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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 ZCHITTISON, Herman(b 1909, Flemingsburg KY; d 8 March 1967, Cleveland OH) Jazz pianist. A superbly strong player, influenced by Art Tatum, and harmonically an antecedent of Bill Evans. He worked as an accompanist, made freelance records for Clarence Williams and went to Europe in 1934; tracks recorded in Paris in 1939 were issued on an EMI anthology Jazz Piano In Paris. Touring with Louis Armstrong in Europe, he was said to have attracted enough attention from fans to displease Armstrong. He went to Egypt in 1938, worked there with Bill Coleman in the Harlem Rhythmakers; back in the USA in 1940, he formed a trio popular in NYC clubs. He had been a big influence on young Thelonious Monk before he left the USA. Then beginning in 1942 he played a pianist for seven years on the weekly CBS radio series 'Casey, Crime Photographer', and young pianists listened to the program just to hear a few bars of whatever Chittison played in the fictional Blue Note Café. Horace Silver (11 years younger than Monk) said, 'I'd put my ear to the speaker so I could hear him more clearly. When he finished, I'd run dowstairs to the kitchen where the piano was and try to copy some of what I had heard him play.' (See Robin D.G. Kelley's biography Thelonious Monk, 2009.) Chittison made albums on Rivoli c. 1962 and '64, and an album with Jack Teagarden called Boning Up On Bones. He left too few recordings, but PS With Love on IAJRC collected previously unissued solos from 1964-7. |