Cab Calloway (1907-1994)
The "Hi-De-Ho" man mesmerized audiences with his wild jazz, flip-flopping hair, big smile, warm vocals, and excellent big bands he fronted beginning at Harlem's Cotton Club in the 1930s. Are you Hep To The Jive? (Columbia) is a classic, also go for Jumpin' Jive (Jazz Archives).
Benny Carter
Saxophonist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, Carter has played a part in nearly every phase of jazz's development. During the early 1930s, he played and arranged for Fletcher Henderson and McKinney's Cotton Pickers. He flew off to London during the mid-1930s to become a staff songsmith and arranger for the BBC dance orchestra, eventually having a tremendous influence on the jazz of Western Europe. Upon his return to the United States, Carter led a popular big band in New York City - and his career continued in 1990s. Early essentials from the Carter catalog include Benny Carter 1929-1940 (Best of Jazz) and Advanced Swing (Drive Archives).
Lionel Hampton
A jazz institution as both a musician and bandleader-the most famous of all jazz vibraphonists, whose bands have consistently been wild, swinging, and unpredictable. From the early years, look for the albums Slide, Hamp Slide (Drive Archives) and Lionel Hampton 1939-1940 (Classic Jazz).
Earl Hines (1903-1983)
Hines led one of the Midwest's most popular 1930s big bands, home-based at Chicago's Grand Terrace hotel. His music was more influential in some ways than Ellington's from the same period. NBC radio's Blue Line carried the Hines Band to points west and south of Chicago. Earl Hines 1934-1937 (Classic Jazz) is a winner, and if the 1930s RCA stuff is ever reissued, grab it.
Andy Kirk (1898-1992)
Kirk's Clouds of Joy group featured the arrangements and piano of Mary Lou Williams. Unlike its Kansas City peers, the band relied less on collective riffling and more on William's imagination. Although some of the band's stuff was so-so, when they swung-behind such soloists as saxman Don Byas, trumpeter Howard McGhee, and especially the wonderful inventions of Williams-they really swung.. sample some of the band's most buoyant moments on 12 Clouds of Joy (ASV/Living Legends).
Jimmie Lunceford (1902-1947)
Flashy showmanship and tight, swinging musicianship were the trademarks of Lunceford's band, one of the hottest of its era beginning with a 1934 stint at New York's fabled Cotton Club. Short on great soloists but long on stage presence, the band put down one of the era's best music when it played trumpeter/vocalist Sy Oliver's lyrical arrangements-Oliver was lured away to Tommy Dorsey's band in the early 1940s. Check out the Lunceford unit's peak Oliver years on Rhythm Is Our Business (ASV/Living Legends).
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