Cootie Williams and His Orchestra

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Cootie Williams and His Orchestra (also Cootie Williams Orchestra, Cootie and His Savoy Orchestra and Cootie Williams and his orchestra ) was an American big band led by trumpeter Cootie Williams from late 1941 to 1947. According to Gunther Schuller , it played an important transition role between swing and bebop in the early 1940s . From her later well-known jazz musicians such as Bud Powell , Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis , Kenny Kersey and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson emerged.

History of the band

Cootie Williams. Photograph by William P. Gottlieb , taken between 1938 and 1948.

After Cootie Williams left the Duke Ellington Orchestra in October 1940 , he played for a year with Benny Goodman . During this phase, the trumpeter made recordings in septets under his own name in New York for Okeh Records on May 7, 1941 . The tracks "West End Blues", "G Men" (Okeh 6370), "Blues in My Condition" and " Ain't Misbehavin ' " (OKeh 6224) were created; Performers were Lou McGarity (trombone), Les Robinson (alto saxophone), Skippy Martin (baritone saxophone), Johnny Guarnieri (piano), Artie Bernstein (double bass) and Jo Jones (drums). At the end of 1941 Williams left the Benny Goodman Orchestra (or Quartet) and founded his own big band. The band vocalist was the young saxophonist Eddie Vinson, who had previously toured the southern states with Big Bill Broonzy and Lil Green . With his new orchestra, Williams finally recorded the track "Sleepy Valley" on April 1, 1942 in Chicago for the Merritt Records label. The numbers "Marcheta" (with Louis Bacon, vocals), "When My Baby Left Me" (with Eddie Vinson, vocals) and the first recording of Thelonious Monk's composition " Epistrophy " (under the title Fly Right ) were initially unreleased .

In Cootie Williams' orchestra, Milton Fraser , Joe Guy (trumpet), Louis Bacon (trumpet, vocals), Jonas Walker, Bob Horton, Sandy Williams (trombone), Charlie Holmes (alto saxophone), Eddie "Cleanhead" played in the Merritt session Vinson (alto saxophone, vocals), Bob Dorsey , Greely Walton (tenor saxophone), John Williams (baritone saxophone) Kenny Kersey (piano), Norman Keenan (bass) and Butch Ballard (drums). The recording ban existing at that time then prevented further recordings; Mid-1943, however, Williams had the opportunity to work with his orchestra in the musical short film vodvil of Columbia Pictures to occur. The Williams Orchestra played in the film - accompanying tap dancers - "Let's Keep on Jumping / Get Hep", "Things Ain't What They Used to Be" and "Giddap Mule" (with singer Laurel Watson).

According to George T. Simon , in 1942 Williams led “one of the least known but most convincing swing big bands. It was an excellent formation, the music of which went at all tempos, with Cootie's incredible trumpet, which shone accordingly in the solos. [...] Unfortunately, first the admission freeze and then the call-up hampered the progress of the promising formation. "

New to Williams' orchestra were trumpeter Harold “Money” Johnson , saxophonists Eddie “Lockjaw” Davis, Sam “The Man” Taylor and George Treadwell , as well as pianist Bud Powell and bassist Norman Keenan . On January 4 and 6, 1944 Williams was able to record a number of titles for the Hit label; these were u. a. the singing numbers "Floogie Boo" (Williams in a duet with Vinson), "Gotta Do Some War Work, Baby" (Williams, vocals) and "Now I Know" (with Pearl Bailey , vocals), as well as the songs popular at the time " Sweet Lorraine ”,“ My Old Flame ”as well as the Ellington compositions“ Things Ain't What They Used to Be ”,“ Echoes of Harlem ”and the Fats Waller hit“ Honeysuckle Rose ”.

The Cootie Williams Orchestra first hit the US charts on April 29, 1944 with “Tess's Torch Song”, a song by Ted Koehler / Harold Arlen from the musical Up in Arms (1944, directed by Elliott Nugent ) sung by Pearl Bailey Danny Kaye ; the band reached position 19 with their version ( Ella Mae Morse's version was more successful and got to # 11). The band had another hit (# 2 on the R&B charts , # 23 on the pop charts ) at the end of August 1944 with "Cherry Red Blues", a track by Pete Johnson and Big Joe Turner (hit 7084; with Eddie Vinson, vocals) . This commercial success enabled Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson to sign a record deal with Mercury Records and to start his solo career with hits like “Old Maid Boogie” and “Kidney Stew Blues”.

Cootie Williams & Orchestra - 'Round Midnight

Further recordings by the Cootie Williams Orchestra followed on August 22, 1944 for Hit / Majestic. Bud Powell was able to convince Williams to add the Thelonious Monk composition " Round Midnight " (which was originally called I Love You So ) to his repertoire. In addition to “'Round Midnight” (for which Williams registered co-copyrights), the song numbers “Somebody's Gotta Go” (# 1 in the “Race Records” charts in 1945 ), “Is You Is or Is You Ain't My Baby ”(with Eddie Vinson as band vocalist) and the instrumental number“ Blue Garden Blues ”actually the Royal Garden Blues ( Clarence Williams ).

Occupation 1945
Trumpet: Cootie Williams, Ermit V. Perry, George Treadwell, Billy Ford, Gene Redd
Trombone: Ed Burke, Danny Logan, Bob Horton
Saxophones: Rupert Cole (as) Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (as, vcl), Sam "The Man" Taylor, Lee Pope (ts), George Favors (bar)
Piano: Arnold Jarvis
Double bass: Carl Pruitt
Drums New Years Eve "Vess" Payne

In February 1945 radio recordings of the station AFRS were made from the New York Savoy Ballroom , in which the orchestra had a number of weekly engagements ;; Charlie Parker also played at Cootie Williams (but in set play and not as a soloist), as well as Harold "Money" Johnson , George Treadwell , Sam "The Man" Taylor , Leroy Kirkland and Carl Pruitt . The repertoire consisted of instrumental numbers like "'Round Midnight", " Do Nothin' till You Hear from Me ", " Don't Blame Me ", " Perdido ", fast, uncomplicated dance numbers like "Roll 'em", "The Rhythm Is Jumpin 'and Seven Eleven, and popular vocal tracks like Saturday Night and I'm Beginning to See the Light , both with Tony Warren.

The next studio appointment was on May 29, 1945, this time for the young record label Capitol Records ; the result was the blues number "Juice Head Baby" (again with Eddie Vinson, vocals) and the instrumental number "Salt Lake City Bounce", which was based on the chord changes from Billy Strayhorn's " Take the" A "Train ", arranged by trombonist Ed Johnson . At the next studio session on July 19, 1945, Bill Doggett was added as arranger; Cootie Williams recorded the numbers "Mood for Coot", "House of Joy", "Everything But You" and the blues number "When My Baby Left Me". Williams recorded a total of 26 titles with his big band in 1945/46 for Capitol.

In January 1946, Cootie Williams and His Orchestra played in New York's Zanzibar Club ; radio recordings were also made. Trumpeters Gene Redd and Lammar Wright were briefly in the band . Regular recordings then took place on January 29th; Band vocalist was alongside Bob Merrill ("Stingy Blues") the songwriter Johnny Mercer in the title "She Shoulda Flip'd When He Flop'd"; the song remained unpublished at the time.

On July 5, 1946, Cootie Williams went back to the studio with his orchestra; The vocal numbers "Wrong Neighborhood", "Piney Brown's Gone" and "I May Be Easy but I'm No Fool" (all sung by Bob Merrill, who succeeded Eddie Vinson), "Let's Do the Whole Thing or Nothing at." All "(sung by the band leader) and the instrumental number" Vibraphobia ", with Gene Redd on the vibraphone.

Occupation at the end of 1947
Trumpet: Cootie Williams, Bob Merrill (tp, vcl)
Saxophone, clarinet: Rupert Cole (as, cl), Weasel Parker (ts)
Piano: Arnold Jarvis
Guitar: Mundell Lowe
Double bass: Leonard Swain
Drums New Years Eve "Vess" Payne
singing Eddie Mack , Billy Matthews, The Balladeers

In 1946/47 Cootie Williams increasingly sought commercial success with his repertoire in order to maintain the orchestra, and increasingly turned to popular rhythm & blues . During the sessions for Capitol (September 11, 1946), Majestic (early and mid-1947) and Mercury Records (from December 1947), a number of jazz titles such as " I Can't Get Started " and "Rhapsody in Blue" were created Vocal numbers, mostly novelty songs like "Ooh-La-La" or ballads like "I Want to Be Loved (But Only by You)".

1948 Cootie Williams had to give up his orchestra for economic reasons; with a smaller ensemble he turned completely to the current rhythm & blues; Recordings in septet format were made in 1948/49 for Mercury with Bob Merrill , Rupert Cole , Willis Jackson , Lester Fauntleroy (piano), Leonard Swain (bass) and Gus Johnson . It wasn't until 1958 that he put together his own big band formation again for recordings for RCA Victor , with soloists such as Billy Byers , Bobby Byrne , Lou McGarity , Phil Bodner , Romeo Penque and a rhythm group made up of Lou Stein , George Barnes , Eddie Safranski and Don Lamond .

Reception and meaning

78s by Cootie Williams: When My Baby Left Me (Capitol). Cootie Williams recorded the vocal number on July 19, 1945; The singer was Eddie Vinson.

According to Gunther Schuller, the importance of the Cootie Williams Orchestra was also to give young musicians (often with an orientation towards the emerging bebop ) a start that they could not find in established bands at the time. These were u. a. Bud Powell, Ken Kersey, Eddie Vinson, Sam "The Man" Taylor, Joe Guy, George Threadwell, and Gene Redd. It was also thanks to Williams that two compositions by the hitherto unknown composer and pianist Thelonious Monk were recorded and made known, "Epistrophy" and "Round Midnicht".

For Allmusic there are two recordings from April 1942, which are "symbolic of the stylistic awakening" that took place rapidly among Afro-American musicians during this phase. With “When My Baby Left Me” Cleanhead Vinson established himself as a vocalist of modern blues singing. At the same time, the Cootie Williams Orchestra offered something with “Epistrophy” that was without question one of the most advanced pieces of music of the time. Williams' outstanding pieces, which were created between 1945 and 1946 (already in his orientation towards R&B), include "Juice Head Baby", "Jumping to Conclusions" and "Echoes of Harlem". In the last phase of the orchestra, which culminated in Williams' R&B ensembles from 1948/49, the vocalists (Bob Merrill, Billy Matthews and Eddie Mack ) played a particularly prominent role. The R&B and jump blues oriented recordings of this phase (stylistically close to Louis Jordan and Wynonie Harris ) were successful in the night clubs and jukeboxes . "Inflation Blues" anticipates the theme of " Let the Good Times Roll "; Numbers like "Save the Bones for Henry Jones", "Should O 'Been Thinking Instead of Drinkin", "Gator Tail" and "Doin' the Gator Tail" are mixtures of novelty song lyrics and R&B instrumental numbers. Williams also brings in some ballads such as " I Can't Get Started " and "I Want to Be Loved" as well as orchestral titles in the Ellington tradition such as "Rhapsody in Bass" and "Sound Track".

jazz historian George T. Simon sees Cootie Williams' turn to R&B as an artistic decline; after all, Cootie's singing was not very convincing; the music of this time had “an unpleasant, exaggerated commercial claim.” But Williams was “too talented and too honest for a musician to restrict himself to this type of music, [and] soon [...] organized a good one again small jazz group [...] “.

Discographic notes

Shellac records and singles (1941–1950)

Title A side Title B side Label, number Release Remarks
Ain't misbehavin ' Blues in My Condition Okeh 6224 1941
West End Blues G-Men Okeh 6370 1941
Sleepy Valley Solitude Merritt 8 1942 The title on the B-side of the 78s comes from Louis Armstrong .
Now I know Tess's Torch Song The Hit Record 7075 1944
Cherry red blues Things Ain't What They Used to Be The Hit Record 7084 1944
Is You Is, Or Is You Aint Blue Garden Blues The Hit Record 7108 1944
I didn't kmow ? The Hit Records 8090 1944
Talk a Little Trash (I'll Spend a Little Cash) Floogie Boo The Hit Record 8089 1944
My old flame Echoes of Harlem The Hit Record 8087 1944
Sweet Lorraine Honeysuckle Rose The Hit Record 8088 1944
Is You is or Is You Ain't My Baby Blue Garden Blues The Hit Record 7108 1944
Somebody's Gotta Go 'Round Midnight The Hit Record 7119 1944
Cherry Red Things Ain't What They Used to Be Majestic 7084 1944
Somebody's Gotta Go 'Round Midnight Majestic 7119 1944
Saturday night I'm beginning to see the light Hit 7131 / Majestic 7131 1945
House of Joy Everything But You Capitol Records 215 1945
When My Baby Left Me Echoes of Harlem Capitol Records 266 1946
Juice Head Baby Salt Lake City Bounce Capitol Records 237 1946
I May Be Easy, But I'm No Fool Ain't Got Not Blues Today Capitol Records 314 1946
West End Blues Peanuts from Heaven / Chicken Rhythm V-Disc 704 1946 The titles on the B-side are from the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra / Slim Gaillard
Somebody's Gotta Go Blue Garden Blues Majestic 7148 1946
Resolution blues I want to cry Mercury 8082 1948 with Dinah Washington
Stingy blues Bring 'Em Down Front Capitol Records 15164 1948
You Got to Pay Those Dues Mercenary papa Mercury 8168 1949
Blue Rêverie I Can't Believe That You're in Love with Me Swing SW.359 1950

Albums (releases during lifetime)

  • Cootie Williams' Savoy Ballroom Orchestra (Vic, 1957), with Rupert Cole (as) George Clarke (ts) Leroy Lovett (p) Larry Dale (g, vcl) Ed Frazier (b) Lester Jenkins (d) Wini Brown (vcl)
  • Cootie Williams in Hi-Fi (RCA, 1958), with Billy Byers, Bobby Byrne, Lou McGarity (tb) Dick Hixson (b-tb) Phil Bodner, Elwyn Fraser, Nick Caiazza, Romeo Penque, Boomie Richman (saxes) Lou Stein (p) George Barnes (g) Eddie Safranski (b) Don Lamond (d), Hank Jones (p) Tony Mottola (g) replace Lou Stein, George Barnes

Compilations

  • Cootie Williams and His Orchestra 1941–1944 (Classics, ed. 1995)
  • Cootie Williams and His Orchestra 1945–1946
  • Cootie Williams and His Orchestra 1946–1949 (Classics, ed. 2000)

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ^ A b Gunther Schuller: The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930-1945 . Oxford University Press 1989, p. 403
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed November 19, 2018)
  3. ↑ Lawrence McClellan: The Later Swing Era, 1942 to 1955 . Westport, Greenwood Press 2004, p. 109
  4. ^ A b Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide To Jazz on CD . (8th ed.) Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-051521-6 .
  5. ↑ The film title may refer to the jazz club of the same name in New York City, which Wellman Braud opened in 1935. See Duke's Diary, Part 1 . Ken Vail Scarecrow Press, 1999
  6. ^ Cootie Williams and his Orchestra: Cootie Williams, Louis Bacon, Ermit V. Perry, Frank "Fat Man" Humphries (tp), Ed Burke, Bob Horton (tb) poss. Jonas Walker (tb), Charlie Holmes (as), Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (as, vcl), Sam "The Man" Taylor, Lee Pope (ts), Greely Walton (bar), Fletcher Smith (p), Norman Keenan (b), George "Butch" Ballard (dr), Laurel Watson (vcl).
  7. ↑ a b George T. Simon : The golden era of big bands. Hannibal, Höfen 2004, ISBN 3-85445-243-8 , p. 397 f.
  8. ↑ Cootie Williams and His Orchestra in the Internet Movie Database (English)
  9. ^ Gerhard Klußmeier : Jazz in the Charts. Another view on jazz history. Liner notes and booklet for the 100 CD edition. Membrane International GmbH. ISBN 978-3-86735-062-4
  10. ^ Jon Hartley Fox: King of the Queen City: The Story of King Records . University of Illinois Press 2009, p. 142
  11. ↑ Cast: Cootie Williams, Ermit V. Perry, George Treadwell, Lammar Wright, Tommy Stevenson (tp) Ed Burke, Bob Horton, Ed Glover (tb) Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson (as, vcl) Frank Powell (as) Sam " The Man "Taylor, Lee Pope (ts) Eddie De Verteuil (bar) Bud Powell (p) Leroy Kirkland (g) Carl Pruitt (b) Sylvester" Vess "Payne (dr)
  12. ^ Robert Kelley: Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original . P. 101
  13. ^ Guthrie P. Ramsey: Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-Hop University of California Press, 2003, p. 229
  14. ↑ JazzTimes - Volume 27, Issues 6-10 - page 75
  15. ↑ A good, typical blues, with some beautiful trumpet work by Cootie and solid blues shouting by Bob Merrell , wrote the critic in The American Record Guide (Volume 13), Peter Hugh Reed: American Record Guide, 1947
  16. ↑ Cast: Cootie Williams, Ermit V. Perry, Otis Gamble, Billy Ford (tp), Bob Merrill (tp, vcl), Gene Redd (tp, vib), Ed Burke, Ed Johnson, Julius Watson, (tb) Daniel Williams , Rupert Cole (as), Chuck Clark, Eddie Johnson (ts), Bob Ashton (bar), Arnold Jarvis (p), William "Pee Wee" Tinney (git), Norman Keenan (kb), Butch Ballard (dr)
  17. ↑ a b Review of the album Cootie Williams and His Orchestra 1941–1944 by arwulf arwulf at Allmusic (English). Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  18. ↑ a b Review of the album Cootie Williams and His Orchestra 1945-1946 by Stephen Cook on Allmusic (English). Retrieved November 16, 2018.
  19. ↑ a b Review of the album Cootie Williams and His Orchestra 1946–1949 by Al Campbell on Allmusic (English). Retrieved November 16, 2018.