Paul Whiteman

Though called the “King of Jazz,” Paul White­man rarely ven­tured into true jazz ter­ri­tory. White­man’s great­est legacy to jazz lies in his eye for tal­ent. White­man alumni in­clude such lu­mi­nar­ies as Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Jack Tea­gar­den, Char­lie Tea­gar­den, Bix Bei­der­becke, Bunny Beri­gan, Bing Crosby, Red Norvo, Mil­dred Bai­ley, and Johnny Mer­cer. White­man was one of the most im­por­tant fig­ures in twen­ti­eth cen­tury Amer­i­can pop music. Formed at a time when the coun­try’s mu­si­cal land­scape was chang­ing, White­man’s or­ches­tra broke much new ground. His was the first or­ches­tra to pop­u­lar­ize arrange­ments, the first to use full reed and brass sec­tions, the first to play in vaude­ville, the first to travel to Eu­rope, the first to use a fe­male singer, and the first to use a vocal group.

Born in Den­ver to a mu­si­cal fam­ily, White­man learned vi­o­lin and viola as a boy, even­tu­ally land­ing a spot in the Den­ver Sym­phony Or­ches­tra. He later trav­eled to San Fran­cisco, where he was a mem­ber of sev­eral clas­si­cal en­sem­bles. It was in San Fran­cisco that he be­came in­ter­ested in the pop­u­lar music of the day and de­cided to pur­sue it as a ca­reer. He was side­tracked by World War I, how­ever, dur­ing which he trained mu­si­cians in the Naval Train­ing Camp Sym­phony. After the war, he re­turned to San Fran­cisco and formed a dance band, later mov­ing to South­ern Cal­i­for­nia be­fore head­ing to the East Coast. The group made their first record­ing for Vic­tor in Au­gust of 1920 and went on to be­come the most suc­cess­ful record­ing artist of the 1920s.

White­man’s most fa­mous vo­cal­ists were Bing Crosby and Mil­dred Bai­ley, who sang in the early 1930s. In 1933, famed jazz trom­bon­ist Jack Tea­gar­den joined White­man. Though White­man’s band was the most pop­u­lar white or­ches­tra in the na­tion at the time, Tea­gar­den’s trom­bone magic was lost in White­man’s mu­si­cal style, and his ca­reer suf­fered. Un­for­tu­nately, he was locked into a con­tract that gave him no av­enue of es­cape. When swing broke out in 1935, Tea­gar­den was forced to watch from the side­lines, and when a group of dis­grun­tled Pol­lack mu­si­cians formed their own band that year he had to turn down their offer of lead­er­ship. Bob Crosby ended up with the job in­stead. It was 1939 be­fore Tea­gar­den was able to break free from White­man.

As the late 1930s came around, White­man’s music sounded old-​fashioned. In 1938, White­man tried to re­vamp his style, hir­ing new arrangers and bring­ing in the Mod­er­naires. The vocal group ap­peared on the band’s radio show as well as tour­ing and record­ing with the or­ches­tra. While with White­man, the Mod­er­naires also con­tin­ued to per­form on their own. Aside from the Mod­er­naires, vo­cal­ists dur­ing this pe­riod in­cluded Joan Ed­wards and Clarke Den­nis, who joined the band in late 1938. Bob Han­non sang in late 1939. The Mod­er­naires left White­man in April 1940 over mon­e­tary is­sues after the band­leader lost his radio spon­sor and had to cut salaries. White­man dis­banded soon after and started a new or­ches­tra only to dis­band it shortly there­after to star in the film Strike Up the Band.

White­man formed an­other group at the end of 1941, fi­nally achiev­ing the mod­ern sound for which he was look­ing. In 1942, he signed with the newly-​formed Capi­tol Records, co-​founded by White­man alum Johnny Mer­cer. In early 1942, vo­cal­ists were Frank Howard, Dolly Mitchell, and Johnny Novak. Larry Neil sang in late 1942. Capi­tol vocal group the Mel­lowaires, who backed many of the la­bels stars, and Martha Tilton, an­other Capi­tol artist, also sang on White­man record­ings. Mer­cer, Tea­gar­den, Bil­lie Hol­i­day, and Wingy Manone recorded with White­man that year as well. The draft even­tu­ally took its toll on White­man’s line-​up, and he dis­banded.

In 1944, White­man or­ga­nized and toured with a new nos­tal­gic or­ches­tra. After the war, he set­tled down at ABC, con­duct­ing stu­dio or­ches­tras for radio and tele­vi­sion and oc­ca­sion­ally mak­ing record­ings. He used sev­eral singers on an as-​needed basis, though he fa­vored Eu­ge­nie Baird. In the mid-​1950s he hosted his own tele­vi­sion show. Paul White­man died in 1967 at age 77.