Oran Page
Encyclopedia
Oran Thaddeus Page was an American
jazz
trumpet
er, singer, and bandleader born in Dallas, Texas
, United States
. He was better known as Hot Lips Page by the public, and Lips Page by his fellow musicians. He was known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist.
Page was a member of Walter Page
's Blue Devils, Artie Shaw
's Orchestra and Count Basie
's Orchestra, and he worked with Ma Rainey
, Bessie Smith
and Ida Cox
.
in his early teens, traveled across the Southwestern United States
and toured as far east as Atlanta and as far north as New York City. He played in circuses and minstrel shows and backing such blues
singers as Ma Rainey
, Bessie Smith
, and Ida Cox
. Page's main trumpet influence was Louis Armstrong
, though throughout his career he cited other local trumpeters, including Harry Smith (Kansas City) and Benno Kennedy (San Antonio) as being early influences.
In the mid-1920s, while still a teenager, he is believed to have appeared with Troy Floyd and His Orchestra in San Antonio, Texas
and with Eddie and Sugar Lou, a dance band headquartered in Tyler, Texas
, though no documentation has been unearthed to support his presence in either band. He also claimed to have appeared around 1925 with a band in Shreveport, Louisiana known as Goog and His Jazz Babies and with a band in New Orleans known as French's Jazz Orchestra, though no documentation has been discovered.
In 1926, he caught the eye of the bassist Walter Page
(no relation) who had recently assumed leadership of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils
. It is believed that Oran Page joined the Blue Devils circa 1927, though no known documentation exists to support his presence with the band until the fall of 1928. He played and toured with the Blue Devils until the spring of 1931, when he joined the Bennie Moten
Orchestra, the leading dance band out of Kansas City.
Though not a regular member of the band, Page appeared as a vocalist, emcee and hot trumpet soloist with Count Basie
's Reno Club orchestra after the Moten band finally disbanded upon that leader's sudden death in April, 1935. Page embarked upon a solo career during this period, playing with small pick up bands out of Kansas City, where he had moved in the spring of 1931.
The Reno Club, in downtown Kansas City, had a floor show, which included Page and vocalist Jimmy Rushing
. Basie's band was just starting to build their reputation, but in the summer of 1936 - on the eve of Basie’s national success - and at the beckoning of Louis Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser, Page decided to pursue a solo career. He moved to New York City in December 1936.
Page's career as a bandleader got off to an auspicious start, with sold-out appearances and an extended run at Harlem's Small's Paradise in the summer of 1937, but by 1939 he was struggling to maintain a regular working band. Nonetheless, he remained a popular and successful performer, leading several bands and combos of his own, particularly on New York's 52nd Street
, where he appeared from 1938 or 1939 through the 1950s, and in many venues in Harlem. Page toured extensively throughout the southern United States, and throughout the northeast and Canada at the head of as many as 13 different big bands during the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared briefly with Bud Freeman
's Orchestra in 1938, and was a featured vocalist and hot soloist with Artie Shaw
's Symphonic Swing Orchestra in 1941 and 1942, with whom he recorded over 40 sides.
From 1929, he made over 200 recordings, most as a leader, for Bluebird, Vocalion, Decca and Harmony Records, among others. His band backed the singer Wynonie Harris
on the session that produced the hit "Good Rocking Tonight
" though Page was never credited as the leader. He was the leader of the house band at the Apollo Theater
during the early 1940s, and he recorded duets with Pearl Bailey
on "The Hucklebuck" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside
" in 1949. He traveled to Europe in 1949 and appeared at Salle Pleyel in the first international jazz festival there, and returned to Europe at least twice for extended tours in the early 1950s.
Page was known as "Mr. After Hours" to his many friends for his ability to take on all comers in late night jam sessions, and he was recorded at Harlem's Minton's Playhouse
in 1941 playing a kind of proto-bebop
style then in vogue.
He was one of the most flexible of trumpeters, demonstrating a broad tone and a wide range on the instrument. He has been largely neglected by historians since his death due to mysterious circumstances, but is considered by many to be one of the giants of the Swing Era and one of the founders of what came to be known as rhythm and blues
.
Page died in New York
in November 1954, aged 46.
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
trumpet
Trumpet
The trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
er, singer, and bandleader born in Dallas, Texas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
. He was better known as Hot Lips Page by the public, and Lips Page by his fellow musicians. He was known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist.
Page was a member of Walter Page
Walter Page
Walter Sylvester Page , nicknamed "Hoss," was an African American jazz bassist and leader of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils jazz orchestra from 1925–1931...
's Blue Devils, Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
's Orchestra and Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
's Orchestra, and he worked with Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues....
, Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
and Ida Cox
Ida Cox
Ida Cox was an African American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings...
.
Life and career
In his early years, Page, who moved to Corsicana, TexasCorsicana, Texas
Corsicana is a city in Navarro County, Texas, United States. It is located on Interstate 45 some fifty-five miles south of downtown Dallas. The population was 24,485 at the 2000 census...
in his early teens, traveled across the Southwestern United States
Southwestern United States
The Southwestern United States is a region defined in different ways by different sources. Broad definitions include nearly a quarter of the United States, including Arizona, California, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Texas and Utah...
and toured as far east as Atlanta and as far north as New York City. He played in circuses and minstrel shows and backing such blues
Blues
Blues is the name given to both a musical form and a music genre that originated in African-American communities of primarily the "Deep South" of the United States at the end of the 19th century from spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts and chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads...
singers as Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey
Ma Rainey was one of the earliest known American professional blues singers and one of the first generation of such singers to record. She was billed as The Mother of the Blues....
, Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith
Bessie Smith was an American blues singer.Sometimes referred to as The Empress of the Blues, Smith was the most popular female blues singer of the 1920s and 1930s...
, and Ida Cox
Ida Cox
Ida Cox was an African American singer and vaudeville performer, best known for her blues performances and recordings...
. Page's main trumpet influence was Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong
Louis Armstrong , nicknamed Satchmo or Pops, was an American jazz trumpeter and singer from New Orleans, Louisiana....
, though throughout his career he cited other local trumpeters, including Harry Smith (Kansas City) and Benno Kennedy (San Antonio) as being early influences.
In the mid-1920s, while still a teenager, he is believed to have appeared with Troy Floyd and His Orchestra in San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
and with Eddie and Sugar Lou, a dance band headquartered in Tyler, Texas
Tyler, Texas
Tyler is a city in and the county seat of Smith County, Texas, in the United States. It takes its name from President John Tyler . The city had a population of 109,000 in 2010, according to the United States Census Bureau...
, though no documentation has been unearthed to support his presence in either band. He also claimed to have appeared around 1925 with a band in Shreveport, Louisiana known as Goog and His Jazz Babies and with a band in New Orleans known as French's Jazz Orchestra, though no documentation has been discovered.
In 1926, he caught the eye of the bassist Walter Page
Walter Page
Walter Sylvester Page , nicknamed "Hoss," was an African American jazz bassist and leader of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils jazz orchestra from 1925–1931...
(no relation) who had recently assumed leadership of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils
Oklahoma City Blue Devils
The Oklahoma City Blue Devils was the premier Southwest territory jazz band in the 1920s. Originally called Billy King's Road Show, it disbanded in Oklahoma City in 1925 where Walter Page renamed it...
. It is believed that Oran Page joined the Blue Devils circa 1927, though no known documentation exists to support his presence with the band until the fall of 1928. He played and toured with the Blue Devils until the spring of 1931, when he joined the Bennie Moten
Bennie Moten
Bennie Moten was a noted American jazz pianist and band leader born in Kansas City, Missouri.He led the Kansas City Orchestra, the most important of the itinerant, blues-based orchestras active in the Midwest in the 1920s, and helped to develop the riffing style that would come to define many of...
Orchestra, the leading dance band out of Kansas City.
Though not a regular member of the band, Page appeared as a vocalist, emcee and hot trumpet soloist with Count Basie
Count Basie
William "Count" Basie was an American jazz pianist, organist, bandleader, and composer. Basie led his jazz orchestra almost continuously for nearly 50 years...
's Reno Club orchestra after the Moten band finally disbanded upon that leader's sudden death in April, 1935. Page embarked upon a solo career during this period, playing with small pick up bands out of Kansas City, where he had moved in the spring of 1931.
The Reno Club, in downtown Kansas City, had a floor show, which included Page and vocalist Jimmy Rushing
Jimmy Rushing
James Andrew Rushing , known as Jimmy Rushing, was an American blues shouter and swing jazz singer from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, United States, best known as the featured vocalist of Count Basie's Orchestra from 1935 to 1948.Rushing was known as "Mr...
. Basie's band was just starting to build their reputation, but in the summer of 1936 - on the eve of Basie’s national success - and at the beckoning of Louis Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser, Page decided to pursue a solo career. He moved to New York City in December 1936.
Page's career as a bandleader got off to an auspicious start, with sold-out appearances and an extended run at Harlem's Small's Paradise in the summer of 1937, but by 1939 he was struggling to maintain a regular working band. Nonetheless, he remained a popular and successful performer, leading several bands and combos of his own, particularly on New York's 52nd Street
52nd Street (Manhattan)
52nd Street is a long one-way street traveling west to east across Midtown Manhattan.-Jazz center:The blocks of 52nd Street between Fifth Avenue and Seventh Avenue were renowned in the mid-20th century for the abundance of jazz clubs and lively street life...
, where he appeared from 1938 or 1939 through the 1950s, and in many venues in Harlem. Page toured extensively throughout the southern United States, and throughout the northeast and Canada at the head of as many as 13 different big bands during the 1930s and 1940s. He appeared briefly with Bud Freeman
Bud Freeman
Lawrence "Bud" Freeman was a U.S. jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing the tenor saxophone, but also able at the clarinet. He had a smooth and full tenor sax style with a heavy robust swing. He was one of the most influential and important jazz tenor saxophonists of...
's Orchestra in 1938, and was a featured vocalist and hot soloist with Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw
Arthur Jacob Arshawsky , better known as Artie Shaw, was an American jazz clarinetist, composer, and bandleader. He was also the author of both fiction and non-fiction writings....
's Symphonic Swing Orchestra in 1941 and 1942, with whom he recorded over 40 sides.
From 1929, he made over 200 recordings, most as a leader, for Bluebird, Vocalion, Decca and Harmony Records, among others. His band backed the singer Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris
Wynonie Harris , born in Omaha, Nebraska, was an American blues shouter and rhythm and blues singer of upbeat songs, featuring humorous, often ribald lyrics. With fifteen Top 10 hits between 1946 and 1952, Harris is generally considered one of rock and roll's forerunners, influencing Elvis Presley...
on the session that produced the hit "Good Rocking Tonight
Good Rocking Tonight
"Good Rocking Tonight" was originally a jump blues song released in 1947 by its writer, Roy Brown and was covered by many other recording artists. The song includes the memorable refrain, "Well I heard the news, there's good rocking tonight!"...
" though Page was never credited as the leader. He was the leader of the house band at the Apollo Theater
Apollo Theater
The Apollo Theater in New York City is one of the most famous, and older, music halls in the United States, and the most famous club associated almost exclusively with Black performers...
during the early 1940s, and he recorded duets with Pearl Bailey
Pearl Bailey
Pearl Mae Bailey was an American actress and singer. After appearing in vaudeville, she made her Broadway debut in St. Louis Woman in 1946. She won a Tony Award for the title role in the all-black production of Hello, Dolly! in 1968...
on "The Hucklebuck" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside
Baby, It's Cold Outside
Baby, It's Cold Outside may refer to:*"Baby, It's Cold Outside", a 1948 song by Frank Loesser*"Cold Outside", a song by country music band Big House from their self-titled debut album*"Baby, It's Cold Outside", a 1991 short story by Isaac Asimov...
" in 1949. He traveled to Europe in 1949 and appeared at Salle Pleyel in the first international jazz festival there, and returned to Europe at least twice for extended tours in the early 1950s.
Page was known as "Mr. After Hours" to his many friends for his ability to take on all comers in late night jam sessions, and he was recorded at Harlem's Minton's Playhouse
Minton's Playhouse
Minton’s Playhouse is a jazz club and bar located on the first floor of the Cecil Hotel at 210 West 118th Street in Harlem. Minton’s was founded by tenor saxophonist Henry Minton in 1938...
in 1941 playing a kind of proto-bebop
Bebop
Bebop differed drastically from the straightforward compositions of the swing era, and was instead characterized by fast tempos, asymmetrical phrasing, intricate melodies, and rhythm sections that expanded on their role as tempo-keepers...
style then in vogue.
He was one of the most flexible of trumpeters, demonstrating a broad tone and a wide range on the instrument. He has been largely neglected by historians since his death due to mysterious circumstances, but is considered by many to be one of the giants of the Swing Era and one of the founders of what came to be known as rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, often abbreviated to R&B, is a genre of popular African American music that originated in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predominantly to urban African Americans, at a time when "urbane, rocking, jazz based music with a...
.
Page died in New York
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in November 1954, aged 46.