UC Jazz Features

Read our features about:

Oscar Petersen
Stanley Jordan
Stanley Clarke
Duke Ellington
Louis Armstrong
Dave Brubeck
Bing Crosby
Thelonious Monk
Ella Fitzgerald
Benny Goodman
UC Jazz Ensembles perform at Yoshi's
and Teaching Jazz
UC Jazz Affecting Lives
Jazz Afficionados
Frankye Kelly
John Handy
Count Basie
Noah Griffin
Frank Martin
Angela Bofill
Leigh Jones
Blossom Dearie

"Sometimes when you start losing detail, whether it's in music or in life, something as small as failing to be polite, you start to lose substance. " Benny Goodman

Bing Crosby

Harry Lillis “Bing” Crosby was born in 1903 and soon after his parents moved to Spokane, Washington. He was the fourth of seven children. The nickname “Bing” came at an early age and is really short for “Bingo,” a character in the comic strip “The Bingville Bugle” which he loved to read as a child. His mother supported his love of music and paid for private vocal instruction. Bing Crosby played drums for the high school jazz band. During his University days at the Gonzaga University he joined the "Dizzy Seven" a local dance combo. Al Rinker, a local pianist and bandleader recruited Crosby to jon the Musicaladers which focused on playing the latest popular dance tunes. Al Rinker's sister Mildred had a job at Bailey’s Music Shop, which allowed the to be completely up-to-date on the latest jazz favorites. They played the original Dixieland Band, McKinney’s Cotton Pickers, the Memphis Five, and even Vic Meyer’s dance band from Seattle. On October 15, 1925 Crosby and Rinker decide to move to Hollywood. The drove in their old 1916 Model-T Ford with high hopes of following Mildred's sisters path to success. She had left earlier and performed in the most popular clubs and speak-easy houses.

On the way they stopped in Seattle to hear Jackie Souders’ band at the Butler Hotel. We’d heard him on the radio and we’d met him when he played in Spokane.” There they were introduced to both Souder and top band-leader Vic Meyers.

After arriving in Hollywood they quickly were signed by the Morrisey Music Hall Revue, where they performed a show created and financed by a highly successful former-Seattle-based song-writer, Arthur Freed. On October 18, 1926 -- they recorded their debut album (“I’ve Got The Girl”) with Don Clarke and his Biltmore Hotel Orchestra for a big-time label, Columbia Records. Soon after, they were discovered by a New York band-leader, Paul “The King of Jazz” Whiteman. They were joined by Harry Barris, a second pianist, and the trio became Paul Whiteman’s Rhythm Boys. The following year Whiteman and the boys cut a record (“Wistful and Blue” / “Pretty Lips”) that became a smash hit, which led to Crosby cutting a solo disc, 1927’s “Muddy Water. They also recorded with Bix Beiderbeck and Frankie Trumbaur in 1928 and the Dorsey brothers orchestra in 1929. In 1930 the trio recorded an album with the Duke Ellington orchestra called Three Little Words. The affiliation with Ellington was musically and socially significance. During that era it was quite unusual for white vocal trios being recorded with black jazz orchestras. The Rhythm Boys made live appearance together with Duke Ellington orchestra. 1932, after the Whiteman film “The King Of Jazz”, Crosby left the band for a solo career. That he had started hanging out in Harlem with black stars like Cab Calloway and Duke Ellington -- and reports that Crosby had taken up reefer smoking with Louis Armstrong -- probably didn’t help matters. Crosby was sentenced to 30 days in jail on a drunk-driving charge - although the charges were dropped. Bing Crosby focused on the music - instead of old stayed ideas. This attitude came with a price and accusations.

Bing Grosby and Louis Armstrong sing ""Now You Have Jazz"

Crosby associated with jazz through his many appearances with jazz greats, through his love for the music of jazz, and through his singing on several swinging jazz sides and albums. He was blessed with a naturally warm, deep, resonant, and appealing voice and learned how to phrase with it almost by osmosis.

Crosby’s credits the jazz greats of the day helped him pick up on jazz phrasing: "I used to hang around The Dorseys and Bix and Bunny Berigan and Glenn Miller and Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang - all the musicians I admired - and I was having a helluva good time. I really had no idea that I was learning anything. But I certainly was."

Ralph Gleason a noted Jazz writer once described Bing as “the personification of the whole Jazz movement – the relaxed, casual, natural, uninhibited approach to art.”

The same description appeared to apply to Crosby the man as well. Louis Armstrong and Jimmy Dorsey in 1936, Jack Teagarden in 1941, brother Bob Crosby in 1942, Louis Jordan in 1944, Eddie Heywood in 1945 and later many sessions and appearances with again Louis Armstrong and with Dixieland bands headed by Bob Scobey, Bob Haggart et al.

Crosby’s success as a vocalist however did not come from his direct affiliations with jazz or jazzmen.

He became a near overnight sensation as a solo act in 1932 through a series of star radio appearances and a record breaking run on stage at New York's famed Paramount Theatre. 1932 also brought with it his appearance in a film called “The Big Broadcast” where he introduced his theme song, one in which he co wrote, called "Where the Blue of the Night Meets The Gold Of The Day.” This was followed by a strong movie career, "Road", "The Road to Singapore" starring with Bob Hope and Dorothy Lamour, followed by Irving Berlin’s “White Christmas” in 1942. He sold 30 Million copies of that album. Bing won an Oscar for Best Actor for his portrayal of Father O'Malley in "Going My Way" in 1944."The Bells of Saint Mary's" in 1945 and "The Country Girl" in 1954. “True Love” with Frank Sinatra and Grace Kelly was another hit.

“Now You Has Jazz.” with Louis Armstrong was released in 1956 A session in which a young A&R man for Verve records named Buddy Bregman (who happened to be friends with Bing’s son) convinced “Old Groaner” to record “Bing Sings Whilst Bregman Swings”.

His passion for golf was legendary and the Crosby Golf Tournament, which he founded in 1937, continues to generate millions of dollars for charities today. A renowned horse racing fan, he founded Del Mar racetrack. Matt Dennis however alludes to Crosby’s bad luck with horses in the Tommy Dorsey recording of “Will You Still Be Mine” with the lyric, “when Crosby’s horses win a race, will you still be mine?”

Bing Crosby was also a pioneer in the use of new methods of reproducing himself. In 1946 he wanted to shift from live performance to recorded transcriptions for his weekly radio show on NBC sponsored by Kraft. NBC and ASCAP (Association of Screenwriters, Publishers, and Authors) however didn’t see it that way. The ASCAP union continued to reinforce the deeply rooted tradition of ensuring production of “live” radio shows for broadcast and NBC wasn’t willing to rock the boat.

But the new ABC network was. It would pay Crosby $30,000 weekly to produce one recorded show per week. He would also get $40,000 from 400 independent stations for the rights to broadcast the 60-minute show, sent to them on 3-16-inch aluminum discs that played 10 minutes per side at 33-1/3 rpm. Crosby’s desire to change to recorded programming afforded him several advantages. Not only did it enable him to record at times more favorable to his schedule, he could eliminate mistakes and be in total control of timing the songs and shows.

Since Bing Crosby Enterprises produced the show, he could also purchase better and more modern sound equipment and arrange the microphones how he saw fit.

The 1600 records Crosby made, during his fifty one year career as a vocalist, have never been paralleled. Bing sold 500 million copies during his career. He sang on 4,000 radio shows from 1931 to 1962 and appeared in 100 movies. He appeared in 300 television programs from 1948 through 1977, ending with his 42nd consecutive Christmas special taped before his collapse and sudden death Oct. 14 after 18 holes on a golf course in Spain.