SAVOY All Stars Band
Earl "Fatha" Hines |
Piano
December 28, 1903 - April 22, 1983 Bandleader for the SAVOY All Stars Band Leads the New Earl Hines Trio, with Walter Page and JC Heard |
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Earl is the house pianist at SAVOY Ballroom and is often at our Small Stage greeting visitors and playing requests. We asked Earl to tell us his own story, in his own words.
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I grew up in the Pittsburgh, PA area and I was playing organ in church at age 11, and big band piano in local clubs at age 17. I was playing jazz piano in Pittsburgh before the term was invented. This stuff I was doing here on Black Coffee - in 1970 - I was coming up with as a kid in Philly and then Chicago.
In 1925 in Chicago, I was covering Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver tunes with Carroll Dickershon’s band, including some tours to the coasts. Louis Armstrong joined us when he was 24, and I was 21. That’s when I was playing “trumpet-style” piano! In two years, the band became Louis Armstrong’s band and I directed the music, and we started recording. They always put a microphone with me on stage, because although I don’t sing, I do tend to talk a lot when I play! In 1928 I had a big orchestra, up to 28 musicians, and we were as big at the Grand Terrace in Chicago as Duke Ellington was at the Cotton Club, or Chick Webb and Ella Fitzgerald were at the Savoy. This was Al Capone’s club, and I played a wonderful $3000 Bechstein grand. From the Grand Terrace, my band became the most broadcast band in America. |
Ours was the first black band to travel extensively in the South, although it felt more like an invasion than a tour. We had a bomb explode under our bandstage in Alabama. We kept playing but probably didn’t sound so good. In the 1960s I said my band was probably the first “Freedom Fighters” for what we did. Finding a place to eat, or sleep, was a constant struggle.
When the Grand Terrace closed suddenly at the end of 1940, I took my band on tour full time for eight years. Benny Goodman kept asking me to be his piano player, but I stayed with it until most of my band got drafted. At one point I hired a draft-proof, all-woman big band! I also covered for Duke Ellington for a time, which he said were the roots of “bebop."
Bebop was to revolutionize swing music into jazz in the 1940s, but those tunes Charlie Parker did with Miles Davis, they were based on my “Rosetta” theme song from the 1930s! Dizzy Gillespie called me “the master” for what we did in those years.
When the Grand Terrace closed suddenly at the end of 1940, I took my band on tour full time for eight years. Benny Goodman kept asking me to be his piano player, but I stayed with it until most of my band got drafted. At one point I hired a draft-proof, all-woman big band! I also covered for Duke Ellington for a time, which he said were the roots of “bebop."
Bebop was to revolutionize swing music into jazz in the 1940s, but those tunes Charlie Parker did with Miles Davis, they were based on my “Rosetta” theme song from the 1930s! Dizzy Gillespie called me “the master” for what we did in those years.
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A serious car accident and bad investment caused me to loose my big band in 1947, just as many other bands had problems. But my long career in jazz and small ensembles was just beginning.
In 1948 I joined Louis again in his All Stars Band. Louis got the cover of Time Magazine in 1949, the first jazz musician to appear there. I felt overlooked. I left in 1951 and gathered a fresh small band with Etta Jones singing. I was active until the early 60s and then thought to retire, and become a tobacconist. Then in 1964, thanks to my manager, I was rediscovered when I did some recitals at the Little Theater in NYC - my first ever. They were a big hit. The New York Times said “What is there left to hear after you’ve heard Earl Hines?” |
Recording Session 1940 |
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By 1966 I was Down Beat’s No.1 Jazz Pianist and Jazz magazine’s Jazzman of the Year. I had TV appearances on Johnny Carson and Mike Douglas, and countless interviews.
From that rebirth in 1964 until my departure in 1983, I remained very busy doing solo recordings and performances as well as partnerships with dozens of jazz and swing greats. In 1974, in my 70s, I recorded sixteen LPs. From 1964 worldwide, I recorded over 100 LPs and toured Europe, South America, Asia, Australia and the Soviet Union. And now, at the ripe old age of 115, I’m back thanks to Second Life with my new Earl Hines Trio and the Savoy All Stars Band. Catch my radio show at the Savoy on Tuesdays at 10AM and 6PM SLT. Or drop by the Savoy any time and say hello. I'm usually on the small stage playing around with the piano. I'll be happy to play you something special. |
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