Leroy Kirkland

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Leroy Kirkland (born February 10, 1906 in South Carolina , † April 6, 1988 in New York City ) was an American jazz , rhythm and blues guitarist, songwriter and arranger .

Life

Kirkland began his musical career in the mid-1930s with the Erskine Hawkins orchestra , then worked with Jimmie Lunceford and in 1945 with Cootie Williams . In February 1945 he played in his session with Charlie Parker . With his own studio orchestra he recorded in 1952 with Eddie Mack , Ella Fitzgerald ( Walkin 'By the River ), 1953 with Big Maybelle ( Gabbin' Blues ) and in 1954 for the first time with Screamin 'Jay Hawkins . In the mid-1950s his activities shifted to running studio bands, arranging and songwriting ; in 1953 he had composed the song Good Lovin ' with Danny Taylor, Ahmet Ertegun and Jesse Stone , a hit for the R&B vocal ensemble The Clovers and the theme song for the TV series Doctor Doctor .

He then worked in the record studios a. a. for Mitch Miller and composed a. a. for Nappy Brown ( Open Up That Door , 1956), Joe Reisman , Jon Hendricks / Dave Lambert ( Cloudburst , with Jimmy Harris), Dakota Staton , Charlie Barnet and Maxine Brown ( All in My Mind ). With Freddy Johnson he wrote Stop the Wedding for Etta James , with whom he in turn composed Something's Got a Hold on Me . He wrote Night Crawlin ' with Ernest Hayes for Big John Greer . With his orchestra he accompanied doo-wop and R&B groups such as Little David & The Harps (on Savoy 1955) or Little Joe & The Thrillers ( Peanuts on Okeh 1957). In 1957 he recorded with Piano Red and again with Screamin 'Jay Hawkins ( You Made Me Love You ).

In 1958 he presented the EP La Dee Da with RCA Victor (RCA EPA-4272) under the band name Leroy Kirkland's Rock-Chas ; his band included a. Sam "The Man" Taylor , Al Sears and Taft Jordan . Another RCA EP under the band name Leroy Kirkland's Hi Flyers was Teenagers Dance Rock-A-Diddle Rock (RCA EPA 4094). In the same year he took with the singer Bobby Lewis for Chess the single Mumbles Blues / Travelin 'Days (Chess 1518), which was unsuccessful. In 1962 the album Mashin 'and All That Jazz was released on Imperial Records under his own name , on which jazz musicians such as Kenny Burrell , Al Gray , Joe Newman , Panama Francis and Jerome Richardson participated. In his later years, Kirkland was the mentor of jazz pianist Onaje Allan Gumbs .

Discographic notes

  • Screamin 'Jay Hawkins - I Put A Spell On You - The Singles 1954–1957 (Saga, ed. 2009)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The Rolling stone encyclopedia of rock & roll 2001
  2. ↑ Songs by Leroy Kirkland
  3. ^ R. Serge Denisoff: Solid gold: the popular record industry at Google Books
  4. ↑ Henk Gorter
  5. ^ Savoy discography 1955
  6. ↑ Okeh Single Discography
  7. ↑ Henk Gorter 1957
  8. ↑ Gumbs portrait at Trumpets Jazz  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Dead Link / www.trumpetsjazz.com  
personal data
SURNAME Kirkland, Leroy
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American R&B and jazz musician, arranger and songwriter
DATE OF BIRTH February 10, 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH South carolina
DATE OF DEATH April 6, 1988
Place of death New York City