John Vivian McVea (November 5, 1914 – December 27, 2000) was an American swing,

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

, and

rhythm and blues Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated in African-American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly ...

woodwind Woodwind instruments are a family of musical instruments within the greater category of wind instruments. Common examples include flute, clarinet, oboe, bassoon, and saxophone. There are two main types of woodwind instruments: flutes and reed ...

player and bandleader. He played

clarinet The clarinet is a musical instrument in the woodwind family. The instrument has a nearly cylindrical bore and a flared bell, and uses a single reed to produce sound. Clarinets comprise a family of instruments of differing sizes and pitches ...

and

tenor A tenor is a type of classical music, classical male singing human voice, voice whose vocal range lies between the countertenor and baritone voice types. It is the highest male chest voice type. The tenor's vocal range extends up to C5. The lo ...

and

baritone saxophone The baritone saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of instruments, larger (and lower-pitched) than the tenor saxophone, but smaller (and higher-pitched) than the bass. It is the lowest-pitched saxophone in common use - the bass, contra ...

Career

Born in

Los Angeles, California Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

, his father was the noted

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and usually made of plastic, or occasionally animal skin. Early forms of the instrument were fashi ...

ist Satchel McVea, and banjo was Jack McVea's first instrument. He played jazz in Los Angeles for several years, and joined

Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, pianist, percussionist, and bandleader. Hampton worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles M ...

's orchestra in 1940. From 1944 on he mostly worked as a leader. He performed at the first

Jazz at the Philharmonic Jazz at the Philharmonic, or JATP (1944–1983), was the title of a series of jazz concerts, tours and recordings produced by Norman Granz. Over the years, "Jazz at the Philharmonic" featured many of the era's preeminent musicians, including Loui ...

concert in 1944. Jack Mc Vea played at the famed Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at

Wrigley Field Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago Wh ...

in Los Angeles produced by

Leon Hefflin Sr. Leon, Léon (French) or León (Spanish) may refer to: Places Europe * León, Spain, capital city of the Province of León * Province of León, Spain * Kingdom of León, an independent state in the Iberian Peninsula from 910 to 1230 and again fro ...

on October 12, 1946.

and his Orchestra,

Slim Gaillard Bulee "Slim" Gaillard (January 9, 1911 – February 26, 1991), also known as McVouty, was an American jazz singer and songwriter who played piano, guitar, vibraphone, and tenor saxophone. Gaillard was noted for his comedic vocalese singing ...

T-Bone Walker Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''Roll ...

, The Honeydrippers, Madaline Green, Winnie Brown, Reathis Stevens, Joan Benson and

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

were all on the same program.“SHOW TIME” Review by Wendell Green Los Angeles Sentinel Sept. 26, 1946. McVea was leader of the

Black & White Records Black & White Records was an American record company and label founded by Les Schreiber in 1943. It specialized in jazz and blues. When the label was sold to Paul and Lillian Reiner, it moved from New York City to Los Angeles. The catalog includ ...

studio band and was responsible for coming up with the musical

riff A riff is a repeated chord progression or refrain in music (also known as an ostinato figure in classical music); it is a pattern, or melody, often played by the rhythm section instruments or solo instrument, that forms the basis or accompani ...

for the words "

Open the Door, Richard "Open the Door, Richard" is a song first recorded by the saxophonist Jack McVea for Black & White Records at the suggestion of A&R man Ralph Bass. In 1947, it was the number one song on ''Billboards "Honor Roll of Hits" and became a runaway po ...

Ralph Bass Ralph Basso Jr. (May 1, 1911 – March 5, 1997), known as Ralph Bass,The birth surname of Ralph Bass's paternal grandfather, who was born in Italy, was DuBasso. was an American rhythm-and-blues record producer and talent scout for several indepen ...

persuaded him to record it in 1946 and it became immensely popular, entering the national charts the following year, and was recorded by many other artists. From 1966 until his retirement in 1992, he led the Royal Street Bachelors, a group that played

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...

jazz in New Orleans Square at Disneyland. The trio consisted of McVea on clarinet, Herb Gordy on string bass, Harold Grant and later Ernie McLean on guitar and banjo. According to McVea, he was not much of a clarinetist but learned overnight to play three songs to secure the job. He is also known for his playing on

's "

Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just As Bad) "Call It Stormy Monday (But Tuesday Is Just as Bad)" (commonly referred to as "Stormy Monday") is a song written and recorded by American blues electric guitar pioneer T-Bone Walker. It is a slow twelve-bar blues performed in the West Coast bl ...

". In 1945 he played tenor sax in a recording session for

with

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

and

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but addi ...

. McVea died at home in Los Angeles in 2000.

Discography

;As leader/co-leader Most of Jack McVea's recordings are available on Blue Moon Records in Barcelona, Spain; Ace Records in London, England; and Delmark Records in Chicago. All are available in the U.S. Blue Moon covers the Black & White years (including "Open the Door, Richard"), Delmark covers his sessions on Apollo Records, and Ace covers his four years with Combo Records. Ace's ''Fortissimo!'' CD contains several alternate takes.

LP compilations

* ''Open The Door, Richard'' ec. 1945–1947(Jukebox Lil #607, 1984) * ''Two Timin' Baby'' ec. 1944–1947(Jukebox Lil #612, 1986) * ''New Deal'' ec. 1944–1948(Jukebox Lil #625, 1988)

CD compilations

* ''The Complete Recordings, Vol. 1 (1944–1945)'' (Blue Moon #6031, 2002) * ''The Complete Recordings, Vol. 2 (1945–1946)'' (Blue Moon #6032, 2002) * ''The Complete Recordings, Vol. 3 (1946–1947)'' (Blue Moon #6033, 2002) * ''The Complete Recordings, Vol. 4 (1947–1952)'' (Blue Moon #6034, 2002) * ''McVoutie's Central Avenue Blues'' cVea's 1945 Apollo recordings(Delmark #756, 2002) * ''Honk! Honk! Honk!'' ontains 9 of McVea's Combo recordings from 1954 to 1957(Ace #781, 2000) * ''Fortissimo! The Combo Recordings (1954-1957)'' (Ace #1246, 2010) * ''Rarely Was Honkin' Sax So Much Fun: Jack McVea with Alton Redd and George Vann'' (JSP #77159, 2012) 4-CD set ;As sideman ;With

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shi ...

* ''

Singin' the Blues ''Singin' the Blues'' is the first LP album by American bluesman B.B. King, released in 1957 by the Bihari brothers on their Crown budget label. It is a compilation album whose songs were issued between 1951 and 1956 on singles by RPM Records a ...

'' (

Crown A crown is a traditional form of head adornment, or hat, worn by monarchs as a symbol of their power and dignity. A crown is often, by extension, a symbol of the monarch's government or items endorsed by it. The word itself is used, partic ...

, 1956)

References

External links

"Jack McVea"
obituary in ''The Guardian'' {{DEFAULTSORT:McVea, Jack 1914 births 2000 deaths Musicians from Los Angeles American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists American blues saxophonists American jazz musicians Swing musicians Dixieland jazz musicians Modern Records artists Chess Records artists Combo Records artists 20th-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from California 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians