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Home , Adrian Rollini, Al Lerner (composer), Andy Razaf, Artie Shaw, Big band, Bix Beiderbecke

3. The Age in

y the , jazz was work if he has misused his becoming very popular. talent by playing ." A B Jazz records were rule in the ' contract flooding the country and jazz said, ''No member of the dance bands were popping up shall play at a dance almost everywhere. Cleveland or in a parade." quickly became a very active In 1925, the City of city for the new form ofmusic. Cleveland enacted a series of Longtime Cleveland Press regulations for dance halls editor and columnist Julian which included: "Vulgar, Krawcheck told me, "If noisy jazz is was the 'toddling prohibited." The regulation town' ofthe 1920s and , said, "Such music almost then Cleveland must have forces dancers to use jerky been a close runner up. There half-steps and invites immoral were literally hundreds of behavior. " neighborhood spots - bars Other regulations included: and - which • "Male dancers are not featured jazz or music permitted to hold their on weekends and some Cleveland Press I CSU Archives partners tightly. nightly." Gertrude Mettel dancing the Charleston • Dancers are not permitted Much of Cleveland's early at Oster's Ballroom in 1925 to copy the extremes that jazz was played in the area of are now used on the the city where blacks were settling. Between 1910 and modern stage. 1920, the black population of Cleveland increased by • Gentlemen must -wear coats while dancing. 307%. Following , African-Americans • Expectorating on the floor is prohibited. migrated north for industrial jobs and many found homes • Suggestive movements are not permitted. in the Central-Woodland neighborhood ofthe city. • Partners are not permitted to dance with cheeks close As early as 1921, blues singer (with or touch ing. When dancers put their cheeks together accompanist ) was for it is simply a case of public love-making." black audiences in Cleveland. In 1923, But with the growing popularity of the new music performed at the Globe Theatre at East 55th and called jazz, many of the city regulations became Woodland. impossible to enforce and were quickly forgotten. Jazz frowned on by society The birthplace of recorded jazz The growing popularity of the new music came recordings were a key factor in propelling despite some early opposition by polite society. As the the new and often misunderstood music into the public 1920s began, jazz was not consciousness in the 1920s. an accepted part of the In 1922, a group ofjazz cultural landscape here. musicians from Chicago, Jazz was considered a who called themselves the renegade form of music, Rhythm almost a social protest, Kings, went to a rambling much as rock 'n roll and rap brick building on the bank were in later generations. of the White River Gorge, In 1918, when the on the edge of Richmond, Cleveland Orchestra was Indiana - just across the formed, the first conductor state line from Dayton, ofthe symphonic orchestra, . The building was the Nikolai Sokoloff, ordered factory of the Starr Piano his musicians not to play Company which had been jazz. He said, "A player making there since cannot do his most beautiful Ninth and Euclid in the 1920s 1872. 'The in Cleveland 11

In 1916, the company also began producing 1923 to make his first solo piano records, including such and phonograph records. The Gennett as "Wolverine Blues" and "." Records Division was not doing very well because the In February of 1924, a young white group which had two giant companies, the American Gramophone been playing in and at the Sigma Alpha Company (which later became Columbia) and the Victor Epsilon fraternity at nearby Miami University in Oxford, Talking Machine Company (which later became RCA Ohio, went to the Gennett studio to record for the first Victor), dominated the business by holding patents on the time. The group was called the Wolverine Orchestra process ofsound recording. Gennett sued Victor and won and featured a 20-year-old player named Bix the right to use the then-new form oflateral cut recording. Beiderbecke. Shortly after that court decision, Gennett began recordingjazz artists who were performing in Chicago. That first group, including trombonist George Brunis, clarinetist Leon Rappolo and drummer , went into the tiny recording studio tucked away in a corner of the piano factory. A huge horn protruded through a velvet drape and amplified the music like a cheerleader's megaphone. The sound waves moved a cutting needle, forming a groove in the master record. The turntable was not run by an electric motor; it was totally mechanical, relying on gravity, in much the same way a grandfather clock is powered. At times, when trains rumbled by outside the factory, they had to stop the recording and start over again. In this tiny room, just a few miles from Ohio, the City of Richmond, lrid. recorded such jazz classics The Wolverine Orchestra recording at Gennett in as "," "," and with pianist Jelly 1924. is second from the right. Roll Morton, " Marmalade." The following year, 1923, Joe "King" Oliver, who had A few weeks earlier, they were playing a New Year' s taken his Creole Jazz from New Orleans to Eve party at the Stockton Club in nearby Hamilton, Chicago, went to Richmond April 6 to record for the first Ohio. The young musicians found themselves in the time. , who played drums with the band, middle of a bloody Prohibition era gang war. A group said, "Joe got the contract through someone who had of bootleggers and some of their gun-happy friends heard the band play at the Lincoln Gardens in Chicago." decided to celebrate the new year by shooting each Oliver's band took a train from Chicago to Richmond and other. In an effort to stop the riot, Bix and the recorded all day. One ofthe records the band made was Wolverines are said to have begun playing "" "Chimes Blues," featuring the first recorded solo by a as loudly and as furiously as possible. young cornetist named . Those first records by Beiderbecke and the , Louis' wife at the time, later Wolverines proved to be commercially successful. said the band was grouped around the big horn. But, Three months later, in May of 1924, they went back to Louis played so loudly, she said, that you couldn't hear record four more sides, including "Tiger Rag." anybody else on the record. They had to move him Many ofthe other early giants ofjazz made their first "way over in the corner, 12 or 15 feet away from the rest recordings in the 1920s at the Starr Piano Factory in of us." Richmond. They included , Muggsy Aside from Annstrong's first recorded solo, that Spanier, and Fletcher Henderson. It was 1923 session in Richmond, Indiana, is remembered for also the place where in October of 1927, Hoagy a famous shout near the end of"Dippermouth Blues"­ Carmichael made the first ofthousands ofrecordings of "Oh, plaaay that thing!" Dodds admitted that it came his composition "Star Dust." about by mistake. Dodds said he was supposed to take In 1928, Gennett cut more than 1,200 master records a drum break, but forgot. Quick-thinking pianist Bill - an average of more than five every working day. Johnson covered the goof by yelling, "Oh, plaaay that There is no doubt they were extremely important in thing!" When the shout became popular because ofthe popularizingjazz. But, during the economic depression record, Oliver made it a regular part ofthe ofthe 1930s, the sales of records dropped dramatically for live performances. and went out of business. Starr returned to the Gennett studio in continued producing pianos until 1940. 12 Cleveland Jazz History The first jazz records in Cleveland By 1923, jazz records were also being made in "Rock 'n Roll" Not Coined in Cleveland Cleveland. The Vernon-Owens Hotel Winton Orchestra Ortli's 1925 "My Daddy Rocks Me" might made several recordings. In February of 1925, the surprise some people who believe the Rock and Roll Emerson Gill Orchestra, a very popular Cleveland dance Hall of Fame and Museum was located in Cleveland because 1950s Cleveland disc jockey Alan Freed band which was playing at the Bamboo Garden at East coined the phrase "rock 'n roiL" 100th and Euclid, recorded "Birmingham Bound" in Actually, Freed simply borrowed an old jazz Cleveland for the Okeh Record Company. phrase to describe the rhythm and blues or race records he was playing at the time on WJW Radio. As early as 1927, Louis Armstrong made a record called "Rock Me Mamma With A Steady Roll." 's 1935 recording of "Get Rhythm In Your Feet" included the phrase "rock 'n roiL" In 1937, the Orchestra recorded a song called "Rockin' Rollers' ."

Artie Shaw in Cleveland

The Bamboo Garden where the Emerson Gill Orchestra played in the 1920s Cleveland record collector Jim Prohaska discovered another record by the Gill band entitled "My Name Will Always Be Chickie" with, as the label says, "a singing chorus by Pinky Hunter." Hunter was a popular Cleveland entertainer and a radio pioneer. When a young student at Ohio State University heard about the Okeh recording session in Cleveland, he auditioned his band. Courtesy of Harold Ortli and his Ohio Artie Shaw (far left) with Joe Cantor's Orchestra at State Collegians recorded the Far East Restaurant on Euclid Avenue in 1927 two sides - "I Couldn't Get In 1927, an ambitious 17-year-old from New Haven, To It In Time" and "My Connecticut, arrived in Cleveland to launch his Daddy Rocks Me." After professional music career. Young Artie Shaw came to Courtesy of Jim Prohaska college, Ortli formed a Cleveland to join Joe Cantor's band which was playing band that played for at the Far East Restaurant on Euclid Avenue. years at the Euclid Beach amusement park. He also In his biography, The Trouble With Cinderella, the operated a music store in Cleveland. clarinetist recalled, "One ofthe things I learned while I Also recording for Okeh in Cleveland in 1925 was was in Cleveland was how to arrange." One of his flrst and his Martha Lee Club Orchestra. The was "Wabash Blues" and it did not come Martha Lee Club was located in the Ohio and State easily. Instead ofwriting the overall score on one sheet, Theatre building on Euclid Avenue. The same week that Shaw said, "I spread all the parts out on the floor and got Smith recorded ''Nora Lee," magician Harry Houdini down on my hands and knees with a pencil, jotted down was performing next door at the Palace Theatre. a few notes on one part, and crawled around until I Cleveland' s Austin Wylie and his Golden Pheasant located the part 1 wanted to go with it." When Cantor' s Orchestra recorded in 1925 for . They band flrst played the arrangement, Shaw said, "It was a did a song that had been recorded two years earlier by mess until the other musicians suggested changes in the legendary Coon-Sanders Nighthawks, "I'm Gonna their parts." Charleston Back To Charleston." Veteran Cleveland saxophonist Hank Geer gave me Wylie also played another important role in a copy ofa photo of the Joe Cantor Orchestra in 1927. Cleveland jazz history. It shows Cantor standing at the left and his band The Jazz Age in Cleveland 13

Courtesy of Hank Geer The Austin Wylie Orchestra in the '20s. Wylie is playing . At the far right is Tom Gerspacher, the uncle of long-time Cleveland Hank Geer Courtesy of Hank Geer The Joe Cantor Orchestra in 1927: Lerner said Shaw had a bright red car and liked to go to (L-to-R) Cantor, Charlie Cantor, Chuck Shanks, Vic Buynak, Artie Shaw, unidentified trombonist, Julian Woodward, Willis fires. "Shaw just got in line with the fire engines," he Kelly and Walt Eastman said, "and got to the fires as fast as they did." members, including Shaw, in a line, dressed in shirts Also in Cleveland, Shaw fITst heard some so-called with "JC" on their chests, white knickers, long socks and "race records," recordings that were made specifically brown and white oxfords. It almost looks like a page out for sale in Negro neighborhoods. Among the recording ofF. Scott Fitzgerald's Great Gatsby. artists was Louis Armstrong and particularly the records While playing with Cantor's band in Cleveland, Armstrong made with his Hot Five. Shaw later said he Shaw began to listen to some ofthe jazz records that had was "entranced" by Armstrong's recordings of "West been made by Gennett. In an autobiographical essay he End Blues" and "Savoy Blues." Armstrong's music on wrote in 1995, Shaw remembered his earliest jazz idols record excited the young Shaw so much that on a day off and influences were cornetist Bix Beiderbecke and from the Wylie band, he hopped into his red roadster saxophonist Frank Trumbauer. Bix and "Tram" were and drove from Cleveland to Chicago. He called it "a playing together with the Orchestra and pilgrimage" to Chicago's to hear the recording on their own. Beiderbecke was to jazz in the great player in person. late 1920s what Babe Ruth was to In his autobiography, Shaw baseball. Bix, with an unmatched wrote he fell in love with a tone, added lyrical and creative Cleveland girl named Betty (he did solos to what, for the most part, not disclose her last name). It was had been a hard-driving, raucous the fITst love for the young man style of roaring '20s jazz. "'" who would later marry a By 1928, Shaw, who had succession of glamorous women changed his name from Abraham including movie stars Isaac Arshawsky to Art Shaw and , Betty Kern (the ("Art" sounded older than "Artie"), daughter of Jerome had become a pretty good arranger Kern), Kathleen Windsor and and was offered a job in . Cleveland's top band of the day, One ofShaw' s closest friends in the Austin Wylie Orchestra. The Cleveland was pianist Claude Wylie band was playing eight Thornhill. They met during a hours a day - morning, noon and summer gig at Willy's Lakeshore night - at the Golden Pheasant Gardens and soon roomed together Chinese Restaurant on Prospect at the Hotel Winton. Shaw wrote, Avenue next door to the Hotel "We used to take long rides along Winton (later Carter Manor). the lakeshore, gabbing our heads Shaw soon became the musical off about everything." Another director of Wylie's band. member of the Wylie Orchestra Pianist (not the later was a young . owner of the Cleveland Browns), In 1929, Shaw entered an essay who was growing up in Cleveland contest sponsored by the Cleveland at the time, recalled Shaw "was The Hotel Winton near East 9th and News to promote the National Air kind of a strange guy in Cleveland." Prospect in the late 1920s Races which were just beginning at 14 Cleveland Jazz History the Cleveland Airport (later Cleveland Hopkins But he could also be charming. After he read the International Airport). Shaw wrote a ISO-word essay, first edition of Cleveland Jazz History, Shaw wrote me "How The National Air Races Would Benefit a very nice note. Cleveland," and composed a song called "Song of the Skies." He won the newspaper contest and was awarded Gene Beecher an airplane trip to Hollywood. More than 500,000 people attended the 10-day air races, including Charles Lindbergh who had made his famous solo flight to Paris two years earlier. On Shaw' s trip to Hollywood, he ran into two friends from New Haven who were playing with Irving Aaronson's orchestra. They suggested that Shaw join Aaronson' s band. When the band later came to Cleveland, Shaw said, "Aaronson himself came into the Gene Beecher and his band in Cleveland in 1935 Golden Pheasant, listened to me play, and offered me a Another young musician who came to Cleveland in job." Because of his Cleveland girlfriend, Shaw didn't 1927 was Shaw's boyhood friend from New Haven, want to leave. But he later wrote, "She sensed my Gene Beecher. As teenagers, they had entered every restless ambition and insisted I go to with amateur contest they could fmd in Connecticut. Aaronson's band." One night at a theatre in Waterbury, when Beecher "The night 1 left," said Shaw, "I found it hard to was playing his , a stagehand had forgotten to accustom myself to the idea that I was leaving the place bring out a chair for him to rest his foot on while where I had lived for the past three years, put down a playing. Beecher later recalled, "I played with an few tentative roots, worked steadily, made friends, and invisible chair (holding one leg in the air). It was a found myself a girl." sensation. Artie and I won first prize!" Shaw left Cleveland in his red Auburn roadster and Beecher's family moved to Cleveland at about the . toured with Aaronson's orchestra for two years. He same time Shaw came here to join the Joe Cantor band. returned to Cleveland in February 1931 with the In 1929, Beecher fonned his own band in Cleveland. It Aaronson band to playa week at the Palace Theatre on played at hotels and restaurants in Cleveland and across the same bill with comedian Milton Berle. the Midwest and South until the early . A short time later, Shaw went to New York and Beecher recalled when he was doing national radio became a top studio clarinetist. He played on many broadcasts from a Chinese restaurant in Cleveland, he important jazz records including Bunny Berigan' s classic would frequently receive from song "I Can't Get Started." He also rejoined his old Cleveland pluggers with a 20-dollar bill enclosed. buddy who was playing in New York. His band was more a dance band than a . In 1936, Shaw also recorded with one of his early He later said that in the 1930s he was impressed by the jazz idols. With the Frank Trumbauer Orchestra he "rippling rhythm" style ofShep Fields and attempted to recorded F ats Waller's"Ain't Misbehavin' . copy it. At another point in his career, Beecher billed Shaw fonned his own band in 1937. In 1938, he himself as "Gene Beecher, the Music Teacher." He set recorded what he called "a nice little tune from one of up a chalk board on the bandstand and had his band ' s very few flop shows." "" members wear mortarboards. became a huge hit and helped win Shaw fame, money and After World War II, Beecher opened a music store beautiful women. By 1939, when he had become one of and school in South Euclid. In the 1970s, he sold his the most popular band leaders in the world, his band fann in Jefferson and moved to Florida where he became manager was his old boss from Cleveland, Austin Wylie. a very successful painter, showing his folk art creations Shaw later admitted he found superstardom in a number of leading galleries. "uncongenial." He abruptly left the music business for In their older years, Beecher and Shaw continued to about a year before fonning a new band. correspond with each other and recall their early days in By 1954, at the age of 44, Shaw packed his clarinet New Haven and Cleveland. away and completely quit the music business. He Beecher died in Florida September 23, 2002 at age 93. moved to Spain, then Connecticut and California and spent most of his time writing - books, not music. Claude Thornhill Shaw was once asked what epitaph he would like to Pianist Claude Thornhill left Cleveland to join Hal see on his tomb stone. With the crusty humor ofan artist Kemp's touring band and then the Orchestra in his 80s, Shaw said, "Just two words - 'Go away!'" where he met . The Jazz Age in Cleveland 15

Eventually, Thornhill went The post-war Thornhill Orchestra was not a to New York where he played conventional . You couldn't call it a bop band studio dates for hundreds of or a swing band or a sweet band. It was unique. records. He arranged and I remember one night dancing to the Thornhill conducted the orchestra for Orchestra at the Sunnybrook Ballroom in Pottstown, singer 's Pennsylvania, and thinking the band was playing pretty now-classic recording of . Then, suddenly, out there on the dance "Loch Lomond." That 1936 floor, I realized that this big, beautiful orchestra was also record established Thornhill's playing a lot ofjazz, in a very different way! I quickly reputation among musicians. recognized ' s "Anthropology." Thornhill Two years later, he began it with a piano solo in a style that arranged for the would later use with the Modern Jazz . Lee Claude Thornhill radio show. By 1940, with a Konitz took a sax solo that reminded me ofParker. batch of60 new arrangements Someone once asked to compare and a loan from Miller, Thornhill formed his own orchestra. Thornhill and . He said, "They were He composed the haunting "Snowfall," which he used probably exact opposites. Thornhill was an introvert. as his theme song, and set out to revolutionize big band His music was very artistically oriented. He was much music. But, success did not come easily for Thornhill. drawn to the impressionists. Kenton, on the other hand, The band' s first date at Virginia Beach, Virginia, was was an extrovert and his music was very extroverted and canceled when the swank ballroom burned to the ground. his musical heroes would be more like Richard A gig at a hotel ended quickly because the Wagner." Said Mulligan, "The Kenton band was very. hotel manager said he wanted what he called "a Mickey muscular and physical; the Thornhill band was spiritual Mouse dance band." In Hartford, when Thornhill' s band and cerebral and sensitive." members showed up, they found the doors of the Pianist , after hearing the Thornhill ballroom padlocked. The manager had fled with the Orchestra, said it was "the only really good big band money. To add insult to injury, when Thornhill returned I've heard in years." to his hotel, the desk clerk called him "Mr. Toenail." By the mid-1950s, when big bands were beginning to But fmally, two months later, he took his band to the fall by the wayside, Thornhill quietly disappeared. The Glen Island Casino outside and scored introverted musician suffered an emotional collapse. He a major success. bought a home in New and became a gardener and Thornhill' s orchestra featured unique arrangements home handyman while playing only a few occasional gigs. that combined the romance ofclassical music with some In 1965, at the age of 56, Thornhill was forming a daringjazz innovations and made full use ofthe dynamics new band when he suffered two heart attacks. When he of a big orchestra. He also hired some excellent died, Duke Ellington said, "I wonder ifthe world will musicians. Among them were lead trumpeter Conrad ever know how much it had in this beautiful man. There Gozzo, clarinetist Irving Fazola, and future jazz greats aren't many of his kind left." and . They played such unusual Thornhill compositions as "Portrait ofa Guinea Farm." The Fletcher Henderson Orchestra By the summer of 1942, a young arranger named Gil While Claude Thornhill Evans joined Thornhill's orchestra. This was the same and Artie Shaw were who would later be such an important part of playing in Cleveland, ' career. For Thornhill, Evans arranged the Fletcher Henderson brought popular "There's a Small Hotel" and "Buster's Last his swinging big band to Stand" which established the Thornhill Orchestra as an town for the first time. It outstanding modern jazz band. was in July of 1927. In the fall of 1942, during World War II, Thornhill Included in the band, which went into the Navy and played piano in a service band was blazing the trail for the led by his old roommate from Cleveland, Artie Shaw. , was saxophonist When Thornhill got out of the Navy, he rounded up . The many of the members of his old band including Evans Henderson band broke with and reorganized his orchestra. the earlier practice of Evans wrote a piece called "Arab Dance" which was led by such a combination of his interests in progressive jazz and people as Will Marion European . Cook and Noble Sissie Fletcher Henderson 16 Cleveland Jazz History

which played mostly Carter, the band spent a month playing at Cleveland' s An.'..... '1f'1 ScM" I stock arrangements. old Hollenden Hotel at East 6th and Superior. Oalv E:asun DUe ...... aee Henderson's The palatial old Hollenden had been built in 1885 W.d. Niaht Au,. 15 orchestra was one of and had been considered the hotel between New York FLETCHER the first big bands to and Chicago. Its guest book included the names of HENDERSON play its own Presidents William McKinley, , 4J11D ••s oacluq'.... compositions and p~... at C.I...ltla CeIerM a....s· arrangements instead Fletcher Henderson in NE Ohio ..w_ Sale N_ of stock arrange­ IULLDOG CISAR STOlE December 1921 • He A I'eIIOII, lINt. 'I'u. ments. Historian With Ethel Waters in Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown an Offlc. lie, ind, 'fax. called and Mansfield .OND&'I"OC & the Henderson July 1927 • NIGHT III PEaSON Leading his band in Cleveland Orchestra "the single June 1929· most important Crystal Slipper Ballroom, Cleveland, with Coleman Hawkins, and .AI....", musical force in big " ...... If'!! c..a October 1929 • band history." Cleveland, with Hawkins, Stewart and Carter A 1932 newspaper ad for the A native of February 1930 • Oster's Ballroom, Cleveland, with , Henderson band in Akron Cuthbert, Georgia, Stewart, Carter and Hawkins Henderson had first November and December 1931 • come to Northeast Ohio in 1921 when he was leading a Hollenden Hotel, Cleveland, with Jimmy Harrison, and Carter band for the Black Swan Record Company, backing August 1932 • singer Ethel Waters in a series of one-night gigs in Summit Beach Park, Akron Cleveland, Akron, Youngstown and Mansfield. October 1932 • Cleveland with Hawkins and Stewart Henderson formed his own band in 1923 and insisted December 1933 • on using only the best musicians. Over the years, they Cleveland with Russell Procope October 2·29, 1934 • included such future jazz giants as Louis Armstrong, , Cleveland Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, , Fats April 1936 • Waller, , , Rex Stewart and Ruggles Beach, Lorain, with Clevelander Cootie ' Williams. Henderson also permitted his August 23, 1937 • musicians to freely interpret the original compositions Cleveland with Berry and arrangements they were playing. With this policy, August 29, 1937· Buckeye Lake with and Berry Henderson' s band laid the foundation for the swing era. October 1, 1939 • By the late 1920s, Henderson' s band was an Cleveland Stadium with Benny Goodman Orchestra acknowledged leader in big band jazz. November 24,1940· Trianon Ballroom, Cleveland with Benny Goodman When the Henderson band appeared in Cleveland in December 27,1940· June of 1929, it was led by his younger brother, Horace Trianon Ballroom, Cleveland with Goodman December 28,1940· Henderson, a graduate ofOhio ' s Wilberforce University. Youngstown with Goodman Fletcher was recovering from injuries he received in an December 30, 1940 • auto accident. Henderson suffered a broken collarbone, The Country Club, Cleveland with Goodman May-June, 1941 • a long gash on his forehead and paralysis ofhis left side. Cleveland Led by Horace, the band played at the Crystal Slipper April 7, 1942 • Ballroom, then Cleveland' s largest and fmest dance hall, Cleveland March 3, 1943 • at 9802 Euclid Avenue. Five years later, the name of Akron Armory with Clevelander Jimmy Williams and ballroom was changed to the Trianon Ballroom. singer Dolores Parker The early 1930s were lean years for the Henderson November 1943· Oster's Ballroom, Cleveland, with Parker Orchestra. It made several excellent recordings and, September 28, 1944· while tours were scarce, the band did travel to Cleveland Public Auditorium, Cleveland, with Parker several times. October 27 to November 2, 1944· Metropolitan Theatre, Cleveland, with Parker In February of 1930, Henderson's band was at January 19 to 25, 1945 • . Oster' s Ballroom on East 105th Street. That band Metropolitan Theatre, Cleveland, with Parker Fall 1948 • featured trumpeters Cootie Williams and Rex Stewart CafeTia Juana, Cleveland and saxophonists Benny Carter and Coleman Hawkins. Source: Hendersonia by Walt Allen Late in 1931 , with such sidemen as trombonist Jimmy Harrison and saxophonists Russell Procope and The Jazz Age in Cleveland 17

William Howard Taft, and Warren later, after his father drove to Cleveland with some Harding; and opera singer . For half a money for his son, Callender took a bus back home. But century, it was the place in Cleveland to see and to be seen. he returned to Cleveland a year later. When Fletcher Henderson and his Cotton Club Callender, who later became one ofthe most sought­ Entertainers appeared at Summit Beach Park in Akron after players in jazz, spent 1934 and 1935 here, August 15, 1932, the admission was 20¢. playing with Jimmy Darrow' s big band. He called Henderson's band was booked into the brand new Darrow "a high-note trumpet player without a lot of Cleveland Cotton Club at 2226 East 55th Street for three business sense." weeks in the fall of 1934. Hoping to duplicate the great Callender said he was offered the job ofplaying bass success ofthe Cotton Club in New York City' s , in the house band at Henry' s Furnace, a at the owner Bernie Berstein promoted "Fletcher Henderson' s Majestic Hotel on East 55th Street, the main hotel in the All-Star New York Show featuring Dewey Washington, black neighborhood of Cleveland at the time. "The Eunice Wilson, Mabel Scott, the Three Brown Bears, management gave us rooms there, paid us a salary," said pantomimist Johnny Hudgins and 'Two Piano Queens. '" Callender, "and we did pretty good on tips." But the The show proved so successful that the engagement was hours were tough. They usually played from 9 or 10 at extended to four weeks before Henderson moved on to night to 9 or 10 the next morning, whenever the last the famous Graystone Ballroom in Detroit. person went home. Callender said, "We didn't care, we When Henderson played at Ruggles Beach in Lorain could sleep all day." in August of 1936, he played his arrangement ofthe Fats Callender recalled, "Fletcher Henderson's band was in Waller- composition "Stealin' Apples," a town, with on bass, on trumpet song that would later become one ofBenny Goodman' s and Coleman Hawkins on tenor ." According most popular numbers. Trumpeter Emmett Berry, who to Callender, they all came to Henry' s Furnace to jam . had grown up in Cleveland, joined the Henderson when their gigs were over, and after the paying customers Orchestra in 1936. Another new member of the went home. He said, "I became a Coleman Hawkins fan Henderson band was drummer . right there on the spot (at the Majestic Hotel), and always After playing at Buckeye Lake in August of 1937, will be. Never had I heard anything like that before." Henderson broke up his band and joined the Benny He said Roy Eldridge was about 19 years old then Goodman Orchestra as a pianist and arranger. He wrote and they struck up a friendship. "We wore long many of Goodman's most memorable arrangements. overcoats that dragged along the ground," said Red, "but Henderson formed another band in 1941 and made never wore a hat because that was considered several more appearances in Northeast Ohio including 'sissified.", He said Eldridge carried his trumpet in a one-week stays at Cleveland' s Metropolitan Theatre in case slung over his shoulder by a strap "and I'd trail 1944 and 1945 and Oster' s Ballroom in 1943. along with him all over town. He was a bundle of Henderson died in New York City December 29, energy, effervescent, entirely wrapped up in music. No 1952, at the age of 54. one played as high or fast as Roy until Diz dethroned him as king." Callender said Eldridge was the person Red Callender in Cleveland who took him to Mamie Louise's Chicken Shack in A 17-year-old bass player Cleveland to see and hear Harry Edison, a young who had grown up in Atlantic trumpeter from Columbus who was playing with Chester City, New Jersey, came to Clark' s band. According to Callender, "Edison' s style Cleveland in 1933. Red was fully developed even at the age of 18." Callender, in his autobiography It was Eldridge who took Callender to first hear Unfinished Dream, recalled he pianist at a Cleveland after-hours joint before was playing with a vaudeville Eldridge left Cleveland with the Fletcher Henderson troupe called Eddie Hunter' s Orchestra. Black and White Review. In 1935, two years after he had first come to Their bus broke down halfway Cleveland, Callender joined another band formed by between Harrisburg and Jimmy Darrow and played in Mansfield. There he met Red Callender Cleveland. When they finally a piano player from Columbus named Logan "Lord" got here, they discovered their Hawkins, who got him a job with a band led by Roderick show had been canceled, but they played at various spots Ray at the Gloria Nightclub in Columbus. From there, for about a week before Hunter disappeared without he went on the road with Blanche Thompson, and in paying his musicians. Callender said they stayed in a 1936, at the age of 20, ended up in playing Cleveland rooming house "on credit." A few weeks with ' s band. After studying with two 18 Cleveland Jazz f:listory classical bass violinists, Callender made his fIrst record, Horace, and then joined the Orchestra. with Louis Armstrong's Orchestra, "Once In A While" Beginning in 1941, Berry played radio, recording and and "On The Sunny Side ofthe Street." live dates with 's Cafe Society and At about the same time, Callender wrote two tunes, joined a much-publicized CBS studio band led by "Love Lost" and "Bogo Joe," which were recorded by . In 1943, Berry joined the Lionel . He gave bass lessons to a teenager Hampton band. In 1944, he played with the legendary named Charlie Mingus and showed Mingus how to Sextet and recorded with Eddie Heywood. develop a powerful, penetrating tone on the bass. From The Clevelander played the trumpet solo on Heywood's 1940 to 1943, Callender played in the band of Lee and classic recording of "Begin the Beguine." Lester Young. He formed his own group in 1944, and in Beginning in 1945, Berry was a key member of the 1946, appeared in a movie called New Orleans with Orchestra and small groups for fIve years. Louis Armstrong and . He later toured with the Orchestra. In the 1950s, Callender, who had settled in Los Berry was not swayed by the advent of bop. He Angeles, was a highly-sought-after studio musician and continued to play the straight-ahead swing style he had played many dates with native Cleveland arranger Ernie learned with Henderson. Freeman. He also recorded with . In 1970, because of ill health, Berry came home to Inthe mid-1950s, Callender recorded with the pianist Cleveland to retire. he had fIrst met at an after-hours club in Cleveland, Art Tatum. Jimmy Williams and Henderson In the 1960s, Callender became a NBC staffmusician A graduate of Cleveland's Central High School, in Los Angeles and recorded with dozens of groups Jimmy Williams was playing with a World including Mingus, , and even Percy War II big band at the Portage Ordanance Depot at the Faith's big, lush elevator music orchestra. Ravenna Arsenal when a friend named In 1971, Callender's California home was destroyed persuaded him to join the 1940s Fletcher Henderson by an earthquake, but he continued playing, recording, Orchestra. teaching, composing and arranging. "Man, this is great," said Williams as he began When he returned to Cleveland in 1991 with Jimmy touring the country with Henderson. "I wasn't making and Jeannie Cheatham's Sweet Baby Blues Band to play too much money, but I got into the swing of things. I a Northeast Ohio Jazz Society concert at Cain Park, Red didn't goof it up or anything." Callender remembered those days 58 years earlier when Before long, the college-educated Henderson realized he fIrst arrived in Cleveland and met and played with that Williams was a talented musician and he began Coleman Hawkins, Roy Eldridge and Art Tatum. giving the Clevelander more and more responsibilities in Eight months after that Cleveland appearance, March the band. "I would rehearse them and everything," 8, 1992, Callender died ofthyroid cancer at age 76. recalled Williams. "It seemed as· though Fletcher was tired all the time. He would call a two 0'clock Emmett Berry with Henderson and I'd get the guys together and we'd start rehearsing." When Roy Eldridge left the Fletcher Henderson Williams also arranged for the Henderson Orchestra. Orchestra in 1936, he was replaced by Clevelander One day, when Williams was sitting at a piano, working Emmett Berry. on a chart, Henderson walked up behind him and said, "I Influenced originally by Louis Armstrong, Berry just wanted to see what a good arranger does when he's played with local bands in Cleveland in the early 1930s putting an arrangement together." Williams thought the and went on the road in 1932 with a band led by Frank master big band arranger was pulling his leg. But Terry of Toledo. With Terry, Berry began to Henderson sat down, went through the arrangement with demonstrate a fIery, full-toned and flawless technique him and said, "I like that. You seem to have an idea of that would carry him on a 40-year career with many of what you're shooting for." Williams said to himself, the most respected musicians in jazz. "He wasn't kidding. He was serious about me being a He spent three years with the high-flying Henderson good arranger." band and produced a series of warm, uncomplicated solos on such recordings as "Stealin' Apples," Bix in Ohio and Cleveland "Christopher Columbus," "Blue Lou," "Rhythm of the A number ofkey events in the triumph and tragedy of Tambourine," "Back in Your Own Backyard," "Chris Bix Beiderbecke, the legendary cornetist whose art And His Gang," and "Sing You Sinners." influenced generations of jazz musicians, occurred in After Henderson broke up his band to join Benny Ohio. Goodman, Berry played briefly with Henderson's brother, From 1924 to 1927, Beiderbecke astounded thejazz The Jazz Age in Cleveland 19

electric bulb hanging in the middle . of the room, overlooking Lake Erie." When they fmally arrived in New York, they played at the Cinderella Dance Hall at 48th and and again recorded for Gennett. On the basis ofhis records with the Wolverines, Bix was offered a job with the popular Jean Goldkette Orchestra in Detroit. He played on a series of radio broadcasts with Goldkette and, in January of 1925, The Wolverine Orchestra in Cincinnati in 1924. Beiderbecke is holding his cornet. recorded again in Richmond, Indiana with his own group, The Rhythm Jugglers, which included trombonist world with his clarion tone and revolutionary easy­ . swinging musical figures that bridged the eras of New With the Goldkette Orchestra, Beiderbecke played a Orleans jazz and swing. His recordings, still highly series of dates in Ohio in April of 1927 - at a General prized, personified what was called "The Jazz Age." Motors convention in Dayton, at the Greystone Dance But, like his contemporary, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, Hall in Dayton, at the Valley Dale Ballroom in Beiderbecke was losing a battle with alcohol. Columbus, and at a charity ball at the Neil House hotel For two months at the end of 1923, Bix was playing in Columbus. From late May (when Charles Lindbergh with the Wolverine Orchestra at a bootlegging and made his historic non-stop solo flight of the Atlantic) gambling roadhouse, the Stockton Club, in Hamilton, until early July, Bix and the Goldkette band played at Ohio, 20 miles north of Cincinnati. Castle Farms in Cincinnati. According to Philip Evans, in his exhaustive In October of 1927, Beiderbecke and Goldkette chronology of Beiderbecke's life, Bix: The Leon Bix saxophonist Frank Trumbauer joined the most popular Beiderbecke Story, the Wolverines then began playing band in the country at the time, the at Doyle's Dancing Academy in Cincinnati and at Orchestra. Miami University in Oxford, Ohio. Those gigs led to During the fall of 1927, Beiderbecke and the Beiderbecke's first recordings. Whiteman Orchestra played at Land 0' Dance in It was Monday, February 18th, 1924. Bix and the Canton, Madison Gardens in Toledo, and for a week in Wolverines went to the in December at the Allen Theatre in downtown Cleveland. Richmond, Indiana, just over the Ohio Iine from Dayton,· Other members of the and recorded for Gennett Records. The first record was BIX Whiteman Orchestra at the old New Orleans Rhythm Kings' song, "Fidgety the time included Tommy Feet." The recording session also included and , Henry Beiderbecke's first recorded solo. Busse and singer Bing Gennett invited Bix and the Wolverines to return to Crosby. The Cleveland Richmond in May Press carried a cartoon and June for more drawing of Bix and recordings. reviewer Billie Thomas After playing wrote, "To my way of during the summer of thinking, no child should 1924 at Lake Front be started in life without Park in Gary, being brought up on this Indiana, Bix and the kind of music." Wolverines set out In February of 1928, for New York City in Bix and the Whiteman three . Ralph band played In Burton, in his book, Cleveland Press Youngstown. In Remembering Bix, A cartoon of Bix in the September, they said they reached December 9,1927 performed at Rainbow Cleveland long after Cleveland Press Gardens in Erie and at the midnight and Land 0' Dance Ballroom checked into what he In Canton. While in Canton, the band members Cleveland Press I CSU Archives called "a shabby organized an unusual golf match. Clarinetist Irving Bix Beiderbecke hotel with a bare Friedman recalled, "Each foursome would start at the first 20 Cleveland Jazz History

alcohol." Frank Trumbauer's diary noted Bix' s breakdown in Cleveland. Pianist Roy Bargy said Whiteman left Bix in Cleveland under a doctor' s care. The band went on to Columbus, Cincinnati and Akron without Bix. Trumbauer' s diary entry for December 2, 1928 said, "Bix still gone. Stayed in Cleveland with DTs." Beiderbecke rejoined the Whiteman Orchestra in New York in time to record. But, three days later, Whiteman had him admitted to a hospital on Long Island with pneumonia. It is not clear if Bix was back with the band when it The Paul Whiteman Orchestra in 1928. came to Cleveland in January of 1929 for a week's Beiderbecke is in the back row, third from right. engagement at the Palace Theatre. There were four shows a day, at 2:20, 4:45, 7:20 and 9:45. An ad in the hole with two quarts ofwhiskey. The two low men on each Cleveland Press said Whiteman "turned ' em away by hole would take a drink. Needless to say, it wasn't too long the thousands." Press reviewer George Davis said, before the winners were losers and vice versa. While we "Whiteman's fine band pleases crowds." But Davis also staggered in after losing golf balls and clubs all over the noted that "one ofhis best musicians (Bix) was absent." course, Bix was as fresh as he was when we started." Y ~'S I "nl. y All O.er In November of 1928, Bix and the Whiteman lie T .. m .... CI~nJftn" 11",y',.., Orchestra returned to Cleveland to play at the then-new 'Em Awa,. Talklnlt at East 6th and St. Clair. Bix opened the by the "hout show playing "Tiger Rag" with a group and TI",.,wandll later played in the brass section during 's lIere arrangement of 's "." But, fellow band member Charles Margulis recalled, "Bix had too much to drink before the concert and passed out as we were playing." Margulis said he continued playing his trumpet with his left hand while holding up Bix with his right hand. Whiteman saw what was happening and immediately had Beiderbecke taken back to the Hotel Cleveland. Thomas King, in his book o Pops: Paul Whiteman, King ojJazz, said, "In Cleveland, Bix suffered a devastating mental and physical breakdown triggered by his growing dependence on

An ad for Buescher's record store in the January 21,1929 Cleveland Press. The store was trying to sell Whiteman records while his band was in Cleveland Biographer Jean-Pierre Lion believes Beiderbecke was not with the band this time in Cleveland, but biographers Richard Sudhalter and Philip Evans wrote that after their opening performance, the other band members returned to the Hotel Cleveland and found Beiderbecke had wrecked his room. It was apparently his second breakdown in Cleveland in less than two months! Trombonist Bill Rank said, "He cracked up, just went to pieces." Bix apparently suffered an alcoholic fit. Pianist Bargy said, "It was a breakdown, a major one!" The Hotel Cleveland The Cleveland Press, apparently after talking with next to the Terminal Tower on Public Square somebody with the Whiteman band, reported Bix was The Jazz Age in Cleveland 21 going home to Davenport, for a rest. He may have Almost forgotten is the fact that key events in Bix sneaked out of the hotel, past the new Terminal Tower Beiderbecke's early triumphs occurred in Ohio and key that was under construction, and gone down near Lake events in his eventual tragedy occurred in downtown Erie to take a train to New York City. Cleveland. Several weeks later, after Whiteman had hired a replacement for Bix and returned to New York, Bix was 's start here found in a New York hotel room, badly beaten and slashed. He had apparently gotten into a fight with some sailors at a speakeasy. This time, Whiteman sent him home to Davenport to rest - on full salary. After the rest, Beiderbecke rejoined the Whiteman Orchestra and returned to Cleveland in May of 1929 to play at radio station WHK's auditorium. Later that same day, the band also played in Toledo and Detroit. In a few months, Bix' s health got worse and he left the Whiteman Orchestra. He played a few dates with several other bands and made a few more records. But his great artistry had been consumed. Beiderbecke died August 6, 1931 in New York at the Jimmie Lunceford and his Orchestra age of28. Also In 1929, a high school athletic director from Manassas High School in Memphis decided to begin a Bix Beiderbecke in Ohio new career as a band leader. Jimmie Lunceford brought October and December, 1923 his group ofyoung musicians, some of whom had been With the Wolverines at the Stockton Club, Hamilton members of his sports teams, to Cleveland. January 14 to March 31,1924 With Wolverines at Doyle's Dancing Academy, But the black band had trouble scoring here. White Cincinnati bands were getting most of the gigs. Lunceford' s first January 18, 1924 professional band played some summer engagements at With Wolverines at Miami University prom, Oxford January 25. 1924 Lakeside near Kelly' s Island, but generally bombed in With Wolverines at Miami University, Oxford Northern Ohio. They later said they spent months of March 25, 1924 With Wolverines for fraternity dance, Hamilton "near-starvation" in the Cleveland area. They moved to April 13, 1927 Buffalo and finally scored a big success at Cornell With Jean Goldkette Orchestra in Dayton University in May of 1933. That night they figuratively April 15 and 16, 1927 With Goldkette at Greystone Dance Hall, Dayton blew the other band off the bandstand. The other band April 17, 1927 was a Cleveland band led by . That prom With Goldkette at Valley Dale Ballroom, Columbus date led to a booking for Lunceford' s band at the April 18, 1927 With Goldkette at charity ball at Neil House, Columbus Lafayette Theatre in New York City and the Cotton May 29 to July 1,1927 Club in Harlem where young was a chorus With Goldkette at Castle Farms, Cincinnati girl. Within a year, Lunceford hired a young arranger November 30,1927 With Paul Whiteman Orchestra at Land 0 ' Dance, and trumpeter from Zanesville, Ohio named . Canton Oliver's arrangements, including "Organ Grinder's December 1,1927 With Whiteman Orch. at Madison Gardens, Toledo Swing," pushed Lunceford to worldwide fame. Earlier, December 4 to 11, 1927 Oliver had arranged for the Zach Whyte With Whiteman Orch. at Allen Theatre, Cleveland that had played frequently in Cleveland. February 21, 1928 With Whiteman Orch. in Youngstown Veteran Cleveland saxophonist Tommy Allen, who September 25,1928 toured with Whyte, said when he was with Whyte' s With Whiteman Orch. at Land 0 ' Dance, Canton band he played many ofOliver' s arrangements that most November 30,1928 With Whiteman Orch. at Music Hall, Cleveland people later associated with the colorful, well-rehearsed (Six passed out during concert and suffered breakdown) Lunceford band. January 20-26, 1929 Whiteman Orch. at Palace Theatre, Cleveland For years, the Lunceford Orchestra traveled about (Bix suffered breakdown at Hotel Cleveland) 40,000 miles a year, including many return visits to May 26, 1929 Cleveland. With Whiteman Orch. at WHK Auditorium, Cleveland Trumpeters and were Source: Philip Evans, The Leon Bix Beiderbecke Story playing in a Cleveland band in 1939 when Lunceford 22 Cleveland Jazz History hired them for his band. Wilson and Young first played Cleveland, soon tired ofthe rigors oftouring the country. with Lunceford at the Trianon Ballroom on Euclid "I liked it," he said, "but it wasn't what I thought it Avenue. Wilson toured with Lunceford for four years would be. When you're on the outside looking in, you and wrote such classics as "Hi Spook" and "Yard Dog have a perception that it's better than it actually is." Mazurka." In 1948, Wilson became a member of the Looking back, Williams said the life ofa touring band , joining Clevelander Emmett member "is a vagrant's life." Berry in the trumpet section. Later, Wilson played with Williams decided to come home to Cleveland. He Dizzy Gillespie. pawned a ring for fifteen dollars, bought a train ticket, During the 1940s, the Lunceford band included and took the train to the old Pennsylvania Railroad several musicians from Cleveland - , station at East 55th and Euclid, near the home where his Harry "Pee Wee" Jackson and Jimmy Williams. wife and son were living. Williams was just beginning to learn how to play the He spent years driving a Cleveland Transit System trombone at Cleveland's Central High School in the late bus and leading his own band here. 1930s when he heard some music on the radio that Williams may have been smaTter than he realized at would have a lasting effect on his life. It was the the time. A few years later (in 1947), Lunceford was Lunceford Orchestra playing "My Blue Heaven." killed in a plane crash. "What is that?!" he asked himself. "I never heard anything like that before!" on Prospect Avenue Williams' dream of playing with the Lunceford band became a reality a few years later. When Lunceford hired the young trombonist from Cleveland, he suggested that he listen to and watch the band before going on stage for the first time. But, Williams, who had been listening to aU the Lunceford records, was confident he could play the book without hearing the band in person. He was shocked when they played the first number. "I hit the first note," said Williams, "and I didn't hear another note the rest ofthe night. They were so damned loud! Those behind me! Man, they blasted!" Traveling with the Lunceford Orchestra in the 1940s was a constant series of one-night gigs - playing, riding the bus, and often staying in cheap hotels. He said, "It seemed like we covered ten thousand miles in three days." Besides playing swinging big band jazz, the Lunceford Courtesy of Red Nichols Orchestra also put on an entertaining show. It was fun to Red Nichols broadcasting from the Golden watch the trumpeters waving their derby mutes and the Pheasant Restaurant on Prospect Avenue in 1932 trombonists waving their slides in unison as they played. Williams remembered one little show business stunt of In January of 1932, Red Nichols was leading a dance the band. "We'd throw our slide out," he said, "and then, band at the Golden Pheasant Chinese Restaurant on it came back up without pulling it up. That was always Prospect Avenue, the same restaurant where Artie Shaw pretty cute." He explained that he flicked the slide real had played with the Austin Wylie Orchestra. Every fast with his fmger when the audience was watching the night the Nichols band broadcast nationally on the CBS end ofthe slide. "It just appeared," he said, ''that the slide radio network. would come aU the way back up all by itself." Nichols was one of the biggest names in jazz when While traveling around the country, Lunceford he came to Cleveland. He had played with Paul frequently hitched rides for his band on military planes. Whiteman's big orchestra and later said the greatest Williams didn't like to fly and had some frightening honor he ever received was being replaced in the memories of what he called "young devil-may-care Whiteman Orchestra by Bix Beiderbecke. Army pilots." In the three years before coming to Cleveland, "One time," he recalled, "We were landing and the Nichols had made dozens of enormously popular jazz pilot missed the wires by about that much. And when he records with the group he called "Red Nichols and his hit the tarmac, we bounced. The wing almost hit ." Among the sidemen who had recorded ground. I thought I was going to be a statistic." with him were Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Williams, who had a wife and child at home in Miller, , , and The Jazz"Age in Cleveland 23

Jack Teagarden. They all went on to become some of They recorded "The Scat Song," "Oh! You Sweet the biggest names of the swing era. Thing," "I Would Do Most Anything For You," "Mean But after his stint in Cleveland, Nichols' music Old Bed Bug Blues," "Yellow Dog Blues," "Yes, Suh!" became more and more commercial and he gradually and other songs. The Clevelander, who sang high­ faded from the public consciousness. pitched, intense vocals, was 24 years old at the time. Banks was born in Alton, Illinois, and moved to Billy Banks Cleveland where his family operated a In 1932, , the shoe store. businessman who helped build the Not long after the recordings, Banks Lunceford and Duke Ellington returned to Cleveland. In 1934, he joined Orchestras, heard a singer in Cleveland the big band ofClevelander Noble SissIe named Billy Banks. Mills took Banks and toured the world and made several to New York City and got him an records with SissIe's Orchestra including engagement at Connie's Inn in Harlem. "Characteristic Blues." Before long, Banks was recording From 1938 to 1950, Banks was a for . Mills made featured cabaret performer at Billy Rose's Banks the front man of a group called Diamond Horseshoe nightclub. the Rhythmakers. The group included According to 's Who's Who such future jazz greats as trumpeter of Jazz, Banks did 7,151 consecutive Henry "Red" Allen, reedman Pee Wee performances at the club. By 1952, he Russell, pianist , banjoist was working in a variety show, touring A Billy Banks record cover , bassist Pops Foster, and Europe, including Holland, France and drummer . With so Great Britain, where he recorded with much youngjazz talent, the 1932 records by Billy Banks' 's band. After performing in Asia and Rhythmakers, one of the first racially-mixed recording Australia, Banks settled in Japan. groups, were billed as ''the hottest jazz ever recorded." Banks died in Tokyo in October 1967 at the age of59.