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Lee Sims (April 30, 1898 - May 7, 1966) was an American pianist, composer, record maker, publisher and performer.
Lee Sims was born April 30, 1898, in Champaign, Illinois, under the full name Cleo Orville Sims. Cedar Rapids, Iowa, was his hometown while growing up. At the age of 8, he played ragtime and waltzes for a YMCA calisthenics class in Cedar Rapids. By age 11, he was accompanying church singers and playing the theatre pipe organ for silent movies. At 14, he played at the Majestic Theater in LaSalle, Illinois. While still in his teens, he went to work for a pipe organ manufacturer, demonstrating instruments all over the country.
At age 22, Sims decided to settle down in Chicago. He began making piano rolls for the United States Piano Roll Company and other piano roll companies. Today, these rolls are sought after by collectors. He became studio manager for WTAS, one of the first radio stations in the Middle West. Later, he was studio manager of KYW, the Westinghouse station in Chicago, and WBBM, then the Stewart-Warner "theatre of the air".
As a radio performer, Sims had a late-night program called "Piano Moods" over the Chicago NBC affiliate station, WMAQ. He founded the Lee Sims School of Music, and one of his pupils was Ilomay Bailey, who had been a vocalist with the Paul Ash and Ben Pollack orchestras. Prior to singing with these orchestras, Ilomay had had formal vocal training. The two were married and formed a team. Sims introduced Ilomay Bailey on his "Piano Moods" radio program and created an instant sensation.
In the 1930s, Lee and Ilomay appeared as stars of the Chase and Sanborn Hour night program for the National Broadcasting Company. Other radio appearances included Rudy Vallee's program and the Ben Bernie and Phil Baker shows. In the 1937 movie "Dinner At The Ritz" (starring David Niven a.o.) Sims can be heard on piano with a band directed by Muir Mathieson although the band on screen is an unknown black outfit.
During the 1920s and 1930s, Sims recorded approximately 60 sides for Brunswick. He published several courses on modern piano and numerous arrangements (or "transcriptions") of popular tunes of the day. Many original sheet music editions included a bonus Lee Sims chorus for the more proficient and adventurous performers. After his heyday as a radio performer and recording artist, Sims devoted most of his time to teaching in his New York studio apartment, where Ilomay taught voice.
Lee Sims was deeply imbued with the nineteenth century European tradition and especially interested in the newer, impressionistic harmonies of Debussy and Ravel. While he recorded mostly sentimental popular songs, he had more serious ideas and aspirations. In 1928, his collection of "Five Piano Rhapsodies" was published. In that same year, Sims recorded two of the “Rhapsodies” arranged for piano and orchestra on a Brunswick 12" disk. Sims appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra to play his symphonic tone poem, "Blythewood," with an orchestration by Ferde Grofe. Art Tatum biographer James Lester described Sims's compositions as being "drawn from the same sources as Bix Beiderbecke's 'In a Mist'."
Sims's style, though somewhat outside of the realm of jazz, as it is typically considered today, was well within it in the era of his prominence. Nevertheless, Sims influenced the great jazz pianist Art Tatum, [1] who used chord voicings and other devices that Sims employed, for example, the exploration of a song at its outset in a legato style, along with "Debussy-esque" chords, prior to launching into "bouncier" tempos and rhythms.
George Gershwin was an American composer and pianist whose compositions spanned popular, jazz and classical genres. Among his best-known works are the orchestral compositions Rhapsody in Blue (1924) and An American in Paris (1928), the songs "Swanee" (1919) and "Fascinating Rhythm" (1924), the jazz standards "Embraceable You" (1928) and "I Got Rhythm" (1930), and the opera Porgy and Bess (1935), which included the hit "Summertime".
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumental virtuosity, and improvisation based on a combination of harmonic structure, the use of scales and occasional references to the melody.
Ferdinand Rudolph von Grofé, known as Ferde Grofé was an American composer, arranger, pianist and instrumentalist. He is best known for his 1931 five-movement symphonic poem, Grand Canyon Suite, and for having orchestrated George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue for its 1924 premiere.
Arthur Tatum Jr. was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest ever. From early in his career, fellow musicians acclaimed Tatum's technical ability as extraordinary. Tatum also extended jazz piano's vocabulary and boundaries far beyond his initial stride influences, and established new ground through innovative use of reharmonization, voicing, and bitonality.
Stride jazz piano, often shortened to stride, is a jazz piano style that arose from ragtime players. Prominent stride pianists include James P. Johnson, Willie "the Lion" Smith, Fats Waller, Luckey Roberts, and Mary Lou Williams.
Joanna Clare MacGregor is a British concert pianist, conductor, composer, and festival curator. She is Head of Piano at the Royal Academy of Music and a professor of the University of London. She was artistic director of the International Summer School & Festival at Dartington Hall from 2015 to 2019.
Theodore Shaw Wilson was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive swing pianist", Wilson's piano style was gentle, elegant, and virtuosic. His style was highly influenced by Earl Hines and Art Tatum. His work was featured on the records of many of the biggest names in jazz, including Louis Armstrong, Lena Horne, Benny Goodman, Billie Holiday, and Ella Fitzgerald. With Goodman, he was one of the first black musicians to perform prominently alongside white musicians. In addition to his extensive work as a sideman, Wilson also led his own groups and recording sessions from the late 1920s to the 1980s.
Concerto in F is a composition by George Gershwin for solo piano and orchestra which is closer in form to a traditional concerto than his earlier jazz-influenced Rhapsody in Blue. It was written in 1925 on a commission from the conductor and director Walter Damrosch. It is just over half an hour long.
Jazz piano is a collective term for the techniques pianists use when playing jazz. The piano has been an integral part of the jazz idiom since its inception, in both solo and ensemble settings. Its role is multifaceted due largely to the instrument's combined melodic and harmonic capabilities. For this reason it is an important tool of jazz musicians and composers for teaching and learning jazz theory and set arrangement, regardless of their main instrument. By extension the phrase 'jazz piano' can refer to similar techniques on any keyboard instrument.
"In a Sentimental Mood" is a jazz composition by Duke Ellington. He composed the piece in 1935 and recorded it with his orchestra during the same year. Lyrics were written by Manny Kurtz; Ellington's manager Irving Mills gave himself a percentage of the publishing, so the song was credited to all three. Other popular versions in 1935/36 were by Benny Goodman and by Mills Blue Rhythm Band. The opening notes of the song's melody resemble Gershwin's "Someone To Watch Over Me".
"Moonglow", also known as "Moonglow and Love" is a 1933 popular song. The music was by Will Hudson and Irving Mills and the words were by Eddie DeLange.
"Somebody Loves Me" is a popular song, with music written by George Gershwin, and lyrics by Ballard MacDonald and Buddy DeSylva. The song was published in 1924 and featured in George White's Scandals of 1924.
Theodore Salvatore Fiorito, known professionally as Ted Fio Rito, was an American composer, orchestra leader, and keyboardist, on both the piano and the Hammond organ, who was popular on national radio broadcasts in the 1920s and 1930s. His name is sometimes given as Ted Fiorito or Ted FioRito.
Michael Joseph O'Sullivan was an American jazz pianist.
Orchestral jazz or symphonic jazz is a form of jazz that developed in New York City in the 1920s. Early innovators of the genre, such as Fletcher Henderson and Duke Ellington, include some of the most highly regarded musicians, composers, and arrangers in all of jazz history. The fusion of jazz's rhythmic and instrumental characteristics with the scale and structure of an orchestra, made orchestral jazz distinct from the musical genres that preceded its emergence. Its development contributed both to the popularization of jazz, as well as the critical legitimization of jazz as an art form.
Lady Day: The Complete Billie Holiday on Columbia 1933–1944 is a 10-CD box set compiling the complete known studio master recordings, plus alternate takes, of Billie Holiday during the time period indicated, released in 2001 on Columbia/Legacy, CXK 85470. Designed like an album of 78s, the medium in which these recordings initially appeared, the 10.5" × 12" box includes 230 tracks, a 116-page booklet with extensive photos, a song list, discography, essays by Michael Brooks, Gary Giddins, and Farah Jasmine Griffin, and an insert of appreciations for Holiday from a diversity of figures including Tony Bennett, Elvis Costello, Marianne Faithfull, B.B. King, Abbey Lincoln, Jill Scott, and Lucinda Williams. At the 44th Grammy Awards on February 27, 2002, the box set won the Grammy Award for Best Historical Album of the previous year.
William Orie Potts was an American jazz pianist and arranger.
Third stream is a music genre that is a fusion of jazz and classical music. The term was coined in 1957 by composer Gunther Schuller in a lecture at Brandeis University. There are many ways to define third-stream music. It could refer to a group of jazz musicians playing solely, or a jazz soloist performing with a symphony orchestra, as long as the musicians are able to interpret and play jazz music. Improvisation is generally seen as a vital component of third stream. In third-stream music, composers incorporated elements of classical music, such as the use of jazz instruments and classical music forms, into their jazz compositions. The fusion of jazz and classical music is also viewed as "born out of a reciprocal interest: the interest of the classical community in the developments in jazz music and the interest of the jazz community in the advances of classical music." The innovative idea of fusing jazz and classical music pushed the boundaries of traditional classical music and introduced a new genre that blends the two styles into a unique hybrid form.
The Smithsonian Collection of Classic Jazz is a six-LP box set released in 1973 by the Smithsonian Institution. Compiled by jazz critic, scholar, and historian Martin Williams, the album included tracks from over a dozen record labels spanning several decades and genres of American jazz, from ragtime and big band to post-bop and free jazz.
Jeremy Siskind is an American pianist, composer, and educator known for his innovative blending of jazz and classical music.
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