J. Russel Robinson

Joseph Russel Robinson ( born July 8, 1892 in Indianapolis, † September 30, 1963 in Palmdale ) was an American pianist and composer of ragtime and Dixieland jazz, which occasionally worked as an arranger and songwriter.

Life and work

Robinson, who had private music lessons and was trained at the Shortridge High School of his native town, came with his brother John on as a musical duo, but also as a silent film pianist and also started early with composing; In 1909 he was able to publish his Sapho Rag. He joined a vaudeville group, the Famous Robinson Brothers. 1910 created two compositions, Dynamite Rag: A Negro drag and ( with his future wife, Marguerite Kendall ) I Feel Coming On religion, by which he became known to a wider audience. His composition That Eccentric Rag ( 1912) helped finally to prominence and later evolved to jazz standard. With his brother, he toured the southern states, where there was an extended stay in New Orleans. As a pianist, he played several hundred piano rolls for the U.S. Music Company in Chicago and later the QRS Company in New York City.

1919 Robinson was brought band after the death of Henry Ragas as a pianist in the Original Dixieland Jazz, with whom he first completed a European tour; During this time he also wrote songs with Al Bernard. Then he worked for the music publisher WC Handy and wrote new arrangements and lyrics for the adaptation and re-issue pieces such as the Memphis blues or the St. Louis Blues; with mobile and Charles H. Hillmann he wrote the song Though We're Miles and Miles Apart 1920 he was employed on Broadway and wrote with Con Conrad songs like Margie and Lena from Palesteena, which proved to be hits. In the next few years, he co-authored with Roy Turk songs, especially for the Plantation Revue on Broadway. As a pianist he also accompanied blues and jazz singers such as Annette Hanshaw, Lucille Hegamin, Marion Harris and Lizzie Miles with studio dates ( sometimes he is as Spencer Williams - with his consent - listed ). He wrote more songs together with Noble Sissle, Mercer Cook, Andy Razaf or Jo Trent. In 1951, he sued in a copyright dispute Mills Music for more than $ 100,000 failure to pay royalties for his songs. In 1957, he wrote the musical Mermaid Tavern.

His composition Singin ' the Blue has been included in the 1977 version of Frankie Trumbauer ( with Bix Beiderbecke, 1927) into the Grammy Hall of Fame.