Don Redman

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Don Redman (born July 29, 1900 in Piedmont , West Virginia as Donald Matthew , † November 30, 1964 in New York City ) was an American jazz musician (saxophone, clarinet, vocals), arranger and composer . Due to his very solid training as an arranger at the time, he had a great influence on other jazz musicians.

Live and act

Redman learned to trumpet at the age of three, played in a band for the first time at the age of six and played a number of wind instruments such as trumpet and oboe, as well as the piano, at age twelve. He studied at Storer's College at Harper's Ferry and the Boston Conservatory. After being a member of Lois Deppe's Serenaders , he was joined in 1923 Billy Page's Broadway Syncopaters in New York at.

In 1924 he became a member of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, where he mainly played the clarinet and saxophone . As early as 1924 he recorded the first scat song in jazz history ("My Papa Doesn't Two-Time No Time") in this band . Soon he was helping Henderson write arrangements. Their work was the style for the big band - Swing .

In 1927 he joined the McKinney's Cotton Pickers from Detroit at where he played until 1931 and arranged. In December 1928 he was also heard on recordings by Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five . In 1931 he founded his own band, which appeared for a long time in the famous jazz club Connie's Inn in Manhattan . He got a recording deal with Brunswick Records and also made some radio appearances. Redman's compositions were also selected for the soundtrack of a Betty Boop cartoon ("I Heard"). With “Chant of the Weed” he had his first hit on the Billboard charts in 1931 (# 15).

Well-known musicians of his band were u. a. Sidney De Paris (trumpet), Edward Inge (clarinet) and singer Harlan Lattimore , also known as the "Black Crosby". He also arranged for other band leaders such as Paul Whiteman , Isham Jones , Ben Pollack and Bing Crosby .

In 1937 Redman experimented with re-arranging old pop classics for the Variety label. At the end of 1938 he took up again under his own name for Bluebird ; "Margie" became the last of seven hits listed under Redman in January 1939. In 1940 he disbanded his orchestra and concentrated on freelance writing arrangements for other artists such as Jimmy Dorsey , Jimmy Lunceford , Count Basie and Harry James . In 1946 he organized the first American band to tour Europe again after the war and which included musicians such as Don Byas and Tyree Glenn .

In 1949 he had a show on CBS , in the 1950s he worked as the head of the band for singer Pearl Bailey . Then he rarely appeared in public, played again in 1958/59, otherwise devoting himself to his extensive compositions (which were never published).

He's the uncle of Dewey Redman .

Discographic notes

  • For Europeans Only ( SteepleChase Records , 1946, ed. 1983)
  • Swiss Radio Days : Geneva 1946 (TCB, ed. 1999)

Lexigraphic entries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Laurence A. Glasco The WPA History of the Negro in Pittsburgh University of Pittsburgh Press 2004, p. 331
personal data
SURNAME Redman, Don
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Redman, Donald Matthew
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician, arranger, and composer
DATE OF BIRTH July 29, 1900
PLACE OF BIRTH Piedmont , West Virginia
DATE OF DEATH November 30, 1964
Place of death New York City