Jan Savitt
Jan Savitt (born September 4, 1907 in Saint Petersburg as Jacob Savetnick , † October 4, 1948 in Sacramento ) was a Russian-born American violinist, composer , arranger and big band leader in the field of swing and popular music .
Live and act
Jan Savitt's father was director of the tsarist regimental band ; when Jan was eighteen months old the family immigrated to the United States and moved to Philadelphia . After studying music in Europe and at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, he became a violinist in the Philadelphia Orchestra at the age of 19 , eventually switching from classical to light music and becoming an employee of NBC station KYW in Philadelphia, where he directed a studio band for radio broadcasts. The great response to these programs meant that he went on tour with this band in early 1936; Savitt also wrote the arrangements for this orchestra. In 1937 he founded his own big band, The Top Hatters , which consisted of 15 to 18 musicians and the band singers. Savitt toured regularly with the orchestra; Her songs included "720 in the Books", "It's A Wonderful World" and her signature tunes "Quaker City Jazz" and "From Out Of Space".
His band operated under the names Jan Savitt & His Top Hatters , the Jan Savitt String Orchestra and Jan Savitt & His Orchestra . Savitt was also one of the first big band leaders to hire an Afro-American band singer, George "Bon Bon" Tunnell (1912–1975), who influenced later vocalists such as Jon Hendricks or Mel Tormé with his pronounced swing feeling . His other singers were u. a. Carlotta Dale, Allan DeWitt, Joe Martin and Gloria DeHaven.
Jan Savitt's swing orchestra enjoyed great popularity across the country, not least because of its participation in several feature films ( Betty Ced, High School Hero and That's My Gal ); A number of later well-known jazz musicians such as Georgie Auld , Tex Beneke , Urbie Green , Chubby Jackson , Vernon Brown , Nick Fatool and George Siravo as well as the band singer Kitty Kallen played in his various band formations . Records were made for Variety, Decca Records , Bluebird Records , Thesaurus and for Victor Records . Between 1938 and 1940 - starting with the song "Ho-Yo Silver" (# 14), alluding to the popular radio western series The Lone Ranger - he had a total of eight hits on the Billboard charts; his last success was "Make Believe Island".
In the post-war period, Savitt had to limit his orchestra to eight musicians; he went to the west coast of the USA and lived in north Hollywood. On October 3, 1948, while driving his Top Hatters to a performance in Sacramento , he suffered an intracerebral haemorrhage and died in a hospital in Sacramento at the age of 41. Barry Ulanov , who was Savitt's press agent at the time, wrote an obituary in the Metronome praising him as a great jazz musician who, however, would never have fully found his niche.
In 1939 Savitt composed the title "It's a Wonderful World" with Johnny Watson (text: Harold Adamson ).
Discographic notes
- Jan Savitt & the Tophatters (Canby)
- It's Time to Jump & Shout (Vintage)
Web links
swell
- Will Friedwald : Swinging Voices of America - A Compendium of Great Voices . Hannibal, St. Andrä-WIERT, 1992. ISBN 3-85445-075-3 .
- Gerhard Klußmeier: Jazz in the Charts. Another view on jazz history. Liner notes and booklet for the 100 CD edition. Membrane International GmbH. ISBN 978-3-86735-062-4 .
- Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac . Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978.
Remarks
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Savitt, Jan |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Savetnick, Jacob (maiden name) |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz musician and big band leader |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 4th September 1907 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | St. Petersburg |
| DATE OF DEATH | October 4, 1948 |
| Place of death | Sacramento |