Red Nichols

Infobox musical artist
Name = Red Nichols

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Background = non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth_name = Ernest Loring Nichols
Alias =
Born = May 8, 1905
Died = June 28, 1965
Origin = Ogden, Utah USA
Instrument = Cornet
Voice_type =
Genre = Jazz
Occupation = Cornettist
Years_active =
Label =
Associated_acts = California Ramblers
Paul Whiteman
URL =
Current_members =
Past_members =
Notable_instruments =

Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols (May 8, 1905–June 28, 1965) was an American jazz cornettist.

Biography

Nichols was born in Ogden, Utah, the son of a music teacher. By the age of 12 he was playing cornet with his father's brass band. He decided to take up the new style of music called jazz after hearing the phonograph records of the Original Dixieland Jass Band. In 1923 he moved east to perform with a band in Atlantic City, New Jersey, and (with a few tours of the midwest) made New York City his base throughout the 1920s and 1930s. He worked for various bandleaders including Paul Whiteman and Harry Reser and Henry Halstead., was a regular in the cooperative California Ramblers in addition to leading groups under his own name (often called Red Nichols & His Five Pennies), and of the band of his friend trombonist Miff Mole. Nichols became one of the busiest phonograph session musicians of his era, making hundreds of recording sessions of jazz and hot dance band music. He also played in several Broadway shows.

During his Brunswick career (1926-1932) a virtual who's who of great jazz musicians were members of Nichols' studio recording sessions:
* Jimmy Dorsey
* Arthur Schutt
* Miff Mole
* Joe Venuti
* Eddie Lang
* Adrian Rollini
* Manny Klein
* Pee Wee Russell
* Lennie Hayton
* Dick McDonough
* Fud Livingston
* Carl Kress
* Chauncey Morehouse
* Benny Goodman
* Tommy Dorsey
* The Boswell Sisters
* Glenn Miller
* Jack Teagarden
* Babe Russin
* Rube Bloom
* Charlie Teagarden
* Joe Sullivan
* Wingy Manone
* Nappy Lamare
* Roy Bargy
* Gene Krupa
* Harold Arlen

In 1942 Nichols moved to California, where he headlined with his own band, as Red Nichols And His Five Pennies, in Los Angeles and San Francisco into the 1950s.

The 1959 Hollywood film "The Five Pennies", starring Danny Kaye, was very loosely based on Nichols' career. Nichols played his own trumpet parts for the film, but did not appear on screen.

Nichols and his band toured the United States and overseas until Nichols suffered a sudden fatal heart attack in Las Vegas, Nevada.

External links

* [http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GRid=762 Red Nichols' Gravesite]
* [http://redhotjazz.com/redn.html Red Nichols biography (with audio samples)] [http://redhotjazz.com The Red Hot Jazz Archive.]