Artist: Pee Wee Russell
Genre(s):
Jazz
Discography:
Swingin' with Pee Wee
Year: 1999
Tracks: 16
Pee Wee Russell, although never a virtuoso, was one of the giants of jazz. A highly expressive and unpredictable clarinettist, Russell was normally grouped in Dixieland-type groups passim his career, only his forward-looking and spontaneous solos (which often sounded as if he were thinking aloud) defied classification. A professional by the clock time he was 15, Pee Wee Russell played in Texas with Peck Kelley's group (meeting Jack Teagarden) and then in 1925 he was in St. Louis jamming with Bix Beiderbecke. Russell moved to New York in 1927 and gained some attention for his playing with Red Nichols' Five Pennies. Russell freelanced during the earned run average, making some notable records with Billy Banks in 1932 that matched him with Red Allen. He played clarinet and tenor with Louis Prima during 1935-1937, appearance on many records and enjoying the association.
Later departure Prima, he started working with Eddie Condon's carefree groups and would remain in Condon's eye socket on and off for the next 30 age. Pee Wee Russell's recordings with Condon in 1938 made him a asterisk in the trad Chicago jazz world. Russell was featured (simply oft the butt of jokes) on Condon's Town Hall Concerts. Heavy drink virtually killed him in 1950, only Russell made an unconvincing rejoinder and became more than assertive in running his career. He started ahead his own groups (which were more than swing than Dixieland-oriented), was a star on the 1957 television receiver exceptional The Sound of Jazz, and by the early '60s was playacting in a piano-less quartette with valve trombonist Marshall Brown whose repertoire included tunes by John Coltrane and Ornette Coleman; he even sabbatum in with Thelonious Monk at the 1963 Newport Jazz Festival and took up abstract house painting. But later the death of his married woman in 1967, Pee Wee Russell accelerated his boozing and went quickly downhill, passage away less than two eld later.
Jeremy Irons returns to Broadway in spring 2009
