|
Donald's Encyclopedia of Popular MusicA B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y ZBENSON ORCHESTRA of CHICAGO, TheEdgar A. Benson played the cello, and as big dance bands were becoming more popular, realized that an enterpreneur could have different bands playing all over town under his own name. From about 1919 to about 1925 he controlled all the best ballroom and hotel spots for big dance bands in Chicago, the dance band capital of the country during that period.During this transitional period in dance music, he also did a few other things right. Jazz was on the way, and people wanted fast-paced, peppy music, yet sticking close to the melody; music publishers were beginning to sell more sheet music to dance bands than to vaudeville singers, and appreciated the reliance on the melody. But Benson also cultivated the jazzers who were coming along. Some of them were not good readers, were dismissive of playing in a 'sweet' band, and were likely to be troublesome, while the men sent along by the musicians' union were wooden by comparison. Gradually during this period the jazz-influenced musicians became better readers, and could do their jobs in the sections but also play hot when they got a break or a solo. Benson's arrangers were pianists Don Bestor, then Roy Bargy (who went on to work for Paul Whiteman); Jean Goldkette also played piano. Benson kept his grip on the dance band business by playing rough. If one of his men tried to go out on their own he would hire away their best musicians; he did this to out-of-towner Isham Jones early in his career. He lost Goldkette, however, when he sent him to Detroit on a gig; Goldkette ended up owning the Greystone Ballroom in that city and became his own enterpreneur, leading one of the best bands of the period, which included Bix Beiderbecke. Benson's reign ended when his men became too difficult to control and (perhaps not coincidentally) the music was becoming even more jazz-influenced. His flagship band had been the Benson Orchestra of Chicago, which began making records in Camden, New Jersey in 1920, and employed the great C-melody saxophonist Frankie Trumbauer in 1923. The late Dick Sudhalter, in his majesterial book Lost Chords: White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz 1915-1945, thought that Benson's arrangements were technically equal to those being written by the great Don Redman in New York for Fletcher Henderson. Benson's first 26 tracks have been compiled on a CD in very good transfers by Archeophone Records. |