Hal Kemp

Hal Kemp ( born March 27, 1904 in Marion, Alabama, † December 21, 1940 in Madera, California ) was an American jazz saxophonist ( alto), clarinetist, arranger, composer and bandleader.

Life and work

Kemp, who had been in high school, a band ( The Merry Makers ), founded his jazz band " Carolina Club Orchestra" as a student at the University of North Carolina ( 1922 ), which recorded for Okeh and toured in the summer through Europe. In 1927, he left the management of the band his fellow student Kay Kyser ( the very popular was also in movies ) and founded in New York City is a professional band with John Scott Trotter ( his arranger), Saxie Dowell and the singer and drummer Skinnay Ennis, with which he at the university had a septet already, and for a time the trumpeters Bunny Berigan and Jack Purvis; Trotter arranged for them. The impresario Fred Waring brought her to New York from beach Roof; they had their breakthrough in 1932 with their commitment in the Chicago Blackhwak Cafe, which was broadcast nationwide on radio station WGN. Your "Sweet Sound" with muted trumpet and megaphone -enhanced clarinets made ​​the band very popular in the 1930s; their themes song was "How I'll Miss You When Summer Is Gone". They performed in the course of the 30s, among others in New York's Waldorf -Astoria and the Palmer House in Chicago.

They had no outstanding musicians (only Kemp and Trotter could read well notes), but this was offset by the skillful arrangements of Trotter ( due to introduced by him for the staccato trumpet player who could only keep the bad sounds joked Johnny Mercer, that they would sound like typewriters ). They often toured in Europe, where the Prince of Wales was one of their fans. As Trotter (1936) and other prominent musicians such as Ennis left the band, they lost their distinctive sound and some of their popularity.

After a stint at the Mark Hopkins Hotel in San Francisco Kemp was hit head-on in the San Joaquin Valley in the morning mist of an oncoming car; he died as a result of this car accident ( the lung was injured in the collision and he got pneumonia ). First, Bob Allen forwarded the tape; it was taken over in 1941 by Art Jarrett. Postum had Kemp in early 1941 reached the hit " It All Comes Back To Me Now", the number 5 on the U.S. charts.