RADIO STARS

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 59, 11 March 1937, Page 28

RADIO STARS

THE "KING OF JAZZ"

Charlie.Kunz, the popular broadcasting pianist and director of the Casani Club Orchestra, in a tribute to Paul Whiteman, the famous American band leader, writes:—

When he produced "Tannhauser" in Paris, Wagner was cartooned as a small man with a big drum and a pair of cymbals. 'Yet today there are

many people who find even Wagner quiet compared with the loud numbers of a "hot" rhythm orchestra.

Times change.

Gone are the days when a band could win success by playing "ragtime" with as many drums and tin kettles as possible.

The change, could not have been made if it had not been for expert musicians who quickly came on the scene and turned "jazz" into "jazz music," always with the commercial idea in view.

Paul Whiteman —the "King of Jazz" —a fellow-American for whom I have the greatest admiration —was the first real musician to take dance band music in hand.

In his own account of the troubles at this early stage in ragtime, he says:

"Most of the players did not know a quaver from a crotchet, but they had this in common with modern jazz musicians—they were not afraid to let themselves go and had a wonderful sense of rhythm.

"Every member of a modern firstclass band is a virtuoso. Each musician plays, not one, but from two to ten instruments, and is a master of them all. Composers of syncopated music require the full range of instruments in addition to a number of 'effects,' which few players in symphony orchestras could produce.

"I have often been accused of 'inventing' jazz. As a matter of fact, I was playing in a symphony orchestra when a war-worn world was introduced to jazz. I simply took jazz where I found it and orchestrated it. It was obvious that extemporary music must be uncertain', so I wrote my own scores in full. Today, jazz scores are invariably made by musicians with a full knowledge of orchestration, and even the tricks are scored.

"Coming straight from a symphony orchestra, I realised that a haphazard collection of instruments did not constitute, an ..orchestra. The first jazz bands contained neither saxophone nor banjo, and the bass usually blotted out all save the the bass drum.

"So I balanced the ' wood-wind, string and bass choirs, and introduced the saxophone family in place of some of the strings, and dispensed with the hardware department of the percussion. Thus, without losing any of its exuberant vitality, jazz acquired 'tone.'

"Early ' ragtime—-and even ; more modern dance music—is monotonous because.its object is not to delight by the variety of its melody and tone colour, but'to provide a beat for dancing. The modern jazz, band escapes from the 2/4 and 4/4 time insisted upon by the dancer and uses more' varied rhythms. • • ' . "Compared with the easy syncopation of former . days, its music is enormously complicated. You need only listen to . a modern, tune after 'Alexander's Ragtime Band' to realise the strides which it.has made. Composers of jazz have ceased writing songs and are beginning to compose syncopated music." Actually it was not quite so easy as all that! Whiteman's progress was made over many years, and we cannot over-estimate the importance of the great work he has done for syncopated music. Instead of the reckless feats of free-lance musicians ,we have today the rich harmony .and concerted work of disciplined bands of expert musicians. . . . - _• Whiteman says that: "Coming straight, from a symphony orchestra, I realised that a haphazard collection of instruments did not constitute an orchestra." This is perhaps a rather naive statement, for Paul came of-an exceptionally-musical family, had an excellent classical musical career, and only came into the noisy world of jazz by accident. . . • His father was a music teacher in Denver, Colorado, and he began to learn the violin at the age of three. When he was only seventeen, he was first viola in the Denver Symphony Orchestra. He.moved to San, Francisco where he played at the World's Fair in 1915 and.subsequently transferred to the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra. '■"''. ■.'-'• This was all very':well in.its way, and pleased Whiteman, sen., very much, but .the symphony orchestra work did not provide an adequate living for Paul. He had' to drive a cab around the streets of San Francisco to augment the very ,meagre salary he had for his musical work, for he did not "find 'Frisco a very-fruitful field as a music teacher. Paul drove many gay parties from cafe to cabaret in 'Frisco in the early hours of the morning and naturally enough he himself came into touch with a very peculiar side of variety life. He saw that there was. big money to be made in some, of these cafes' if he did not mind undertaking _ what was virtually a prostitution of his musical knowledge. A friend offered him a job. at Tait's, one of"'Frisco's most. successful cafe orchestras, and he himself does not know how he passed' the' test, for 'the job lasted exactly one evening. \ His symphony experience was all very well, but he simply could, not play ragtime, and before the following evening's show opened up he was politely given the sack! He did'not dare to explain the'position to the. folks back home, and as he had given up his cab he had to look round for another job very quickly. His brief experience in the ragtime world had shown him that it was wortii while persevering, for the work, hard though it was, seemed more congenial than driving a taxicab and it would also give him musical practice and experience, though not necessarily of the type he had had in mind years before when he set out for 'Frisco from his home at Denver!

He had no sympathy with the early noisy ragtime bands composed of only three or four musicians intent upon noise produced by brass and percussion. Whiteman gathered a few friends around him and started up his own dance orchestra with seven men.

Money was tight at first, and they all had to gain experience. He played in and directed several bands until eventually an orchestra under his direction opened up at the Hotel Alexandria, in 'Frisco, the money for the initial salaries of the bandmen being guaranteed by John Herman. This was the first of Paul Whiteman's famous bands, and it was also undoubtedly the first organised ragtime band, in spite of the good work that had been done by Bert Kelly. Buskers —those who improvise as they go along—had always had their place in ragtime music until Whiteman took the field. ' He adopted the attitude of the expert musician towards buskers, and he engaged (under Herman's patronage) the very best available musicians, at least three of whom are with him today. .

Ferde Grofe, the pianist, was an early associate of Whiteman and is a man who has done as much ■as any other to further the musical side of "jazz." He is an expert pianist and a fine classical musician.

He worked well with Whiteman and he revolutionised ragtime by writing special orchestral parts, many of them very complicated, which was a thing previously unheard of, and an art calculated to shock the Buskers and definitely put them out of work, for many of them could not read music at all.