Roger Wolfe Kahn

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Roger Wolfe Kahn

Roger Wolfe Kahn (October 19, 1907 – July 12, 1962) 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....
and popular musician

Musician

A musician is a person who plays or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument....
, composer

Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
, 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....
("Roger Wolfe Kahn and His Orchestra").

Roger Wolff Kahn (Wolff was his middle name's original spelling) was born in Morristown, New Jersey

Morristown, New Jersey

Morristown is a Town in Morris County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 18,544....
into a wealthy German Jewish banking family.

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Encyclopedia

Roger Wolfe Kahn (October 19, 1907 – July 12, 1962) was an American

United States

Jazz

Musician

A musician is a person who plays or writes music. Musicians can be classified by their roles in creating or performing music:* An instrumentalist plays a musical instrument....
, composer

Composer

Bandleader

Morristown, New Jersey

Morristown is a Town in Morris County, New Jersey, New Jersey, United States. As of the United States 2000 Census, the town population was 18,544....
into a wealthy German Jewish banking family. His father was Otto Hermann Kahn

Otto Hermann Kahn

Otto Hermann Kahn was an investment banker, collector, philanthropist, and patron of the arts....
, a famous banker and patron of the arts. Otto and Roger Kahn were the first father and son to appear separately on the cover of Time
Time (magazine)

Time is a weekly United States newsmagazine, similar to Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report. A European edition is published from London....
magazine: Otto in November 1925 and Roger in September 1927, aged 19.

Kahn is said to have learned to play 18 musical instruments before starting to lead his own orchestra in 1923, aged only 16. In 1925, Kahn appeared in a short film made in Lee De Forest

Lee De Forest

Lee De Forest was an United States inventor with over 180 patents to his credit. De Forest invented the Audion tube, a vacuum tube that takes relatively weak electrical signals and amplifies them....
's Phonofilm

Phonofilm

In 1919, Lee De Forest, inventor of the audion tube, filed his first patent on a sound-on-film process, DeForest Phonofilm, which recorded sound directly onto film as parallel lines....
sound-on-film

Sound-on-film

Sound-on-film refers to a class of sound film processes where the sound accompanying picture is physically recorded onto photographic film, usually, but not always, the same strip of film carrying the picture....
process. Kahn hired famous jazz musicians of the day to play in his band, especially during recording sessions, for example Joe Venuti, Eddie Lang

Eddie Lang

Eddie Lang was an American jazz guitarist, regarded as the most important Chicago jazz guitarist and the Father of the Jazz Guitar. He played a Gibson L-4 and Gibson L-5 guitar, providing great influence for many guitarists, including Django Reinhardt....
, Artie Shaw

Artie Shaw

Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an United States jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest jazz clarinetists of his time....
, Jack Teagarden

Jack Teagarden

Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden , known as "Big T", was an influential jazz trombonist, bandleader, composer, and vocalist....
, Red Nichols

Red Nichols

Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols was an United States jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader....
, and Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa

Gene Krupa was an influentialUnited States jazz and big band drummer and composer, known for his highly energetic and flamboyant style....
. Recordings were made for Victor until 1929, 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....
in 1929 and 1930, and for the Brunswick

Brunswick Records

Brunswick Records is a United States based record label. The label is currently distributed by Koch Entertainment....
label in 1932.

Kahn always had fun leading and conducting his orchestra. Reportedly, when the band was playing especially well he used to throw himself onto the floor and wave his legs in the air. However, in the mid-1930s, he lost interest in his orchestra and disbanded it. Instead, he preoccupied himself with aviation

Aviation

File:Norwegian military Bell 412SP helicopters.jpgAviation refers to activities involving man-made flying devices , including the people, organizations, and regulatory bodies involved with them....
and eventually, in 1941, became a test pilot for the Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation

Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation

The Grumman Aircraft Engineering Corporation, later Grumman Aerospace Corporation, was a leading 20th century U.S. producer of military and civilian aircraft....
, a well-known aircraft manufacturer.

In 1931, Kahn made headlines on the New York society pages when he married musical comedy actress Hannah Williams

Hannah Williams (actress)

Hannah Williams was a United States actress, singer, and comedian.She performed in Broadway theater, being known in particular for the song, "Cheerful Little Earful" in Sweet and Low ....
January 16, 1931. The wedding was at Oheka Castle

Oheka Castle

Oheka Castle was the country home of financier and philanthropist, Otto Kahn. Built by Kahn, between 1914 and 1919 and located on the North Shore of Long Island north shore, the home was and remains, the second largest private home in United States, comprising 127 rooms and over , as originally configured....
, his family's estate on Long Island

Long Island

Long Island is an island located in southeastern New York, United States, just east of Manhattan. Stretching northeast into the Atlantic Ocean, Long Island contains four counties, two of which are Borough s of New York City, and two of which are mainly suburban....
, and was kept secret from the public for two weeks, until the Broadway

Broadway theatre

Broadway theatre, commonly called simply Broadway, refers to theatrical performances presented in one of the 39 large professional theaters with 500 seats or more located in the Theatre District, New York in Manhattan, New York City....
show Williams was appearing in, Sweet and Low, had had its final performances. The couple made headlines again when they divorced two years later and when, after only a few weeks, Williams married boxing champion Jack Dempsey

Jack Dempsey

Jack "Manassa Mauler" Dempsey was an United States boxing who held the List of heavyweight boxing champions from 1919 to 1926. Dempsey's aggressive style and punching power made him one of the most popular boxers in history....
. Two days after the divorce, on April 7, 1933, Roger Wolfe Kahn married Edith May Nelson, a Maine politician's daughter. That marriage lasted from 1933 till Kahn's death of a heart attack

Myocardial infarction

Myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when the Blood flow to part of the heart is interrupted. This is most commonly due to occlusion of a coronary artery following the rupture of a Vulnerable plaque, which is an unstable collection of lipids and white blood cells in the wall of an artery....
in New York City on July 12, 1962. By his second wife, he had two children, Peter W. Kahn and Virginia Kahn.

Compilations of Roger Wolfe Kahn's music are available on CD.

Kahn's popular titles include:

"Hot Hot Hottentot"
"One Night In The Jungle"
"Anything You Say"
"Crazy Rhythm" (part of the soundtrack
Soundtrack

The term soundtrack refers to three related concepts: recorded music accompanying and synchronized to the images of a motion picture, television program or video game; a commercially released soundtrack album of music as featured in the soundtrack of a film or TV show; and the physical area of a film that contains the synchronized recorded so...
of Woody Allen
Woody Allen

Woody Allen is an Cinema of the United States film director, writer, actor, comedian, musician and playwright.Allen's distinctive films, which run the gamut from dramas to Screwball comedy film, have made him one of the most respected living American directors....
's Bullets Over Broadway
Bullets Over Broadway

Bullets Over Broadway is a Cinema of the United States crime film-comedy film screenwriter by Woody Allen and Douglas McGrath and film director by Woody Allen....
)
"Imagination"
"She's a Great Great Girl" (the closing theme song of WAMU
WAMU

WAMU is a public radio station that services the greater Washington, D.C. metropolitan area. The station broadcasts on 88.5 FM, online at wamu.org, and on HD Radio at 88.5, Channels 1, 2, and 3....
's Hot Jazz Saturday Night hosted by Rob Bamberger)

Kahn's work on Broadway includes:

Here's Howe (1928) - musical - co-composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....
Americana (1928) - revue
Revue

A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre entertainment that combines music, dance and sketch comedy. The revue has its roots in nineteenth-century American popular entertainment and melodrama, but grew into a substantial cultural presence of its own during its golden years from ca....
- composer
Composer

A composer is a person who creates music, usually in the medium of musical notation, for interpretation and performance. The level of distinction between composers and other musicians varies, which affects issues such as copyright and the deference given to individual interpretations of a particular piece of music....

External links

at the Internet Broadway Database
Internet Broadway Database

The Internet Broadway Database is an online database of Broadway theatre productions and their personnel. It is operated by the Research Department of The Broadway League, a trade association for the North American commercial theatre community....
at the Internet Movie Database
Internet Movie Database

The Internet Movie Database is an online database of information related to film, actors, Television program, production crew personnel, video games, and most recently, fictional characters featured in visual entertainment media....