Earl Hines: His Unrecorded Band with Parker and Gillespie, by Leif Bo Petersen,2: A Destroyed Recording! (+Bonus)
Earl Hines: His Unrecorded Band with Parker and Gillespie, by Leif Bo Petersen,2: A Destroyed Recording! (+Bonus)
(From Lewis: In the first essay, Petersen took the Hines band through the Fall of 1942. Let’s continue now to learn everything we can from Leif’s thorough research. At the bottom is a bonus article for Paying Subscribers which includes one of the rarest reviews of Billie Holiday.)
From Leif Bo Petersen:
The next piece of evidence is another review that mentions some repertoire:
“Night Club-Vaudeville: Fay’s, Philadelphia,” Billboard, November 21, 1942, 17: Reviewed on November 13:
Earl Hines and Orchestra: Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues; Manhattan Serenade; Knock Me a Kiss (Shorty McConnell: voc, tp solo).
My Guy; Five by Five (Madeline Green, voc)
Just as Though You Were There; Cow Cow Boogie; You Must Have Read My Mind (Billy Eckstine, voc)
Here is the actual review for you to read. Notice that, as was typical of that era, the Hines band appeared as part of a show with comedians and dancers, including a “mixed duo” (one Black person and one white), and two white (“paleface”) acrobatic dancers. The show, an hour long, alternated with a movie, Highways by Night. Billboard is a mass audience publication, and the language of the review is “jive talk” of the day:
“Manhattan Serenade” was a popular number of the time that was recorded in July 1942 by Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Harry James and others. It was never recorded by Hines, but it was typical of bands to have arrangements of current hits, although they might not keep them in their “book” of tunes for very long. The same is true of “Cow Cow Boogie.”
On the other hand, the Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues had been one of Hines’s piano feature numbers since it was first recorded in February 1940, and he would continue to perform it for many years. Since we’re trying to get the sound of this band in our ears as much as possible, let’s listen to the February 1940 recording. On the take that was issued on 78 rpm, trumpeter George Dixon calls out several times, most famously to say “Play it until 1951!” But, just for fun, let’s hear the less-known first take—on this one there is no voice, just Earl’s piano:
Continuing with our survey of the band’s personnel and repertory (but, remember, we are not listing every known performance), an appearance at Convention Hall in Camden, New Jersey in mid-December was mentioned in print:
“On the Stand,” Billboard, December 19, 1942, 23:
Soloists mentioned: Shorty McConnell’s trumpet solos and vocal.
Madeline Green and Billy Eckstine: Ballads and jump lyrics.
[From Lewis: The next item on our list is incredibly frustrating. We mentioned in Part One that the Hines band participated for 15 minutes, from New London, Connecticut, in a Christmas radio program. This was part of the series called the Coca Cola Victory Parade of Spotlight Bands; and it was number 83, broadcast on December 25, 1942. And unfortunately, the only known audio copy of this broadcast was definitely destroyed.
Here is the story, sent to me in an email (December 12, 2023) by pianist and jazz historian Brad Kay:
I am the last person alive who heard the recording of the Hines band with Bird and Diz! It was in early February 1971, in the late Richard Hite's room in the Northridge area of Los Angeles. Richard was a bassist who around this time joined the band of his brother Bob Hite, Canned Heat. Richard had a complete collection of sixteen-inch glass line transcriptions (that is, discs recorded “live” for radio broadcasts) of the "Coca Cola Spotlight Bands" series. They were in paper sleeves, and all in a row on a shelf directly above his turntable.. These were all “live” broadcasts, and these glass discs were the original studio recordings. The quality was vivid. These evidently were done totally professionally - they had network labels, and the info was neatly typed on each.
Richard and I listened to a few of these fifteen-minute shows—the sound was perfect. One of them was the Earl Hines band, and it was spectacular. One number featured Charlie Parker on tenor sax. Dizzy's trumpet was recognizable too. I can't remember what specific numbers were played. After all, I heard this only once. A week later, February 9, 1971, came the big earthquake throughout the San Fernando Valley. All that 16-inch glass was Shattered! It had looked like an accident waiting to happen, on that top shelf. Richard's turntable got the worst of it, being directly underneath. (Over a hundred 78s were lost as well, including some choice Paramounts and Electrobeam Gennetts.) Not One disc could be saved! It never occurred to Richard or me that these shows were unique and that the Hines band was otherwise unrecorded! I would have hoped that two or three sets had been made at the same time, as insurance against calamities like this. But nothing ever turned up.
Brad Kay
Leif Continues:
As Kay notes, Gillespie and Parker were in the band by Christmas 1942. In fact, a notice in DownBeat January 1, 1943, page 10, tells that Dizzy Gillespie joined the Hines band in Philadelphia November 1942. Charlie Parker was recruited in December after Hines had heard him jamming at Minton’s (S. Dance, The World Of Earl Hines (1977), page 89). By January 1943, singer Sarah Vaughan, who also played piano, was added to the Hines band.
The line-up was now the legendary Hines “pre-bop” band, as follows: Gail Brockman, Shorty McConnell, Benny Harris, Dizzy Gillespie (tp); Gus Chappell, Bennie Green, Howard “Scotty” Scott (tb); Scoops Carey, Andrew “Goon” Gardner (as); Thomas Crump, Charlie Parker (ts); John Williams (bars); Earl Hines (p, dir); Connie Wainwright (g); Jesse Simpkins (b); Shadow Wilson (d); Julia Gardner (voc, accordion); Sarah Vaughan (voc, p); Madeline Green (not related to Bennie), Billy Eckstine (voc). [Lewis notes that Bennie Green, Goon Gardner, and Crump had just previously been with the band of trumpeter King Kolax. Also, we don’t know if Goon and Julia Gardner were married or related.]
This personnel appears to have been stable for the next five months or so, except that Madeline Green and Julia Gardner left in February. A photo in F. Driggs and H. Levine, Black Beauty, White Heat (1996 edition), p.318, shows this line-up without Julia Gardner or Vaughan, so it might be before they joined, late December or early January. The book says this is from the Apollo but it clearly is not, so let’s call it an unknown location:
The band was at the Apollo Theater, New York, January 15–21 (ad in New York Age, January 16, 1943, 10). This time the review provides a lot of information:
”House Reviews, Apollo, N.Y.," Variety, January 20, 1943, 32: 18 pieces: 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, 5 saxes, 2 pianos, g, b, and d.
Orchestra: Hit That Jive Jack; Salt Peanuts.
Julia Gardner: Hip, Hip Hooray; I Like to Riff.
Madeline Green: Nobody Cares; Can’t Get out of This Mood.
Sarah Vaughan: Moonlight Becomes You; There Are Such Things; Body and Soul.
Billy Eckstine: Craziest Dreams (sic); Velvet Moon; I Like to Riff; Stormy Monday Blues.
[Lew notes:
What is most amazing here is that Dizzy’s piece Salt Peanuts was performed. This is the first ever printed reference to it, and therefore it is a premonition of the bebop movement which will soon happen. But do not believe that Hines’s band was a “bop band.” A glance at the rest of the repertoire, here and in the other reviews, proves that it was not.
We can only guess at what Dizzy’s arrangement of Salt Peanuts sounded like in its original state. As I noted in an essay about that tune, it was first recorded as a simple riff, without Dizzy. But I would guess that the first big band version was more like the way Dizzy himself played it when he first recorded it in January 1945. That was with Trummy Young, tbn, Don Byas, tnr sax, Clyde Hart, pno, Oscar Pettiford, bs, and Irv Kluger, dms. Let’s listen, and try to imagine this with a bigger band:
Now, back to Petersen:]
The following photo of the band appeared in L. Feather, Inside Bebop (1949), between pp. 74 and 75; and in S. Dance, The World of Earl Hines (1977), 258–59. The Feather photo is dated as April 23, 1943, but that is wrong because the photo includes Julia Gardner on accordion. as we just stated, she left the band in February. The correct dating is the period January 15–21, when the band played at the Apollo. Because Parker got cropped a little, we have added a better version of his portion as an inset on the upper right:
(Collector/researcher and subscriber Norman Saks points out that there is another photo from this engagement here.)
Next we go to the Paradise Theatre, Detroit, Michigan, February 5–11:
“Variety Marks Earl Hines Offering,” Detroit Free Press, February 8, 1943, 16:
The review mentions that there were several specialists in selections “most hot.”
Sarah Vaughan: Soldier Mine; Moonlight Becomes You; That Ain’t Right.
Madeline Green: I Can’t Get out of This Mood; Why Don’t You Do Right;
Julie Gardner: Are You for It.
Billy Eckstine: I Want to Riff.
Then to the Savoy Ballroom, Chicago, Illinois, starting on February 14:
“Bands Dug by the Beat,” Downbeat, March 1, 1943:
Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, Madeline Green, Goon Gardner, Jesse Simpkins, Shorty McConnell, and Benny Harris are mentioned.
No mention of Parker or Gillespie.
No mention of repertory.
The band characterized as “wild.”
While in Chicago, Parker, Gillespie, other members of the band, and friends, were recorded jamming privately by Bob Redcross (initially unearthed by Norman Saks). Even though we have no audio from the Hines big band, these recordings are important documents of key soloists in the band, and they fill in gaps in the musical development of Bird and Diz. The recordings have been readily available since they were first obtained by collector and researcher Norman Saks in the early 1980s.
The next big band gig reviewed is at the Adams Theater, Newark, New Jersey, March 4–10.
“House Reviews: Adams, Newark,” Variety, March 10, 1943, 40: Reviewed on opening day, but published on the 10th.
Sixteen musicians. Music, stands, and instruments had been sidetracked in Chicago. They were not delivered until midnight, so the band had to improvise the repertoire in the first five shows.
Billy Eckstine: Just as Though You Were Here.
Mostly the review talks about Ethel Waters, who performed on the same bill but not with the Hines band.
Now we go to the Palace Theater, Columbus, Ohio, March 23–25.
“Top entertainment Offered at Palace,” Columbus Dispatch, April 24, 1943, 8-A:
Hines and Orchestra: Salt Peanuts; Boogie Woogie on St. Louis Blues.
Note “Salt Peanuts” again—now it was a regular part of the repertoire.
The band returned to the Apollo Theater, New York, NY, April 23–29.
“House Reviews: Apollo, N.Y.,” Variety, April 28, 1943, 22: Reviewed on Friday, 23.
Easter Parade; Old Mill Stream (Hines’ combo)
Soldier Boy; Here I Go Again; Baby, Baby, Baby (Sarah Vaughan, voc)
Brazil; As Time Goes By; That Old Black Magic (Billy Eckstine, voc)
The song “Brazil” is the same one that I recently wrote about. In that post, you can listen to an early version of it (plus a fantastic Sonny Rollins version.) Around this time it was just becoming a big hit in the U.S.A. In fact, Jimmy Dorsey had recorded a popular vocal version of it in July 1942, even before it gained fame in an animated Disney film.
Here is another review of the band at the Apollo Theater, New York, NY, April 23–29. This one is by the well-known critic and composer Leonard Feather. (The complete Feather review is below for Paying Subscribers, along with a review of Billie Holiday’s unknown engagement singing with the white Teddy Powell band.)
“Stage Show Reviews,” Metronome, June 1943, 20–21: Review of Apollo appearance April 29, 4 pm show: Very positive review by Feather. Mention of McConnell, Parker, Scott, Brockman, Green, Vaughan, Eckstine, and a new member, Hines “protégée” violinist Ann Creasy.
Earl Hines and orchestra: Good Enough to Keep (Budd Johnson arr, solos by Shorty McConnell and Charlie Parker; Easter Parade (Howard Scott, voc—presumably the trombonist—and Ann Creasy vln); Intermezzo (Ann Creasy vln); Down By the Old Mill Stream: (voc chorus; Gail Brockman, tp solo; Bennie Green, tb solo).
I Heard That song Before (Dick Vance (arr); Taking a Chance on Love (Don Redman (arr); Body and Soul (Sarah Vaughan, voc)
Started All Over Again (Don Redman arr); As Times Goes By (Dick Vance arr); Stormy Monday Blues (Bob Crowder arr) (Billy Eckstine. voc):
According to George Hoefer, writing in DownBeat 20 years later, the band often opened with Good Enough to Keep. [Lew notes: That was probably a working title, as in “That’s good enough to keep, and we’ll title it later.” Soon the title became Airmail Special. It was first recorded by the Benny Goodman Sextet in June 1940, and it was probably composed or co-composed by his guitarist Charlie Christian.] There is no Hines recording of this, but the Billy Eckstine band, which included many former Hines musicians, performed a Tadd Dameron arrangement of it on the radio in February 1945. Dameron did not write for Hines until about 1946, but at least this can give an idea of the Hines band’s sound. The soloists are trumpeter Fats Navarro, tenor saxist Budd Johnson, and, briefly, pianist John Malachi:
The Hines band performed in the military base Camp Jackson, South Carolina, on June 2:
“Proves Marvelous Morale-Builder,” Pittsburgh Courier, June 5, 1943, 2: Review of Blue Ribbon concert, with several groups.
Opening with Hines and Orchestra and Eckstine.
Bill Bailey (tap dance).
Patterson and Jackson.
Murder He Said (Four Bluebonnets, including Lillian Fitzgerald, voc).
Outskirts of Town; Knock Me a Kiss, Rationing Blues (Louis Jordan)
Slicker Day (Vivian Harris, voc; Coop (dance); Earl Hines, p)
Stormy Monday Blues (Billy Eckstine)
At this time we have one change in the personnel: Benny Harris is replaced by Jesse Miller, previously with King Kolax. (“Local Reports: Local no. 23, San Antonio, TX.,” International Musician, July 1943, 18. Travelling members: referring to June 5.)
The band was back at the Apollo Theater, New York, July 9–15.
“House Reviews: Apollo, N. Y.” Variety, July 14, 1943, 89:
Earl Hines and Orchestra: Riggin’ It Up; There’ll Never be Another You; If I had You; Mr. Big.
Takin’ a Chance on Love; Let’s Get Lost (Sarah Vaughan, voc)
It Can’t Be Wrong; You’ll Never Know (Billy Eckstine, voc)
During this period, Hines hired pianist and trombonist Clifton “Cliff” Smalls (b. 1918) to play piano when Hines was busy directing, and to play some in the trombone section. Smalls was interviewed for Stanley Dance, The World of Earl Hines (1977). On p.266 he says that Parker and Gillespie played unison lines behind Sarah Vaughan’s vocals. He mentions A Night in Tunisia and East of the Sun as arrangements by Gillespie in the band’s repertory. He also says that everybody had solos, but Parker and Gillespie were not especially featured, because they were not yet big stars. He says that the band was on the air several times, but I have not been able to identify such broadcasts other than the Coca Cola one, and as we have mentioned, no broadcast recordings have survived.
In the same book, on page 260, Dizzy Gillespie tells about A Night in Tunisia and states that it was Hines who gave it its title, after the Tunisian campaign of World War II which was in the news at the time. In the same book, on page 90, Earl Hines also talks about A Night in Tunisia and confirms that it was he who gave it its title. He also mentions Salt Peanuts with Gillespie’s vocal. [Lew adds: Two years later, in 1979, Gillespie in his memoir stated that the idea that Hines named “…Tunisia” was “a lie’! However, he acknowledges that his own title was “Interlude” and that “some genius,” whom he doesn’t recall, named it “…Tunisia,” and that he prefers that new title. Overall, I think it’s fair to accept that Hines named it. Back to Leif:]
This legendary version of the Hines band broke up during the summer of 1943. Next time we will listen to more of the pieces that were played by the band, and we will discuss the next Hines band, and come to some conclusions.
[Lew says: Thank you, Leif. We will look forward to the last essay!
All the best,
Lewis
P.S. Big thanks for Steven Lasker and Mark Cantor for leading us to the story of the destroyed radio broadcast.]
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