[Dixielandjazz] Jimmy Durante - Panio Player was celebrities

[Stephen Barbone]

Jimmy Durante was a lot more than a celebrity who also played a little
jazz. He was one of the FIRST JAZZ RECORDING ARTISTS and like many
others of that era, first became a celebrity as a jazz musician. Below
is an excerpt from one of his bios.

Cheers,
Steve Barbone


"Before Jimmy Durante became one of the most famous and lovable
entertainers of the Twentieth Century, he was a hot piano player and
bandleader. Durante was greatly influenced by Scott Joplin and had his
first success in show business as a Ragtime piano player starting around
1911. He was billed as "Ragtime Jimmy" and played in New York City and
Coney Island."

"Durante was part of the same wild crowd of early White jazz musicians
as the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and Johnny Stein. When the New
Orleans Jazz style swept New York by storm in 1917 with the arrival of
the Original Dixieland Jazz Band Durante was part of the audience at
Reisenweber's on Columbus Circle. Durante was very impressed with the
band and invited them to play at a club called the
Alamo in Harlem where Jimmy played piano. The band was soon the hottest
thing in show business and Durante had his friend Johnny Stein assemble
a group of like-minded New Orleans musicians to accompany his act at the
Alamo."

"They billed themselves as "Durante's Jazz and Novelty Band". In late
1918 they recorded two sides for Okeh under the name of the New Orleans
Jazz Band, they re-did the same two numbers a couple of months later for
Gennett under the name of Original New Orleans Jazz Band, and in 1920
the same
group recorded again for Gennett as Jimmy Durante's Jazz Band."

"In 1921, Durante collaborated with an African-American songwriter by
the name of Chris Smith on the song "Let's Agree To Disagree" which
Mamie Smith recorded. Durante went on to record with several White Jazz
bands in the early 1920s including The Original Memphis Five, Ladd's
Black Aces, Bailey's Lucky Seven and Lanin's Southern Serenaders. Jimmy
was a solid Ragtime and Jazz piano player, but soon gravitated towards
vaudeville as the 1920s wore on."

"He became part of a comedy music team called "Clayton, Jackson and
Durante". By the end of the decade the team was very popular on Broadway
and Durante got a role in a play called "Jumbo" which made him a star.
In the early 1930s he started to get roles in movies, and became popular
on radio and eventually became one of the most popular entertainers in
America. On his radio show he joked that he was working on a symphony,
but he wouldn't call it "Rhapsody In Blue" or anything like that. He
would call it "Inka Dinka Do". In 1934 he recorded a novelty song with
this title and it became his signature tune. Jimmy's popularity never
really faded and he became one of the first stars of television. In his
later years he was often cast as a lovable relic of the Roaring 20s, but
few remembered him as one of the first Jazz recording artists."