09 March 2021

John Kirby Sextet – Phantom Dancer Radio 9 March 2021

Greg Poppleton's Phantom Dancer swing jazz radio show

John Kirby, double bassist, tuba and trombone player, 1930s proponent of ‘Chamber Jazz’, Bach fan, and band leader is this week’s Phantom Dancer feature artist. His sextet was also the first to play the jazz standard, Undecided, and had a hit with Loch Lomond, sung by Maxine Sullivan.

The Phantom Dancer is your non-stop mix of swing and jazz from live 1920s-60s radio and TV. I host the show which is heard online and over 20 radio stations. Enjoy past Phantom Dancer online now at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

This show will be online after 2pm AEST, Tuesday 9 March at https://2ser.com/phantom-dancer/.

TUBA

John Kirby had been a trombonist until 1927 when Jimmy Harrison persuaded him to play tuba. Shortly after, Kirby played tuba with Bill Brown and His Brownies, with pianist Charlie Sheets, and then with John C. Smith’s Society Band all in New York City.

In 1929 he joined Fletcher Henderson‘s orchestra as tuba player, playing some complicated tuba work on a number of early 1930s Henderson recording.

DOUBLE BASS

In the early 1930s, Kirby took bass lessons from Pops Foster and Wellman Braud (bassist with Duke Ellington). About 1933 Kirby left Henderson to play two stints with drummer Chick Webb as double bassist. He returned to Henderson and then joined Lucky Millinder. He led his own quartet for a short time in 1935.

SEXTET

John Kirby formed his sextet for a residency at the  Onyx Club in NYC in 1937. At first, the band gave singer-drummer Leo Watson featured billing (you’ll hear the band with Leo Watson singing from a 1939 broadcast). It then, until 1941, usually had Charlie Shavers (trumpet), Buster Bailey (clarinet), Russell Procope (alto saxophone), Billy Kyle (piano), O’Neill Spencer (drums), the line-up you’ll hear announced in the 1941 Chamber Music Society broadcast on this week’s Phantom Dancer. With the byline, ‘The Biggest Little Band in the Land,’ the sextet first recorded in August 1937 with a swing version of Loch Lomond. Singer, Maxine Sullivan, became Kirby’s second wife in 1938.

Band member illness, the death of one member, and the WW2 draft changed the sextet’s line-up post-1941, which then at different times included Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Ben Webster, Clyde Hart, Budd Johnson, and Zutty Singleton.

In 1946, Kirby got the surviving sextet members back together, with Sarah Vaughan as vocalist, but the reunion did not last. A concert at Carnegie Hall in December 1950 attracted only a small audience, which “crushed Kirby’s spirit and badly damaged what little was left of his career.”

POST WW2

Kirby and his orchestra had a 30-minute radio program, Flow Gently, Sweet Rhythm (also known as The John Kirby Show) on CBS April 7, 1940–January 12, 1941. The program also featured Sullivan and the Golden Gate Quartet. Kirby and Sullivan have been cited as “the first black artists to host a jazz-oriented series.”

9 MARCH PLAY LIST