Chicago and New York City
In Chicago he played with Doc Cook and King Oliver, in addition to occasional jobs under his own name and pick up bands in recording studios. With Oliver's band Russell moved to New York City in May 1927. In October of that year he left Oliver to start his own band.
By 1929, Russell's band became one of the top jazz groups in New York. It had several former Oliver sidemen. Noteworthy players in his band included trumpeter Henry "Red" Allen, trombonist J.C. Higginbotham and alto saxophonist Albert Nicholas; Armstrong wound up taking over the band as front man in 1935.
The band returned to Russell's name while Armstrong played in California and Europe in the early 1930s; Russell and Armstrong were reunited in 1935. They again split paths in 1943 when Russell formed a new band under his own name, which played at the Savoy and Apollo in Manhattan as well as in Atlantic City, New Jersey.
Between 1926 and 1934, Russell recorded only 38 sides (mostly using his own name), plus those issued under Henry "Red" Allen (1929) and a handful where Louis Armstrong fronted his band. Of these, his 1929-1930 OKeh Records sides are considered jazz milestones.
After the OKeh contract ended in September 1930, Russell recorded a handful of largely unremarkable sessions for Melotone, Brunswick and Victor. An exception was the super hot "Saratoga Drag" b/w "Ease On Down" (mislabelled as "Case On Dawn" for Vocalion).
After no recordings under his name between late 1931 and late 1934, Russell recorded a session for ARC (Melotone, Perfect, Oriole, Banner, Romeo) in 1934 which yielded 6 very precise modern recordings (three featured Sonny Woods' novelty vocals, one featured the great, although obscure vocal group The Palmer Brothers. The two instrumental sides, "Primitive" and "Hokus Pokus" are amazing examples of hot jazz precision. (Sonny Woods' vocal of "Old Man River" was something of a hit.)
In 1935 Louis Armstrong took it over the orchestra altogether and for the next eight years they functioned as back-up band for Armstrong with Russell acting as the musical director. Russell led a new band from 1943-48 that played at the Savoy and Apollo and made a few recordings.
Read more about this topic: Luis Russell
Famous quotes containing the words york city, chicago, york and/or city:
“The rumor of a great city goes out beyond its borders, to all the latitudes of the known earth. The city becomes an emblem in remote minds; apart from the tangible export of goods and men, it exerts its cultural instrumentality in a thousand phases.”
—In New York City, U.S. public relief program (1935-1943)
“You want to get Capone? Here’s how you get him: he pulls a knife, you pull a gun, he sends one of yours to the hospital, you send one of his to the morgue. It’s the Chicago way and that’s how you get Capone.”
—David Mamet, U.S. screenwriter, and Brian DePalma. Jimmy Malone (Sean Connery)
“You feel you could pucker up and blow away the miles between 49 Bard Road [Brixton] and that apartment in New York where I could be tomorrow morning, if the apartment still existed, if Peregrine still existed, if the past weren’t deeper than the sea, more difficult to cross.”
—Angela Carter (1940–1992)
“But they who give straight judgements to strangers and to those of the land and do not transgress what is just, for them the city flourishes and its people prosper.”
—Hesiod (c. 8th century B.C.)