Earl Hines and His Orchestra

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Earl Hines and His Orchestra was an American big band of the swing era , led by pianist Earl Hines . According to Martin Kunzler , his “epoch-making big bands” have emerged from important musical personalities such as Trummy Young and Ray Nance ; the Hines band from 1943, according to Siegfried Schmidt-Joos "the most interesting, progressive and experimental big band at the time", soon included the leading bebop pioneers, including Dizzy Gillespie , Charlie Parker , Billy Eckstine and Sarah Vaughan .

Band history

Occupation 1929
Piano: Earl Hines
Saxophone, clarinet: Lester Boone (cl, as, bar), Toby Turner (cl, as), Cecil Irwin (ts, cl, arr)
Cornet: Shirley Clay , George Mitchell
Trombone, vocals: William Franklin
Banjo, guitar: Claude Roberts
Tuba, vocals: Hayes Alvis
Drums, vibraphone Benny Washington
arrangement Alex Hill

The beginnings in Chicago - Grand Terrace Ballroom

The year 1928 is considered to be a turning point in the career of the pianist Earl Hines; he worked with Jimmie Noone at the Apex Club on Chicago's South Side , recorded first piano solos in the studio ( No Papa No and Basin Street Blues ) and had successful appearances with Louis Armstrong ("Skip the Gutter"). The Earl Hines Orchestra was formed as a rehearsal band, while Hines played with Jimmie Noone at the Apex Club in the evenings. "The group was looking for a synthesis of the arranged, twelve-piece orchestral sound and the hot, aggressive Chicago beat ." At the end of the year, the pianist received an offer from theater manager Ed Fox to put together an orchestra for an engagement in the Grand Terrace Ballroom on South Parkway . “The Grand Terrace was an elegant cabaret that was part of the business plans of the gang around Al Capone , was to be opened in the very near future on the South Side and was strictly reserved for white customers. An orchestra of ten was wanted, and Hines was able to provide one that was already operational. So he and the band moved into this restaurant on December 28, 1928 [...] ”, on his twenty-fifth birthday.

“For the next eleven years, Hines and his band were permanent fixtures in the Grand Terrace Ballroom, first at the original location (3955 South Parkway, now King Drive) and finally, from June 1937, in a building in his new neighborhood on South Calumet which a decade later would house the Sunset Cafe ”. The Grand Terrace was run by Joe Glaser, Louis Armstrong's manager, and was considered Chicago's most prestigious venue of the time. "Hines and his band worked seven days a week, played three shows a night and finally toured two to three months a year."
official police photo of Capone from June 17, 1931

When the mobsters took control of the Grand Terrace Ballroom , they forced Earl Hines into a lifelong contract with the club, which in return earned him a weekly fee of $ 150. When three musicians his band left to Don Redman to move to Detroit, were from the headquarters of Al Capone phone calls with Owney Madden the Mobsterchef in New York, led to the "acquisition" of the musicians by the Detroit Purple Gang into the ways to direct. On the other hand, the pianist made no secret of the fact that his career depended significantly on the patronage and protection of Al Capone and other notorious Chicago gangsters. When asked about his relationship with the Chicago Mafia, Hines said:

" It was the case of the three monkeys: see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil ."
"That was the case of the three monkeys : see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil."
Earl Hines (left) with Pvt. Charles Carpenter, a former manager of the Earl Hines Orchestra.

In addition, Hines also acted as EmCee at the Grand Terrace and presented guest artists such as Buck and Bubbles , Ethel Waters , and Bill “Bojangles” Robinson .

On February 13, 1929, the group's first recordings (Sweet Ella May, Everbody Loves My Baby) were made for Victor Records . They showed inconsistent ensemble playing, but "Hines refined and expanded his band." In 1929 the pianist had young Chicago musicians like the woodwind Cecil Irwin and tubist Hayes Alvis brought into his band; "These ambitious jazz men could play by sight, play solos without problems and had studied arrangement."

When the Chicago nightclubs closed for a while in the summer of 1931, Hines toured with his band in the southern United States ; so the Hines orchestra became the first African American band to do so. With the rise of Kansas City jazz in the early 1930s, Hines' band adapted to these musical changes, but had a more urban intensity, according to Marc Myers. "While the Kansas City arrangers had found a way to simplify, [...] Hines was much more of a cosmopolitan artist, in a brash, sparkling way."

In 1932 Earl Hines went into the studio with his orchestra in New York City for Brunswick Records . His band had meanwhile been expanded to twelve musicians, these were Charlie Allen (trumpet), George Dixon (trumpet, arrangement) Walter Fuller (trumpet, vocals), Louis Taylor (trombone, arrangement), William Franklin (trombone, vocals), Darnell Howard (clerinet, alto saxophone, violin), Omer Simeon (clarinet, alto and baritone saxophone), Cecil Irwin (tenor sax, clarinet, arrangement), Lawrence Dixon (guitar, arr.), Quinn Wilson (bass, tuba, arr.) And Wallace Bishop (drums); Henry Woodip and Reginald Foresythe acted as further arrangers . In the New York studio, a.o. a. the titles Deep Forest, Blue Drag and Oh! You Sweet Thing . In February 1933 they recorded a number of vocal numbers such as Rosetta with vocalist Valaida Snow for Columbia Records , the arranger of this session was Jimmy Mundy .

From 1933, the NBC began broadcasting the performances of the Hines band from the Grand Terrace Ballroom in the United States and Canada. At the next session in October 1933 the trombonist Trummy Young joined them; The titles Take It Easy, Harlem Lament, Bubbling Over and I Want a Lot of Love were created for Brunswick in Chicago . In March 1934, the Hines Orchestra in New York played instrumental titles (Madhouse) and vocal numbers with Herb Jeffries ( Just to Be in Carolina / Blue ). 1934 was also the year Hines took the violin out of his orchestra; This was accompanied by "a new, more modern sound, not least thanks to the arranging style of Jimmy Mundy", heard for example in Cavernism , Fat Babes or Madhouse from March 1934. Arrangements like Madhouse or Swingtime in the Rockies finally led to Benny Goodman's 1936 Jimmy Mundy recruited the Hines Orchestra. Quinn Wilson contributed arrangements of older titles such as Maple Leaf Rag and Wolverine Blues . in September 1934 ( That's a Plenty ) and February 1935 three more record sessions for Decca Records followed .

Occupation 1937
Piano: Earl Hines
Saxophone, clarinet: Darnell Howard, Omer Simeon (cl, as) Willie Randall (cl, ts) Budd Johnson (ts)
Trumpet: Milton Fletcher, Charles Allen, Walter Fuller
Trombone: Louis Taylor, Trummy Young, Kenneth Stuart
Guitar: Lawrence Dixon
Bass: Quinn Wilson
Drums Wallace Bishop

The pianist Hines was not so much about arranging or composing for the orchestra; Hines saw it as a platform and framework for his virtuoso piano playing . "His full, luscious, driving, two-handed style sounded more like a band than a soloist at the piano."

Though Earl Hines was often pressured into hiring musicians who were already famous, “he followed Duke Ellington's advice to create his own stars, and it came about that by 1935 his group included such talented soloists as trumpeter Walter Fuller , the trombonist Trummy Young , and - perhaps most importantly - woodwind player Budd Johnson , "has been a prominent soloist in titles like Grand Terrace Shuffle and GT Stomp . Hines also worked with a number of talented arrangers , in addition to Budd Johnson, who also acted as musical director of the orchestra from 1938, these were Jimmy Mundy and Quinn Wilson, who gave the band a clearly recognizable sound and an unusually rich repertoire, so the Hines biographer Jeffrey Taylor. Thanks to the weekly radio broadcast from the Grand Terrace Ballroom and numerous tours, the group soon achieved national fame, even if in the 30s it did not come close to the popularity of the Duke Ellington Orchestra or Count Basie Orchestra . In fact, in 1939 the orchestra only made it to position 79 in the ranking of the industry magazine Metronome in the Best of All Bands category .

Musically, they went one step further in 1937; the tuba was taken out and the swing style of the time became recognizable . This was also thanks to the arrangements made by Cecil Irwin (Rhythm Sundae) , who died two years later as a result of a car accident. Mundy's arrangement style made sophisticated use of riffs by individual wind groups and a modern idiom; so his 1937 arrangements of Inspiration and Solid Mama were ahead of their time. According to Marc Myers, this also applies to Budd Johnson, whose Father Steps In and Riff Medley from 1939 already suggest the bebop. One of the highlights of Budd Johnson's arrangements is Skylark from 1942, with Billy Eckstine's vocals and a solo by Johnson. According to Gunther Schuller , however, the Earl Hines Orchestra did not succeed in developing an identifiable sound because they employed too many arrangers and the band's recordings often sounded too little rehearsed. Earl Hines said:

“It's never been a band with special characteristics because I didn't want it to be. For this reason I used different arrangers from all over the country, so there couldn't be a specific style. And I exchanged arrangements with Fred Waring , Tommy Dorsey and Jimmy Dorsey . The only moment when the audience recognized my orchestra was when they heard my piano. "

The early 1940s

It was not until 1940 that Earl Hines was able to free himself from the clutches of organized crime with the support of Harry Gray, the head of the Afro-American-dominated musicians' union Local 208 and the backing of the national union Musician's Union . "It took a year of litigation and a period of increased musical inactivity, but in the end Hines was his own boss." Although the bandleader had lost some musicians to other orchestras without his stable Chicago base and others through war-related confiscations, Earl Hines now recognized him changing audience tastes towards smaller rhythm and blues combos. "In fact, he was a master of improvisation and managed to keep a band more or less intact through the war."

Although 1940 brought a break with Ed Fox and ended his engagement with the Grand Terrace Ballroom , the early 1940s were a successful time for Earl Hines' orchestra. In October 1942, the band had a hit in the new "Harlem Hit Parade" (the forerunner of the R&B charts) with "Stormy Monday Blues". The orchestra had their biggest hit with the W. C. Handy title Boogie Woogie on the St. Louis Blues ( Bluebird 10674) at the height of the American boogie woogie wave. The number with which George Dixon was the band vocalist reached # 11 on the US charts on May 18, 1940, where it stayed for four weeks. The Down Beat described the song as a "subtle satire on the boogie piano style".

Sarah Vaughan, around August 1946. Photo: Gottlieb .

Equally popular was Jelly, Jelly (1941), in which singer Billy Eckstine , who joined the group in late 1939, had a prominent role. Another title of the Hines orchestra in the American charts was Stormy Monday Blues (Bluebird 11567), again with Billy Eckstine as singer (and co-authors); the song, which was recorded in November 1940, hit the charts on April 24, 1943 and stayed at # 23 for a week. The phase with Hines got Billy Eckstine's career "really going," wrote George T. Simon . Also the Jones / Kahn title It Had to Be You (Bluebird 10825), recorded in February 1940 with the singer Madeline Greene and the Three Varietes , did not enter the US charts until after the recording ban on August 12, 1944, where he played one Week reached # 18.

Occupation 1941
Piano: Earl Hines
Saxophone, clarinet: Leroy Harris, Scoops Carey , Willy Randall, Budd Johnson, Franz Jackson
Trumpet George Dixon, Pee Wee Jackson, Tommy Enoch, Freddy Webster
trombone Joe McLewis, George Hunt, Edward Fant, John Ewing
guitar Hurley Ramey
bass Truck Parham
Drums Rudolph Taylor

“The early 1940s may mark the most commercially successful period in Hines' career, but his luck didn't last long; Eckstine left to start his own band in late 1943 , and for a brief period that year Hines led the now legendary big band with trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie and saxophonist Charlie Parker, both promising figures in the creation of bebop . However, this group never recorded. ”Billy Eckstine and Budd Johnson“ had occasionally listened to the modern jazz sounds emanating from Minton's in Harlem, and together they convinced Hines to try it in his big band, ”wrote George T. Simon. “Hines accepted the proposal, and so the Hines band became the first and in many ways the most successful of the early big bop formations.” Johnson was also able to persuade the band leader to “an incredibly creative, but somewhat unreliable saxophonist from Jay McShann's Band ”to get into the orchestra; it was Charlie Parker . As Christmas approached 1942, Bird became a member of the Earl Hines Orchestra, where he replaced Budd Johnson on tenor saxophone. Eckstine, in turn, got Hines to hire a singer he had just discovered, the young Sarah Vaughan .

The few contemporary witnesses reported on the great duets by Sarah Vaughan and Dizzy Gillespie; Benny Harris , who was playing trumpet in the Hines band at the time, recalled that “the whole brass section tried to sound like Diz [zy]. And when Earl left the stage, Diz jumped up from his seat and sat at the piano. ” Gene Ammons , Wardell Gray and Bennie Green also played in the Earl Hines band from 1943, which had an engagement at New York's Apollo Theater , Benny Harris , Huey Long and Shadow Wilson . The band repertoire, however, was rather conventional. Arrigo Polillo said of the Earl Hines Orchestra of 1943 , “In any case, you know that it was great, even if the talent of the new jazz revolutionaries had no opportunity to develop to the full. Hines didn't think about playing the role of the jazz progressive [...] ”. Still, Hines was full of praise for Charlie Parker:

" .. I never heard so much tenor horn in my life .... You know how the guy got all over that alto; you know he did was just as bad [here is well on tenor ... Charlie was a good one section, and a very good reader .... I mean, he was a musician]. "

In mid-January 1943, the Hines band toured as part of the Apollo Theater circuit ; she played in Washington DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, Detroit and Chicago. The experimenters in the band often found opportunities to jam sessions in the various cities, two of which were recorded, one with Shorty McConnell , one of Hines' trumpeters, the other from the Ritz Hotel with Gillespie, Parker and Oscar Pettiford . In August 1943, after touring army camps, Parker left the Hines band. When the recording ban was lifted by James Petrillo in 1944, "many key figures had already left the band". When he founded his own orchestra, Eckstine had "taken the bebop heart of his boss's organization with him," according to David Hajdu, Gillespie, Parker, Vaughan, arrangers Budd Johnson and Jerry Valentine , saxophonist Wardell Gray (who joined in October 1944 Hines returned), trumpeters Freddie Webster and Shorty McConnell, bassist Oscar Pettiford and drummer Shadow Wilson. However, none of his later bands achieved "the high level of musicianship or commercial success of the group he directed in the early 1940s," said George T. Simon.

The post-war period and the end of the orchestra

Occupation 1946
Piano: Earl Hines
Saxophone, clarinet: Scoops Carry (as, fl); Lloyd Smith (as); Kermit Scott, Wardell Gray (ts), John Williams (bar)
Trumpet: Arthur Walker, Willie Cook , Fats Palmer (Palmer Davis), Bill Douglas
trombone Gus Chappel, Woogie Harris, Druie Bess, Cliff Smalls
Guitar: René Hall
Bass: Gene Thomas
Drums Chick Booth

After experiments with a women's band (due to the war-related shortage of men) with instrumentalists and the singer Sarah Vaughan, Hines performed with a smaller ensemble in 1945 at the El Grotto Club , a jazz club in the basement of the Pershing Hotel in Chicago. “The engagement was a success, but Hines' decision to buy the club ended in financial disaster two years later.” At the end of April 1946, Hines played with his orchestra (which at the time included guitarist René Hall and saxophonist Wardell Gray played) on NBC's Jubilee show; From 1944 to the end of 1947 there were further recordings for smaller labels such as American Recording Artists, Sunrise , Bravo and in January 1948 for Jubilee, "but the arrangements had nothing forward-looking and the performances lacked spirit and direction". With four titles like When I Dream of You and Ain't Misbehavin ' , the young singer Johnny Hartman was added, who was stylistically based on Billy Eckstine.

In 1946, Hines was so injured in a traffic accident that he could no longer go on tour with his band. At the beginning of 1948, with the decline of the big big bands, Earl Hines finally disbanded his orchestra. Then Hines resumed the collaboration with Louis Armstrong and toured with the Louis Armstrong All-Stars until 1951. In the following years, Hines occasionally put together big band formations for recordings, for example in the summer of 1954 ( Earl Hines and His New Sound Orchestra , ( Nocturne ) with Dicky Wells , Leroy Harris , Jerome Richardson , Willie Maiden , Jay Hill ) or im January 1959 as accompanist for the singer Barbara Dane ( Livin 'With the Blues , Dot , with Benny Carter , Herbie Harper , Plas Johnson , Leroy Vinnegar , Shelly Manne ), otherwise mostly worked with trio, quartet and sextet formations or various All Stars cast.

Discographic notes

Billy Eckstine (Photo: Gottlieb ) could be heard on a series of 78s of the Hines Orchestra from 1940 to 1942, such as My Heart Beats for You , Wait 'til It Happens to You , You Don't Know What Love Is and most recently Skylark and Stormy Monday Blues

78er (selection)

  • 1929: Sweet Ella May / Tiny Parham and His Musicians: Rock Bottom (Victor 22842)
  • 1929: Bennie Moten 's Kansas City Orchestra: Sad Man Blues / Earl Hines and His Orchestra Have You Ever Felt That Way? (Victor V-38048)
  • 1929: Everybody Loves My Baby / Chicago Rhythm (Victor 38042 or Bluebird BB-7040)
  • 1929: Good Little, Bad Little, You / Beau Koo Jack (Victor 38043)
  • 1929: Grand Piano Blues / Blue Nights (Victor 38096)
  • 1930: Sister Kate / McKinney's Cotton Pickers : I Want Your Love (Victor 22638)
  • 1932: Oh! You Sweet Thing / Blue Drag (Brunswick 6345)
  • 1932: I Love You Because I Love You / Sensational Mood (Br 6379)
  • 1932: Love me Tonight / Dawn Among the Sheltering Palms (Br 6403 / Columbia 35877)
  • 1933: Take It Easy / Harlem Lament (Br 6771)
  • 1933: Deep Forest (A Hymn to Darkness) / Rosetta (Columbia 35838)
  • 1933: Bubblin 'Over / I Want a Lot of Love (Br 6710)
  • 1934: Just to Be in Carolina / We Found Romance (Br 6860)
  • 1934: Blue / Julia (Br 6872)
  • 1934: Madhouse / Darkness (Vocalion 3972)
  • 1934: You're the One of My Dreams / Swingin 'Down (Voc 3392)
  • 1937: Grand Piano Blues / Blue Nights (Bluebird B-6744)
  • 1937: That's a Plenty / Sweet Georgia Brown (Decca 182)
  • 1937: Maple Leaf Rag (Decca 217)
  • 1939: Ridin 'and Jivin' / Grand Terrace Shuffle (Bluebird 10351)
  • 1939: Piano Man / Father Steps In (Bluebird B-10377)
  • 1940: 'Gator Swing / My Heart Beats for You (Bluebird B-10763)
  • 1940: Call Me Happy / Blue Because of You (Bluebird B-10835)
  • 1940: Ann / Topsy-Turvy (Bluebird B-10870)
  • 1940: Up Jumped the Devil / Southside (Bluebird -11237)
  • 1940: My Heart Beats for You / 'Gator Swing (Bluebird 10763)
  • 1940: Wait 'til It Happens to You / You Can Depend On Me (Bluebird 10985)
  • 1941: Jersey Bounce / Sally Won't You Come Back (Bluebird B-11126)
  • 1941: In Swamp Lands / Ev'rything Depends On You / Easy Rhythm (Bluebird B-11036)
  • 1941: Water Boy / Windy City Jive (Bluebird B-11329)
  • 1941: The Earl / Somehow (Bluebird B-11432)
  • 1941: Jelly Jelly / I'm Falling for You (Bluebird B-11065)
  • 1942: Stormy Monday Blues / Second Balcony Jump (Bluebird B-11567)
  • 1942: Skylark / She'll Always Remember (Bluebird B-11512)
  • 1944: Coleman Hawkins and His Orchestra: Body and Soul / Earl Hines and His Orchestra. It Had to Be You (Bluebird 300825)
  • 1946: Straight Life / Now That You're Mine (ARA 156)
  • 1946: Margie / Rosetta (Ara 149), with Dolores Parker , Essex Scott
  • 1948: You Don't Know What Love Is / I'm Falling for You (RCA Victor - 20-2896, recordings from 1940/41)
  • 1948: Water Boy / Skylark (RCA Victor - 20-2897, recordings from 1941/42)

Albums and collections

The first album by Earl Hines and His Orchestra and Billy Eckstine was released in 1942 under the title Stormy Monday Blues (RCA Victor P-212) in the format of four shellac records. The recordings of Earl Hines and His Orchestra are documented in CD form in the individual editions of Classics (1928–48). The compilation Classic Earl Hines Sessions 1928–1945 by Mosaic Records contains piano solo numbers such as Rosetta, A Monday Date, Melancholy Baby from numerous orchestral recordings, including the titles Cavernism, Take It Easy, Madhouse, Rhythm Sundae, Boogie Woogie On St. Louis Blues, Jelly, Jelly, Stormy Monday Blues and Skylark .

Web links

Notes and individual references

  1. ↑ Martin Kunzler : Jazz Lexicon. 2nd Edition. Rowohlt, Reinbek 2002, ISBN 3-499-16512-0 Volume 1, ISBN 3-499-16317-9 Volume 2.
  2. ↑ Siegfried Schmidt-Joos: My back pages: Idols and freaks, death and legend in pop music . 2004, p. 68.
  3. ↑ a b c d e f g h i Earl Hines, Jeffrey Taylor: Selected piano solos: 1928–1941. Volume 56, 2006, p. XIX.
  4. ^ A b c William Howland Kenney: Chicago-Jazz : A Cultural History, 1904–1930 . 1994, p. 145.
  5. ↑ a b c Arrigo Polillo : Jazz . Piper, Munich 1981, p. 344 f.
  6. ↑ June Skinner Sawyers, Rick Kogan: Chicago Portraits: New Edition . 2012, p. 155
  7. ↑ a b c d e f Marc Myers: Earl Hines Sessions. ( Memento of the original from December 10, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. In: Jazzwax. 2013. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.jazzwax.com
  8. ↑ a b E. Hines at Pennsylvania Center of the Book ( Memento of the original from March 20, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / pabook2.libraries.psu.edu
  9. ^ A b c d e f Robert Bone, Richard A. Courage: The Muse in Bronzeville: African American Creative Expression in Chicago. 2006, p. 106.
  10. ^ Adam Green: Selling the Race: Culture, Community, and Black Chicago, 1940-1955. 2007, p. 59.
  11. ^ Alan Shipton: Groovin 'High: The Life of dizzy Gillespie . 2001, p. 108.
  12. ↑ a b c d e f g Tom Lord: Jazz discography (online)
  13. ↑ a b c d e f Richard Cook , Brian Morton : The Penguin Guide to Jazz . 6th edition. 2003, p. 720 f.
  14. ^ Martin Williams: Jazz Changes . 1993, p. 5.
  15. ↑ a b c d e f g h George T. Simon : The golden era of big bands. Hannibal, Höfen 2004, ISBN 3-85445-243-8 , p. 234 ff.
  16. ^ Billboard October 24, 1942, p. 24
  17. ^ A b Gerhard Klußmeier: Jazz in the Charts. Membrane, CD compilation
  18. ↑ a b c d Lawrence O. Koch: Yardbird Suite: A Compendium of the Music and Life of Charlie Parker . 1988, p. 36.
  19. ^ David Hajdu: Heroes and Villains: Essays on Music, Movies, Comics, and Culture . 2006.
  20. ↑ Cast of the session of December 31, 1947: Duke Garrette , (tp, vcl), Bobby Plater (as, cl), Morris Lane (ts), Charlie Fowlkes (bar), Bill Dougherty (from left) [possibly a pseudonym for Eddie South (vln)], Billy Mackel (git), Charles Mingus (b), Curley Hamner (d) Wini Brown (vcl)
  21. ↑ Title: Stormy Monday Blues, I Got It Bad and That Ain't Good, Jelly, Jelly, Somehow, You Don't Know What Love Is , I'm Falling for You, Water Boy and Skylark .