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Old 08-20-2013, 05:06 PM   #13 (permalink)
Lord Larehip
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Also on the recording is saxophonist Coleman Hawkins who had been with Henderson from the beginning. Born in Saint Joseph, Missouri in 1904, his family moved to Chicago and then Kansas. He studied piano, cello and then sax by the age of 9. By the age of 17, he was playing sax for Mamie Smith’s Jazz Hounds and became a full-fledged member in 1922. When the band came to New York, Hawkins quit and joined up with Fletcher Henderson. He would stay with Henderson until 1934 but during that time, he was involved in a number of projects including solo ventures where he made his name. Miles Davis stated that the work of Coleman Hawkins opened doors to new ways of playing and hearing music. After ’34, Hawkins toured Europe as a solo artist until 1939. Lester Young, who played with Hawkins in the Henderson orchestra, stated that Hawkins was the true first president of the sax (Young’s nickname was “Pres”). “As far as myself,” said Young, “I think I’m the second one.”


Coleman Hawkins

Perhaps the greatest unsung hero of the swing era is Irving Mills. Born in 1894 to a Jewish family on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, Mills and his brother, Jack, founded a music publishing company in 1919—Mills Music. Mills got hooked on jazz when he went to the Kentucky Club near 7th and Broadway one night to see the Ellington orchestra play and, instead of hopping from club to club to scope the talent as was his usual routine, Mills was glued to his seat all night.


Irving Mills

Mills began to sponsor the jazz groups in New York and owned all the most influential including Ellington, Cab Calloway, Fletcher Henderson, Don Redman, Lucky Millinder, Benny Carter, Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Ben Pollack, Raymond Scott, Willie Lewis, Will Hudson and others. He also made the careers of many great songwriters including Harry Barris (“Mississippi Mud”), Hoagy Carmichael, Gene Austin (“My Blue Heaven”), Sammy Fain (“Love Is a Many Splendored Thing”), Jimmy McHugh and Dorothy Fields (“I’m in the Mood for Love,” “On the Sunny Side of the Street”). Mills had deep connections into RCA, Victor (separate companies back then) as well as the best clubs in New York including the Cotton Club—soon to be the most prestigious of them all. In fact, Mills was the man who got the Ellington orchestra into the Cotton Club (at the suggestion of Jimmy McHugh). Mills Music, Inc. Mills Artists Bureau owned all the contracts and copyrights of every band and writer this publishing empire employed. He also booked their gigs through Mills Artists Booking Agency.

Another innovation of Irving Mills was his practice of “bands-within-bands” in which he would pull out a smaller section of a larger orchestra and use them as a backup band or have them record their own material. He was also the first to record black and white musicians playing together in 1928. The band, Warren Mills & his Blue Serenaders, was actually Ellington’s backing singer Adelaide Hall and the Hall Johnson Choir and conducted by Matty Malneck. When Victor Records balked at distributing the record (“St. Louis Blues” b/w “Gems from Blackbirds of 1928”) due to segregation, Mills threatened to withdraw his artists from the label’s roster. Victor immediately capitulated.


Warren Mills and His Blue Serenaders - Gems from Blackbirds of 1928 - YouTube


Warren Mills Blue Serenaders - St. Louis Blues (1928) - YouTube


Adelaide Hall

Mills was not a musician but he possessed a fine singing voice and had enough talent to pitch in and help write songs. He co-wrote, for example, Ellington’s “Mood Indigo,” “It Don’t Mean a Thing (If It Ain’t Got That Swing)” and “Black and Tan Fantasy,” as well as Cab Calloway’s “Minnie the Moocher.” He formed his own band called Irving Mills & his Hotsy Totsy Gang which contained some of the greatest jazz figures of that era including the Dorsey Bros, Benny Goodman, Eddie Lang, Manny Klein, Joe Venuti, Glenn Miller and Red Nichols. Mills sometimes billed himself under the moniker of Joe Primrose. He sometimes sang with the band but usually was in the background. Mills also sang with Ellington’s orchestra as well as that of Jack Pettis. Hearing the following tracks, both recorded in 1928, there is little doubt of just how much the swing era owes to Irving Mills—pretty much everything.


Irving Mills and his Hotsy Totsy Gang - Diga Diga Doo 1928 - YouTube


Jack Pettis and his Pets, Irving Mills vocal - Baby (1928) - YouTube
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