Joe Sullivan

Joe Sullivan (* November 4, 1906 in Chicago, † October 13, 1971 in San Francisco; actually Joseph Michael O'Sullivan ) was an American jazz pianist of the Chicago jazz and swing.

Life and work

Sullivan was the ninth child of Irish immigrants and came from gutsituiertem middle-class parents. His father was a local politician - temporarily Alderman of Chicago entrepreneur and inventor. Sullivan learned from the age of 12 years to play the piano and performed in clubs as a teen, as a silent film pianist and dance bands, but studied the way 1922/3 of the Chicago Conservatory. He has performed with leading white Chicago jazz musicians (many a member of the Austin High School gear) as Eddie Condon, Frank Teschemacher, Jimmy McPartland, Bud Freeman, Jim Lanigan, Muggsy Spanier, Bix Beiderbecke and Gene Krupa. His main influences as a pianist were Earl Hines and Fats Waller ( and stride pianist, which he heard in Harlem as James P. Johnson and Willie "The Lion" Smith 1928). In 1927, he was with Ben Pollack.

He made his first recordings in late 1927 with the Chicagoans of Red McKenzie and Eddie Condon ( Okeh ). In 1929 he played with Red Nichols and then including in the orchestra by Roger Wolfe Kahn. Starting in 1933, accompanied Sullivan Bing Crosby, with whom he recorded, appeared in numerous radio shows and was also seen in the film. His rehearsed in September 1933 composition " Onyx Bring Down " was # 9 with the first two hits of the pianist on the Billboard Top 30; in October 1940 his Gershwin version rose from " I've Got a Crush on You " on rank 24 played in his Cafe Society Orchestra amongst other things Benny Morton, Edmond Hall, Danny Polo and Billy Taylor, band singer was Helen Ward.

Sullivan also worked as a studio musician in Hollywood, played with Bob Crosby (1936 ), for whose band he also contributed compositions (" Minor Mood ," " Just Strollin ", " Little Rock Get Away ", " Gin Mill Blues "), but sat from the end of 1936 two years for tuberculosis from. In 1938 he again played briefly with Bing Crosby and 1939 with Bob Crosby. In the 1940s, Sullivan played mostly solo (or with former Chicago colleagues) in nightclubs, including 1941 in the formation of The Three Deuces with Pee Wee Russell and Zutty Singleton, with whom he recorded some tracks for Commodore and 1946 in the Eddie Condon in New York and around 1943, in Los Angeles. In 1952, he briefly played with Louis Armstrong and played otherwise solo in the San Francisco area. Alcohol problems connected with personal problems ( three failed marriages, depression ) and a violent temper, made ​​long exposures impossible. Despite sporadic appearances he still had a name and was in 1963 at the Monterey Jazz Festival and in 1964 at the Newport Jazz Festival.

Disco Graphical Notes

  • Joe Sullivan 1933-1941 ( Classics ) with Edmond Hall, Benny Morton, Freddie Green, Pee Wee Russell, Billy Taylor, Joe Turner, Helen Ward
  • Joe Sullivan 1944-1945 ( Classics ) by Ulysses Livingston, Artie Shapiro, Zutty Singleton
  • Piano Solo ( Storyville, 1953-1973 )

Lexical entries

  • Carlo Bohländer et al: Reclams jazz leader. Reclam, Stuttgart, 1989.
  • Richard Cook, Brian Morton: The Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings. 8th edition. Penguin, London 2006, ISBN 0-14-102327-9.
440639
de