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James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 alto saxophonist and bandleader
Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
 of the swing era
Swing Era

The Swing Era was the period of time when big band swing music was the most popular music in United States. Though the music has been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by Black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson, most his...
.

Lunceford was born in Fulton, Missouri
Fulton, Missouri

Fulton is a city in Callaway County, Missouri, Missouri, the United States of America. It is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri Jefferson City, Missouri Metropolitan Area....
, but attended school in Denver and earned a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin language Artium Baccalaureus, is an Undergraduate education bachelor's degree awarded for either a course or a program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
 degree at Fisk University
Fisk University

Fisk University is a Historically black colleges and universities founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee, Tennessee, United States The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages....
.

In 1927, while teaching high school in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....
, he organized a student band, the Chickasaw Syncopators, whose name was changed to the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra when it began touring.






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James Melvin "Jimmie" Lunceford (June 6, 1902 – July 12, 1947) was an American
United States

The United States of America is a Federal government constitutional republic comprising U.S. state and a federal district. The country is situated mostly in central North America, where its Contiguous United States and Washington, D.C., the Capital districts and territories, lie between the Pacific Ocean and Atlantic Oceans, Borders of the U...
 jazz
Jazz

Jazz is a primarily American musical art form which originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States from a confluence of African and European music traditions....
 alto saxophonist and bandleader
Bandleader

A bandleader is the leader of a band of musicians. The term is most commonly, though not exclusively, used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or rock and roll music....
 of the swing era
Swing Era

The Swing Era was the period of time when big band swing music was the most popular music in United States. Though the music has been around since the late 1920s and early 1930s, being played by Black bands led by such artists as Duke Ellington, Jimmie Lunceford, Ella Fitzgerald, Cab Calloway, Louis Armstrong and Fletcher Henderson, most his...
.

Lunceford was born in Fulton, Missouri
Fulton, Missouri

Fulton is a city in Callaway County, Missouri, Missouri, the United States of America. It is part of the Jefferson City, Missouri Jefferson City, Missouri Metropolitan Area....
, but attended school in Denver and earned a Bachelor of Arts
Bachelor of Arts

Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin language Artium Baccalaureus, is an Undergraduate education bachelor's degree awarded for either a course or a program in either the liberal arts, the sciences or both....
 degree at Fisk University
Fisk University

Fisk University is a Historically black colleges and universities founded in 1866 in Nashville, Tennessee, Tennessee, United States The world-famous Fisk Jubilee Singers started as a group of students who performed to earn enough money to save the school at a critical time of financial shortages....
.

In 1927, while teaching high school in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....
, he organized a student band, the Chickasaw Syncopators, whose name was changed to the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra when it began touring. The orchestra made its first recording in 1930. After a period of touring, the band accepted a booking at the prestigious Harlem
Harlem

Harlem is a Neighbourhood in the New York City borough of Manhattan, long known as a major African-American residential, cultural, and business center....
 nightclub, The Cotton Club
The Cotton Club

The Cotton Club may refer to:* Cotton Club , a famous nightclub in New York City.* The Cotton Club , a film centered on the above club....
 in 1933. The Cotton Club had already featured Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
 and Cab Calloway
Cab Calloway

Cabell "Cab" Calloway III was a famous American jazz singer and bandleader.Calloway was a master of energetic scat singing and led one of the United States' most popular African American big bands from the start of the 1930s through the late 1940s....
, who won their first widespread fame from their inventive shows for the Cotton Club's all-white patrons. Lunceford's orchestra, with their tight musicianship and often outrageous humor in their music and lyrics made an ideal band for the club, and Lunceford's reputation began to steadily grow.

Comedy and vaudeville
Vaudeville

Vaudeville was a genre of a variety show prevalent on the theatre in the United States and Canada from the early 1880s until the early 1930s. It developed from many sources, including the concert saloon, minstrel show, freak shows, dime museums, and literary burlesque....
 played a distinct part in Lunceford's presentation. Songs such as "Rhythm Is Our Business", "I'm Nuts about Screwy Music", "I Want the Waiter (With the Water)", and "Four or Five Times" displayed a playful sense of swing
Swung note

In music, a swung note or shuffle note is a rhythmic device in which the duration of the initial note in a pair is augmentation and that of the second is diminution....
, often through clever arrangements by Sy Oliver
Sy Oliver

Melvin "Sy" Oliver was a jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader. His mother was a piano teacher and his father was a multi-instrumentalist who made a name for himself demonstrating saxophones at a time that instrument was little used outside of marching bands....
 and bizarre lyrics. Lunceford's stage shows often included costumes, skits, and obvious jabs at mainstream white jazz bands, such as Paul Whiteman
Paul Whiteman

Paul Whiteman was an United States orchestral leader. He was born in Denver, Colorado. After a start as a classical violinist and viola, Whiteman then led a jazz-influenced dance band, which became locally popular in San Francisco, California in 1918....
's and Guy Lombardo
Guy Lombardo

Gaetano Alberto "Guy" Lombardo was a Canadian bandleader and violinist.Forming The Royal Canadians in 1924 with his brothers Carmen Lombardo, Lebert Lombardo, and Victor Lombardo and other musicians from his hometown, Lombardo led the group to international success, billing themselves as creating "The Sweetest Music This Side of Heaven."...
's.

Despite the band's comic veneer, Lunceford always maintained professionalism in the music befitting a former teacher; this professionalism paid off and during the apex of swing
Swing (genre)

Swing music, also known as swing jazz or simply swing, is a form of jazz music that developed in the early 1930s and had solidified as a distinctive style by 1935 in the United States....
 in the 1930s, the Orchestra was considered the equal of Duke Ellington
Duke Ellington

Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and bandleader.Duke Ellington was recognized during his life as one of the most influential Jazz royalty, if not in all American music and he is of only four jazz musicians ever to have been featured on the cover of Time magazine ....
's, Earl Hines
Earl Hines

Earl Kenneth Hines, universally known as Earl "Fatha" Hines, was "one of a small number of pianists whose playing shaped the history of jazz"....
' or Count Basie
Count Basie

William "Count" Basie was an United States Jazz piano, organist, bandleader, and composer. Widely regarded as one of the most important jazz bandleaders of his time, Basie led his popular Count Basie Orchestra for almost 50 years....
's. This precision can be heard in such pieces as "Wham (Re-Bop-Boom-Bam)", "Lunceford Special", "For Dancers Only", "Uptown Blues", and "Stratosphere". Arranger and trumpeter Sy Oliver
Sy Oliver

Melvin "Sy" Oliver was a jazz arranger, trumpeter, composer, singer and bandleader. His mother was a piano teacher and his father was a multi-instrumentalist who made a name for himself demonstrating saxophones at a time that instrument was little used outside of marching bands....
 gave the orchestra its trademark two-beat rhythm. The band's noted saxophone section was led by alto sax player Willie Smith
Willie Smith (alto saxophonist)

William McLeish Smith was one of the major alto saxophone players of the swing era. He also played clarinet and sang. He is generally referred to as "Willie Smith"....
. Lunceford often used a conducting
Conducting

Conducting is the act of directing a musical performance by way of visible gestures. Orchestras, choirs, concert bands and other musical ensembles often have conductors....
 baton to lead his band.

The orchestra began recording for the Decca
Decca Records

Decca Records is a British record label established in 1929 in music by Edward Lewis . Its U.S. label was established in late 1934; later the link with the British company was broken for several decades....
 label and later signed with the Columbia
Columbia Records

Columbia Records is an American record label founded in 1888.Columbia is the oldest surviving brand name in pre-recorded sound, being the first record company to produce pre-recorded records as opposed to blank cylinders....
 subsidiary Vocalion in 1938. They toured Europe
Europe

Europe is, conventionally, one of the world's seven continents. Comprising the westernmost peninsula of Eurasia, Europe is generally divided from Asia to its east by the water divide of the Ural Mountains, the Ural , the Caspian Sea, and by the Caucasus Mountains to the southeast....
 extensively in 1937, but had to cancel a second tour in 1939 because of the outbreak of World War II
World War II

World War II, or the Second World War , was a global military conflict which involved a Participants in World War II, including all of the great powers, organised into two opposing military alliances: the Allies of World War II and the Axis powers....
. Columbia dropped Lunceford in 1940 because of flagging sales. (Oliver departed the group before the scheduled European tour to take a position as an arranger for Tommy Dorsey
Tommy Dorsey

Tommy Dorsey was an United States jazz trombonist, trumpeter, composer, and bandleader of the Big band era. He was the younger brother of Jimmy Dorsey....
). Lunceford returned to the Decca label.

The orchestra appeared in the 1941 movie Blues in the Night
Blues in the Night (1941 film)

Blues in the Night is musical film released by Warner Brothers, directed by Anatole Litvak and starring Lane Sisters, Richard Whorf, Betty Field, Lloyd Nolan, Elia Kazan, and Jack Carson....
.

In 1947, while playing in Seaside, Oregon
Seaside, Oregon

Seaside is a city in Clatsop County, Oregon, Oregon, United States. The name Seaside came from a summer resort built by the railroad magnate Ben Holladay in the 1870s, Seaside House, located a mile south of the business center....
, Lunceford collapsed and died from cardiac arrest
Cardiac arrest

A cardiac arrest, also known as cardiopulmonary arrest or circulatory arrest, is the abrupt cessation of normal circulation of the blood due to failure of the heart to contract effectively during Systole ....
 during an autograph session. Allegations and rumors circulated that Jimmie had been poisoned by a fish-restaurant owner who was unhappy at having to serve a "Negro" in his establishment.

Legacy

Band members, notably Eddie Wilcox
Eddie Wilcox

Eddie Wilcox was an American jazz pianist and arranger.Born in Method, North Carolina, Wilcox studied at Fisk University, where he met Jimmie Lunceford....
 and Joe Thomas
Joe Thomas (saxophonist)

Joe Thomas was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Thomas played alto sax under Horace Henderson, but played tenor from the time he joined Stuff Smith's band onward....
 kept the band going for a time but finally had to break up the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra in 1949.

In 1999, band-leader Robert Veen and a team of musicians set out to acquire permission to use the original band charts and arrangements of the Jimmie Lunceford canon. The Jimmie Lunceford Legacy Orchestra official debuted in July 2005 at the North Sea Jazz Festival
North Sea Jazz Festival

The North Sea Jazz Festival is an annual List of jazz festivals held each second weekend of July in The Netherlands. It used to be in The Hague but since 2006 it's being held in Rotterdam....
.

The Jimmie Lunceford Jamboree Festival was founded in 2007 by Ron Herd II a.k.a. R2C2H2 Tha Artivist and Artstorian, with the aim of increasing recognition of Lunceford's contribution to jazz, particularly in Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis, Tennessee

Memphis is a city in the southwest corner of the U.S. state of Tennessee, and the county seat of Shelby County, Tennessee. Memphis rises above the Mississippi River on the 4th Chickasaw Bluff just south of the mouth of the Wolf River ....


Selected discography

Prior to Lunceford's success on Decca (September, 1934 on), he made the following recordings:

  • "In Dat Mornin'"/"Sweet Rhythm" (Victor V-38141)- recorded Memphis, June 6, 1930


  • "Flaming Reeds and Screaming Brass"/"While Love Lasts" (Columbia tests - not issued until the late 1960s on LP) - recorded New York, May 15, 1933


  • "Jazznocracy"/"Chillen", Get Up (Victor 24522)
  • "White Heat"/"Leaving Me" (Victor 24586) - both recorded New York, January 26, 1934


  • "Breakfast Ball"/"Here Goes" (Victor 24601)
  • "Swingin' Uptown"/"Remember When" (Victor 24669) - both recorded New York, March 20, 1934


The Decca recordings
  • Stomp it Off (1934-1935 Decca recordings) (GRP CD)
  • Swingsation (1935-1939 Decca recordings) (1998 GRP CD)
  • Lunceford Special (1939 Columbia recordings) (ca 1975 Columbia LP)
  • Rhythm is Our Business (1933-1940, both periods and record companies, successively) (ASV CD)
  • For Dancers Only (GRP/Decca) (1994)
  • Jukebox Hits: 1937-1947 (Acrobat) (2005)
  • Life is Fine or Quadromania (Membran/Quadromania Jazz) (2006)


Trivia

  • The Chickasaw Syncopators made a single 78 record on December 13, 1927 in Memphis (but without Lunceford); it was issued on Columbia 14301-D.


External links