David Roy Eldridge was born on this day, January 30, in 1911. Commonly known as Roy Eldridge, and nicknamed "Little Jazz", he was an American jazz trumpet player. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions (link below), his virtuoso solos exhibited a departure from the smooth and lyrical style of earlier jazz trumpet innovator Louis Armstrong, and his strong impact on Dizzy Gillespie mark him as one of the most influential musicians of the swing era and a precursor of bebop.
There is a video of a 1964 telecast of Eldridge performing with Ella Fitzgerald on YouTube (link below) in which he utilizes tritones & she sings the most amazing scat. What a fantastic paring!
(From left) Thelonious Monk, Howard McGhee,
New York, c. September 1947
Photograph by William P. Gottlieb
Eldridge
left home after being expelled (couldn't find out why) from high school
in ninth grade at the age of sixteen. He found work leading a small
band in the traveling "Rock Dinah" show where swing-era bandleader Count Basie saw him and Basie thought Eldridge "the greatest trumpet I'd ever heard in my life."
At
the age of 20, Eldridge led a band in Pittsburgh, billed as "Roy
Elliott and his Palais Royal Orchestra", the agent intentionally
changing Eldridge's name because "he thought it more classy."
He moved to New York in November 1930, playing in various bands in the early 1930s, including a number of Harlem dance bands with Cecil Scott, Elmer Snowden, Charlie Johnson, and Teddy Hill. It was during this time that Eldridge received his nickname, 'Little Jazz', from Ellington saxophonist Otto Hardwick, who was amused by the incongruity between Eldridge's raucous playing and his short stature.
Eldridge recorded a number of small group sides with singer Billie Holiday in July 1935, including What a Little Moonlight Can Do and Miss Brown to You, employing a Dixieland-influenced improvisation style.
In the fall of 1936, Eldridge moved to Chicago to form an octet with older brother Joe Eldridge playing saxophone and arranging. The ensemble boasted nightly broadcasts and made recordings that featured his extended solos, including After You've Gone and Wabash Stomp." Fed up with the racism he had encountered in the music industry, he quit playing in 1938 to study radio engineering. He returned to playing in 1939, when he formed a ten-piece band that gained a residency at the Arcadia Ballroom in New York.
Roy Eldridge Orchestra - January 1, 1939
In the fall of 1936, Eldridge moved to Chicago to form an octet with older brother Joe Eldridge playing saxophone and arranging. The ensemble boasted nightly broadcasts and made recordings that featured his extended solos, including After You've Gone and Wabash Stomp." Fed up with the racism he had encountered in the music industry, he quit playing in 1938 to study radio engineering. He returned to playing in 1939, when he formed a ten-piece band that gained a residency at the Arcadia Ballroom in New York.
photogrpaher unknown
When he wasn't onstage himself, one trumpeter remembered, Eldridge would
search out young trumpeters in other clubs, then "take out his horn at
the door....start on a high B-flat and just come walking in." ~ Jazz: A History of America's Music" by Geoffrey C Ward and Ken Burns.
His rhythmic power to swing a band was a dynamic trademark of the jazz of the time. It has been said that "from the mid-Thirties onwards, he had superseded Louis Armstrong as the exemplar of modern 'hot' trumpet playing".
His rhythmic power to swing a band was a dynamic trademark of the jazz of the time. It has been said that "from the mid-Thirties onwards, he had superseded Louis Armstrong as the exemplar of modern 'hot' trumpet playing".
In April 1941, after receiving many offers from white swing bands, Eldridge joined the Gene Krupa Orchestra, and was successfully featured with rookie singer Anita O'Day.
In accepting this position, Eldridge became one of the first black
musicians to become a permanent member of a white big band. Eldridge was
instrumental in changing the course of Krupa's big band from schmaltz to jazz. The group's cover of the Jimmy Dorsey song, Green Eyes,
previously an entirely orchestral work, was transformed into jazz via
Eldridge's playing; critic Dave Oliphant notes that Eldridge "lift[ed]"
the tune "to a higher level of intensity."
Eldridge and O'Day were featured in a number of recordings, including
the novelty hit Let Me Off Uptown and Knock Me a Kiss.
One of Eldridge's best known recorded solos is on a rendition of the Hoagy Carmichael tune, Rockin' Chair, arranged by Benny Carter as something like a concerto for Eldridge. Jazz historian Gunther Schuller referred to Eldridge's solo on Rockin' Chair as "a strong and at times tremendously moving performance", although he disapproved of the "opening and closing cadenzas, the latter unforgivably aping the corniest of operatic cadenza traditions." Critic and author Dave Oliphant describes Eldridge's unique tone on Rockin' Chair as "a raspy, buzzy tone, which enormously heightens his playing's intensity, emotionally and dynamically" and writes that it "was also meant to hurt a little, to be disturbing, to express unfathomable stress."
After leaving Krupa's band, Eldridge freelanced in New York during 1943 before joining the Artie Shaw band in 1944. In the postwar years, he became part of the group which toured under the Jazz at the Philharmonic, a series of jazz concerts, tours and recordings produced by Norman Granz.
Eldridge moved to Paris in 1950 while on tour with Benny Goodman, before returning to New York in 1951 to lead a band at the Birdland jazz club.
He additionally performed from 1952 until the early 1960s in small groups with Coleman Hawkins, Ella Fitzgerald and Earl Hines among others, and also began to record for Granz at this time. Eldridge also toured with Fitzgerald from late 1963 until March 1965 and with Count Basie from July until September 1966 before returning to freelance playing and touring at festivals.
In 1960, Eldridge participated, alongside Abbey Lincoln, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham and others, in recordings by the Jazz Artist's Guild, a short-lived grouping formed by Mingus and Max Roach as a reaction to the perceived commercialism of the Newport Festival. These resulted in the Newport Jazz Rebels LP.
One of Eldridge's best known recorded solos is on a rendition of the Hoagy Carmichael tune, Rockin' Chair, arranged by Benny Carter as something like a concerto for Eldridge. Jazz historian Gunther Schuller referred to Eldridge's solo on Rockin' Chair as "a strong and at times tremendously moving performance", although he disapproved of the "opening and closing cadenzas, the latter unforgivably aping the corniest of operatic cadenza traditions." Critic and author Dave Oliphant describes Eldridge's unique tone on Rockin' Chair as "a raspy, buzzy tone, which enormously heightens his playing's intensity, emotionally and dynamically" and writes that it "was also meant to hurt a little, to be disturbing, to express unfathomable stress."
After leaving Krupa's band, Eldridge freelanced in New York during 1943 before joining the Artie Shaw band in 1944. In the postwar years, he became part of the group which toured under the Jazz at the Philharmonic, a series of jazz concerts, tours and recordings produced by Norman Granz.
Eldridge moved to Paris in 1950 while on tour with Benny Goodman, before returning to New York in 1951 to lead a band at the Birdland jazz club.
Chet Baker - 1960
Birdland, New York
photo by William Claxton
He additionally performed from 1952 until the early 1960s in small groups with Coleman Hawkins, Ella Fitzgerald and Earl Hines among others, and also began to record for Granz at this time. Eldridge also toured with Fitzgerald from late 1963 until March 1965 and with Count Basie from July until September 1966 before returning to freelance playing and touring at festivals.
In 1960, Eldridge participated, alongside Abbey Lincoln, Charles Mingus, Eric Dolphy, Kenny Dorham and others, in recordings by the Jazz Artist's Guild, a short-lived grouping formed by Mingus and Max Roach as a reaction to the perceived commercialism of the Newport Festival. These resulted in the Newport Jazz Rebels LP.
Eldridge became the leader of the house band at Jimmy Ryan's jazz club on West 54th Street in Manhattan for several years, beginning in 1969. Although Ryan's was primarily a Dixieland venue, Eldridge tried to combine the traditional Dixieland style with his own more brash and speedy playing.
Eldridge was incapacitated by a stroke in 1970, but continued to lead the group at Ryan's soon after and performing occasionally as a singer, drummer and pianist. Writer Michael Zirpolo, seeing Eldridge at Ryan's in the late 1970s, noted, "I was amazed that he still could pop out those piercing high notes, but he did, with frequency....I worried about his health, because the veins at his temples would bulge alarmingly." In 1971, Eldridge was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
After suffering a heart attack in 1980, Eldridge gave up playing. He died on February 26, 1989, at the Franklin General Hospital in Valley Stream, New York, three weeks after the death of his wife, Viola. He was 78 years old.
Eldridge was incapacitated by a stroke in 1970, but continued to lead the group at Ryan's soon after and performing occasionally as a singer, drummer and pianist. Writer Michael Zirpolo, seeing Eldridge at Ryan's in the late 1970s, noted, "I was amazed that he still could pop out those piercing high notes, but he did, with frequency....I worried about his health, because the veins at his temples would bulge alarmingly." In 1971, Eldridge was inducted into the Down Beat Jazz Hall of Fame.
After suffering a heart attack in 1980, Eldridge gave up playing. He died on February 26, 1989, at the Franklin General Hospital in Valley Stream, New York, three weeks after the death of his wife, Viola. He was 78 years old.
Viewfinder links:
Louis Armstrong
Ella Fitzgerald
Benny Goodman
Norman Granz Dizzy Gillespie
William P. Gottlieb
Coleman Hawkins
Billie Holiday
Charles Mingus
Thelonious Monk
Anita O'Day
Max Roach
NPR ~ The 'Little Jazz' Centennial Jazz-Music-History ~ jazz history's link
The Telegraph ~ Roy Eldridge: passionate perfectionist
All About Jazz ~ Little Jazz Giant
NY Times obit
Jerry Jazz Musician ~ A Roy Eldridge story
YouTube links:
TriTone Substitutions explained
Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge ~ Perdido
Roy Eldridge & Mildred Bailey ~ I'm Nobody's Baby (1940)
Roy Eldridge ~
Hoppin' John (January 29, 1951)
They Raided The Joint (January 22, 1951)
Rockin' Chair
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, January 30, 2018
Max Roach
Net links:
NPR ~ The 'Little Jazz' Centennial Jazz-Music-History ~ jazz history's link
The Telegraph ~ Roy Eldridge: passionate perfectionist
All About Jazz ~ Little Jazz Giant
NY Times obit
Jerry Jazz Musician ~ A Roy Eldridge story
YouTube links:
TriTone Substitutions explained
Ella Fitzgerald, Roy Eldridge ~ Perdido
Roy Eldridge & Mildred Bailey ~ I'm Nobody's Baby (1940)
Roy Eldridge ~
Hoppin' John (January 29, 1951)
They Raided The Joint (January 22, 1951)
Rockin' Chair
"I resolved to play my trumpet like a sax."
~ Roy Eldridge
Styrous® ~ Tuesday, January 30, 2018
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