Hot Lips Page

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Hot Lips Page, circa June 1946.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Oran Thaddeus Page , called Hot Lips , (born January 27, 1908 in Dallas , Texas , † November 5, 1954 in New York ) was an American jazz trumpeter and singer .

Live and act

Page played already as a twelve year old children in the local brass band of Budd Johnson . In 1923, at the age of 15, he became a professional musician and worked in the circus and ballrooms. He also accompanied blues singers Bessie Smith , Ma Rainey and Ida Cox . He listened to the records of Louis Armstrong , who delighted all young trumpeters. In 1926, Page went to Chicago to hear his idol live.

In 1927 he joined the first renowned band, the Blue Devils Orchestra, which was led by bassist Walter Page (his half-brother). With his fiery style, he quickly became an attraction for this Territory band . In November 1929 the legendary band's only recordings were made in Kansas City: the Blue Devil Blues, sung by Jimmy Rushing , and Squablin´ with a fine solo by Hot Lips Page on the stuffed trumpet in his own now fully developed style, the Jazz researcher TB Weeks calls preaching style. Page declaimed, preached.

In the course of 1930 important musicians left the Blue Devils and joined Bennie Moten 's Kansas City Orchestra. Page followed in early 1931. Moten led the leading band in Kansas City since 1925 and built it up into a big band with two brass sections and excellent soloists. At the famous Victor recording session in December 1932, there were five brass players, including Hot Lips Page, and three woodwinds, including tenor saxophonist Ben Webster , and four men in the rhythm section with Count Basie at the piano. Ten recordings were made that mark the high point of the Kansas City style and made an impression across America.

Kansas City was a jazz Eldorado from the 1920s to 1940 because musicians easily found work despite Prohibition and Depression. Page stayed with Bennie Moten until his death in 1935. He played in changing small line-ups in various clubs, preferably at Sunset, where Pete Johnson played the piano and the barman Joe Turner sang the blues. Page was always welcome there with trumpet and singing. He also took part in every jam session or initiated it himself. Count Basie established himself in the Reno Club and employed some of his colleagues from the Moten Band, three trumpeters, three woodwinds and three for the rhythm, including bassist Walter Page. Lips Page was a freelance Master of Ceremonies in the Reno and often a trumpet soloist.

The music of this first basie band was the continuation of the Moten style, riff-oriented and without written arrangements, although the brass groups had to work together. But that was practiced, you had it in your head. The soloists, especially Hot Lips Page, the tenor saxophonist Lester Young and, of course, Basie on the piano could develop freely. The strong wind groups, the relaxed ensemble sound and the driving rhythm set the band apart. The radio transmissions, which were broadcast regularly on a strong transmitter in the best technical quality, were decisive for the success.

Record producer and talent scout John Hammond listened to the baseband in Chicago on the car radio, wrote an enthusiastic review and made the competition act faster than him. The manager of Louis Armstrong, Joe Glaser , rushed to Kansas City in the Reno, heard the sensational trumpeter with entertainer qualities and recognized in Lips Page the coming star. He immediately offered him a contract for a big band to be founded by him in New York, while the Count signed a record deal with Decca and traveled to Chicago in November 1936 with his "Barons of Rhythm".

Page stayed at the Reno Club for a few more weeks until he and his wife arrived in Harlem for Christmas 1936. He then played in the jazz clubs of 52nd Street in New York as a band leader and soloist, developing a penchant for rhythm and blues in the style of Louis Jordan .

Page (front) with Sidney Bechet ,
approx. June 1947. Photo Gottlieb

At the end of May 1938 he achieved his only success on the Billboard charts when his instrumental version of the Ellington song "I Let a Song Go Out of My Heart" reached number 9 on the charts. In 1941 he also played with Artie Shaw , but was unlucky that their joint hit single " St. James Infirmary " was released when Shaw broke up his band. Other well-known numbers he recorded with Shaw were "Blues in the Night", "Take Your Shoes off, Baby" and "Motherless Child". He also worked on recordings for Joe Turner , Pete Johnson , Eddie Condon , Mezz Mezzrow and Ben Webster during this time .

78 with a vocal number from Hot Lips Page: "Gee Baby, Ain't I Good for You"

He was also considered a good singer in the rhythm and blues idiom, u. a. heard in his title "Old Yazoo" (1941) and the "Uncle Sam Blues" (1944) written by him during his military service with the line "Uncle Sam ain't no woman / You know he sure can take your man", for the author Will Friedwald "exemplary of the kind of humor that runs through Page's work." In 1944, "You Need Coachin '" was created during his recordings for Commodore Records with Earl Bostic , Clyde Hart and Don Byas . He took part in the Festival International 1949 de Jazz in Paris and played in Belgium and France in 1953 and 1954.

Discographic notes

literature

Web links

Remarks

  1. ↑ When recording the songs for Bluebird Records worked u. a. the saxophonist Benny Waters with.
  2. ↑ W. Friedwald, p. 244. Friedwald mentions, however, that Hot Lips Page step "as a singer in the blues tradition with the same abilities for comedy as for tragedy, [...] next to Jimmy Rushing and Joe Williams in the background"; but he also notes: “Jazz musicians whose specialty is the blues rarely show enough confidence in their vocal skills to get the audience to take the singing seriously. Page was never very clever; his voice was just as good as that of any other blues singer, and if he had lived long enough [...] he would certainly have become a celebrated blues musician. "(ibid.)
personal data
SURNAME Page, hot lips
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Page, Oran Thaddeus (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 27, 1908
PLACE OF BIRTH Dallas , Texas
DATE OF DEATH 5th November 1954
Place of death New York City