K L Noone Popular Books

K L Noone Biography & Facts

Jimmie Noone (April 23, 1895 – April 19, 1944) was an American jazz clarinetist and bandleader. After beginning his career in New Orleans, he led Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra, a Chicago band that recorded for Vocalion and Decca. Classical composer Maurice Ravel acknowledged basing his Boléro on an improvisation by Noone. At the time of his death Noone was leading a quartet in Los Angeles and was part of an all-star band that was reviving interest in traditional New Orleans jazz in the 1940s. Early life Jimmie Noone was born on April 23, 1895, near the Stanton Plantation in New Orleans, Louisiana to Lucene Daggs and James Noone. All of his grandparents were slaves. His father James either left the family or died before Noone was 5 years old. In 1910, Noone's family moved to Saint Bernard Parish, Louisiana. Noone switched to the clarinet and studied with Lorenzo Tio, and the young Sidney Bechet. Later life and career 1913–42 In 1913, Noone was playing professionally with Freddie Keppard, in Storyville, replacing Bechet. In 1916, when Keppard went on tour, Noone and Buddie Petit formed the Young Olympia Band, and Noone led a small ensemble (clarinet, piano, drums) unusual for its time.: 145–146  In 1917, Noone played with Kid Ory and Oscar Celestin until the Storyville district was permanently closed.: 93  He rejoined Keppard and the Original Creole Orchestra on the vaudeville circuit until the group broke up the following year. In 1918, Noone moved to Chicago, Illinois, where he studied with symphony clarinetist Franz Schoepp.: 352  He played for two years (1918–1920) at Chicago's Royal Garden Cafe with Paul Barbarin (drums), King Oliver, Bill Johnson (bass), Lottie Taylor (piano) and Eddie Vinson (trombone). In 1920, Noone joined Keppard in Doc Cook's dance orchestra, in which he played saxophone and clarinet for six years.: 146  Noone was a brother-in-law of both Barbarin and Keppard.: 93  In 1926, Noone began to lead the band at the Apex Club, at 330 E. 35th Street, one of a wealth of Jazz Age clubs on Chicago's South Side. Jimmie Noone's Apex Club Orchestra had an unusual instrumentation—a front line consisting of clarinet and alto saxophone (Joe Poston, who worked with Noone in Doc Cook's band),: 146–147  with piano (Earl Hines), drums (Ollie Powers, succeeded by Johnny Wells in 1928) and guitar (Bud Scott). Noone signed with Brunswick Records in May 1928 and was assigned to their Vocalion label. The first session yielded "Four or Five Times" backed with "Every Evening (I Miss You)" (Vocalion 1185), which was a best seller. "The quintet which Noone brought to Vocalion was unique in that it preserved New Orleans' musical concepts without using brass instruments," wrote jazz historian Richard Hadlock in his notes to Decca's 1994 remastered reissue of the 1928–1929 Apex Club Orchestra recordings. "Joe Poston and Noone took turns playing a loose, melodic lead and the powerful right hand of Hines was often blended into the front line to plump up the harmony...Noone seemed to keep one foot in traditional New Orleans bandsmanship and the other in the new movement toward virtuoso swing solo playing." Noone inspired Maurice Ravel's 1928 composition, Boléro. Benny Goodman was among the teenage musicians often seen at the Apex Club. "He absorbed in his own playing the beautiful tone and sparkling flow of Jimmie Noone", wrote John S. Wilson, music critic for The New York Times. Not yet ten years old, Nat King Cole listened to Noone's band on the radio, and he would sneak out his window to sit in the alley outside the nightclub and listen to Noone and Hines. Some ten years later, when a customer badgered Cole to sing along with his instrumental trio, the first song he sang was "Sweet Lorraine", Noone's theme song.: 8, 33  Noone remained in Chicago, working at the Apex Club until it was raided and shut down in 1929, and then worked at other Chicago clubs throughout the next decade. He recorded with Doc Cook's band as well as his own. In 1931, Noone left Chicago for a month at the Savoy Ballroom, and in 1935 he briefly moved to New York City, to start a band and a (short-lived) club with Wellman Braud. He made long tours around the country, including performances in New Orleans.: 146  Noone remained with Brunswick through 1935 (mostly on Vocalion, but also had a number of records issued on Brunswick) and then signed with Decca in early 1936 and one session each for Decca in 1936, 1937 and 1940. He did one session for Bluebird also in 1940. With swing music dominating jazz, Noone tried leading a big band—singer Joe Williams made his professional debut in 1937 with the group—but he went back to his small-ensemble format. 1943–44 In 1943, Noone moved to Los Angeles, California, where a traditional New Orleans-style jazz revival was under way. He began to enjoy renewed popularity that year when the Brunswick Collectors Series reissued his 1928 Vocalion recordings in a Decca album set (B-1006) titled Jimmie Noone, Dean of Modern Hot Clarinetists – Apex Club, Chicago 1928, Volume 1. Arriving in Los Angeles, Noone was confronted with a massive housing shortage due to the population boom associated with the war industry. On September 14, 1943, Ted LeBerthon of The Los Angeles Daily News wrote a column pleading for someone to rent or sell a home to Noone: I noted that Benny Goodman, Artie Shaw or Woody Herman, three outstanding white jazz clarinetists and band leaders, would have found a home because, being white, they did not have to confine their search to a limited restricted area. Also, I pointed out, they made far bigger money because of being white, and could afford to pay a far higher rental. The situation, I observed, was cruelly ironic. For Hugues Panassié, the distinguished French music critic, in his book The Real Jazz, had acclaimed Jimmie Noone as the greatest clarinetist of all time, the possessor of a more beautiful, more poignant tone and a player able to summon more sensitive nuances than any other. The late Maurice Ravel, who acknowledged basing his Boléro on a Jimmie Noone improvisation, had publicly dared any symphonic clarinetist to perform Jimmie's technical feats. But in Los Angeles there was no place for Jimmie and his lovely wife, Rita. The column brought about LeBerthon's dismissal after seven years with the Daily News. Noone's wife (born Rita Mary Mathieu, 1912–1980) and their three children had to move back to Chicago while Noone continued to look for a place for them to live. In addition to it being a burdensome expense for the musician, LeBurthon later reported that the stress on Noone aggravated a cardiac ailment that had emerged during the Depression years. By February 1944, however, Noone was able to find a home in Los Angeles for his family and after some delays they were reunited. On March 15, 1944, Noone made his first appearance with an all-star band featured on CBS Radio's The Orson Welles Almanac—a band that was an important force .... Discover the K L Noone popular books. Find the top 100 most popular K L Noone books.