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Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZNICHOLS, Red(b Ernest Loring Nichols, 8 May '05, Ogden Utah; d 28 June '65, Las Vegas) Trumpet, bandleader. He was famous for a long series of records by mostly small groups beginning with Red and Miff's Stompers on Edison '26, then on Brunswick and allied labels from late '26 with about 150 sides (not counting alternate takes), usually as Red Nichols and his Five Pennies (usually 7--8 pieces), on Bluebird (Victor) as Red Nichols and his World Famous Pennies '34, then fewer records incl. big-band sessions '39--40 as Red Nichols and his Orchestra on Bluebird and OKeh. The band had already got larger (eleven pieces plus vocal trio incl. Connie Boswell at one '32 session); the best sides were the earliest, until '29 featuring Miff Mole on trombone (b Irving Milfred Mole, 11 March 1898, Roosevelt, Long Island, NY; d 29 April '61, NYC). Mole was one of the first to conceive of the jazz trombone as something more than a sort of bass accompaniment to the New Orleans-style front line; he was highly regarded by musicians and fans alike, though soon overshadowed by Jack Teagarden as a soloist. Mole worked as an NBC staff musician '29--38, his duties incl. playing for Toscanini and dir. Bessie Smith broadcasts; in the '40s he played in dixieland combos at clubs like Nick's and was later reduced by ill health to work as a street vendor. Nichols's trumpet was derivative (after Bix Beiderbecke) but the early small-group sides were innovative, defining at the time a 'New York Style' and probably an influence on the Louis Armstrong/Earl Hines records of '28. Nichols's sidemen incl. at various times, besides Mole, Jack and Charlie Teagarden, Jimmy Dorsey, Glenn Miller, Will Bradley, Benny Goodman, Gene Krupa, Pee Wee Russell, Adrian Rollini, Eddie Lang, Lennie Hayton, Ray McKinley, Joe Venuti, Wingy Manone, indeed every good white musician of the era except Beiderbecke himself. Many of the Brunswicks were good sellers, especially 'Ida, Sweet As Apple Cider' '27 and two-sided hit 'Embraceable You'/'I Got Rhythm' '30. His career was rejuvenated by The Five Pennies '59, a typically sentimental biopic with Danny Kaye playing Nichols, who played his own solos in the soundtrack; but it was generally agreed that whatever jazz feeling he had once possessed was gone, and he remained the favourite of the sort of listeners who usually preferred the businessman's bounce. |