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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 ZCOON-SANDERS NIGHTHAWKSDrummer Carleton Coon (b 5 February 1894, Rochester MN; d 3 May 1932, Chicago) and pianist Joe Sanders (b 15 October 1896, Thayer KS; d 14 May 1965, Kansas City) led a jazz-oriented dance band made famous by NBC radio broadcasts from Kansas City. Sanders was a composer and arranger, and both were popular vocalists, both separately and as a duo; Sanders was a professionally trained singer, while Coon was less polished, making them an interesting team; Coon would sometimes add a wordless accompaniment or whistling to Sanders' vocal. As Coon-Sanders' Novelty Orchestra, their first hit was 'Some Little Bird' on Columbia in 1921; then on Victor as Coon-Sanders' Original Nighthawks Orchestra with 'Night Hawk Blues' '24 (with a vocal duet), 'Yes Sir, That's My Baby' '25 (with vocal by Coon), 'Flamin' Mamie' '26, then several more good sellers as the Coon-Sanders Orchestra. It was not a big band, only nine or ten pieces, but the arrangements left room for instrumental breaks, and the singing leaders were unusual then. Sanders wrote some of the songs the band recorded, and he did most of the arrangements, which had a lot of humor in them. From late 1928 through 1929, Elmer Krebs played the tuba, or 'brass bass', and although he was a very good reader, he couldn't improvise the bass line as most of the others in dance bands did, so Sanders wrote out Krebs' parts, often giving a melodic line to the bass. They toured, and had residencies in Chicago, a happy band with few changes of personnel. But the Depression hit them hard; there were no recordings at all in 1930-1, and by 1932 Coon ('Coonie' to his friends) was becoming irresponsible, his drinking getting out of control, so that Sanders was overworked and stopped writing, relying on stock arrangements. 'Keepin' Out Of Mischief Now' in '32 was one of their last recordings. Just as the energy seemed to have been sapped from their music, Coon died of complications of an abcessed tooth, in the days before antibiotics. The band broke up after another year. Sanders, known as 'the old left-hander' (he'd played baseball as a youth), formed his own dance band in a more conventional 1930s style and carried on with residencies at Chicago's Blackhawk restaurant. He did Hollywood studio work in the 1940s and was a member of the Kansas City Opera Company in the 1950s. A compilation Everything Is Hotsy-Totsy Now on ASV included the Victor hits. |