Don Redman — The Later Years (Part 1)

By Jeff Sultanof

Don Redman in Bern, Switzerland, October 1946

The name Don Redman hardly needs a big introduction, just a little background leading up to our main story — his music work after he disbanded his own big band in 1940, with help from his collection safely housed at the Schomburg Center, part of the New York Public Library.

Redman of course was a pioneering composer/arranger in the jazz and dance band world. He came from a musical family and, by the time he completed his studies, he could play most of the reed instruments and even the trumpet and piano. He came to New York and became part of the pool of busy professional black instrumentalists relatively quickly, recording for the black-owned Black Swan record label in 1922. Fletcher Henderson was the recording manager, and put together a dance band by 1924 which played at the Club Alabam and the Roseland Ballroom. Redman became the arranger, and often adapted stock arrangements when the band recorded for various labels.

He went on to become musical director for McKinney’s Cotton Pickers at their Detroit homebase, and eventually led his own band. His “Chant of the Weed” is a recognized classic instrumental (Duke Ellington commissioned Redman to write an arrangement of it for his band as late as 1962). His music was known as some of the more difficult dance music of the era, and it was said that if you played in Redman’s band, you could work with any leader.

In 1940, Redman disbanded and free-lanced as an arranger/composer. Trombonist Bobby Byrne was a Redman client, as well as Jimmie Lunceford, Cab Calloway and Count Basie. One piece he submitted to Glen Gray and the Casa Loma Orchestra in 1943 was titled “Just an Old Manuscript.” There are broadcasts of the piece, but he didn’t record it for issue by Decca until after the war. Redman also submitted it to Basie in 1945, and Basie did record it in Liederkranz Hall for radio transcription.

Gray recorded it again for Capitol Records, albeit cut due to the slower tempo.

In 2018, I visited Schomburg to go through their Nat King Cole collection to find copies of manuscripts of Cole’s biggest hits to be published by Jazz Lines (at the time, Schomburg did not allow photocopying or even photography of anything in the collection, so I hand-copied the music). Not exploring the Redman collection would have been crazy, so I indulged. “Just an Old Manuscript” was precisely that, the parts for Basie in all their glory. I discovered that he wrote full piano parts, something that was done less and less by arrangers by that time (most of them were still writing full bass parts however). This was later published (PDF sample).

Redman took a mixed race all-star ensemble to Europe to give the first concerts by an American big band after the war. Two performances are in circulation. Redman wrote new material and commissioned a piece from Tadd Dameron to illustrate the new sounds of jazz that developed during the war: “For Europeans Only” was also happily in the collection and has been published.

Redman wrote pieces that were issued as stock arrangements in 1946, and by 1952, he was the musical director for Pearl Bailey.

• My Ideal
• Hug Me a Hug (Kiss Me a Kiss)
• As Long as I Live
• Drunk with Love

The next chapter completes the Redman story, which includes more Basie, Louis Bellson, the Dorsey Bros., and Redman’s own all-star studio big band.

—Jeff Sultanof