Pee Wee Russell
Charles Ellsworth Russell, better known by his nickname Pee Wee Russell ( born March 27, 1906 in Maplewood, Missouri, † February 15, 1969 in a hospital in Alexandria, Virginia), was a jazz musician. Early in his career he worked as a clarinetist and saxophonist. Later he then chose the clarinet as the preferred instrument.
Career
Russell, who among other things has Native American ancestors, was born in Maplewood, Missouri, grew up in Muskogee, however (Oklahoma). One of his most famous compositions is titled Blue Muskogee. His father took the young Charles Ellsworth on an event of the known group The Louisiana Five. In the concert also played the clarinet Alcide Nunez from New Orleans. Under the impression of the concert, he decided to pursue a career as a jazz musician. He had private lessons in Muskogee; first appearances followed, first with his father, then with Red Nichols. After training at Western Military Academy (1920 /21) and the University of Missouri, he gained further professional experience as a clarinetist and saxophonist on river steamers, with vaudeville tour troops and Peck Kelley; 1923/24, he played in a band in Mexico.
Mid-1920s, Russell played in Chicago with musicians such as Bix Beiderbecke, Frank Trumbauer and again with Red Nichols, with the 78 "Feelin ' No Pain " was born. This was followed by recordings and performances with Red McKenzie, Irving Mills (1929 ), Hoagy Carmichael (1930 ), Gil Rodin ( 1931-34 ), Adrian Rollini (1935 ) and Louis Prima (1935 /36). From 1938 he worked repeatedly with Bobby Hackett, Eddie Condon, Jack Teagarden, Bud Freeman, Teddy Wilson, George Bruni, Miff Mole, Art Hodes, Muggsy Spanier, Wild Bill Davison, Coleman Hawkins, Ruby Braff, Earl Hines and Max Kaminsky. Although Russell never led his own band, but took a number of albums under his own name as Portrait of Pee Wee.
Since the late 1930s, he was one of the Dixieland scene in Greenwich Village New York. After a serious illness in 1950, he worked in the 1950s and 1960s, predominantly with Dixieland and mainstream groups to Ruby Braff, Eddie Condon, and George Wein, with whom he at festivals - guest appearances - such as the Newport Jazz Festival. On the Columbia album New Groove he studied with newer forms of jazz, in which he in a piano -less quartet, which also Marshall Brown belonged, songs like Strayhorn's " Chelsea Bridge ," " Moten Swing ," Dameron's " Good Bait " and Monks " 'Round Midnight " and even Coltrane's "Red Planet" interpreted. This was followed with a similar formation an album for Impulse! ( Ask Me Now! , 1966). Most recently, he appeared in 1969 in New York Town Hall, in Chicago and at the Monterey Jazz Festival.
Work
Russell developed in the 1920s for its original clarinet part. This quirky idiosyncratic style of play, which is characterized by unusual melodic twists and subtle Tonfarbwechsel, found in the first few years of his musical career not very popular. Strange and illogical appeared many listeners and critics, the music of Russell. Although in this expressive music outweigh sensitive and poetic elements, the critics did not bequeath him evil bad reviews. But musicians like Albert Nicholas and Benny Goodman appreciated him. Goodman looked at all influenced by Russell's style of play.
Dick Wellstood called Russell's game " a miracle " and lamented the silence "of this intricate, choked, knotty tangle of Quiet Schern, with whom he has created its spacious universe; " Sandy Brown described his vocal style as "totally individual, timeless and outside of any tradition. "His expressive playing is characterized " by Growl, unusual melodic twists, mood and expression change as well as all sorts of dirty inflections of intonation.
In the 1960s, Russell sat apart with the modern jazz and even had compositions by Ornette Coleman in the repertoire. Thus he gained respect and recognition among the musicians of the then avant-garde scene; In 1963 he played at the Newport Festival in the band of Monk ( Miles & Monk at Newport ). In 1957, he starred in The Sound of Jazz with Jimmy Giuffre duet. An instructive example from this period is the album Ask me now with the Pee Wee Russell Quartet.
The young Steve Lacy - like Russell also - was a musician with a unique musical language in the early 1950s together with Russell a member of a group of traditional jazz musicians who appeared regularly in Stuyvesant Center of New York.
Like all great artists possessed Russell a very subjective perception of the things that made clear not only in his music. Russell was frequently ill and could not play music during this time. He worked then - the advice of a friend following - with the painting. The result was so overwhelming that the art scene it - amateur - recognized as a natural talent.
Awards
In Kritikerpoll of Down Beat in 1983 Pied Piper of Jazz Russell was voted the " re-release of the year".
Recordings
As a leader