Miff Mole

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Miff Mole, Nick's Tavern, circa June 1946.
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb .

Irving Milfred Mole , known as Miff Mole (born March 11, 1898 in Roosevelt , New York , † April 29, 1961 in New York City ) was a trombonist and band leader of early jazz .

Live and act

Miff Mole was one of the most influential trombonists in early jazz alongside Kid Ory , Jack Teagarden and Jimmy Harrison . He began with violin and piano, on which he played the music to accompany silent films . His first engagement was in Gus Sharp's orchestra ; then he played in the band of the comedian and band leader Jimmy Durante and with the original Memphis Five until about 1924. In New York in the 1920s he took a lot with the trumpeter Red Nichols (among others under the band name The Charleston Chasers ) and with him Miff Mole and his Little Molers ("Mole" means mole in English), which was only the pseudonym of Red Nichols Five Pennies when they recorded for the Okeh record company . Sometimes they accompanied the then popular singer Sophie Tucker . The 1920s style of Mole and Nichols was rated by many critics as a cool, urban version of hot jazz at the time. Jazz historians later referred to this style of playing as "New York Style".

From 1927 he was a studio musician, u. a. with Roger Wolfe Kahn and Sam Lanin , and hardly played jazz anymore, but belonged to the dance bands of Cass Hagan, Don Voorhees and Ross Gorman. But he was from 1938 to 1943 in the band of Paul Whiteman and 1943 in that of Benny Goodman . In the mid-1940s he also played with Eddie Condon and recorded with his own band Miff Mole and his Nicksieland Band . He developed health problems in the 1950s and died completely impoverished and forgotten in 1961.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Biographical data according to Carlo Bohländer , Karl Heinz Holler, Christian Pfarr: Reclams Jazzführer . 3rd, revised and expanded edition. Reclam, Stuttgart 1989, ISBN 3-15-010355-X .
personal data
SURNAME Mole, Miff
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Mole, Irving Milfred (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz trombonist
DATE OF BIRTH March 11, 1898
PLACE OF BIRTH Roosevelt , New York , USA
DATE OF DEATH April 29, 1961
Place of death New York City , New York , USA