Paul Specht
Paul Levi Specht ( born March 24, 1895 in Sinking Spring in Berks County, Pennsylvania, † April 11, 1954 in New York City ) was an American bandleader and violinist. He had a popular dance band in the 1920s.
Life and work
Specht was the son of bandleader, violinist and fiddler Professor Charles G. Specht; Paul Specht received first lessons with him ( he should learn cornet ) and came very early as a child in the band. He studied at the Coombs Conservatory in Philadelphia ( piano, violin, counterpoint), then played in Reading (Pennsylvania) and then founded his own dance band in 1916, the American Collegians. With them he toured in the time of the First World War in the American West and played a long time successfully in the hotel Alamac in Atlantic City. In 1922 they were in Detroit and shortly thereafter he made his debut in New York City. The band was also successfully played at the Ballroom of the Hotel Astor, and received a recording contract with Columbia Records. As a result, he often recorded for Columbia, which contributed to its popularity. Also in 1922, he also became booking agent for other orchestras.
1922 sent two Specht Orchestra ( Frisco Syncopators, Criterion Orchestra ) on tour to London. In 1923, he followed with his own orchestra to London. He let his band play there until 1926 (where he again returned to New York in order to take care of his agency and bands there), but then left Britain because of problems with the unions. When he wanted to play in England in 1924, he was initially denied this, and only to diplomatic pressure he could from the ship. A major reason for the difficulties he got was the aggressive business approach by Specht, who negotiated with the Cunard Line, to play on all of their ships and also English bands threatened to displace from the continent. He is said to have founded a school for jazz in London (at least, he announced that in the press on ) to give the English orchestras in this area tutoring, but does not seem his request to be taken to great acceptance. Even with the return of 1924 on the Berengaria to New York with the Prince of Wales on board he was in trouble - on his announcement to play ( according to own data on special request of the Prince of Wales) with his orchestra, threatened the onboard orchestra and with him Seamen's Union on strike.
Woodpecker made from his band two more that The Georgians ( led by the trumpeter Frank Guarente ) Hot Music (Jazz), the other The Romancers for waltz.
In a review of a new edition of his dance music from 1925 to 1931 (Retro Specht, Vintage Music Productions, 2003) Scott Yanow preferred the later recordings from 1929, because they had more swing and hot solos. His band members included clarinetist Hank D' Amico, pianist Arthur debris, Russ Morgan, trumpeter Sylvester Ahola, bassist Joe Tarto, Charlie Spivak, Art Christmas, Chauncey Morehouse, Charlie Butterfield, Johnny Morris, Al Phil Burn, Artie Shaw, Roy Smeck and Lou Calabrese ( Lou Breese ).
In the late 1920s he was ( with Paul Whiteman and Vincent Lopez ) one of the three leading dance band leaders in the New York and the United States. In 1929, he stood out from Whiteman, as he put the band on the ball of President Herbert Hoover on the occasion of his inauguration. His band was the first, which was broadcast on the radio at RCA, the first, which was heard through a nationwide network of over 100 stations, and the first in a sound film ( DeForrest Phono film).
In 1932 he played with the female vocal trio Three X Sisters at the American Broadcasting Company on the radio.
Specht led to the 1940s orchestra, but then fell ill with arthritis, which forced him to retire as an active musician. Most recently, he arranged for radio and television and lived in Greenwich Village. He is buried in Sinking Spring. The scores of the recognition songs his band are engraved on his grave stone.