23 April 2024

Hot Lips Page – Mr After Hours Swing, Bop, R’n’B Trumpeter – Phantom Dancer

Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show

Oran Thaddeus “Hot Lips” Page was a US jazz trumpeter, singer and band leader. He played swing and trad, but also was key in the development of bop and r’n’b. Hot Lips Page was known as “Mr After Hours” to his many friends for his ability to take on challengers in late-night jam sessions. 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.

LISTEN to this week’s Phantom Dancer mix (online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 23 April) and weeks of Phantom Dancer mixes online at, at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/

HOT LIPS

Hot Lips Page played in Walter Page’s Blue Devils, Artie Shaw’s Orchestra and Count Basie’s Orchestra. He worked with Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ida Cox. And he was one of the five musicians booked for the opening night at Birdland with Charlie Parker in 1949.

Page’s earliest gigs were in circuses and minstrel shows while also backing such blues singers as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Ida Cox.

Louis Armstrong was his main trumpet influence was Louis Armstrong, as well as Harry Smith (Kansas City) and Benno Kennedy (San Antonio).

From 1929, he made over 200 recordings, most as a leader, for Bluebird, Vocalion, Decca and Harmony Records.

In 1926, he caught the eye of the bassist Walter Page (no relation) who had recently assumed leadership of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils.

He played and toured with the Blue Devils until early 1931, when he joined the Bennie Moten Orchestra, the leading dance band of Kansas City.

Though not a regular member of the band, Page appeared as a vocalist, emcee and hot trumpet soloist with Count Basie’s Reno Club orchestra, after the Moten band disbanded upon that leader’s sudden death in April 1935.

The Reno Club, in downtown Kansas City, had a floor show, which included Page and vocalist Jimmy Rushing.

Basie’s band was just starting to build their reputation, but in the summer of 1936—on the eve of Basie’s national success—and at the beckoning of Louis Armstrong’s manager, Joe Glaser, Page decided to pursue a solo career. He moved to New York City in December 1936.

PAGE

Hot Lips Page’s career as a bandleader had a swinging start with sold-out appearances and an extended run at Harlem’s Smalls Paradise in the summer of 1937.

However, by 1939 he was struggling to maintain a regular working band. He still led several bands and combos of his own, particularly on New York’s 52nd Street, where he appeared from 1938 and in many venues in Harlem.

Page toured extensively throughout the southern United States, and throughout the northeast and Canada at the head of as many as 13 different big bands during the 1930s and 1940s.

He appeared briefly with Bud Freeman’s Orchestra in 1938, and was a featured vocalist and hot soloist with Artie Shaw’s Symphonic Swing Orchestra in 1941 and 1942, for who he recorded more than 40 sides.

His band backed the singer Wynonie Harris on the session that produced the hit “Good Rocking Tonight”, though Page was never credited as the leader.

He was the leader of the house band at the Apollo Theater during the early 1940s.

And he was recorded at Harlem’s Minton’s Playhouse in 1941 playing in a proto-bebop style.

He recorded for the Mezzrow-Bechet Septet (on two consecutive dates in 1945, as Pappa Snow White, with Mezz Mezzrow, Sidney Bechet, Jimmy Blythe, Jr., Danny Barker, Pops Foster, and Sid Catlett, and on the second session with Cousin Joe on vocals.)

Page recorded duets with Pearl Bailey on “The Hucklebuck” and “Baby, It’s Cold Outside” in 1949.

He traveled to Europe in 1949 and appeared at Salle Pleyel in the first international jazz festival there, and returned to Europe at least twice for extended tours in the early 1950s.