The Wolverines
| The Wolverines | |
|---|---|
 The Wolverines with Bix Beiderbecke (fourth from right) |
|
| General information | |
| Genre (s) | Chicago jazz |
| founding | 1923 |
| resolution | 1931 |
| Founding members | |
| Occupation when recording in February 1924 | |
Piano, band leader |
Dick Voynow |
Clarinet (and alto saxophone) |
Jimmy Hartwell |
Trumpet (cornet) |
Bix Beiderbecke |
Tuba (bassist) |
Min Leibrook |
banjo |
Bob Gillette |
trombone |
Al Gande (or Al Gandee) |
Tenor saxophone |
George Johnson |
Drums |
Vic Moore |
| former members | |
Drums |
Vic Berton, in place of Moore in the recordings in June 1924 |
piano |
Dudley Mecum (founder of the band) |
clarinet |
Turk Savage |
Trumpet |
Jimmy McPartland (from October 1924 for Beiderbecke) |
singing |
Dave Harman |
Trumpet, kazoo
|
George Brunies |
The Wolverines (also Wolverine Orchestra ) were an American jazz band. which existed from late 1923 to early 1925 and became famous in 1924 through Bix Beiderbecke . They were the leading Territory Band in the Midwest at the time . It is also the name of several revival bands with a similar name.
The band was founded in September 1923 by the pianist Dudley Mecum (the composer of the hit "Angry") and played first in the "Stockton Club" on Route 4 about 13 km south of Hamilton (Ohio) . The place was run by Chicago gangsters and also got its musicians from Chicago. They got their name from Mecum because of the jazz standard "Wolverine Blues" by Jelly Roll Morton , which they played frequently. But they also played a lot of dance music. At the end of 1923, Mecum left the band, frustrated at teaching the musicians who were mostly unfamiliar with the music, and was replaced by pianist Dick Voynow from St. Louis . At the same time Beiderbecke joined in as a replacement for the cornetist. His friend, the clarinetist in the band Jimmy Hartwell , brought him from Chicago.
After the Stockton Club was closed after a New Year's brawl among gangsters, the band celebrated great success with their new star Bix Beiderbecke in January 1924 in "Doyles Dance Studio" in downtown Cincinnati , where they played for three months. On February 18, they made their first recordings at Gennett's in nearby Richmond, Indiana . Out of 4 recordings, “Fidgety Feet”, “Jazz me Blues” have been preserved, at the same time Beiderbecke's first recordings. The club's owner even locked the band's instruments to tie them to himself, but the band managed to slip away one night (without trombonist Al Gande) when Hartwell was from his friend Hoagy Carmichael (then a law student in Bloomington) an engagement at the University of Indiana in Bloomington, but this turned out to be misinformation. Band manager Bernie Cummins managed to organize very successful tours to colleges in Indiana , Ohio, Kentucky and Michigan, in particular to Indiana University in Bloomington . On May 6th ("Copenhagen", "Riverboat Shuffle" by Hoagy Carmichael, "Oh Baby", "Susy") and on June 20, 1924 they recorded again for Gennett ("Tiger Rag", "Royal Garden Blues", "I need some Pettin"), with Vic Berton stepping in for Vic Moore on drums on the second recording date, but who replaced him again at the Wolverines at the end of the summer. In September 1924 they played (mediated by their tuba player Min Leibrook ) in the Cinderella Ballroom in New York City and recorded on September 16 ("Sensation", "Lazy Daddy") and October 7 ("Tia Juana", "Big Boy" , the last recordings with Beiderbecke) for Gennett in their New York studio and again on December 10th, although Beiderbecke had already left the band at the end of October after he had learned that the engagement had ended in December. He accepted an offer from Jean Goldkette .
A total of 13 recordings have been preserved from Beiderbecke and the Wolverines (a total of 15 recordings from the Wolverines from 1924). Although they are among the classics of "Chicago jazz", they never played there with Beiderbecke. He was replaced with the Wolverines by the young Jimmy McPartland , an Austin High Gang member. At the end of the year the band went to Miami for an engagement .
Follow-up band
After 1925 several groups appeared under the name Wolverines, as Voynow had sold the rights to the Chicago promoter Husk O'Hare . One of the bands performing under the name (which had a big band format with 12 to 13 musicians) was quite popular in the Midwest, played frequently on the WLW radio station (e.g. from the car show in Cincinnati in October 1927) and took part in Vocalion in 1928 on. The old Wolverine band member Al Gande belonged to them at times. In 1931, during the Depression, “Husk O'Hare's Wolverines” broke up. Her trombonist Al Gande founded a New Wolverines Orchestra in Cincinnati in 1936, with whom he performed in the Dixieland Revival until his death in a car accident in 1946. The original band leader Dick Voynow also recorded with his "Original Wolverine Orchestra" at Brunswick and Vocalion from 1926 to 1929. Members were u. a. Vic Moore, Jimmy McPartland and Frank Teschemacher . The name Wolverines remained popular with traditional jazz revival groups: The Wolverines Jazz Band , which still exists today, was founded in Bern in 1961 . who has played in the same line-up for 33 years.
Remarks
- ↑ The title was also taken from its model, the New Orleans Rhythm Kings in June 1923 at Gennett. Another role model was of course the ODJB , from which their first recordings “Fidgety Feet” and “Jazz me Blues” came.
- ↑ Beiderbecke was also unable to read notes at the time. After Sudhalter's Beiderbecke biography, they rehearsed new pieces by Beiderbecke giving a few bars for the beginning and the end and repeating with the other band members until everything was right.
- ↑ Voynow was production manager for Brunswick in Chicago in the late 1920s and made several recordings with "Original Wolverines"
- ↑ or Al Gandee
- ↑ At that time they operated as "Vic Berton and his Wolverines Orchestra" and Berton also took over management in the summer of 1924
- ↑ On May 12, 1924 they recorded "Prince of Wails" and "When sugar walks down the street" with singer Dave Harman in the Gennett Studios in New York without Beiderbecke
- ↑ whereby the line-up according to Allmusicguide is uncertain. The clarinetist Turk Savage played along. In Redhotjazz the versions of Brian Rust and the Chicago discographer John Steiner are given: " Husk O'Hares Wolverines ". The recordings are “Milenburg Joys”, “My Daddy Rocks me”.
- ↑ Bernese Wolverines: 40th anniversary ( 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.
