Clyde McCoy

Clyde McCoy ( born December 29, 1903 in Ashland, Kentucky, † June 1, 1990 in Memphis, Tennessee) was an American trumpeter and big band leader in the field of swing, popular music, and later of Dixieland jazz. According to him, the first wah-wah device is named, the " Vox Clyde McCoy 848 ".

Life and work

Clyde McCoy comes from the famous McCoy family in Kentucky, which was known by the legendary feud with the Hatfield clan. Clyde McCoy grew up in Portsmouth ( Ohio) on, gained his first musical experience at the school and church festivals and played with nine years trombone in a marching band. He eventually switched to the trumpet and played with fourteen years on the river steamers. He then founded in 1920 a first formation in Louisville (Kentucky) and went in 1924 to California. He was popular across the country then he founded in 1928 band. This performance was also originally created in the 1930s recordings.

The biggest hit success of McCoy, who often played with mutes, was the title of " Sugar Blues ," which he in 1930 with his involvement in the Drake Hotel in Chicago was playing for the first time and was successfully for decades in numerous versions, so in McCoy's own recordings in 1931 and 1935 for Columbia, who returned to the Billboard country ( hillbilly ) charts in 1941; 1947, Johnny Mercer with a sung version of a hit. Other successes celebrated McCoy with " In the Cool of the Night ," "The Goona Goo ", " Wah Wah Blues " and " Smoke Rings ".

Closely associated with the million-selling hit "Sugar Blues" which is to Clyde McCoy named Wah -wah device; this " Urwah ", which was later manufactured by Vox, was then the wah -wah pedal that Jimi Hendrix mainly used. McCoy built his whole career on this wah wah sound effect he produced but with the plunger.

1935 McCoy moved to the Decca label; 1936, the McCoy orchestra on the successful engagement of Benny Goodman in New York's Paramount Theater. In addition to McCoy, who played with a normal and a piccolo trumpet, the orchestra regularly belonged to twelve musicians such as, but Bill Russo and the later band leader Jack Fina. There were 1937 as a band singers the three Bennett Sisters; one of them, Maxine Means 1938 McCoy's wife.

1942 McCoy surprised the music scene when he came with his full band in the U.S. Navy. Immediately after the war, he continued working with his orchestra and could expand to 15 members. In 1955 he dissolved the ensemble and turned to other stores; inter alia, he led a night club in Denver.

1960 ended his temporary retreat from the music scene, as he built a Dixieland jazz septet with which he, inter alia, appeared in the Round Table in New York and went to the successful dedication to tours of the U.S. and Canada. He remained active until the 1970s with the band, joined clubs and the casinos of Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe until well into the mid-1980s on. End of the 1970s, McCoy settled in Memphis, where he was mainly active as a music teacher and only occasionally appeared with Dixie land formations.

At Clyde McCoy recalls a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame ( 6426 Hollywood Blvd. ).

Disco Graphical Notes

• The Uncollected: Clyde McCoy ( Hindsight, 1936)