Hitch's Happy Harmonists
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Hitch's Happy Harmonists
Hitch's Happy Harmonists (a.k.a. The Happy Harmonists, active 1922–27) was an early jazz band from Evansville, Indiana which played on the first recordings by Hoagy Carmichael: "Bone Yard Shuffle" and "Washboard Blues". The band was led by the pianist Curtis Hitch and included Fred Rollison, Jerry Bump, Rookie Neal, Dewey Neal, Maurice May, Earl McDowell, Harry Wright, Arnold Abbe, and Haskell Simpson The band recorded a total of nine sides on 78s released by Gennett Records, Claxtonola Records, Buddy Records, Champion Records and Temple Records. Their style echoed the New Orleans Rhythm Kings and they were influenced by Bix Beiderbecke Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical app ... and The Wolverines. References American jazz ensembles from Indiana Gennett Records ar ...
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Evansville, Indiana
Evansville is a city in, and the county seat of, Vanderburgh County, Indiana, United States. The population was 118,414 at the 2020 census, making it the state's third-most populous city after Indianapolis and Fort Wayne, the largest city in Southern Indiana, and the 249th-most populous city in the United States. It is the central city of the Evansville metropolitan area, a hub of commercial, medical, and cultural activity of southwestern Indiana and the Illinois–Indiana–Kentucky tri-state area, that is home to over 911,000 people. The 38th parallel crosses the north side of the city and is marked on Interstate 69. Situated on an oxbow in the Ohio River, the city is often referred to as the "Crescent Valley" or "River City". Early French explorers named it ''La Belle Rivière'' ("The Beautiful River"). The area has been inhabited by various indigenous cultures for millennia, dating back at least 10,000 years. Angel Mounds was a permanent settlement of the Mississipp ...
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Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagland Howard Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s, and was among the first singer-songwriters in the age of mass media to utilize new communication technologies such as television, electronic microphones, and sound recordings. Carmichael composed several hundred songs, including 50 that achieved hit record status. He is best known for composing the music for " Stardust", "Georgia on My Mind" (lyrics by Stuart Gorrell), "The Nearness of You", and " Heart and Soul" (in collaboration with lyricist Frank Loesser), four of the most-recorded American songs of all time. He also collaborated with lyricist Johnny Mercer on " Lazybones" and "Skylark". Carmichael's "Ole Buttermilk Sky" was an Academy Award nominee in 1946, from ''Canyon Passage'', in which he co-starred as a musician riding a mule. " In the Cool, Cool, C ...
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Washboard Blues
"Washboard Blues" is a popular jazz song written by Hoagy Carmichael, Fred B. Callahan and Irving Mills. It was first recorded for Gennett Records in May, 1925 by Hitch's Happy Harmonists with Carmichael on piano. It was subsequently recorded by jazz bands Original Memphis Five (1925) and Red Nichols and his Five Pennies (1926). On November 18, 1927, it was recorded in Chicago by Paul Whiteman and his Concert Orchestra, featuring piano and lead vocals by Carmichael, and was released as Victor 35877-B (the B-side of "Among My Souvenirs") The song is an evocative washerwoman's lament. Though the verse, chorus, and bridge pattern is present, the effect of the song is of one long, cohesive melodic line with a dramatic shifting of tempo. The cohesiveness of the long melody perfectly matches the lyrical description of the crushing fatigue resulting from the repetitious work of washing clothes under primitive conditions. Credits A copy of the lyrics from the Indiana University archives ...
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Curtis Hitch
Curtis or Curtiss is a common English given name and surname of Anglo-Norman origin from the Old French ''curteis'' (Modern French ''courtois'') which derived from the Spanish Cortés (of which Cortez is a variation) and the Portuguese and Galician Cardoso. The name means "polite, courteous, or well-bred". It is a compound of ''curt-'' "court" and ''-eis'' "-ish". The spelling ''u'' to render in Old French was mainly Anglo-Norman and Norman, when the spelling ''o'' was the usual Parisian French one, Modern French ''ou'' ''-eis'' is the Old French suffix for ''-ois'', Western French (including Anglo-Norman) keeps ''-eis'', simplified to ''-is'' in English. The word ''court'' shares the same etymology but retains a Modern French spelling, after the orthography had changed.T. F. Hoad, ''English Etymology'', Oxford University Press paperbook 1993. p. 101a It was brought to England (and subsequently, the rest of the Isles) via the Norman Conquest. In the United Kingdom, the na ...
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Gennett Records
Gennett (pronounced "jennett") was an American record company and label in Richmond, Indiana, United States, which flourished in the 1920s. Gennett produced some of the earliest recordings by Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke, and Hoagy Carmichael. Its roster also included Jelly Roll Morton, Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and Gene Autry. History Gennett Records was founded in Richmond, Indiana, by the Starr Piano Company. It released its first records in October 1917. The company was named for its managers: Harry, Fred and Clarence Gennett. The company had produced early recordings under the Starr Records label. The early issues were vertically cut in the gramophone record grooves, using the hill-and-dale method of a U-shaped groove and sapphire ball stylus, but they switched to the lateral cut method in April 1919. Gennett set up recording studios in New York City and later, in 1921, set up a second studio on the grounds of the piano factory in Richmond ...
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Claxtonola Records
Claxtonola was a jazz record label founded in 1918 by the Brenard Manufacturing Company in Iowa City, Iowa. It reissued Paramount, Black Swan, and Gennett Records masters on the Claxtonola and National labels. The label closed in 1925. The company also sold phonographs. Discography The company's recordings include: The Wolverines: *Oh Baby *Copenhagen *Susie *Riverboat Shuffle *Sensation *Lazy Daddy The Bucktown Five: *Hot Mittens Hitch's Happy Harmonists: *Steady Steppin' Papa Midway Gardens Orchestra: *Tin Roof Blues *Black Sheep Blues *Lots 0' Mama *Sobbin' Blues Fletcher Henderson, on National: *Aunt Hagar's Children *My Sweetie Went Away Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe (later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer. Morton was jazz's first arranger, proving that a gen ..., on National: *Muddy Water Blues Sam Ash *When Shall We Meet ...
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Champion Records (Richmond, Indiana)
Champion Records was a record label in Richmond, Indiana, founded in 1925 by the Starr Piano Company as a division of Gennett Records, which was also in Richmond. Champion released budget versions of discs issued by Gennett. Its issues included race records and jazz. In 1934, Champion closed and the trademark was sold to Decca Records Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 by Edward Lewis (Decca), Edward Lewis. Its U.S. label was established in late 1934 by Lewis, Jack Kapp, American Decca's first president, and Milton Rackmil, who later became American ..., which brought the label back from 1935 to 1936. References External linksChampion Recordson the Internet Archive'Great 78 Project American record labels Jazz record labels {{US-record-label-stub ...
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New Orleans Rhythm Kings
The New Orleans Rhythm Kings (NORK) were one of the most influential jazz bands of the early to mid-1920s. The band included New Orleans and Chicago musicians who helped shape Chicago jazz and influenced many younger jazz musicians. History The New Orleans Rhythm Kings in its earliest stages was the creation of the drummer Mike "Ragbaby" Stevens, solely in that he sent the first telegram to Albert Brunies about going to Chicago to form a band and find better gigs than New Orleans had to offer. Albert "Abbie" Brunies and his younger brother, the trombonist George Brunies, were initially hesitant but suggested the idea to a friend, the trumpet player Paul Mares, who immediately took the opportunity. "So I says Paul, I says, Abbie don't want to go to Chicago and I'm kind of leery, I'm afraid", George recalled. "Paul says, 'man, give me that wire. I'll go.' So Paul went up o Chicagoand introduced himself to Ragbaby Stevens and Ragbaby liked him… and Paul got the railroad fare f ...
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Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke (March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical approach and purity of tone, with such clarity of sound that one contemporary famously described it like "shooting bullets at a bell. His solos on seminal recordings such as "Singin' the Blues" and " I'm Coming, Virginia" (both 1927) demonstrate a gift for extended improvisation that heralded the jazz ballad style, in which jazz solos are an integral part of the composition. Moreover, his use of extended chords and an ability to improvise freely along harmonic as well as melodic lines are echoed in post-WWII developments in jazz. "In a Mist" (1927) is the best known of Beiderbecke's published piano compositions and the only one that he recorded. His piano style reflects both jazz and classical (mainly impressionist) influences. All five of hi ...
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The Wolverines (jazz Band)
The Wolverines (also Wolverine Orchestra, Wolverines Orchestra, The Original Wolverines) were an American jazz band. They were one of the most successful territory bands of the American Midwest in the 1920s. History The Wolverine Orchestra first played at the Stockton Club, a nightclub south of Hamilton, Ohio, in September 1923. Many of its players were transplanted Chicago musicians, and it was led by pianist Dudley Mecum. Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke joined the group toward the end of the year after the lead cornetist left. Mecum named the group based on the fact that they so often performed the Jelly Roll Morton tune, "Wolverine Blues". However, he quit at the end of 1923, and was replaced by Dick Voynow, from St. Louis. When the Stockton Club closed after a New Year's Eve brawl, the group moved to Cincinnati to play at Doyle's Dance Studio. They did a three-month stay there and became one of the city's most popular attractions, and on February 18, 1924, they recorded for the ...
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American Jazz Ensembles From Indiana
American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, people who self-identify their ancestry as "American" ** American English, the set of varieties of the English language native to the United States ** Native Americans in the United States, indigenous peoples of the United States * American, something of, from, or related to the Americas, also known as "America" ** Indigenous peoples of the Americas * American (word), for analysis and history of the meanings in various contexts Organizations * American Airlines, U.S.-based airline headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas * American Athletic Conference, an American college athletic conference * American Recordings (record label), a record label previously known as Def American * American University, in Washington, D.C. Sports teams Soccer * Ba ...
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