Release Date: 07 January 2005
Label: Naxos - Jazz Legends / Naxos Jazz Legends
Packaging Type: Jewel Case
No of Units: 1
Barcode: 636943277027
Genres: Jazz
Description
TED LEWIS & HIS BAND'Is Everybody Happy?' Original Recordings 1923-1931As the jazz and dance band world of the 1920sand '30s continues to fade into oblivion, onlythe most powerful images retain their vividness.One of the most indelible of these is animpeccably dressed man with a clarinet and abattered top hat, leading a dance band thatentertained millions during the turbulenttwenties. Ted Lewis began with a dance bandbut his vaudeville smarts enabled him to outlastthe Depression, defying plummeting record salesby doffing his hat, pointing his jaunty clarinet tothe heavens and asking the musical question, 'IsEVVrybody HAPPeeee?' For many, the nameTed Lewis means pure, unadulterated corn, outof-date even in his own time. But there was alot more to Lewis' music than his squeaky,hokey clarinet playing and saccharine nonsingingvocal style. On much of the music hewaxed between 1923 and 1931 there existssome of the hottest jazz of the period.Lewis was born Theodore Leopold Friedmanon 6 June 1892 in Circleville, Ohio. As a boy, hewas excited when travelling circuses came totown, triggering a desire to become a performerhimself. Taking up the clarinet, Ted joined hisbrother Edgar, a cornetist, in a local boys' band.Although his parents tried sending him tobusiness school, Lewis bolted and went intovaudeville when he was only fourteen. By 1910he had formed his first band and the next yearmoved to New York. By mid-decade, he wasperforming with a comedian named Eddie Lewis,resulting in an erroneous billing listing the teamas Lewis and Lewis. 'Ted Lewis' sounded betterthan 'Ted Friedman' so the young vaudevillianchanged his name.After working at the College Arms Cabaret,Lewis joined Earl Fuller's Rector NoveltyOrchestra at Rector's Restaurant, becoming asensation with his antics on the clarinet. In1917, the success of the Original Dixieland JassBand at the rival Reisenweber's Cafe resulted inLewis accentuating the barnyard animal effectsused by members of the ODJB. Two years later,he started Ted Lewis & his Band, takingmembers of Fuller's group with him. He alsobegan a long association with Columbia Recordsthat would last until 1933. It was during thisperiod that he made his most successfulrecordings.During this time, Lewis developed his imageas a showman, adding a silk top hat to hiswardrobe, which he had won in a game ofchance with a hansom cab driver parked in frontof Rector's. He took to asking the rhetoricalquestion, 'Is everybody happy?' which soonbecame his catchphrase. He didn't sing hissongs as much as he talked them, in a sing-songy lilt that was parodied for years to come(Al Jolson often comes to mind when listening toLewis' vocals). Billing himself as 'the top-hattedtragedian of jazz', addressing his audience as'folks', and using phrases like 'yes, sir!' adnauseum, Lewis was the audiovisual embodimentof a carnival barker (there is even a photographof Lewis in top hat and tails, leading his bandmembers,who are dressed as circus clowns).By 1925, Col
Tracklisting
Various
Waller, Fats
Waller, Fats
Venuti, Joe
Vaughan
Various Artists
Various
Various
Ted Lewis
