Historical Dictionary of Jazz. John S. Davis

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СКАЧАТЬ Lewis. The label was very important to Chicago’s jazz scene and was viewed as its most important independent record label. Barry Harris, Ira Sullivan, Illinois Jacquet, Gene Ammons, Max Roach, and Red Rodney were all musicians recorded on the label. After complications with the British classical record label also named Argo, the brothers renamed the label as Cadet. The label was eventually sold several times, first to GRT (1969), then to Sugar Hill (1979), and finally to MCA (1985).

      ARKANSAS TRAVELERS

      An early swing group that recorded on the OKeh and Harmony labels during the 1920s. Members included Jimmy Dorsey, Red Nichols, Miff Mole, and Pee Wee Russell.

      ARMED FORCES RADIO SERVICE (AFRS)

      A government- and military-sponsored organization and record label dedicated to the broadcasting of shows and concerts to American military bases overseas. Jazz artists were very popular on the label, and artists like Duke Ellington, Benny Carter, Louis Armstrong, and Count Basie all made recordings for the AFRS. Seventy-nine transcriptions of concerts were made by the AFRS of the concert series “A Date with Duke” that featured the music of Ellington. In 1948, the AFRS sponsored a short-lived jazz series titled Just Jazz that consisted of recordings made in the Los Angeles area. Much of the material transcribed and recorded as part of the AFRS series was destroyed by the military in the early 1950s.

      ARMSTRONG, LILLIAN HARDIN “LIL” (1898–1971)

      Armstrong began her professional career as a jazz pianist after moving to Chicago in 1917. She was quickly hired by top Chicago musicians Freddie Keppard, Lawrence Duke, and King Oliver. Being hired by Oliver was a big professional milestone for Armstrong as she was introduced to her future husband, the great trumpet player Louis Armstrong, who was also a member of the band. Lil and Louis were married in 1924 and divorced in 1938. Lil was a huge contributor to Louis Armstrong’s famous Hot Five (1926, Columbia) recordings, both as a performer and composer. Her most famous composition from those sessions is “Struttin’ with Some Barbeque.” In the late 1920s, Armstrong left both groups and was rehired by Freddie Keppard and also toured with Baby Dodds in addition to leading her own groups.

      In 1937, she was the house pianist for a series of recordings on Decca. Many of these recordings featured her fronting bands that included many other top musicians. These records are compiled in an album called 1936–1940 (1940, Classics). After ending her relationship with Decca in 1940, Armstrong did not record much for the remainder of her career. She had several brief tours in Europe in the early 1950s until eventually settling in Chicago. She died due to a heart attack during a concert in 1971.

      ARMSTRONG, LOUIS (1901–1971)

      Armstrong was a performer at a young age, first developing his vocal skills as a street performer in New Orleans at the age of seven. In 1912, Armstrong celebrated New Year’s by firing a pistol into the air, an event that would end up with him being placed in a waifs’ home. During his two years at the home, he decided to learn the cornet. After his release, he was hired by various brass bands throughout New Orleans. He progressed so quickly that in 1917 he was befriended by Joe “King” Oliver, one of the top bandleaders in New Orleans and in the early jazz scene. Oliver started his own band, and Armstrong was hired to take over Oliver’s chair in Kid Ory’s band.

      In 1919, Oliver toured Chicago and decided to relocate there. His popularity increased every year, and by 1922 he was considered to be one of the top jazz artists. At this time, he decided to include Armstrong in his band and sent to New Orleans for him. Also at this time, pianist and Armstrong’s future wife “Lil” Hardin was in Oliver’s band, and two years later the two would be married. Armstrong’s tenure with King Oliver lasted only two years, but the band was considered the top working jazz unit of the time. After being talked into leaving Oliver’s band by his wife, Armstrong moved to New York and joined Fletcher Henderson’s band for one year until he was summoned back to Chicago to lead a group with his wife. From 1925 to 1928 he recorded Hot Fives Vol. 1 (1926, Columbia) and Hot Fives and Sevens, Vols. 2–3 (1927, Columbia) with groups that included his wife on piano, Kid Ory on trombone, and Johnny Dodds on clarinet. These recordings would serve as highly influential jazz landmarks and would be imitated for decades to come.

      By 1930, Armstrong was immensely popular and began actively touring the United States. Rarely did Armstrong ever bring a band with him and instead performed as a featured soloist with different house bands. Armstrong toured Europe for the first time in 1932. He continued this trend of touring alone into the 1940s. In 1938, Armstrong and Hardin divorced, and Armstrong quickly remarried. As bebop came into prominence in the 1940s, Armstrong’s popularity took a hit after having been one of the most dominant artists for the previous decade. Armstrong responded by forming the All Stars big band, which was quickly winnowed down to a smaller group in 1947. Members of this group changed over the next decade but included trombonists Jack Teagarden and Trummy Young, clarinetists Barney Bigard and Edmond Hall, and pianist Earl Hines.

      Armstrong remained a very popular artist and celebrity well into the 1960s but saw his popularity diminish among jazz musicians and was criticized for never changing or adapting his style. In addition to playing his trumpet, he was a very popular vocalist (recording “Hello Dolly” in 1964, a number-one pop hit) and was a major contributor to the development of vocal improvisation. He died in 1971 and is considered to be one of the greatest jazz figures ever. See also ARMSTRONG, LILLIAN HARDIN “LIL” (1898–1971); EARLY JAZZ; SHAW, ARVELL (1923–2002).

      ARRANGEMENT

      An arrangement is an interpretation of a previously written composition, be it a standard, a jazz tune, or other melody. While the melody is typically worked into the arrangement, there is much artistic freedom in terms of how the arranger chooses to deal with tempo, form, orchestration, rhythm, and harmony (I). Although arrangements for large groups, namely big bands, are mostly written out, some small groups may come up with an improvisational arrangement of a tune on the spot. Jazz arranging first emerged in the late 1920s with swing bands such as the one of band- leader Fletcher Henderson, who employed arrangements regularly in his band’s performances. A prominent arranger of the swing era was Duke Ellington, who, using the Henderson band as a model, took his arrangements and compositions to a new level by experimenting with new combinations of tones, colors, and instrument pairings. Arrangers were oftentimes hired by famous bandleaders in the swing era to create unique orchestrations for their groups, as Billy Strayhorn and Sammy Nestico did for the Duke Ellington Orchestra and the Count Basie Orchestra, respectively. See also AKIYOSHI, TOSHIKO (1929–); BROOKMEYER, ROBERT “BOB” (1929–2011); DAMERON, TADLEY EWING “TADD” (1917–1965); EVANS, GIL (1912–1988); JONES, THADDEUS JOSEPH “THAD” (1923–1986); NELSON, OLIVER (1932–1975); SCHNEIDER, MARIA (1960–).

      ART ENSEMBLE OF CHICAGO

      Formed in 1968 in the city of Chicago from the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM), the Art Ensemble of Chicago originally involved saxophonists Roscoe Mitchell and Joseph Jarman, trumpet player Lester Bowie, bassist СКАЧАТЬ