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THE INSTRUMENTS, THE SOUNDS, THE PERFORMERS |
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for the trombone is written in the bass clef but In the same key as music for the piano; in other words, no transposition Is necessary.
It is self-evident from the records of early jazz that none of the pioneer trombonists had a complete mastery of the instrument It was a trombonist, Kid Ory, who led the first Negro jazz band ever to make a record. Ory, highly regarded as a tailgate trombonist, capable also of taking solos, was prominent as a member of the King Oliver unit, of his own band, and the small Louis Armstrong group of the 1920s. Two other New Orleans musicians, Honore Dutrey, also heard with Oliver and Armstrong, and Preston Jackson, heard in Chicago in the 1920s, were among the other early exponents of a similar style, while "Daddy" Edwards of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and George Branis of the New Orleans Rhythm Kings provided the JBrst tailgate notes of significance in white jazz.
The history of the trombone as a completely controllable instrument for melodic jazz solos may have begun with "MifF Mole. A member of the Memphis Five in 1923, Mole was a close associate between 1925 and 1930 of Red Nichols, and was Glenn Miller's early idol The Mole style represented the change to a new conception of the trombone in which each solo was the master, not the servant, of the seven positions of the slide. Tonally, Mole symbolized a flight from the harsh sounds, powerful but rough and limited in emotional scope, of the early soloists. Mole was capable of a beautifully soft, velvet-edged sound. His solos with Nichols on records made thirty years ago do not sound corny even today.
On the blues records of that period, some of the more imaginative trombone creations were the work of Charlie Green, the trombonist heard on a number of Bessie Smith records; Joseph 'Tricky Sam" Nanton, whose rubber-plunger muted effects were to the Ellington trombone section what Bubber MUey was to his trumpet team. Another early trombonist, highly regarded by traditionalist jazz fans today, was Jimmy Archey, a Virginian who made his New York debut with Edgar Hayes m 1926, This was the year, incidentally, that a musician was first heard in Fletcher Henderson's band who, according to surviving contenv |
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