Gene Gifford

Gene Gifford ( born May 31, 1908 in Americus (Georgia ) and H. Eugene Gifford, † November 12, 1970 in Memphis, Tennessee) was an American guitarist and arranger of the Oldtime Jazz and Swing.

Gene Gifford toured the beginning of his career with Bob Foster ' and Lloyd Williams' orchestra as well as in the Blue Steele ribbon through the southern United States, where he became acquainted with the African-American song forms such as blues and gospel, which his later arrangements for the Casa Loma Orchestra which he became a member in 1935, have influenced. The band was one of the first great white Swing Orchestra, created for the Gifford arrangements with antiphonischem interplay and reef figures that were later developed further by Benny Goodman (Casa Loma Stomp 1930, White Jazz, Black Jazz, Maniac 's Ball 1931). Some of the arrangements Giffords were taken over by Fletcher Henderson's orchestra.

1935 Gifford played under his own name plate four pages ( including the title New Orleans twist), inter alia, with Bunny Berigan, Bud Freeman, Claude Thornhill, Matty Matlock, Ray and Dick McDonough Bauduc one. 1939 Gifford left the Casa Loma Orchestra, but returned again 1948/49, for a short time back, when the band worked under the direction of Glen Gray. Then Gene Gifford disappeared from the music scene and worked as a radio mechanic. Part-time, he taught and wrote songs.

Auswahldiskographie

• Mildred Bailey: 1929-1932, 1932-1936 ( Classics )
• Casa Loma Orchestra: Casa Loma Stomp (Hep, 1929-1930 )
• Gene Gifford & his Orchestra: Planet Jazz - Bud Freeman (RCA, 1935)

Lexical entry

• Carlo Bohländer, Karl -Heinz Holler & Christian parish: Reclams jazz leader. Stuttgart, Reclam, 1991
• Richard Cook & Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz on CD, 6th Edition, London, Penguin, 2002 ISBN 0-14-017949-6.