John Kirby - Beethoven Riffs On (Symphony 7, mvt 2)

Audiences back then were expected to know the source of the jazz take-off on a classical work.

John Kirby (December 31, 1908 -- June 14, 1952), was a jazz double-bassist who also played trombone and tuba.

Kirby was born in Winchester, Virginia. In 1926, he moved to Baltimore, Maryland, a town he is still linked to by some. He played with Chick Webb and Fletcher Henderson. In the early 1930s, he performed some amazingly complicated tuba work on a number of Henderson's recordings. In an unusual move, Kirby picked up on the double-bass at the time when tuba was falling out a favor as the orchestra's primary bass instrument (few tuba players continued their role in the orchestra by switching to double-bass).

Kirby started his own band in 1937. The John Kirby Sextet, known as "The Onyx Club Boys" (usually including Kirby on bass, Charlie Shavers on trumpet, Buster Bailey on clarinet, Russell Procope on alto saxophone, Billy Kyle on piano and O'Neill Spencer on drums) would become one of the more significant "small groups" in a Big band era and had the first recording of Shavers' song "Undecided". Vocals were often performed by Maxine Sullivan, who also became Kirby's wife in 1938 (divorced 1941). .

Kirby tended toward a lighter, classically-influenced style of jazz, which has both strong defenders and ardent critics. He was very prolific and popular from 1938-1941. After World War II his career declined and he died in Hollywood, California, just before a planned comeback. In 1993 he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.

Unlike other then-popular "novelty" jazz groups (like Raymond Scott), the Kirby Sextet is not particularly well remembered today, although in New York, the Wayne Roberts Sextet (formerly the 'Onyx Club Sextet') pays tribute, and in France it is commemorated by the band 'Kirby Memory', with vocals by Flora Sicot. His small group light jazz style is a great example of how swing can also be elegant.

Category:

Music

Tags:

• John
• Kirby
• Sextet
• Beethoven Riffs On
• Beethoven
• Jazz
• swing

[jasl3412]

This is by far one of the hippest tunes I have ever heard. Pretty much made me love John Kirby along with a lot of his other tunes that swing harder than any big band I have ever heard.

[2ndviolinist]

@jasl3412 This was when jazzers expected their audience to recognize classical tunes. Afar cry from today.

[jasl3412]

@2ndviolinist It's amazing how long classical music was considered a popular musical form and how quickly its popularity went down hill. To be honest, I knew this had a classical infusion in it just by listening to it but I didn't catch the reference until my third listen.

Thanks for putting this out there! More people need to know John Kirby's music! He is actually one of the only band leaders that would make arrangements of classical pieces for his organization to play. Absolutely giant.

[2ndviolinist]

@jasl3412 Actually, using classical music in jazz was more common than you imagine. I have a compilation album of classical, jazz style, with Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, Johnie Lunceford, Raymond Scott, Woody Herman, Les Brown, Adrian Rollini, Al Donahue, Arnold Johnson, and Dolly Dawn & her Dawn Patrol. Claude Thornhill alone did Brahms Hungarian Dance #5, Schumann's Traumerei, Tchaikovsky's Arabian Dance and others. I bet you can find many more written for a more sophisticated audience.

[robbourassaguitarist]

Kirby was an inspiration for Ward Swingle. This is great.

[2ndviolinist]

@robbourassaguitarist Thanks for the link. Wish there was wider range of original swingle Singers on YT.

[SrpskiRumun]

It's not enough that i LOVE jazz, and that the 7th is my favorite from Beethoven, but to find this masterpiece... Just wow

[JACQUILLO2]

fascinating !!!

[maxinDetroit]

one of my fav Kirby sides-

max

[2ndviolinist]

agreed