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Red Norvo

Red Norvo was one of jazz's early vibraphonists. He helped establish the xylophone and later the vibraphone as viable jazz instruments.

Norvo was born Kenneth Norville in Beardstown, Illinois. The story goes that he sold his pet pony to help pay for his first marimba. Norvo's career began in Chicago with a band called "The Collegians", in 1925. He played with many other bands, including an all-marimba band on the vaudeville circuit, and the bands of Paul Whiteman, Benny Goodman, Charlie Barnet, and Woody Herman. Norvo recorded with Mildred Bailey (his wife), Billie Holiday, Dinah Shore and Frank Sinatra, among others. Together, Red and Mildred were known as "Mr. and Mrs. Swing." He also appeared in the film Screaming Mimi (1958), playing himself.

In 1933 he recorded two sessions for Brunswick under his own name. The first "Knockin' On Wood" and "Hole In The Wall" pleased Brunswick's recording director Jack Kapp and he was booked for another session. This time, Kapp was out of town and Norvo went ahead and recorded two of the earliest, most modern pieces of chamber jazz yet recorded; Bix Beiderbecke's "In A Mist" and Norvo's own "Dance Of The Octopus", accompanied by Benny Goodman in a rare performance playing a bass clarinet, Dick McDonough on guitar and Artie Bernstein on slap bass. Kapp was outraged when he heard them and tore up Norvo's contract and threw him out. (Interestingly, this modern record remained in print all through the 1930's!)

Norvo recorded 8 modern swing sides for Columbia in 1934-1935, and 15 sides of Decca and their short-lived Champion label series in 1936 (strangely enough, Jack Kapp ran Decca, so they must've patched things up by then).

Starting in 1936 through 1942, Norvo formed a Swing Orchestra and recorded for ARC first on their Brunswick label, then Vocalion and finally Columbia, after CBS bought out the ARC company. Featuring the brilliant arrangements of Eddie Sauter and often featuring Mildred Bailey as vocalist, this series of recordings were among the more sophisticated and elegant swing records of the era.

In June 1945, while a member of the Benny Goodman Sextet, he recorded a session for Comet records using a Sextet which featured members of the Goodman group and also Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie. He said: "Bird and Diz were dirty words for musicians of my generation. But jazz had always gone through changes and in 1945 we were in the middle of another one. Bird and Diz were saying new things in an exciting way. I had a free hand so I gambled". [1]

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Extended Analysis

Red Norvo: Four Classic Albums

Read "Red Norvo: Four Classic Albums" reviewed by David Rickert


Red Norvo played the vibes while leading his own band during the swing era and grew into smaller groups in the forties and fifites once the practicality of leading a large ensemble became too much. He was one of the first to specialize of what has always been somewhat of an unusual instrument for jazz, but his nimble soloing and chords provided a template for others like Milt Jackson to follow. The four sessions collected here are from his fifties ...

171
Album Review

Red Norvo: The Modern Red Norvo

Read "The Modern Red Norvo" reviewed by Charlie B. Dahan


The most interesting of the initial three Savoy Jazz reissues is the Modern Red Norvo release. This long overdue collection features Norvo’s virtuostic vibraphone playing, but while he comes from the big band school (having played with Paul Whitehead orchestra), the personel that surround Norvo provide a fascinating glimpse into an artist and a music in transition. Not concerned with whether a particular artist fit his style, it is apparent that Norvo on these two sessions was ...

175
Album Review

Red Norvo: Music to Listen to Red Norvo By

Read "Music to Listen to Red Norvo By" reviewed by AAJ Staff


In many ways it was the perfect match. Contemporary Records loved the soft sound of “chamber jazz”, and recorded it often. Woodwinds were used for a lush blanket, and many albums had an unlikely feature: a four-movement suite (Bob Cooper recorded one; Shelly Manne had two!) Red Norvo was born elsewhere, but his gentle interplay with his trios and the Jazz Pickers put him squarely in the “West Coast” sound. This is a warm breeze of an album, as Red ...

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122

TV / Film

Red Norvo's Spotlight Band on Film

Red Norvo's Spotlight Band on Film

Source: Jazz Lives by Michael Steinman

The distinguished jazz film scholar Mark Cantor offers another cinematic mystery:

“In Back Beats and Rim Shots, Warren Vache and Johnny Blowers discuss a band put together by Red Norvo, under the sponsorship of Coca Cola, for an overseas tour during World War II. The tour never happened, but before the band broke up a film --called THE VICTORY PARADE OF SPOTLIGHT BANDS -- was made of (in Johnny's words) “the show." At least one performance from this film is ...

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Obituary

Jimmy Wyble Eclectic Guitarist for Benny Goodman and Red Norvo Dies

Jimmy Wyble Eclectic Guitarist for Benny Goodman and Red Norvo Dies

Source: Michael Ricci

Jimmy Wyble, 87, a guitarist of great range who played with country-western swing bandleader Bob Wills as well as with the Benny Goodman and Red Norvo jazz combos, died of heart failure Jan. 16 while under hospice care at his home in Altadena, according to his friend and fellow guitarist Larry Koonse.

James Otis Wyble was born Jan. 25, 1922, in Port Arthur, Texas. While working for a Houston radio station and playing guitar in western swing bands in the ...

Tom Collier
vibraphone

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Music

Recordings: As Leader | As Sideperson

Classic Don Byas...

Mosaic Records
2024

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Red Norvo: Four...

Avid Records UK
2014

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Naturally!

VSOP Records
2005

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Music to Listen to...

Fantasy Jazz
1999

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Featuring Mildred...

Continuum Records
1989

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