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Jazzing the Classics: Race, Modernism, and the Career of Arranger Chappie Willet

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2012

JOHN WRIGGLE
JOHN WRIGGLE*
Affiliation:
[email protected]
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Abstract

The American popular music tradition of “jazzing the classics” has long stood at the intersection of discourses on high and low culture, commercialism, and jazz authenticity. Dance band arrangers during the 1930s and 1940s frequently evoked, parodied, or straddled these cultural debates through their manipulations of European classical repertoire. This article examines Swing Era arranging strategies in the context of prevailing racial essentialisms, conceptions of modernism, and notions of technical virtuosity. The legacy of African American freelance arranger Chappie Willet, and his arrangement of Beethoven's Piano Sonata, op. 13 (“Pathétique”) for the black dance band of Jimmie Lunceford, suggests that an account of the biography and artistic voice of the arranger is critical to understanding the motivations behind these hybrid musical works.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of the Society for American Music , Volume 6 , Issue 2 , May 2012 , pp. 175 - 209
Copyright
Copyright © The Society for American Music 2012

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References

References

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van der Merwe, Peter. Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. 1989. Reprint, Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.Google Scholar
Murphy, Lyle. Spud Murphy's Swing Arranging Method. New York: Robbins Music, 1937.Google Scholar
Oja, Carol. Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panassié, Hugues, and Gautier, Madeleine. Guide to Jazz, trans. Flower, Desmond. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956.Google Scholar
Porter, Lewis, ed. Jazz: A Century of Change—Readings and New Essays. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 2004.Google Scholar
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Tanner, Rosamond. “Classic Swing.” Music Educators Journal 27/4 (February 1941): 64–66.Google Scholar
Tansman, Alexandre. Sonatine Transatlantique [solo piano score]. Paris: Éditions Musicales, 1930.Google Scholar
Taylor, Deems. The Well Tempered Listener. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940.Google Scholar
Teachout, Terry. “Jazz and Classical Music: To the Third Stream and Beyond,” ed. Kirchner, Bill. In The Oxford Companion to Jazz, 343–56. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Townsend, Peter. Pearl Harbor Jazz: Change in Popular Music in the Early 1940s. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.Google Scholar
Tucker, Mark, ed. The Duke Ellington Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vail, Ken. Swing Era Scrapbook: The Teenage Diaries & Radio Logs of Bob Inman, 1936–1938. Studies in Jazz, No. 49. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Washburne, Christopher. “Does Kenny G Play Bad Jazz?: A Case Study,” ed. Washburne, Christopher and Derno, Maiken. In Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate, 123–47. New York: Routledge, 2004.Google Scholar
Weirick, Paul. Dance Arranging: A Guide to Scoring Music for the American Dance Orchestra. New York: M. Witmark & Sons, 1934.Google Scholar
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Wriggle, John. “Chappie Willet: A Jazz Arranger in Swing Era New York.” Annual Review of Jazz Studies 14 (2009): 101–88.Google Scholar
Wriggle, John. “Chappie Willet, Frank Fairfax, and Phil Edwards’ Collegians: From West Virginia to Philadelphia.” Black Music Research Journal 27/1 (Spring 2007): 1–22.Google Scholar
Youngren, William H. “European Roots of Jazz,” ed. Kirchner, Bill. In The Oxford Companion to Jazz, 17–28. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, Louis. The Complete Decca Studio Master Takes 1935–1939. Definitive Records DRCD11171 (4 CD), 2000.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Louis. Fleischmann's Yeast Show & Louis’ Home-Recorded Tapes. Jazz Heritage Society CD 5289147 (2 CD), 2008.Google Scholar
Barnet, Charlie. Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra: Make Believe Ballroom 1935–1939. Giants of Jazz CD 53274, 1997.Google Scholar
Ellington, Duke. Essential Ellington: The Best of Duke. Ba-Ba Music [iTunes], 2009.Google Scholar
Krupa, Gene. Gene Krupa and His Orchestra 1935–1938. Classics CD 754, 1994.Google Scholar
Lunceford, Jimmie. Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 1939–1940. Classics CD 565, 1996.Google Scholar
Lunceford, Jimmie. Swingsation. GRP Records CD 9923, 1998.Google Scholar
Millinder, Lucky. Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra 1942. Hindsight Records [iTunes], 1986.Google Scholar
Mills Blue Rhythm Band. Mills Blue Rhythm Band 1936–1937. Classics CD 731, 1993.Google Scholar
Drain-Jordan Library Archives. West Virginia State College.Google Scholar
Duke Ellington Collection. Smithsonian National Museum of American History.Google Scholar
Frank Driggs Collection of Jimmie Lunceford Orchestrations. Smithsonian National Museum of American History.Google Scholar
Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (Newark).Google Scholar
John Kirby Band Book, Benny Carter Collection. Smithsonian National Museum of American History.Google Scholar
Louis Armstrong Archives. Louis Armstrong House Museum, Queens College.Google Scholar
Murphy, Lyle. Telephone interview, 12 February 2004. Author's collection.Google Scholar
Red Norvo Papers, MSS 48. Irving S. Gilmore Library, Yale University.Google Scholar
Tom Whaley Collection. Smithsonian National Museum of American History.Google Scholar
Wilson, Gerald. Telephone interview, 1 April 2004. Author's collection.Google Scholar
Baltimore Afro-American, 1939–44.Google Scholar
Billboard, 1938–44.Google Scholar
Charleston [West Virginia] Daily Mail, 1930–34.Google Scholar
Chicago Defender, 1936–41.Google Scholar
Down Beat, 1940–41.Google Scholar
Etude, 1932.Google Scholar
Metronome, 1938–44.Google Scholar
New York Amsterdam News, 1936–44.Google Scholar
New York Times, 1930–41.Google Scholar
Pittsburgh Courier, 1938.Google Scholar
Time, 1943.Google Scholar
[West Virginia State College] Yellow Jacket, 1932–33.Google Scholar
Allen, Walter C. Hendersonia: The Music of Fletcher Henderson and His Musicians. Highland Park, NJ: Walter C. Allen, 1973.Google Scholar
Baraka, Amiri [Leroi Jones]. Blues People: Negro Music in White America. New York: Harper Collins, 1963.Google Scholar
Basie, Count, and Murray, Albert. Good Morning Blues: The Autobiography of Count Basie. New York: Da Capo Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Beethoven, Ludwig van. Complete Piano Sonatas [solo piano score]. Vol. 1. 1923. Reprint, New York: Dover Publications, 1975.Google Scholar
Bennett, Robert Russell. The Broadway Sound: The Autobiography and Selected Essays of Robert Russell Bennett, ed. Ferencz, George J.. Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 1999.Google Scholar
Berger, Edward, Berger, Morroe, and Patrick, James. Benny Carter: A Life in American Music. Vol. 1. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2002.Google Scholar
Berish, Andrew. “‘I Dream of Her and Avalon’: 1930s Sweet Jazz, Race, and Nostalgia in the Casino Ballroom.” Journal of the Society for American Music 2/4 (November 2008): 531–67.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Blesh, Rudi. Shining Trumpets: A History of Jazz. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1946.Google Scholar
Bomberger, E. Douglas. An Index to Music Published in The Etude Magazine, 1883– 1957. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2004.Google Scholar
Burke, Patrick. Come In and Hear the Truth: Jazz and Race on 52nd Street. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008.Google Scholar
Clarke, John L. Jr. “Archie Bleyer and the Lost Influence of Stock Arrangements in Jazz.” American Music 27/2 (Summer 2009): 138–79.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Collier, James Lincoln. “Jazz (i); §II, 5: The Emergence of Hot Music,” ed. Kernfeld, Barry. In The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz, 582–83. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Dance, Stanley. Liner notes to Jimmie Lunceford, The Complete Jimmie Lunceford 1939–40. CBS 66421, 1981.Google Scholar
Dance, Stanley. The World of Duke Ellington. New York: Da Capo Press, 1970.Google Scholar
Dance, Stanley. The World of Swing. 2nd ed. New York: Da Capo Press, 2001.Google Scholar
Determeyer, Eddy. Rhythm Is Our Business: Jimmie Lunceford and the Harlem Express. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2006.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVeaux, Scott. The Birth of Bebop: A Social and Musical History. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1997.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVeaux, Scott. “Constructing the Jazz Tradition: Jazz Historiography,” Black American Literature Forum 25/3 (Autumn 1991): 525–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
DeVeaux, Scott. Review of Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America, by David Stowe. American Music 16/1 (Spring 1998): 87–91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dinerstein, Joel. Swinging the Machine: Modernity, Technology, and African American Culture Between the World Wars. Boston: University of Massachusetts Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Duxberry, Janell. Rockin’ the Classics and Classicizin’ the Rock: A Selectively Annotated Discography. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985.Google Scholar
Edison, Harry. Interview by Stanley Dance, May 1981. Jazz Oral History Project, Smithsonian Institution Division of Performing Arts, Washington, D.C. Transcript on file at the Institute of Jazz Studies, Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey (Newark).Google Scholar
Edwards, Vernon, and Mark, Michael. “In Retrospect: Clarence Cameron White.” Black Perspective in Music 9/1 (Spring 1981): 51–72.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Floyd, Samuel A. Jr. “African Roots of Jazz,” ed. Kirchner, Bill. In The Oxford Companion to Jazz, 7–16. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Floyd, Samuel A. Jr. The Power of Black Music: Interpreting Its History from Africa to the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.Google Scholar
Harrison, Max. “Swing Era Big Bands and Jazz Composing and Arranging,” ed. Kirchner, Bill. In The Oxford Companion to Jazz, 277–91. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hinton, Milt, and Berger, David G.. Bass Line—The Stories and Photographs of Milt Hinton. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1988.Google Scholar
Hitchcock, H. Wiley. Music in the United States: A Historical Introduction. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall, 1969.Google Scholar
Howland, John. Ellington Uptown: Duke Ellington, James P. Johnson, and the Birth of Concert Jazz. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kart, Lawrence. “The Avant-Garde, 1949–1967,” ed. Kirchner, Bill. In The Oxford Companion to Jazz, 446–58. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Klauber, Bruce. World of Gene Krupa: That Legendary Drummin’ Man. Ventura, CA: Pathfinder Publishing, 1990.Google Scholar
Korall, Burt. Drummin’ Men: The Heartbeat of Jazz: The Swing Years. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Krummel, Donald. “Printing and Publishing of Music.” In Grove Music Online, ed. Macy, L., http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com.Google Scholar
Lange, Arthur. Arranging for the Modern Dance Orchestra. 1926. Reprint, New York: Robbins Music, 1927.Google Scholar
Lapham, Claude. Scoring for the Modern Dance Band. London: Pitman and Sons, 1937.Google Scholar
Lees, Gene. Arranging the Score: Portraits of the Great Arrangers. New York: Cassell, 2000.Google Scholar
van de Leur, Walter. Something to Live For: The Music of Billy Strayhorn. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lott, R. Allen. From Paris to Peoria. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Luty, Bryce. “Jazz Education's Struggle for Acceptance—Part 1.” Music Educator's Journal 69/3 (November 1982): 38–39, 53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Magee, Jeffrey. The Uncrowned King of Swing: Fletcher Henderson and Big Band Jazz. New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martin, Denis-Constant. Review of Lying Up a Nation: Race and Black Music, by Ronald Radano. Journal of the American Musicological Society 59/3 (Fall 2006): 755–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Martyn, Barrie. Rachmaninoff: Composer, Pianist, Conductor. Aldershot, England: Scolar Press, 1990.Google Scholar
McCarthy, Albert. Liner notes to Jimmie Lunceford, Harlem Express: Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 1934–1936. MCA Coral Records CP21, [1970?].Google Scholar
van der Merwe, Peter. Origins of the Popular Style: The Antecedents of Twentieth-Century Popular Music. 1989. Reprint, Oxford: Clarendon, 1992.Google Scholar
Murphy, Lyle. Spud Murphy's Swing Arranging Method. New York: Robbins Music, 1937.Google Scholar
Oja, Carol. Making Music Modern: New York in the 1920s. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Panassié, Hugues, and Gautier, Madeleine. Guide to Jazz, trans. Flower, Desmond. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1956.Google Scholar
Porter, Lewis, ed. Jazz: A Century of Change—Readings and New Essays. Belmont, California: Wadsworth, 2004.Google Scholar
Prouty, Kenneth. “The History of Jazz Education: A Critical Reassessment.” Journal of Historical Research in Music Education 26/2 (April 2005): 79–100.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rachmaninov, Sergei. “Prelude in C-sharp Minor” [stock arrangement]. Arranged by Chappie Willet, orchestrated by [Lyle] Spud Murphy. New York: Robbins Music, 1939.Google Scholar
Radano, Ronald. “Hot Fantasies: American Modernism and the Idea of Black Rhythm,” ed. Radano, Ronald and Bohlman, Philip V.. In Music and the Racial Imagination, 459–80. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2000.Google Scholar
Ramsey, Guthrie P. Race Music: Black Cultures from Bebop to Hip-hop. Berkeley: University of California Press, 2003.Google Scholar
Rapport, Evan. “Bill Finegan's Gershwin Arrangements and the American Concept of Hybridity.” Journal of the Society for American Music 2/4 (November 2008): 507–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rattenbury, Ken. Duke Ellington, Jazz Composer. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1990.Google Scholar
Riccardi, Ricky. What a Wonderful World: The Magic of Louis Armstrong's Later Years. New York: Pantheon, 2011.Google Scholar
Savran, David. Highbrow/Lowdown: Theater, Jazz, and the Making of the New Middle Class. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2009.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schuller, Gunther. Early Jazz: Its Roots and Musical Development. 1968. Reprint, New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Schuller, Gunther. The Swing Era: The Development of Jazz, 1930–1945. New York: Oxford University Press, 1989.Google Scholar
Schuller, Gunther. “Third Stream.” In Musings: The Musical Worlds of Gunther Schuller, 114–18. New York: Oxford University Press, 1986.Google Scholar
Shih, Hsio Wen. “The Spread of Jazz and the Big Bands,” ed. Hentoff, Nat and McCarthy, Albert. In Jazz: New Perspectives on the History of Jazz by Twelve of the World's Foremost Jazz Critics and Scholars, 171–88. 1959. Reprint, New York: Da Capo Press, 1975.Google Scholar
Shipton, Alyn. Groovin’ High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simon, George T. The Big Bands. 4th ed. New York: Schirmer, 1981.Google Scholar
Skinner, Frank. New Method for Orchestra Scoring. New York: Robbins Music, 1935.Google Scholar
Southern, Eileen. The Music of Black Americans: A History. 3rd ed. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1997.Google Scholar
Stowe, David. Swing Changes: Big-Band Jazz in New Deal America. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994.Google Scholar
Tanner, Rosamond. “Classic Swing.” Music Educators Journal 27/4 (February 1941): 64–66.Google Scholar
Tansman, Alexandre. Sonatine Transatlantique [solo piano score]. Paris: Éditions Musicales, 1930.Google Scholar
Taylor, Deems. The Well Tempered Listener. New York: Simon & Schuster, 1940.Google Scholar
Teachout, Terry. “Jazz and Classical Music: To the Third Stream and Beyond,” ed. Kirchner, Bill. In The Oxford Companion to Jazz, 343–56. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Townsend, Peter. Pearl Harbor Jazz: Change in Popular Music in the Early 1940s. Jackson: University Press of Mississippi, 2007.Google Scholar
Tucker, Mark, ed. The Duke Ellington Reader. New York: Oxford University Press, 1993.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Vail, Ken. Swing Era Scrapbook: The Teenage Diaries & Radio Logs of Bob Inman, 1936–1938. Studies in Jazz, No. 49. Lanham, MD: Scarecrow Press, 2005.Google Scholar
Washburne, Christopher. “Does Kenny G Play Bad Jazz?: A Case Study,” ed. Washburne, Christopher and Derno, Maiken. In Bad Music: The Music We Love to Hate, 123–47. New York: Routledge, 2004.Google Scholar
Weirick, Paul. Dance Arranging: A Guide to Scoring Music for the American Dance Orchestra. New York: M. Witmark & Sons, 1934.Google Scholar
Williams, Ennis. “Wilfred C. Bain: A Reminiscence in Memoriam.” College Music Symposium 38 (1998): 1–5.Google Scholar
Wriggle, John. “Chappie Willet: A Jazz Arranger in Swing Era New York.” Annual Review of Jazz Studies 14 (2009): 101–88.Google Scholar
Wriggle, John. “Chappie Willet, Frank Fairfax, and Phil Edwards’ Collegians: From West Virginia to Philadelphia.” Black Music Research Journal 27/1 (Spring 2007): 1–22.Google Scholar
Youngren, William H. “European Roots of Jazz,” ed. Kirchner, Bill. In The Oxford Companion to Jazz, 17–28. New York: Oxford University Press, 2000.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Armstrong, Louis. The Complete Decca Studio Master Takes 1935–1939. Definitive Records DRCD11171 (4 CD), 2000.Google Scholar
Armstrong, Louis. Fleischmann's Yeast Show & Louis’ Home-Recorded Tapes. Jazz Heritage Society CD 5289147 (2 CD), 2008.Google Scholar
Barnet, Charlie. Charlie Barnet and His Orchestra: Make Believe Ballroom 1935–1939. Giants of Jazz CD 53274, 1997.Google Scholar
Ellington, Duke. Essential Ellington: The Best of Duke. Ba-Ba Music [iTunes], 2009.Google Scholar
Krupa, Gene. Gene Krupa and His Orchestra 1935–1938. Classics CD 754, 1994.Google Scholar
Lunceford, Jimmie. Jimmie Lunceford and His Orchestra 1939–1940. Classics CD 565, 1996.Google Scholar
Lunceford, Jimmie. Swingsation. GRP Records CD 9923, 1998.Google Scholar
Millinder, Lucky. Lucky Millinder and His Orchestra 1942. Hindsight Records [iTunes], 1986.Google Scholar
Mills Blue Rhythm Band. Mills Blue Rhythm Band 1936–1937. Classics CD 731, 1993.Google Scholar