Paul Whiteman

Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist.

Whiteman's skill at the viola resulted in a place in the Denver Symphony Orchestra by 1907, joining the San Francisco Symphony in 1914.

In 1918, Whiteman conducted a 12-piece U.S. Navy band, the Mare Island Naval Training Camp Symphony Orchestra (NTCSO).

After World War I, he formed the Paul Whiteman Orchestra.

That year he led a popular dance band in the city.

As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 1930s, Whiteman produced recordings that were immensely successful, and press notices often referred to him as the "King of Jazz".

His most popular recordings include "Whispering", "Valencia", "Three O'Clock in the Morning", "In a Little Spanish Town", and "Parade of the Wooden Soldiers".

Whiteman led a usually large ensemble and explored many styles of music, such as blending symphonic music and jazz, as in his debut of Rhapsody in Blue by George Gershwin.

Whiteman recorded many jazz and pop standards during his career, including "Wang Wang Blues", "Mississippi Mud", "Rhapsody in Blue", "Wonderful One", "Hot Lips (He's Got Hot Lips When He Plays Jazz)", "Mississippi Suite", "Grand Canyon Suite", and "Trav'lin' Light".

In 1920, he moved with his band to New York City where they began recording for the Victor Talking Machine Company.

The popularity of these records led to national fame.

In his first five recordings sessions for Victor, August 9 – October 28, 1920, he used the name "Paul Whiteman and His Ambassador Orchestra", presumably because he had been playing at the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City.

From November 3, 1920, he started using "Paul Whiteman and His Orchestra."

Whiteman became the most popular band director of that decade.

In a time when most dance bands consisted of six to ten men, Whiteman directed a more imposing group that numbered as many as 35 musicians.

By 1922, Whiteman already controlled some 28 ensembles on the East Coast and was earning over $1,000,000 a year.

Beginning in 1923 after the Buescher Band Instrument Company placed a crown on his head, the media referred to Whiteman as "The King of Jazz".

Whiteman emphasized the way he approached the well-established style of jazz music, while also organizing its composition and style in his own fashion.

While most jazz musicians and fans consider improvisation to be essential to the musical style, Whiteman thought the genre could be improved by orchestrating the best of it, with formal written arrangements.

Eddie Condon criticized him for trying to "make a lady" out of jazz.

He co-wrote the 1925 jazz classic "Flamin' Mamie".

In 1926, Paul Whiteman was on tour in Vienna, Austria when he met and was interviewed by a young ambitious newspaper reporter named Billy Wilder who was also a fan of Whiteman's band.

Whiteman liked young Wilder enough, that he took him with the band to Berlin where Wilder was able to make more connections in the entertainment field, leading him to become a screenwriter and director, eventually ending up in Hollywood.

In 1927, the Whiteman orchestra backed Hoagy Carmichael singing and playing on a recording of "Washboard Blues".

Whiteman signed with Columbia Records in May 1928, leaving the label in September 1930 when he refused a pay cut.

His popularity faded in the swing music era of the mid-1930s, and by the 1940s he was semi-retired from music.

He returned to RCA Victor between September 1931 and March 1937.

He experienced a revival and had a comeback in the 1950s with his own network television series, Paul Whiteman's Goodyear Revue, which ran for three seasons on ABC.

He also hosted the 1954 ABC talent contest show On the Boardwalk with Paul Whiteman.

Whiteman's place in the history of early jazz is somewhat controversial.

Detractors suggest that his ornately orchestrated music was jazz in name only, lacking the genre's improvisational and emotional depth, and co-opted the innovations of black musicians.

Defenders note that Whiteman's fondness for jazz was genuine.

He worked with black musicians as much as was feasible during an era of racial segregation.

His bands included many of the era's most esteemed white musicians, and his groups handled jazz admirably as part of a larger repertoire.

Critic Scott Yanow declares that Whiteman's orchestra "did play very good jazz...His superior dance band used some of the most technically skilled musicians of the era in a versatile show that included everything from pop tunes and waltzes to semi-classical works and jazz. [...] Many of his recordings (particularly those with Bix Beiderbecke) have been reissued numerous times and are more rewarding than his detractors would lead one to believe."

In his autobiography, Duke Ellington declared, "Paul Whiteman was known as the King of Jazz, and no one as yet has come near carrying that title with more certainty and dignity."

Whiteman was born in Denver, Colorado.

He came from a musical family: his father, Wilburforce James Whiteman was the supervisor of music for the Denver Public Schools, a position he held for fifty years, and his mother Elfrida (née Dallison) was a former opera singer.

His father insisted that Paul learn an instrument, preferably the violin, but the young man chose the viola.

Whiteman was Protestant and of Scottish, Irish, English, and Dutch ancestry.