ted lewis
简介
by Bruce EderIts difficult to believe, based on a paltry pair of compact discs of Ted Lewis music that exist, that from the beginning of the 20s until the mid-30s, he was one of the most popular music acts in the world, cutting million-selling records when those scarcely happened more than once a year. Its even harder to comprehend that Lewis maintained an active recording, radio, movie, television, and concert career for 50 years, 1917 to 1967, and enjoyed respect from members of the jazz community that was unique for a leader of a dance band. Ted Lewis was never considered a great, or even a good jazz player — though he was a better player than he got credit for being — and wasnt taken seriously as a singer (even by Ted Lewis), nor was most of the music that he recorded considered good jazz. For most of the 20s, his biggest decade for record sales, he favored dance and novelty numbers that today evoke the zanier side of the era. Even his catch phrase — Is everybody happy? — seemed by the end of 30s to be a quaint echo of the so-called Roaring Twenties. He was a figure like Paul Whiteman, but more of a musician, and also resembled Al Jolson, as a personality as much as musician. Lewis also employed an extraordinary array of talented musicians and even a few future legends — the men who passed through the ranks of his band included Benny Goodman, Jack Teagarden, Muggsy Spanier, Jimmy Dorsey, Frank Teschemacher and George Brunies, and even Fats Waller did a turn with the band.Born Theodore Leopold Friedman in Circleville, Ohio, in 1890 (some sources say 1892), he was the son of the owner of a large clothing emporium. His parents hoped he would go into business, but the younger Friedman, to the horror of his parents, was an indifferent student, and, worse still, was drawn to the life of a performer. It all started when he discovered the circus as a boy, and by the time he was in his teens, he had some definite ideas about showmanship, and had acquired some above-average basic musicianship with the clarinet. A stint in business school did nothing to make him forget an entertainment career. By 1906, at age 16, hed begun working in vaudeville, playing tent shows and other bottom-of-the-bill engagements, and gradually built a reputation for himself. His name change his name came about through an accident involving his partnership with a fellow named Lewis—an erroneous marquee billing as Lewis and Lewis seemed an omen, and he kept the new name imposed on him. Ted Lewis labored in relative anonymity for most of the 10s, even after arriving in New York. He put his first band — a five piece called Ted Lewis but he was also less and more than that. Unlike Jolson, he had no voice to speak of, and yet people loved hearing him talk his way through lyrics, almost like a rapper; he wasnt a great musician, but he hired great ones and let them do their work the way they liked; he even had a feel for blues, to judge from his work with Fats Waller on Dallas Blues and Royal Garden Blues. Even at the end of the 20th century, its impossible to listen to Lewis best work and not smile, amid the urge to dance and to laugh — Lewis music still makes audiences answer Yes! to his question, Is everybody happy?
| 原始名称 | Ted Lewis |
|---|---|
| 名称 | ted lewis |
| 地区 | 欧美 |
| 类似歌手 | 相似艺人 |
| 精选上位词 | 歌手 |