Vincent Lopez
Vincent Lopez (born 30 December 1895 in Brooklyn, † September 20, 1975 in Miami Beach ) was an American jazz pianist and bandleader of the Big Band era.
Life and work
Vincent Lopez was born as a child of Portuguese immigrants in Brooklyn. He attended a seminary for several years, but broke from this training to pursue the music career. He led his own dance band in 1917, with whom he played in New York City. At first he followed the usual practices, with different formations, so under Vincent Lopez ' Red Cap, Vincent Lopez ' Cadets or perform the Vincent Lopez ' Debutants. He also tried, Guy Lombardo Orchestra, as this came from Canada to New York, to be run as a Lopez Orchestra.
In 1921, his performances were also broadcast on the radio, the then new medium for entertainment. Lopez was one of the pioneers who used the radio targeted; thereby Vincent Lopez Orchestra was rapidly emerging as the most popular bands in the New York and soon in the whole United States; a success which continued into the 1940s.
Lopez began his radio programs from the Pennsylvania Hotel with the announcement: Lopez speaking; his theme song was the song " Nola ," Felix Arndt's novelty ragtime tracks from 1915, with the Lopez became so identified that he occasionally made fun later; so came in the short musical film, as it did before for Vitaphone produced ( Vincent Lopez and his Orchestra ) of the song with the lines " Down with Nola ." Lopez rivaled Paul Whiteman and George Olsen at the best musicians in the city of New York; was considered to be the beginning of 1924 Whiteman large advertised George Gershwin Concerto ( Rhapsody in Blue ) at the Aeolian Hall, Lopez replied in the same year with a symphonic concert at New York's Metropolitan Opera.
1924 Lopez went with his orchestra on a European tour; in London they performed at the Capitol Theatre, on the Kit Kat Club and the Hippodrome. In 1925 he opened a supper club under the name of Casa Lopez, which he held until March 1928; by fire, however, he lost a lot of money in this project.
After that, he had a four-year commitment to the St. Regis Hotel; then he went to Chicago, played at the Congress Hotel and the World's Fair. He then returned to St. Regis back, but spent the following years mostly outside of New York and has performed in Miami, Los Angeles, Cincinnati, Cleveland, San Francisco and Los Angeles. Lopez also appeared in the musical film The Big Broadcast (1932) and was one of the first bandleaders who worked around 1940 with the Soundies, the short musical films. In his later bands played many famous musicians, including Vic Berton, Artie Shaw, Xavier Cugat, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Glenn Miller and Mike Mosiello. His band singers included, inter alia, Sunny Skylar, the Keller Sisters and Lynch, Betty Hutton and Marion Hutton. Lopez's longtime drummer was Mike Riley, who had success with the hit " The Music Goes Round and Round ". When his arrangers had, inter alia, John Carisi and Joe Mooney.
In 1940, Lopez appeared at the World Fair in New York; In 1941, the Lopez Orchestra exposure to the Taft Hotel in Manhattan, which was to last twenty years. Early 1950s had Vincent Lopez with singer Gloria Parker a common radio program that was transferred from the Taft Hotel under the title Shake the maracas. Mid-1960s had to Lopez for health reasons to give up the big band, but worked briefly with a smaller ensemble on. Vincent Lopez died in Miami Beach, Florida.
Vincent Lopez took his orchestra on numerous recordings for the Paramount label, Okeh, Brunswick, The Hit of the Day and Bluebird Records; Gloria Parker submitted his success Items Early In The Morning, Here Comes That Mood, In Santiago by the Sea, I Learned To Rumba, My Dream Christmas, Shake The Maracas and When Our Country Was Born, which earned Lopez for Columbia Records.
Lopez's flamboyant piano style influenced later musicians as Eddy Duchin and Liberace. He is immortalized with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Swell
- Leo Walker: The Big Band Almanac. Ward Ritchie Press, Pasadena. 1978