Isham Jones

Isham Jones (born January 31, 1894 in Coalton , Ohio , † October 19, 1956 in Hollywood , Florida ) was an American big band leader, multi-instrumentalist and songwriter- composer of dance music in the 1920s and 1930s.

Live and act

Jones grew up in Saginaw, Michigan , where as a boy he led mules in coal mines, played the violin and led his first band at the age of 18. He also played the saxophone (from around 1918) and the piano. From 1915 to 1924 he was in Chicago , where he played in a dance band after his military service in 1918, which he soon took over. In Chicago he played a. a. at Rainbow Gardens and the Sherman Hotel College Inn (1922–1925). After a tour of England in 1924, he settled in New York , where he played in a Ziegfeld show in 1921 . Isham had one of the most popular dance bands in America in the 1920s and 1930s. During this time he recorded for Brunswick (1920–1932), from 1932 for RCA Victor ; From 1934 he was one of the first artists to record for the newly founded Decca label . The band's singers included violinist Eddie Stone, Frank Sylvano, Joe Martin and the young Bing Crosby . From his band u. a. Joe Bishop , the pianist Roy Bargy , the cornetist Louis Panico , Woody Herman (who took over the band Isham Jones Juniors in 1936 when Jones retired to compose more) and Benny Goodman (who was only with the band for a very short time was). Bix Beiderbecke played in the orchestra several times as a student.

Isham Jones wrote over a hundred compositions, many of which are now standards , such as "Spain" (1923), "On the Alamo", "I'll See You In My Dreams" (1924), " It Had to Be You " (1925), " Swingin 'Down the Lane ", " The One I Love Belongs to Somebody Else " and " There Is No Greater Love " (1936). After a last engagement in Memphis (Tennessee) he had to take a short break for health reasons; a few months later he appeared in New York with a new band, with which he performed at the Lincoln Hotel . During this time there was a musical competition with Woody Herman, who played with former Jones musicians in New York. He left the music business in the 1940s and 1950s and instead ran a store in Colorado before moving to Florida in 1955, where he died of cancer a year later.

A song he wrote with the songwriter Ole Olsen in 1917 is one of the first to have the word jazz in the title ( That's Jaz! ). Jones himself later referred to his music as "American Dance Music" (and not as jazz).

literature

Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac . Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978
Simon, George T .: The Big Bands . With a foreword by Frank Sinatra. 3rd revised edition. New York City, New York: Macmillan Publishing Co and London: Collier Macmillan Publishers, 1974, pp. 277-279

Web links

Commons : Isham Jones - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

Remarks

↑ Isham pronounced "eischamm"
^ William Kenney "Chicago Jazz", Oxford 1993, he referred to Jones in a 1924 edition of "Etude"

personal data
SURNAME	Jones, Isham
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American big band leader
DATE OF BIRTH	January 31, 1894
PLACE OF BIRTH	Coalton , Ohio
DATE OF DEATH	October 19, 1956
Place of death	Hollywood , Florida

[1] Isham pronounced "eischamm"

[2] William Kenney "Chicago Jazz", Oxford 1993, he referred to Jones in a 1924 edition of "Etude"