Jan Savitt

January Savitt ( born September 4, 1907 in Petrograd, when Jacob Savetnick; † October 4, 1948 in Sacramento ) was a Russian -derived, American violinist, composer, arranger and big band leader in the swing and popular music.

Life and work

January Savitts father was head of the Tsarist regimental band; when Jan was eighteen months old, the family emigrated to the United States and moved to Philadelphia. He was named after his music studies in Europe and the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia at age 19 violinist in the Philadelphia Orchestra, eventually switched from classical to popular music and became a contributor to the NBC station KYW in Philadelphia, where he ran a studio band for radio transmissions. The overwhelming response of these programs meant that he went early 1936 on tour with this band; Savitt also wrote the arrangements for the orchestra. In 1937 he formed his own big band, The Top Hatters, which consisted regularly from 15 to 18 musicians and the band singers. With the orchestra Savitt regularly went on tour; belonged to her song " 720 in the Books ", " It's A Wonderful World " and their theme songs " Quaker City Jazz " and "From Out Of Space".

His band changed its name et al under the names January Savitt & His Top Hatters, the January Savitt String Orchestra and January Savitt & His Orchestra. Savitt was also one of the first big-band leader who hired an African American band singer, George "Bon Bon " Tunnell (1912-1975), which influenced later vocalists Jon Hendricks and Mel Tormé with his pronounced swing feeling. His other singers were, inter alia, Carlotta Dale, Allan DeWitt, Joe Martin and Gloria DeHaven.

January Savitts swing orchestra enjoyed not least by the efforts to bring several feature films ( Betty Ced, High School Hero and That's My Gal) nationwide a lot of popularity; In his various band formations played a series later known jazz musicians like Georgie Auld, Tex Beneke, Urbie Green, Chubby Jackson, Vernon Brown, Nick and George Siravo Fatool and the band singer Kitty Kallen. Records written for Variety, Decca Records, Bluebird Records, Thesaurus and for Victor Records. Between 1938 and 1940, he succeeded - starting with the allusion to the popular radio Western series'' The Lone Ranger song " Yo Ho Silver" (# 14) - a total of eight hits on the Billboard charts; His last success was " Make Believe Iceland "

In the postwar period Savitt had to limit his orchestra to eight musicians; he went to the West Coast of the United States and lived in North Hollywood. On 3 October 1948 he suffered on the ride with his Top Hatters to a gig to Sacramento Intracerebral hemorrhage and died a afterwards at the age of 41 years at a hospital in Sacramento. Barry Ulanov, who was Savitts press agent at the time, wrote an obituary in the Metronome, in which he praised him as a great jazz musician who had never completely found his niche.

Savitt composed in 1939 with Johnny Watson the title " It's a Wonderful World" (Text: Harold Adamson ).

Disco Graphical Notes

  • January Savitt & the Tophatters ( Canby )
  • It's Time to Jump & Shout (Vintage)
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