Eddie Durham

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Eddie Durham (born August 19, 1906 in San Marcos , Texas , † March 6, 1987 in New York ) was an American jazz guitarist, trombonist, composer and one of the most important arrangers of swing .

life and work

Durham came from a musical family; his father played the violin in square dance , his brother played the cello and gave him correspondence courses in music theory. His counsel was trombonist Allen Durham . He played the banjo first, then guitar and trombone. He initially toured from the age of 10 in Minstrels shows with his family's band (Durham Brothers Band, his brother and two cousins) and played in a circus band until 1926, with whom he performed at Yankee Stadium in New York pulled. Then he played in several territory bands like Jimmy Joy , Edgar Battle's Dixie Ramblers and as a trombonist, guitarist and arranger for the Blue Devils of Walter Page .

From 1929 he switched to the Bennie Moten Orchestra, to which he gave a successful new musical direction through his arrangements in the early 1930s, which eventually brought the band to the same level as the then leading big bands of Fletcher Henderson , Chick Webb and Don Redman . At the same time he amplified his guitar as an accompanying instrument with a resonator. Since, as was customary at the time, the rights to his compositions and arrangements were transferred to the von Moten orchestra, it is no longer possible to determine exactly which pieces are by him. This applies, for example, to the pieces Moten Swing (with his early use of riffs in the 1932 recordings) and later One O 'Clock Jump with Basie. Durham is believed to be one of the originators of the use of riffs in the big band arrangements that made the Kansas City style famous. The arrangements were often merged with those of the later Count Basie Big Band, who "inherited" them from Moten, which led to a temporary upset between Durham and Basie.

Durham worked with Eddie Barefield on his arrangements and, to an unclear extent, with Bill "Count" Basie - Basie later reported that they developed Moten Swing together on the piano when they wanted to arrange You drivin me crazy for the Moten orchestra. Other Moten wind players such as Buster Smith and Hot Lips Page were also involved in working out the arrangements. Durham co-wrote Topsy (with Edgar Battle), which was recorded by Count Basie and later many others, as well as the author of swing classics such as Lafayette and Prince of Wales . After leaving Moten in 1933, he played in the band of Willie Bryant and Jimmy Lunceford . In 1934 he moved to New York. In 1936 he rejoined Basie's band for a year (replaced by Freddie Green in 1937 ), for which he a. a. Time out , Sent for you yesterday , John's Idea , Every Tub , Swinging the Blues , Jumpin at the Woodside , Out the window , Blue and Sentimental composed or arranged.

After that he worked as a freelancer and arranged a. a. for Glenn Miller (including In the Mood ), Andy Kirk , Artie Shaw , Harry James , Cab Calloway , Ina Ray Hutton , Billie Holiday and the all-female jazz band International Sweethearts of Rhythm , of which he was musical director from 1941 to 1943. He also led his own band in the 1940s, in which other Kansas City musicians from Texas such as Buster Smith and Hot Lips Page played. After leaving the Sweethearts (partly because he didn't like the exploitation of female musicians), he founded his own all-girl band (Eddie Durham's All Star Girl Orchestra) in 1942 with female musicians, some of whom he took away from the Sweethearts successfully appeared, for example, in the Apollo Theater and with whom he toured in the south. He continued to arrange into the 1960s and recorded as a guitarist in England in 1974 and 1981. In the 1980s he toured Europe with the Harlem Blues and Jazz Band .

In his musical career, his contribution to the development of the modern swing style in the Bennie Moten Orchestra particularly distinguishes him . Its role in shaping swing in Kansas City can hardly be overstated. Durham was strongly influenced from 1933 by the western swing guitarists Bob Dunn and Floyd Tillman .

Durham is also known for being one of the first to experiment with electric guitar. He took it on in 1938 with the Kansas City Five , mentoring Charlie Christian and Floyd Smith . He made some of the earliest recordings with electric guitar with Lunceford in 1935 ( Hittin the bottle ) and with the Kansas City Five in 1938, a group of members of the Basie Band ( Buck Clayton , Jo Jones , Walter Page , Freddie Green , in the Kansas City Six supplemented by Lester Young ) without Count Basie (whose part on the piano Durham took over with his electric guitar).

He appeared in the documentary film The last of the Blue Devils by Bruce Ricker in 1980, in which he also played solo trombone.

Web links

Individual references, comments

  1. ^ Interview with Durham, quoted in McCarthy Big Band Jazz 1977
  2. ^ Schulz-Köhn I got rhythm
  3. ^ Albert McCarthy, Big Band Jazz , Berkley Publishing 1977
  4. ↑ Alexander Schmitz: The guitar in jazz. Supplementary considerations on JE Berendt's article. In: Guitar & Laute 5, 1983, Issue 1, pp. 82-84; here: p. 83.
personal data
SURNAME Durham, Eddie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz trombonist and arranger
DATE OF BIRTH August 19, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH San Marcos, Texas
DATE OF DEATH March 6, 1987
Place of death New York City