Red Nichols
| Red Nichols | |
|---|---|
 |
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| Background information | |
| Birth name | Ernest Loring "red" Nichols |
| Born |
May 8, 1905 Ogden, Utah, United States |
| Died | June 28, 1965 (aged 60) Las Vegas, Nevada, United States |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | Musician, bandleader, composer |
| Instruments | Cornet |
| Associated acts |
California Ramblers Paul Whiteman |
Ernest Loring "Red" Nichols (May 8, 1905 – June 28, 1965) was an American jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader.
Over his long career, Nichols recorded in a wide variety of musical styles, and critic Steve Leggett describes him as "an expert cornet player, a solid improviser, and apparently a workaholic, since he is rumored to have appeared on over 4,000 recordings during the 1920s alone."
Nichols was born on May 8, 1905 in Ogden, Utah, United States. His father was a college music professor, and Nichols was a child prodigy, because by twelve he was already playing difficult set pieces for his father's brass band. Young Nichols heard the early recordings of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band, and later those of Bix Beiderbecke, and these had a strong influence on the young cornet player. His style became polished, clean and incisive.
In the early 1920s, Nichols moved to the Midwest and joined a band called The Syncopating Seven. When that band broke up he joined the Johnny Johnson Orchestra and went with it to New York City in 1923. New York would remain his base for years thereafter.
In New York he met and teamed up with trombonist Miff Mole, and the two of them were inseparable for the next decade.
Prior to signing with Brunswick (see below), Nichols and Mole recorded a series of records for Pathé-Perfect under the name The Red Heads (whose final Red Heads records overlapped his signing to Brunswick).
Nichols had good technique, could read music, and easily gained session and studio work. In 1926 he and Miff Mole began a prodigious stint of recording with a variety of bands, most of them known as "Red Nichols and His Five Pennies". Very few of these groups were actually quintets; the name was simply a pun on "Nickel", since there were "five pennies" in a nickel. "That was only a number we tied in with my name", Nichols once explained. "We'd generally have eight or nine [musicians], depending on who was around for the session and what I was trying to do."
Nichols recorded over 100 sides for the Brunswick label under that band name. He also recorded under a number of other names, among them, The Arkansas Travelers, The California Red Heads, The Louisiana Rhythm Kings, The Charleston Chasers, Red and Miff's Stompers, and Miff Mole and His Little Molers. Some weeks, Nichols and his bands were making 10–12 records a week.
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