928).

Straight claimed to have been the author of later hit titles by Kay Kyser and Sammy Kaye ; he was also the one who invented the term swing , which then became popular in the 1930s.

Straight is remembered mainly because Bix Beiderbecke was part of his orchestra for four weeks in 1925 ; he was fired because he was unable to read the arrangements. Even Frank Teschemacher played in his orchestra, played rarely more than ten musicians in the; it was one of the best dance bands of its time. Another member was Danny Alvin . Although the height of his success was the 1920s, he remained active as a band leader until the late 1930s. He died in September 1940 when he was struck by a car on the streets of Chicago. He wrote the song Mocking Bird Rag.

literature

• Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac. Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978

Web links

• Charlie Straight in the Bigband database

• Charlie Straight in the database of Find a Grave (English)