Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawks Orchestra

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The Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawks Orchestra ( The Nighthawks for short ) was an American jazz and dance band from the 1920s and 1930s.

Chart positions
Explanation of the data
Singles
Some little bird
  US 9 1921 (1 week)
Night Hawk Blues
  US 10 1924 (1 week)
Yes sir, that's my baby
  US 8th 1925 (2 weeks)
Flamin 'mummy
  US 15th 1926 (1 week)
If She Is My Girl Friend
  US 19th 1928 (1 week)
Ready for the river
  US 20th 1928 (1 week)
Down Where the Sun Goes Down
  US 16 1928 (2 weeks)
LittleOrphan Annie
  US 16 1928 (2 weeks)
Keepin 'Out of Mischief Now
  US 20th 1932 (2 weeks)

Band history

The Coon-Sanders Original Nighthawks Orchestra was the first Kansas City jazz- style band to gain national attention when their performances were broadcast on the radio; at the same time it was also one of the first bands to benefit from the possibilities of radio. The band was founded in 1919 as "The Coon-Sanders Novelty Orchestra" by the drummer Carleton Coon and the pianist Joe Sanders .

Coon (1894-1932) grew up in Lexington, Missouri ; Sanders (1894-1965) was from Kansas . The first radio broadcast came about in 1921 at the instigation of a city newspaper. The performance of their orchestra in the Muehlebach Hotel in Kansas City , where they had a longer engagement, was broadcast for the first time in 1922 on the radio station WDAF broadcasting in the Midwest. In 1923 the saxophonist Orville Knapp joined the band. Since the show was broadcast at night between 11.30pm and 1.00am, they were nicknamed the Nighthawks . The first radio fan club was soon established; In 1924 her Nighthawks Club had 37,000 members. The fans were asked to send their song requests by letter, telephone or telegram. This success led Western Union to put the ticker tape between Sanders 'piano and Coons' drums so that the telegrams could be confirmed during the radio recordings. Her song "Nighthawk Blues" contained the lines: "Tune right in on the radio / Grab a telegram and say 'Hello'."

In 1924 the band left Kansas City for a three-month engagement at the Lincoln Tavern in Chicago . The same year the orchestra moved to Chicago for good when they signed a recording contract with the new Music Corporation of America , of which they were the first contractor. In 1926 the Nighthawks performed at the Blackhawk Hotel in Chicago. At this time the band played alongside Sanders and Coon, trumpeters Joe Richolson and Bob Pope, trombonist Rex Downing, saxophonists Harold Thiell, Joe Thiell and Floyd Estep, Russ Stout, (banjo and guitar) and tuba player "Pop" Estep . In the years that followed, the Nighthawks performed every winter at Blackhawk, with the daily performances being broadcast every night on the radio station WGN, otherwise they went on successful tours nationwide. In the meantime they were known all over the country and their records were released by Victor Records .

The orchestra later went to New York City to perform at the Hotel New Yorker for eleven months; the radio recordings were then broadcast on CBS . At the height of their popularity, the band members owned identical corduroy automobiles, each in a different color, with the band's name and owner on the roof. This phase ended abruptly in 1932 when Carleton Coon died of a jaw infection on May 3rd.

Joe Sanders took over the leadership of the band under the name "Joe Sanders Original Nighthawkers"; Although he had another hit in August 1936 with his version of the standard These Foolish Things (Remind Me of You) (# 17), however, the audience's attention waned, and during the Depression, Sanders broke up the orchestra. In 1935 he founded his own formation, which lasted until the early 1940s, after which he mainly worked as a studio musician. Health problems ended his career and he died in Kansas City in May 1965.

Discographic notes

  • Nighthawk Blues (Broadway)

literature

  • Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac . Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena 1978.
  • Fred W. Edmiston: Coon-Sanders Nighthawks - The Band That Made Radio Famous . McFarland & Company, 2003.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ All plates 78er. Individual references for US Billboard Black: Gerhard Klußmeier: Jazz in the Charts. Another view on jazz history. Liner notes and booklet for the 100 CD edition. Membrane International, ISBN 978-3-86735-062-4 .