American jazz musician (1905?1973)
Eddie Condon
|
---|
Condon in 1946
|
|
Birth name
| Albert Edwin Condon
|
---|
Born
| (
1905-11-16
)
November 16, 1905
Goodland, Indiana
, U.S.
|
---|
Died
| August 4, 1973
(1973-08-04)
(aged 67)
New York City
,
NY
, U.S.
|
---|
Genres
| Jazz
,
swing
|
---|
Occupation(s)
| Musician, bandleader
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---|
Instrument(s)
| Guitar
|
---|
Years active
| 1921?1973
|
---|
Labels
| Commodore
,
OKeh
,
Victor
,
Brunswick
,
Columbia
|
---|
Musical artist
Albert Edwin Condon
(November 16, 1905 ? August 4, 1973) was an American
jazz
banjoist, guitarist, and bandleader. A leading figure in Chicago jazz, he also played piano and sang. He also owned a self-named night club in
New York City
.
Early years
[
edit
]
Condon was born in
Goodland, Indiana
,
[1]
the son of John and Margaret (nee McGraw) Condon. He grew up in
Momence, Illinois
, and
Chicago Heights, Illinois
, where he attended St. Agnes and
Bloom High School
. After playing
ukulele
, he switched to banjo and was a professional musician by 1921.
When he was 15 years old, he received his first union card in Waterloo, Iowa.
[2]
Career
[
edit
]
He was based in Chicago for most of the 1920s, and played with such jazz notables as
Bix Beiderbecke
,
Jack Teagarden
, and
Frank Teschemacher
. He and
Red McKenzie
formed the
Chicago Rhythm Kings
in 1925.
[3]
While in Chicago, Condon and other white musicians would go to Lincoln Gardens to watch and learn from
King Oliver
and his band.
[4]
They later would frequent the Sunset Cafe to see
Louis Armstrong
and his
Hot Five
for the same reasons.
[5]
In 1928, Condon moved to New York City. He frequently arranged jazz sessions for the record companies, sometimes playing with the artists he brought to the recording studios, including Louis Armstrong and
Fats Waller
. He organised racially integrated recording sessions?when these were still rare?with
Fats Waller
, Armstrong and
Henry 'Red' Allen
. He played with the band of
Red Nichols
for a time. Later, from 1938 he had a long association with
Milt Gabler
's
Commodore Records
.
A handful of records were issued under his own name in the late '20s and early '30s: a July 28, 1928 two-song session was recorded for
OKeh
, but only issued in England. On October 30, 1928, an OKeh was issued as "Eddie Condon and his Footwarmers", featuring Jack Teagarden. A further session on February 8, 1929, yielded a record issued under the name "Eddie Hot Shots" and issued on
Victor
's hot dance series. In 1932 he recorded multiple sessions with the
Rhythmakers
in New York City. In 1933, a further two sessions were recorded for
Brunswick
consisting of 6 recordings, only 2 of which were released in the US. From 1938 on, Condon recorded for Commodore and one session for
Decca
.
From the late 1930s on he was a regular at the Manhattan jazz club Nick's. The sophisticated variation on
Dixieland
music which Condon and his colleagues created there came to be nicknamed "Nicksieland". Condon hated having his music called "Dixieland." He never used the term himself and emphasized his view by calling his first autobiography "We Called it Music". By this time, his regular circle of musical associates included
Wild Bill Davison
,
Bobby Hackett
,
George Brunies
,
Edmond Hall
, and
Pee Wee Russell
. In 1939, he appeared with "Bobby Hacket and Band" in the Warner Brothers & Vitaphone film musical short-subject,
On the Air.
Condon did a series of jazz radio broadcasts,
Eddie Condon's Jazz Concerts
, from New York's
Town Hall
during 1944?45
[6]
which were nationally broadcast. These recordings survive, and have been issued on the
Jazzology
label.
From 1945 through 1967, he ran his own New York jazz club,
Eddie Condon's
, first located on West 3rd Street in
Greenwich Village
,
[1]
then 52nd Street near Sixth Avenue, on the present site of the CBS headquarters building; then later, on the south side of East 56th Street, east of
Second Avenue
. In the 1950s, Condon recorded a sequence of classic albums for
Columbia Records
. The musicians involved in these albums, and at Condon's club, included Wild Bill Davison, Bobby Hackett (cornet),
Billy Butterfield
(trumpet),
Edmond Hall
,
Peanuts Hucko
,
Pee Wee Russell
,
Bob Wilber
(clarinet),
Cutty Cutshall
,
Lou McGarity
, George Brunies (trombone),
Bud Freeman
(tenor sax), Gene Schroeder,
Dick Cary
,
Ralph Sutton
(piano),
Bob Casey
,
Walter Page
,
Jack Lesberg
,
Al Hall
(bass),
George Wettling
,
Buzzy Drootin
,
Cliff Leeman
(drums).
Condon toured Britain in 1957 with a band including Wild Bill Davison, Cutty Cutshall, Gene Schroeder and George Wettling. His last tour was in 1964, when he took a band to Australia and Japan. Condon's men, on that tour, were
Buck Clayton
(trumpet), Pee Wee Russell (clarinet),
Vic Dickenson
(trombone),
Bud Freeman
(tenor sax),
Dick Cary
(piano and alto horn), Jack Lesberg (bass), Cliff Leeman (drums),
Jimmy Rushing
(vocals).
Billy Banks
, a vocalist who had recorded with Condon and Pee Wee Russell in 1932, and had lived in obscurity in Japan for many years, turned up at one of the 1964 concerts: Pee Wee asked him "have you got any more gigs?".
In 1948, Condon's autobiography
We Called It Music
was published.
Eddie Condon's Treasury of Jazz
(1956) was a collection of articles co-edited by Condon and Richard Gehman.
A latter-day collaborator, clarinetist
Kenny Davern
, described a Condon gig: "It was always a thrill to get a call from Eddie and with a gig involved even more so. I remember eating beforehand with Bernie (Previn, trumpet) and Lou (McGarity, trombone) and everyone being in good spirits. There was a buzz on, we'd all had a taste and there was a great feel to the music."
[7]
Condon toured and appeared at jazz festivals until 1971. His last public appearance was at the New School for Social Research in New York in April 1973 where he played with several of his regulars. The concert was recorded (Chiaroscuro Records CRD110).
During most of his career Condon played and recorded using a four-string guitar. However he never made a solo with this instrument, at least not on record.
Personal life
[
edit
]
Condon married fashion copywriter Phyllis Smith in 1942. They had two daughters, Maggie and Liza.
[8]
Death
[
edit
]
On August 4, 1973, Condon died of a bone disease at
Mount Sinai Hospital
in New York City, New York. He was 67.
[3]
His funeral was held at Frank E. Campbell Chapel in Manhattan.
[9]
He was survived by his wife and two daughters.
[10]
Discography
[
edit
]
- Ringside at Condon's
(Savoy, 1956)
- At Newport
with Louis Armstrong (Columbia, 1956)
- Confidentially...It's Condon
(Design, 1958)
- Dixieland Dance Party
(Dot, 1958)
- Eddie Condon is Uptown Now!
(MGM, 1958)
- Tiger Rag and All That Jazz
(World Pacific, 1960)
- A Legend
(Mainstream, 1965)
- The Eddie Condon Concerts
(Chiaroscure, 1972)
- Jazz at the New School
(Chiaroscure, 1972)
- The Spirit of Condon
(Fat Cat's Jazz, 1973)
- The Immortal Eddie Condon
(Olympic, 1974)
- Eddie Condon in Japan
(Chiaroscure, 1977)
- Eddie Condon Wild Bill Davison Jam Session
(Jazzology, 1980)
- Eddie Condon and His Jazz Concert Orchestra
(Jazz Bird, 1981)
- That Toddlin' Town
(Atlantic, 1985)
- The Town Hall Concerts
(Jazzology, 1988?1996)
- Dixieland Jam
(Columbia, 1989)
[11]
- The Definitive Eddie Condon and His Jazz Concert All-Stars Vol. 1
(Stash, 1990)
- A Night With Eddie Condon
Kenny Davern with Eddie Condon (
Arbors
, 2001)
- Eddie Condon & Bud Freeman: Complete Commodore and Decca Sessions
(
Mosaic
, 2015)
[12]
References
[
edit
]
- ^
a
b
Carr, Ian; Fairweather, Digby; Priestley, Brian (2004).
The Rough Guide to Jazz
. Rough Guides.
ISBN
9781843532569
. Retrieved
August 14,
2017
.
Eddie Condon.
- ^
Campbell, Mary (February 12, 1970).
"Eddie Condon Recalls '20s"
.
The Evening Sun
. Pennsylvania, Hanover. Associated Press. p. 5
. Retrieved
August 14,
2017
– via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
a
b
"Jazz Great Eddie Condon Dies"
.
The Times Recorder
. Ohio, Zanesville. United Press International. August 5, 1973. p. 1
. Retrieved
August 14,
2017
– via
Newspapers.com
.
- ^
Brothers, Thomas (2014).
Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism
. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 33?34.
ISBN
978-0-393-06582-4
.
- ^
Brothers, Thomas (2014).
Louis Armstrong: Master of Modernism
. New York, NY: W.W. Norton & Company. pp. 238?39.
ISBN
978-0-393-06582-4
.
- ^
Dunning, John (1998).
On the Air: The Encyclopedia of Old-Time Radio
(Revised ed.). New York, NY: Oxford University Press. p.
225
.
ISBN
978-0-19-507678-3
.
- ^
Liner notes,
A Night With Eddie Condon
, by Kenny Davern.
Arbors Records
.
- ^
Butler, Vincent (February 28, 1965).
"Eddie Condon Hoosier Jazz Man with Class"
.
Chicago Tribune
. Illinois, Chicago. p. 22-Section 1
. Retrieved
August 15,
2017
.
- ^
"JAZZMEN PERFORM AT CONDON'S RITES (Published 1973)"
.
The New York Times
. August 9, 1973.
ISSN
0362-4331
. Retrieved
December 15,
2020
.
- ^
"Jazz great Eddie Condon dies of Bone Disease"
.
The Salina Journal
. Kansas, Salina. United Press International. August 5, 1973. p. 7.
- ^
Kernfeld, Barry, ed. (January 17, 1996).
The Blackwell Guide to Recorded Jazz
(2nd ed.). Blackwell. pp. 167?169.
ISBN
0-631-19552-1
.
- ^
Fleming, Colin (September 4, 2015).
"Eddie Condon & Bud Freeman: Complete Commodore and Decca Sessions"
.
JazzTimes
. Retrieved
February 8,
2019
.
External links
[
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]
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