Tag Archives: jazz and blues

Eddie Condon: Pioneer And Legend

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Guitarist Albert Edwin “Eddie” Condon was born on November 16, 1905 in Goodland, Indiana. Eddie grew up in Chicago Heights, Illinois and learned to play the banjo as a teenager. Working with bands in Chicago in the early 1920s, when he began his long career of 50 years with musical legends like the clarinetist and saxophonist Pee Wee Russell, the cornetist Muggsy Spanier, drummer Gene Krupa and trumpeter Jimmy McPartland . Eddie Condon also became a legend as a pioneer in rhythm guitar and also as a promoter of jazz music. Condon organized combos, small groups and big bands for decades, covering various styles of jazz. Eddie Condon became a spokesman when his fame as jazz historian became known through his autobiography “We Called It Music” (We call it music) was published in 1947. He has also written four other books on the history and techniques of jazz. The most popular was “Treasury of Jazz” (Treasures of jazz), he wrote: “I’ve played all issues to all jazz musicians you know and also with a hundred more who never heard the name, but you should have heard.

There were so many extraordinary musicians who were not named Duke or Louis, but they played fantastically. “After a recording session with Louis Armstrong, Condon joined vocalist Red McKenzie to form The Chicagoans.” He later organized a series of bands defined the Chicago style. Among those notable artists include the Chicago Rhythm Kings, who recorded a wonderful version of “I’ve Found a New Baby” (I found a new girl), the “Mound City Blue Blowers” and “The Rhythmakers “, a group that became famous by recording a series of jazz standards like” Yellow Dog Blues “and” Mean Old Bed Bug Blues “in the traditional Chicago style. The cornetist Bobby Hackett and guitarist Condon contract in 1938. The result was another series of recordings that made history, issues like “At the Jazz Band Ball” and “Doin ‘the New Lowdown.” Condon wrote about her Hackett work “was the most exciting of my life.” The two were such good friends that inspired clarinetist and saxophonist Bud Freeman to write “Better Than Brothers” (More than brothers). Eddie Condon worked on “Nick’s” New York neighborhood in Greenwich Village since 1942 while promoting jazz concerts in municipalities throughout the U.S.

east coast. The 1940s was the height of his fame, his concerts sold out in promotions of high-profile jazz and a series of well-known compositions like “Home Cooking” and “That’s a Serious Thing.” The height of his success came when he opened his own jazz club in 1945, “Eddie Condon’s” in Greenwich Village. The club moved to the East Side in 1958 and closed in 1967. Eddie Condon performing various historical roles, including being the first to bring jazz to television, the first to sell a million records in an album LP (long playing). The New York Times announced his death occurred on August 4, 1973 in New York, saying, “Mr. Condon, considered one of the greatest guitarists in jazz, he made his final appearance in public at the Newport Jazz Festival held at Carnegie Hall in New York on 5 July. At that time the concert was devoted to traditional jazz in the company of nearly a dozen musicians with whom he played during his life. Dr. Mark Hymen has much to offer in this field. Two days later Eddie Condon was hospitalized. “