Jazz Artists Who Have Nicknames

[EKE BBB]

Two for the price of one... GENE AND COZY

...and being a drummer, and only for your eyes , one more:

[patricia]

Very nice basket o' goodies with Pud, although he looks like he was shot out of a gun.

As for the beautiful pictures of Gene and COZY, well, all I can say, EKE BBB is THANK YOU, THANK YOU. :D

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

Do you like the boogie piano-players from the 1920's? Well, I do and one of the best, IMO, was the fabulous MEADE "LUX" LEWIS.

Lewis was born in Louisville, Kentucky in 1905 and played around the Chicago area in the 1920's. His day job was at a taxi company. When they weren't "taxi-ing" he and Albert Ammons, who worked with him, sorted out their ideas on a piano which was at the cab stand. I found it odd that a cab stand would have a piano, but, fortunately for Ammons and Lewis, it did.

Then, in 1928 Lewis recorded "Honky Tonk Train Blues" which almost went unnoticed. Luckily, a recording executive, John Hammond heard it. Talk about Fate!!

Hammond was so impressed with the record that he traced Lewis through Ammons and teamed them with Pete Johnson in the ground-breaking series of concerts at Carnegie Hall recorded live in 1938 and 1939. The collection "From Spirituals To Swing", was that collection and it had a positively huge army of artists. Of all my concert albums, it is one of my most-played. This series of concerts started an international boogie craze.

It was truly a twist of fate for Lewis, because when Hammond found him, he was washing cars for a living!!! He style is riveting and lucky for us, his talent was given a chance to be heard. WOW!!

Lewis moved to California and was in demand, working up and down the West coast, playing for both radio and TV.

Lewis' work of course, is not only available on the Hammond Carnegie Hall concert album. He has at least two other collections worth seeking out, of which I'm aware.

On the "Classics" label there is Meade Lux Lewis 1927-39 1939-41 1941-44, which comes in three volumes and is marvelous. It features Lux, not only on piano, but on harpsicord, celeste as well as his five-part take on THE BLUES.

Then there is Boogies And Blues, which was recorded on "Topaz". This is another excellent collection which is a cross-section of his work. Among the tracks is a good chunk of the recordings he did for Blue Note including a 1940 version of probably his most famous hit, "Honky Tonk Train". There are also sides he recorded with Edmond Hall and the Port of Halem Seven.

MEADE LUX LEWIS died in June of 1964 at fifty-nine years old.

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[EKE BBB]

MEADE LUX LEWIS

[patricia]

Thanks EKE BBB. The picture you posted is much more contemplative that any of the ones I've seen, which show him at his piano. He was a handsome devil, wasn't he?

..........................................

And now we have a portrait of ED "MONTUDI" GARLAND, a wonderful bass-player, who was born in New Orleans in 1885.

Often referred to as the father of the jazz double bass, Garland's first instrument, according to him was "a stick attached to a hole in a milk can with a string run to the top."

When Garland was fifteen, he was playing the bass drum in Frank Duson's Eagle Band

AND here's something interesting. Our elusive Black Benny was in the same band!!

So, I would assume that Garland and Benny were about the same age.

Garland went on to play with Buddy Bolden at Hank's Saloon and Funky Butt Hall as well as playing all over Storyville.

Some of the other artists he was associated with, during that time were Buddy Pettit, Manuel Babes, as well as pioneering around the South with Mabel Lee Lane's vaudeville troupe.

Garland was a success by 1917, when he was with Johnny's Creole Band.

According to Lil Hardin Armstrong, "Montudi, Tubby Hall and I beat out a rhythm that put the Bechuana tribes of Africa to shame".

In 1921 Garland moved to California with King Oliver to help out with the double-booking plagueing Kid Ory, liked the climate, as well as the music and stayed.

Throughout the 1920's Garland was with Ory and he recorded on the first ever black New Orleans Jazz collection for the Spike Brothers' Sunshine label. The recordings were "Ory's Creole Trombone" and "Society Blues".

Garland stayed busy, working with Ory as well as leading his own One-Eleven Club band. He also played mood music for silent films.

Then came his work, with Ory, for Standard Oil Broadcasts, in which Orson Welles was involved, which led to a revival of American Jazz in the thirties.

After that was done, Garland worked non-stop, with Ory, Earl Hines, Turk Murphy, Joe Darensbourg and Andrew Blakeney.

By 1974 he was still touring Europe and the U.S. with Barry Martyn.

Obsessed as I am with shallow appearances, I was interested to learn that Montudi's nickname, that of a legendary New Orleans dandy, was given to him because of his immaculate habit of dressing in the latest fashion. By the seventies, he was almost blind, but still dressed impeccably. Gotta love that!

In September of 1974, ED MONTUDI GARLAND was honoured by President Gerald Ford as "the oldest living sideman".

MONTUDI GARLAND died in January of 1980 at ninety-five years old. His life pretty well spanned the life of the jazz idium from it's beginnings.

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

Another ragtime jazz musician, whose nickname was "kid" was KID [Henry Rene] RENA, born in 1898 in New Orleans.

Rena had played trumpet in the Colored Waif's Home with Louis Armstrong, in the brass band.

Later, he replaced Armstrong in Kid Ory's band in 1919.

Kid Rena was a flamboyant and flashy trumpeter and he could play the high notes to a fare-thee-well.

He played in his own band in New Orleans in the 1920's and that band featured his brother Joseph on rather indifferent drums and George Lewis on clarinet.

Saloons, dances and other functions were the gigs they played and their repertoire was a mixture of ragtime, loosely based on the "Red Black Book" as well as new jazz.

Kid Rena was a reasonably good trumpet player, who despite his not being the most highly rated, still influenced young players, like Sharky Bonano and Louis Prima.

What really distinguished Kid Rena were the sides he recorded, at the suggestion of Heywood Broun for Delta which launched the jazz revival which took place in the 1940's. Some of the other players in that band were Louis "Big Eye" Nelson, Alphonse Picou and Ed "Montudi" Garland.

There was work at the Brown Derby Cafe after that high-point.

However, he was way too fond of the booze and started to drink heavily in the last years of his life. He faded away and is very seldom mentioned now.

KID RENA died in 1949, at only forty-nine years old.

Edited March 9, 2004 by patricia

[LAL]

Hi patricia - very informative bios and great pictures from EKE. Thanks a million!

After about 45+ bios or so, I'm (still) keeping a lookout for Dodo (Michael) Marmarosa and Pee Wee (Charles Ellsworth) Russell. Would be interesting to know how they got their somewhat derogatory nicknames. With Dodo, I think it was something about his head being disproportionately larger than his body?

Cheers B)

[patricia]

LAL, first of all, thank you. I know that I'm havin' fun and I think that EKE BBB is too.

I'm afraid I couldn't find the origins of either Dodo's or Pee Wee's nicknames and I did look.

I thought I did a bio on Pee Wee, since he is a particular favourite of mine, but if not, I will.

As for DODO [Michael] MARMAROSA, here goes.

Marmarosa, born in Pittsburgh in 1925, began his career as a jazz pianist in his late teens with big bands, led by Gene Krupa, Tommy Dorsey and Charlie Barnet in the early forties.

On Barnet's "The Moose", Dodo was the featured pianist.

Then, after a year with Artie Shaw in 1944-1945, he settled on the West Coast, as had Barney Kessell, a fellow Shaw sideman. He had already recorded with Kessell.

Having moved to the West Coast, Dodo did tons of freelance work and that included recordings with Charlie Parker and also with Lester Young.

By the fifties, he was living in Pittsburgh, though he had suffered a series of illnesses. He bounded back, however, with three recordings with Gene Ammons and then, inexplicably, went into total obscurity.

DODO MARMAROSA had built a reputation as a musician with a brilliant, unique sound and bop influenced lines during the high point of his career in the 1940's right into the early fifties, so, to have his later work decline and virtually disappear was a real shame. But, the work in his prime is so good that it is well worth looking for.

There is a collection "On Dial" on Spotlite, of him with Charlie Parker on one of it's tracks and a sextet session led by Howard McGee available. Although that is a tiny glimpse into his talent, it is well worth searching out.

Edited March 10, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

OK. Now, my man, PEE WEE RUSSELL.

Pee Wee [Charles Ellsworth] Russell, clarinettist extraordinaire, was born in Maple Wood Missuri in 1906. He also played the saxophone occasionally.

Russell worked with the very best of the St Louis jazzmen, including Peck Kelly, Red Nichols, Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer, Ben Pollack and the list goes on.

One of the most famous jazz writers, George Frazier, wrote of Pee Wee:

"He is no virtuoso, and his tone is breathy and squeaky, but you forget those shortcomings when you hear the bliss and the sadness and the compassion and the humility that are there in the notes he plays."

Absolutely. No other musician of Pee Wee's era affects me the way that he does. He lays out his very soul and you can feel it.

I have a couple of favourites, one on JazzTone, "Dixieland - Chicago Style" with Max Kaminsky, George Wettling on drums that is wonderful, as well as "Pee Wee Russell and his Dixieland All Stars and the Golden Era of Dixieland Jazz" which is a two-record set and absolutely riveting.

Pee Wee recorded tons of material, as he said, "I made God knows how many records in New York in the late 1920's and early 1930's and at night we lived uptown."

There is a Vitaphone short, "Red Nichols and His Five Pennies" that shows Pee Wee, unlined and quite handsome.

Unfortunately, heavy drinking and carousing, not only affected his looks, but also his playing.

As Peanuts Hucko said of Russell, "I've heard some records and it's amazing, the technique he had as a young man. I think the booze just slowed him down completely."

What I like about Pee Wee's style is it's aharmonic approach and fractured, cliffhanging quality and his totally unique sound, unlike any other clarinettist of the time, or for that matter, since.

Eddie Condon loved Pee Wee and featured him in his concerts, club dates and recordings, as well as radio dates and TV appearances. Pee Wee bacame an important, even a central figure in Chicago jazz. Pee Wee was the genuine article, up front and expressive, not like anyone else.

Something that I'm sure many thought Pee Wee was unaware of were his facial expressions when he played. But, sadly, he was only too aware.

I was saddened to read about a comment he made to George T. Simon, the critic:

"I worked at Nick's and Condon's for ten years or more and there's a sadness about that time. Those guys made a joke of me, a clown and I let myself be treated that way because I was afraid. I didn't know where else to take refuge!"

But, it was true that Russell was often unhappy, often drunk and moved around a lot by the 1950's. He worked with George Wein's small group during that period.

Then, along came 1962 and Pee Wee formed, with Marshall Brown, the trombone player, a piano-less quartet and it was clear that Pee Wee the progressive had made his entry. During that time he also did an album with Oliver Nelson.

By the mid-sixties he was touring as a soloist, with Alex Welsh in England. He played, again with Condon, Wein and Bobby Hackett, who was an old friend.

Sadly, a liver problem that he had developed in the 1950's finally felled him in February of 1959.

Guys, this artist is pure magic and I pity the fool who passes up a chance to hear him play. Really. Please look for the miriad of recordings that Pee Wee did in his career and you will hear what I'm talkin' about.

When I hear the term, "Dixieland", I immediatly think PEE WEE RUSSELL, along with Max Kaminsky, George Wettling, Muggsey Spanier, Joe Sullivan, Jack Lansburg and Miff Mole. Can't help it.

Edited March 10, 2004 by patricia

[LAL]

Thanks patricia. Hhhmm it is sad to read that Pee Wee was emotionally affected by his fellow band members making a 'clown' of him - after all who wouldn't? One can hear quite a bit of it on those Town Hall Concerts.

[EKE BBB]

ED GARLAND

[EKE BBB]

KID RENA

[EKE BBB]

PEE WEE RUSSELL (a very young Pee Wee, not the kind of picture you use to see everywhere)

[EKE BBB]

DODO MARMAROSA

[patricia]

LAL,

Yes, Pee Wee's life wasn't always a walk in the park. As I mentioned, "clown" or not, Pee Wee's playing always makes me feel better and I always play his stuff when I'm down.

Looking at Dodo's head, I can't think that it was disproportionately large, although he was very thin and that sometimes gives the impression that one's head is abnormally big. My daughters tease me by calling me lollypop, for just that reason.

EKE BBB,

I'm so glad that you gave us a picture of Pee Wee as a young, very comely lad. So many, in fact most of the pictures are of him in his later years.

THANK YOU.

Garland and Rena look FINE as well as, of course, Dodo [what a handsome cat].

I'm particularly taken with the poignant look at *my* Pee Wee Russell!! Again, thank you.

Edited March 10, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

And now we have SISTER ROSETTA THARPE [Rosetta Nubin] who was born in Cotton Plant, Arkansas in 1915.

Tharpe was a huge star in 1938 and 1939 in the Cotton Club revues.

In the revue, she was backed by the great Cab Calloway and also toured with him.

Those tours were followed by others with Lucky Millinder and she recorded several blues and gospel sides with Millinder in the early 1940's.

Then Tharpe worked in nightclubs in the early to mid-forties, as well as making a decision to direct her recordings at the exploding gospel market of the day.

These records were composed of duets with Marie Knight as well as with Tharpe's mother, Katie Bell Nubin. Katie Bell recorded with Dizzy Gillespie's quintet.

Sister Tharpe alternated between gospel and jazz formats and toured Europe from the late 1950's onward.

She was one of the few well-known gospel singers to successfully cross over, between gospel and jazz.

I've often thought that the fabulous Odetta would have made a success of doing likewise. A fabulous, rich voice which, IMO, would have lent itself well to the jazz idium. Odetta did, however, cross over to Blues and released some great albums.

One thing that Sister Tharpe did do though was play guitar during her performances in churches. Also, few women had attained any prominence as instrumentalists, at least in the same context. Memphis Minnie was another.

SISTER ROSETTA THARPE was the first gospel singer/evangelist to combine city blues playing of the 1930's with gospel. Her performing style was charismatic.

After a long and successful career Sister Tharpe died in October of 1973 at fifty-eight years old.

Edited March 10, 2004 by patricia

[brownie]

LAL, Patricia, re PEE WEE Russell. His biographer Robert Hilbert indicates in his excellent 'Pee Wee Russell, The Life of a Jazzman' book (Oxford University Press):

'(Band leader Herbert) Berger started calling him 'Pee Wee' because, the clarinetist recalled,' I always seemed to be around a big bunch of 'bruisers'. He shed Ellsworth, and the diminutive nickname stayed even after he had grown to nearly six foot.'

Pee Wee was with the Berger band in 1922.

[patricia]

LAL, Patricia, re PEE WEE Russell. His biographer Robert  Hilbert indicates in his excellent 'Pee Wee Russell, The Life of a Jazzman' book (Oxford University Press):

'(Band leader Herbert) Berger started calling him 'Pee Wee' because, the clarinetist recalled,' I always seemed to be around a big bunch of 'bruisers'. He shed Ellsworth, and the diminutive nickname stayed even after he had grown to nearly six foot.'

Pee Wee was with the Berger band in 1922.

Thanks Brownie. I know that nicknames that stick don't come out of thin air.

It's just finding out what the origins are, since by the time anyone bothers to ask, the name is just their name.

Come to think of it, Pee Wee is a cooler name than Ellsworth is.

Edited March 11, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

And now we have the cornet-player/leader RED [Ernest Loring] NICHOLS, who was born in 1905 in Ogden, Utah.

Red started playing music with his father's brass band, playing difficult set pieces at twelve.

His father was annoyed and distressed when Red idolized the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, Bix Beiderbecke and the Wolverines and Phil Napoleon. Red first met them in Atlantic City, along with his eventual partner and biggest influence, Miff Mole.

By 1926 Red was already a well-known sessions and studio man around New York and was very busy. He had formed his band, The Five Pennies. The name didn't always describe the number of players in the band. As Red said, "That was only a number we tied in with my name. We'd generally have eight or nine, depending on who was around for the session and what I was trying to do."

The band often made records at a dizzying rate of ten to a dozen a week. They were not just under the Five Pennies name, but also as The California Redheads, The Charleston Chasers, The Arkansas Travellers and Red and Miff's Stompers.

They had a tremendous influence on musicians of all jazz stripes, from Roy Eldridge to Gil Evans. Evans' first ever transcription was of Nichols' "Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider", which was led by the bass saxophone of Adrian Rollini.

Nichols was the top bandleader in the country by 1930 and was directing Broadway shows like Girl Crazy and Strike Up The Band and was touring constantly.

There was one tour on which Nichols took a tribe of Chicago players, who were heavy drinkers, who read badly and scoffed at Nichols' quest for commercial success. Eddie Condon was a member of that group and spoke for them, questioning some of Nichols' decisions.

Condon and Nichols might have been from two different planets, when it came to their personalities. Condon was free-wheeling and fun-loving. Nichols was a strict disciplinarian. There exists a Vitaphone short which shows his vocal group bowing to their leader, before beginning to sing.

So, during a performance Nichols sacked Condon when he refused to replay a request.

This was the exchange, according to Condon: "Oh no, Red' I said, 'not "Ida" again.' 'You're sacked!" he said. I was!"

Condon later wrote a book which contained a very unflattering view of Nichols and that was probably the genesis of the animosity.

By the 1930's Nichols was heard on the radio constantly and was leading a very chi-chi big band, going by the name of Loring Nichols. He was conducting a band for Bob Hope and for Ruth Etting.

However, in 1942 he was working at a munitions factory, having semi-retired from music during the war.

But, he re-surfaced in 1944 as the star soloist with Glen Gray's Casalomans. His version of "Don't Take Your Love From Me", with Eugenie Baird and Gray's orchestra is one of the most beautiful I've ever heard. Of course that song, no matter who does it is one of my favourites.

Apparently Gray had promised Nichols a "band within a band", but never delivered, so Nichols moved to Los Angeles, partly because of the better climate. He led small groups again and was very busy right through the fifties. He recorded as well as appearing on radio and TV, with Bing Crosby as well as other stars of the day.

In 1959 the film, "The Five Pennies", starring Danny Kaye as Red was released by Paramount and kick-started Red's career. Nichols dubbed the music for Kaye. I saw it and it also starred Louis Armstrong.

He then released a string of records for Capitol, with Joe Rushton, Manny Klein, Jack Coon and arranger/clarinet-player, Heinie Beau.

But in June of 1965 Nichols was playing Las Vegas and was found dead in his hotel room. His reputation had begun it's continued rise and this was a shock to the jazz community at the time, since he was only sixty years old and had been in apparantly good health.

Edited March 11, 2004 by patricia

[EKE BBB]

SISTER ROSETTA THARPE

[EKE BBB]

RED NICHOLS

Again, showing our artist a young man...

[patricia]

Thank you EKE BBB. Sister Tharpe looks beautiful!!

I really like the one of Red too. The picture of him as a young man reminds us that these artists WERE very young. That is a particularly handsome one. So formal!

Edited March 11, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

Our next nicknamed jazzer's profile is that of the vibes/piano-player MILT "BAGS" JACKSON, born in Detroit in 1923.

When Jackson was at Michigan State University in the early forties and played with Lucky Thompson and moved to New York to join Gillespie's sextet, travelling with them on a West Coast visit in 1945 and 1946. This led to his being a founder member of Gillespie's big band from 1946-1947.

This experience was followed by freelancing, during which Jackson worked with Howard McGee and Thelonious Monk recording with both and work with Tadd Dameron.

He also was with Woody Herman for several months in 1949 and 1950, then with his own quartet and then the new Gillespie sextet.

When Jackson had his own quartet he recorded for Gillespie's Dee Gee Records.

He then played live, backing Charlie Parker and also Ben Webster.

For about twenty years Jackson worked with the Modern Jazz Quartet, as well as recording under his own name. He collaborated with Frank Wess, Lucky Thompson, Coleman Hawkins, John Coltrane and Wes Montgomery.

He also was a guest performer on records released by Kenny Clarke, Miles Davis and Quincy Jones. His own quintets consisted of such performers as James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Cedar Walton, Monty Alexander and, from his Gillespie days, Ray Brown.

His departure from his long association with the Modern Jazz Quartet was prompted by a belief that the members were being financially exploited. Later, after performing as a guest artist and with his own groups for several years, he rejoined the Modern Jazz Quartet. Presumably the problems had been resolved by 1982, when he rejoined.

Jackson's style was based on the older versions of the xylophone and he treated the instrument as one might a trumpet or saxophone, by allowing the vibrato mechanism to emphasize the occasional longer note. This is different than Lionel Hampton and others, who treat it more like a percussion instrument.

My favourite collection is "Opus De Jazz", which is available on the Savoy label. I think that the presence of Hank Jones on piano and Frank Weiss on flute has a lot to do with it.

This is probably a good time to recommend a book about the origins of BeBop, since Jackson and Coleman Hawkins, earlier mentioned were right in the thick of it. The book I like is Ira Gitler's "The Masters Of BeBop",[Da Capo Press 1966] which I think is excellent. I find that it put the era into context for me and is very interesting.

Another one might be "Groovin' High", which is Dizzy Gillespie's biography, by Alyn Shipton [Oxford University Press 1999] which I also enjoyed.

MILT BAGS JACKSON died in October of 1999.

Edited March 12, 2004 by patricia

[patricia]

"LITTLE JIMMY" SCOTT, isn't really a nickname but "Little" wasn't on his birth certificate, so I think it qualifies for my purposes.

Scott was born in Cleveland in 1925. Due to his suffering from a rare disorder, Kallman's Syndome, which is a hormone difficiency disease, halting normal voice and height changes, Jimmy stayed very short and retained his high-pitched voice. He did his first professional work with vocal groups and tent shows as a teenager.

In 1948 Jimmy joined Lionel Hampton's band and his ballad, "Everybody's Somebody's Fool" was a huge, huge hit in 1950.

That same year he went on his own as a single act and sat in with Charlie Parker on his album, "One Night In Birdland" as well as touring with the Paul Gayten band.

For most of the 1950's he recorded like a madman, but when the 1960's came around, he had two albums blocked by contractual disputes.

Jimmy then, weary with all the problems he was having, retired. But, in the mid-eighties he came back with a vengence and has achieved huge success, becoming a near cult figure, still enormously popular, drawing large audiences.

Work came his way, along with the admiration of him by Quincy Jones, Liza Minnelli and Lou Reed.

The film soundtracks on which he is heard are many, including "Albino Alligator", "A Rage In Harlem" and one of my favourite films, "Glengary Glen Ross".

Jimmy has been an influence on Nancy Wilson, as well as apparently, on Stevie Wonder, Michael Jackson and Take 6.

Now, if you want to listen to a compilation of Jimmy's early work, look for "Little Jimmy Scott Everybody's Somebody's Fool" , fifteen tracks, every one, a gem.

His comeback collection was "All The Way" and he followed that with two more, "Mood Indigo" and "Holding Back The Years". Although I haven't heard "All The Way", I do have the other three and it's amazing to me that his voice is, if anything, better than it was decades ago. It's slightly different now, more sophistocated, but still the falsetto which he made famous.

Last I heard, Jimmy was performing in Japan to full houses and the man is in his very late seventies. Amazing.

It seems to me that I read that it might be possible for Scott to receive hormone replacement therapy, to drop his voice to a normal level, though he would not be able to get any taller than he is now. Understandably, he is passing on the opportunity.

Edited March 12, 2004 by patricia

[EKE BBB]

Sorry, no photos today, how could I?

Still trying to recover from the shock. My feelings balance from huge wrath to desperation, from great anger to infinite sadness...

Everything´s OK with me and my family. I have been checking the political forums for the first time and I want to publicly thank all the people who has been interested and given their condolences. I have been in touch via PM and e-mail with some members. Again, thanks!.

The only consolation is my family. Watching Walt Disney´s "The Jungle Book" with my two years old child and seeing him laughing at Baloo´s singing and dancing brought the only hint of a smile to my face yesterday.

I will be lurking the site when I have the strength to, but won´t be posting for a while.

THANKS