15 October 2024

Eddie Heywood Beats Paralysis Twice to Play Piano – Phantom Dancer

Greg Poppleton Swing Radio Show

Eddie Heywood was an American jazz pianist and composer active in the 1940s and 1950s. His career was interrupted in the 1950s and 60s by hand paralysis. He’s your Phantom Dancer feature artist this week.

The Phantom Dancer is your weekly non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV every week.

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EDDIE

Edward Heywood Jr’s father was a jazz musician in the 1920s and taught him from the age of 12 as an accompanist playing in the pit band in a vaudeville theatre in Atlanta. 

They sometimes accompanied singers Bessie Smith and Ethel Waters.

Heywood played with jazz musicians including Wayman Carver in 1932, Clarence Love from 1934 to 1937 and Benny Carter, who heard him in Kansas City playing with Clarence Love, from 1939 to 1940.

Starting his own band in 1941, Eddie Heywood would  provide accompaniment for Billie Holiday.

In 1943, Heywood took several solos on a Coleman Hawkins quartet date (including “The Man I Love”) and put together a sextet, including Doc Cheatham (tp), Vic Dickenson (tb), Lem Davis (as), Al Lucas (b), and Jack Parker (d).

After their version of “Begin the Beguine” became a hit in 1944, (and you’ll hear it played live on radio by Eddie Heywood in 1945 on this week’s Phantom Dancer), the group had three successful years.

“Begin the Beguine” sold over one million copies, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.

HEYWOOD

By 1947, after 3 solid years of gigs, a residency at Cafe Society, US tours, concerts in theatres, plus TV and radio appearances, his hands became so tired that it was painful for him to hold a newspaper.

Specialists diagnosed that he was “like a soldier suffering from battle fatigue” and needed to rest. He had casts fitted on both hands for 2 months. The press talked of a nervous breakdown or partial paralysis. After the casts were removed he realised he had lost the ability to play.

It took years of therapy but Eddie came back in 1951.

In the 1950s, Heywood composed and recorded “Land of Dreams” and “Soft Summer Breeze” (1956), which peaked at number 11 on the Billboard char).

His 1956 recording of his composition “Canadian Sunset”, with Hugo Winterhalter and his Orchestra for RCA Victor, peaked at number 2.

Following a second partial paralysis from 1966 to 1969, Heywood made another comeback to continue his career into the 1980s.