Red Nichols

Red Nichols
Background information
Birth name	Ernest Loring Nichols
Born	(1905-05-08)May 8, 1905 Ogden, Utah,United States
Died	June 28, 1965(1965-06-28)(aged 60) Las Vegas,Nevada
Genres	Jazz
Occupation(s)	Musician, bandleader, composer
Instrument(s)	Cornet

Ernest Loring"Red"Nichols(May 8, 1905 – June 28, 1965)was an Americanjazzcornetist, composer, and jazz bandleader.

Biography

Early life and career

Nichols was born inOgden, Utah,United States.He was of theMormonfaith.His father was a college music professor, and Nichols was something of a child prodigy, playing difficult set pieces for his father's brass band by the age of 12. Young Nichols heard the early recordings of theOriginal Dixieland Jazz Bandand later those ofBix Beiderbecke,and these had a strong influence on him.His style became polished, clean, and incisive.

In the early 1920s, Nichols moved to the Midwest and joined a band called the Syncopating Seven. When that band broke up, he joined the Johnny Johnson Orchestra and went with it to New York City in 1923.In New York, he met trombonistMiff Mole,and the two were inseparable for the next decade. Before signing with Brunswick, Nichols and Mole recorded forPathé-Perfectunder the name the Red Heads.

Brunswick Records era

Nichols could read music and easily gained studio work. In 1926, Mole and he began recording with a variety of bands as Red Nichols and His Five Pennies.Few of these groups were quintets; the name was a pun on "nickel".With the Five Pennies, he recorded more than 100 sides for Brunswick. He also recorded as the Arkansas Travelers, the California Red Heads, the Louisiana Rhythm Kings,the Charleston Chasers,Red and Miff's Stompers, and Miff Mole and His Little Molers. During some weeks in this period, Nichols and his bands were recording 10 to 12 two-sided records.

Nichols' band started with Mole on trombone andJimmy Dorseyon alto saxophone and clarinet.Other musicians in his bands in the following decade includedBenny Goodman(clarinet),Glenn Miller(trombone),Jack Teagarden(trombone),Pee Wee Russell(clarinet),Joe Venuti(violin),Eddie Lang(banjo and guitar), andGene Krupa(drums).The Five Pennies' version of "Ida, Sweet as Apple Cider" was a surprise hit record. It sold over a million copies and was awarded agold discby theRecording Industry Association of America.His composition "Nervous Charlie Stomp" was recorded by one of the top jazz bands of the 1920s,Fletcher Henderson's orchestra, and released as a 78 single.

In the next decade, more structuredswingeclipsed the improvisational hot jazz Nichols loved to play.He tried to follow the changes and formed a swing band, but his recording career seemed to stall in 1932. Music critic Michael Brooks wrote,

What went wrong? Part of it was too much, too soon. Much of his vast recorded output was released in Europe, where he was regarded by early jazz critics as the equal, if not the superior, of Louis Armstrong andBix Beiderbecke.People who make fools of themselves usually find a scapegoat, and when the critics were exposed to the music ofDuke Ellington,Benny Carter,Coleman Hawkins,and others, they turned on Nichols and savaged him, trashing him as unfairly as they had revered him. Nichols' chief fault was an overly stiff, academic approach to jazz trumpet, but he did recognize merit as far as other jazz musicians were concerned and made some wonderful small-group recordings.

Other labels Nichols recorded for includedEdison1926,Victor1927, 1928, 1930, 1931 (individual sessions),Bluebird1934, 1939, back to Brunswick for a session in 1934,Variety1937, andOKehin 1940.

Later career

Nichols survived the Great Depression by playing in show bands and pit orchestras. He ledBob Hope's orchestra for a while, moving to California. Nichols married Willa Stutsman, a "stunning"George White's Scandalsdancer, and they had a daughter. In 1942, their daughter contracted polio, which was misdiagnosed at first as spinal meningitis, and Nichols leftGlen Grayand theCasa Loma Orchestrato work in the wartime shipyards. On May 2, 1942, Nichols left his band to take an army commission after completing an engagement at Lantz's Merry-Go-Round in Dayton, Ohio.

Drawn back to music after the war, Nichols formed another Five Pennies band and began playing in small clubs in Los Angeles. Club dates turned into performances at bigger venues, such as the Zebra Room, the Tudor Room of the Palace Hotel in San Francisco, and the Huntington-Sheraton Hotel in Pasadena, California. He toured Europe as a goodwill ambassador for the State Department. Nichols and his band performed in the 1950 filmQuicksandstarringMickey Rooney.In 1956, he was the subject of an episode of the television programThis Is Your Lifein which he reunited with Miff Mole,Phil Harris,and Jimmy Dorsey, who praised Nichols as a bandleader who ensured everyone was paid.

Death

In 1965, Nichols took his Five Pennies band to the Mint Hotel in Las Vegas. On June 28, 1965, a few days after he began performing, he had chest pains while he was sleeping. He phoned the front desk, but was dead by the time the ambulance arrived. The band performed as scheduled with a spotlight on Nichols' empty chair.

Biographical film and film career

In 1929, he appeared in theVitaphonefilm short (reel #870) with his band the Five Pennies along withEddie CondonandPee Wee Russell.

In 1935, he appeared in the Paramount Pictures film shortThe Parade of the Maestrosalong withFerde Grofeperforming "In the Middle of a Kiss".

Red Nichols performed in and is also mentioned in the 1950Mickey RooneyandJeanne CagneyfilmQuicksand.Rooney's character asks out Jean Cagney; he asks if she likes "Red Nichols and his outfit?" and she responds, "I think they're great!" They then go to the club to watch Red Nichols and his band perform.

The 1959HollywoodfilmThe Five Pennies,the film biography of Red Nichols, starringDanny Kayeas Red Nichols, was loosely based on Nichols' life and career.Nichols played his own cornet parts for the film and appeared briefly as one of the "Clicquot Club Eskimos" on screen. TheParamount Picturesmovie received four Academy Award nominations. Jazz contemporaryLouis Armstrongalso appeared in the film.The Five Penniesmovie theme song and other songs for the film were composed bySylvia Fine,Danny Kaye's wife.

Nichols also madecameo appearancesin the 1951 filmDisc JockeywithTommy Dorsey,andThe Gene Krupa Storyin 1959.

His recording of "Poor Butterfly" is heard in the 1994Woody AllenfilmBullets Over Broadwayand his recording of "(Back Home Again in) Indiana"in Allen's 1999 filmSweet and Lowdown.

Awards and honors

In 1986, Red Nichols was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

Compositions

He wrote or co-wrote the following songs: "Hurricane" with Paul Mertz, "You're Breakin' Me Down" withGlenn Miller,"Five Pennies", "Sugar" withJack Yellen,Milton Ager,and Frank Crum, "Bug-A-Boo", "The Parade of the 'Pennies'", "The King Kong", "Trumpet Sobs", "Get Cannibal", "Junk Man's Blues", "Delta Roll", "Corky", "Bugler's Lament", "Nervous Charlie Stomp" (recorded byFletcher Henderson), "Last Dollar", "That's No Bargain", and "Blues at Midnight".

Discography

• Red Nichols Classics. Volume One(Brunswick, 1943)
• Red Nichols Classics. Volume Two(Brunswick, 1946)
• Jazz Time(Capitol, 1950)
• Hot Pennies(Capitol, 1956)
• In Love With Red(Capitol, 1956)
• Red Nichols and His Five Pennies(Tops, 1957)
• Parade of the Pennies(Capitol, 1958)
• Meet the Five Pennies(Capitol, 1959)
• Dixieland Supper Club(Capitol, 1962)
• Sessions, Live(Calliope, 1976)

External links

• Red Nichols: Profiles in Jazzat The Syncopated Times
• Red Nichols and his Five Penniesat the Red Hot Jazz Archive
• Red Nichols recordingsat theDiscography of American Historical Recordings.