Leo Watson

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Leo Watson (born February 27, 1898 in Kansas City , Missouri , † May 2, 1950 in Los Angeles , California ) was an American jazz singer .

Life

Watson began his career as an eccentric scat singer with appearances on the Whitman Sisters Show in New York , where he moved in 1929. The background group soon afterwards set up with Watson as Spirits of Rhythm with Virgil Scroggins (drums, vocals), Wilbur and Douglas Daniels (tipples, vocals) and Buddy Burton on guitar, later replaced by Teddy Bunn . "Tipples" was their expression for the various improvised instruments they used - Scroggins played with feather dusters on suitcases wrapped in paper and Watson on a kind of ukulele . Watson himself imitated trombonists with his fast vocalise and as a master of improvisation was way ahead of his time. He thus influenced later jazz singers like Mel Tormé and Slim Gaillard . Her music is documented in recordings of the Spirits from 1933/34 and in guest appearances with the Washboard Rhythm Kings .

After the Spirits broke up, a number of well-known stars tried to help Leo Watson to a solo career; from 1937 he played in the New York Onyx Club with John Kirby and also played briefly in 1938 with Artie Shaw , who wrote a textless chorus for Watson in the Cole-Porter track "I've a Strange New Rhythm in My Heart" ( Brunswick 1937 ), which was one of the early examples of scat singing (instead of refrain singing). Gene Krupa engaged him for a tour in Nagasaki for eight months , of which recordings also exist. The Andrew Sisters convinced Decca to give Leo Watson a first solo recording session.

In 1939 he performed with Jimmy Mundy's Big Band . Even after their dissolution, there were always new editions of the Spirits , such as in 1941 for the musical film Sweetheart of the Campus and in Los Angeles in 1946 with Slim & Slam (Slim Gaillard and Slam Stewart ). Watson lived in Los Angeles from 1943 (where he also appeared briefly in the 1943 film Stormy Weather ) and most recently appeared occasionally as a soloist in cabarets and with Slim Gaillard. But his productive times were over; he was imprisoned for illegal drug possession and was mostly dependent on odd jobs outside of the music business, such as a waiter or in an ammunition factory. He died of pneumonia.

In addition to his recordings with Gene Krupa, Artie Shaw, Leonard Feather and the Spirits, there are also two solo recordings (1939, 1946) with Decca and Signature Records .

Appreciation

The author Will Friedwald wrote about the person and his work: “Only with superficial listening one could think that his apparently senseless scat choruses make his mental confusion clear. Basically, however, Watson was in control of himself when he was singing. His vocal passages, especially the scat choruses, show his excellent feeling for structure, symmetry and inner logic. "

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ literally "Schluckspecht"
  2. ↑ See Friedwald, p. 103.
  3. ↑ Friedwald mentions that his involvement with Krupa ended when he got into an argument with a railway conductor and smashed a train window.
  4. ↑ quoted from Friedwald, p. 103.
personal data
SURNAME Watson, Leo
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz singer and pianist
DATE OF BIRTH February 27, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Kansas City , Missouri
DATE OF DEATH May 2, 1950
Place of death Los Angeles , California