Don Redman

Don Redman ( born July 29, 1900 in Piedmont, West Virginia as Donald Matthew, † November 30, 1964 in New York City ) was an American jazz musician (saxophone, clarinet, vocals), arranger and composer. Due to its very solid for the time training as an arranger, he had a major influence on other jazz musicians.

Life and work

Redman got to the age of three trumpet, with six years he played for the first time in a band and the age of twelve, he played a number of instruments such as trumpet and oboe, but also piano. He studied at Storer 's College in Harper 's Ferry and at the Boston Conservatory. In 1923, he joined Billy Page 's Broadway Syncopaters in New York.

In 1924 he became a member of the Fletcher Henderson Orchestra, where he mainly played the clarinet and saxophone. In 1924 he took on the first scat singing in jazz history ("My Papa Does not Two -Time No Time " ) in this band. Soon he supported Henderson when writing arrangements. Her work was influential for the big band swing.

In 1927, he joined the McKinney 's Cotton Pickers in Detroit, where he played until 1931 and arranged. In addition, he was heard in December 1928 on recordings by Louis Armstrong and his Savoy Ballroom Five. In 1931 he formed his own band, which in the famous jazz club Connie 's Inn occurred in Manhattan long. He got a recording contract with Brunswick Records and also had some radio appearances. Redman's compositions were also selected for the soundtrack of " Betty Boop " cartoons ( " I Heard "). With " Chant of the Weed " he had in 1931 a first hit on the Billboard charts (# 15).

Well-known musician of his band were, inter alia, Sidney De Paris (trumpet ), Edward Inge ( clarinet) and singer Harlan Lattimore, also known as the " black Crosby ". Besides, he arranged for another bandleader Paul Whiteman, Isham Jones, Ben Pollack and Bing Crosby.

1937 Redman experimented with the re-arrangement of old pop classics for the Variety label. The end of 1938 he took for Bluebird again under his own name; " Margie " was recorded in January 1939, the last hit of seven under Redman. In 1940 he disbanded his orchestra and focused on the freelance writing arrangements for other artists such as Jimmy Dorsey, Jimmy Lunceford, Count Basie and Harry James. He organized in 1946 the first American band that went back after the war to tour Europe and the musicians like Don Byas and Tyree Glenn belonged.

In 1949 he had a show on CBS, in the fifties, he worked as head of the band for singer Pearl Bailey. Then he stepped hardly on publicly played 1958/59 again in order to devote himself otherwise his extended compositions (which were never published).

He is the uncle of Dewey Redman.

Disco Graphical Notes

• For Europeans Only ( Steeplechase Records, 1946 ed 1983)
• Swiss Radio Days: Geneva, 1946 ( TCB, ed 1999)

Lexigraphic entries

• Richard Cook Jazz Encyclopedia London 2007; ISBN 978-0-141-02646-6
• Wolf Kampmann Reclams Jazz Encyclopedia Stuttgart, Reclam 2003; ISBN 3-15-010528-5