Red Nichols, 1905 - 1965

Loring “Red” Nichols was one of the most significant cornetists of the 1920s. Born May 8, 1905, in Ogden, Utah, he studied cornet with his father, who taught music in college. An expert technician and sight-reader, Nichols also had his own crisp sound which was influenced by 1925 to an extent by Bix Beiderbecke. A real hustler, an underrated arranger, and a very reliable player, Nichols appeared on literally thousands of recordings during 1924-32.  He often teamed up with trombonist Miff Mole during 1925-28, including on recordings by Red Nichols and his Five Pennies.

Red Nichols recorded for nearly every label during the 1920s. He was part of the jazzy dance group Bailey’s Lucky Seven during 1924-26 which recorded extensively for Gennett.  Nichols also recorded a few dance band performances in late-1925 with Red Sanders’ Orchestra and two excellent titles (“Ain’t I Got Rosie” and “Brotherly Love”) in 1926 with Johnny Clesi’s Areleans, a group that is related to Nichols’ Five Pennies since its personnel included Miff Mole and drummer Vic Berton.
All of that music was recorded by Gennett in New York.

Nichols’ lone session in Richmond, Indiana, was also his recording debut. The Syncopatin’ Five was originally a quintet from the Midwest that worked for a time playing in hotels in Florida. In 1922 Red Nichols and C-melody saxophonist Ray Stillson joined, making the group into The Syncopating Seven or, as it was sometimes humorously billed “The Syncopatin’ Five And Their Orchestra.” On November 22, the band recorded three titles for Gennett: “Chicago,” “Toot-Toot-Tootsie,” and “Strutting At The Strutters’ Ball”; the latter song was not released at the time. These were private recordings, with the musicians actually paying Gennett $25 so they could receive 25 copies apiece of the ’78.’  Only two copies were known to exist of the ‘78’ in the 1970s when the collector’s Broadway label reissued it on their “Real Rare Red” LP.

Red Nichols was part of the Syncopating Seven when they performed at the Ambassador Hotel in Atlantic City under the name of the Royal Palm Orchestra.  When the group returned to Indiana, he chose to stay in New York.  Nichols, who also appeared with dance bands, big bands (including Paul Whiteman), and radio orchestras, had a lower profile by the mid-1930s, although he led a big band during part of the swing era. He made a comeback in the mid-1940s with a new, dixieland-oriented version of the Five Pennies, profiled in entertaining if fictional fashion by Danny Kaye in the 1959 film The Five Pennies, and stayed active up until his 1965 death.

2009

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