The Wolverines
Encyclopedia
The Wolverines were an American jazz
band. They were one of the most successful territory band
s of the American Midwest in the 1920s.
south of Hamilton, Ohio
, in September 1923. Many of its players were transplanted Chicago
musicians, and it was led by pianist Dudley Mecum
. Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke
joined the group toward the end of the year after the lead cornetist quit. Mecum named the group based on the fact that they so often performed the Jelly Roll Morton
tune "Wolverine Blues". However, he quit at the end of 1923, and was replaced by Dick Voynow, from St. Louis.
When the Stockton Club closed after a New Year's Eve
brawl, the group moved to Cincinnati to play at Doyle's Dance Studio. They did a three-month stay there and became one of the city's most popular attractions, and on February 18, 1924, they recorded for the first time at Gennett Records
. These were the first recordings Beiderbecke ever played on. Hoagy Carmichael
was in the Gennett studio when the Wolverines recorded his tune "Free Wheeling" on May 6, 1924. It was Bix's idea to rename it "Riverboat Shuffle
". The recording was released as a Gennett 78, 5454-A.
As a live act, they were so popular that the owner of Doyle's locked their instruments in his club to keep them from skipping town, but the group eventually sneaked out in order to take a job in Bloomington, Indiana
. However, when they reached Bloomington, they found their gig had been cancelled. Instead, Bernie Cummins
began booking gigs for them at colleges in Ohio and Indiana; they became a popular attraction at Indiana University
, and recorded again in May and June 1924. Vic Berton
replaced Vic Moore on drums just before their June recording date. However, Berton's tenure did not last long, and Moore returned to the band before the end of the year.
In September 1924 they booked dates at the Roseland Ballroom
in New York City
, and recorded for Gennett again in New York in September and October. After finding out that the Roseland engagement was to be cancelled in November, Beiderbecke left the group to play with Jean Goldkette
. Jimmy McPartland
eventually replaced him, and they recorded yet again for Gennett in December before taking off for a gig in Palm Beach, Florida
.
After 1925 the group's history is less well documented, since the intense interest in the group centers mainly on Beiderbecke's tenure. Voynow sold the rights to the name "Wolverine Orchestra" to a promoter named Husk O'Hare, who began booking several different ensembles under that name through the end of the decade. One of the bands remained popular in the Midwest and played for radio station WLW
, though they only recorded once for Vocalion in 1928.
O'Hare's Wolverines disbanded in 1931, and Al Gande, the original group's trombonist, began touring as the New Wolverine Orchestra in 1936. He remained at the helm of this ensemble until his death in a car crash in 1946. Since then many jazz revival groups have performed under the name "Wolverines".
5565.
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...
band. They were one of the most successful territory band
Territory band
Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, 6 or 7 nights a week at venues like VFW halls, Elks Lodges,...
s of the American Midwest in the 1920s.
History
The Wolverine Orchestra first played at the Stockton Club, a nightclubNightclub
A nightclub is an entertainment venue which usually operates late into the night...
south of Hamilton, Ohio
Hamilton, Ohio
Hamilton is a city in Butler County, southwestern Ohio, United States. The population was 62,447 at the 2010 census. It is the county seat of Butler County. The city is part of the Cincinnati metropolitan area....
, in September 1923. Many of its players were transplanted Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
musicians, and it was led by pianist Dudley Mecum
Dudley Mecum (songwriter)
Dudley Mecum was an American pianist, vocalist and songwriter. He was based in Chicago and had a musical group, Dudley Mecum's Wolverines. In the 1920s he also performed with a number of other ensembles such as Merritt Brunies and his Friar's Inn Orchestra. Mecum co-wrote the song "Angry" Merritt...
. Cornetist Bix Beiderbecke
Bix Beiderbecke
Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
joined the group toward the end of the year after the lead cornetist quit. Mecum named the group based on the fact that they so often performed the Jelly Roll Morton
Jelly Roll Morton
Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe , known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American ragtime and early jazz pianist, bandleader and composer....
tune "Wolverine Blues". However, he quit at the end of 1923, and was replaced by Dick Voynow, from St. Louis.
When the Stockton Club closed after a New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve
New Year's Eve is observed annually on December 31, the final day of any given year in the Gregorian calendar. In modern societies, New Year's Eve is often celebrated at social gatherings, during which participants dance, eat, consume alcoholic beverages, and watch or light fireworks to mark the...
brawl, the group moved to Cincinnati to play at Doyle's Dance Studio. They did a three-month stay there and became one of the city's most popular attractions, and on February 18, 1924, they recorded for the first time at Gennett Records
Gennett Records
Gennett was a United States based record label which flourished in the 1920s.-Label history:Gennett records was founded in Richmond, Indiana by the Starr Piano Company, and released its first records in October 1917. The company took its name from its top managers: Harry, Fred and Clarence Gennett....
. These were the first recordings Beiderbecke ever played on. Hoagy Carmichael
Hoagy Carmichael
Howard Hoagland "Hoagy" Carmichael was an American composer, pianist, singer, actor, and bandleader. He is best known for writing "Stardust", "Georgia On My Mind", "The Nearness of You", and "Heart and Soul", four of the most-recorded American songs of all time.Alec Wilder, in his study of the...
was in the Gennett studio when the Wolverines recorded his tune "Free Wheeling" on May 6, 1924. It was Bix's idea to rename it "Riverboat Shuffle
Riverboat Shuffle
"Riverboat Shuffle" is a popular song composed by Hoagy Carmichael with lyrics by Irving Mills, Mitchell Parish and Dick Voynow. First recorded by Bix Beiderbecke and The Wolverines in 1924, it was Carmichael's first composition and become a Dixieland standard. The Wolverines released the song as a...
". The recording was released as a Gennett 78, 5454-A.
As a live act, they were so popular that the owner of Doyle's locked their instruments in his club to keep them from skipping town, but the group eventually sneaked out in order to take a job in Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington, Indiana
Bloomington is a city in and the county seat of Monroe County in the southern region of the U.S. state of Indiana. The population was 80,405 at the 2010 census....
. However, when they reached Bloomington, they found their gig had been cancelled. Instead, Bernie Cummins
Bernie Cummins
Bernie Cummins was an American jazz drummer and bandleader.Bernie Cummins was born in Akron, Ohio as Bernard Joseph Cummins. Cummins was in his youth a boxer, besides playing drums in local bands in Ohio. In 1919 he created a small ensemble of his own, which debuted in Indiana and which grew...
began booking gigs for them at colleges in Ohio and Indiana; they became a popular attraction at Indiana University
Indiana University
Indiana University is a multi-campus public university system in the state of Indiana, United States. Indiana University has a combined student body of more than 100,000 students, including approximately 42,000 students enrolled at the Indiana University Bloomington campus and approximately 37,000...
, and recorded again in May and June 1924. Vic Berton
Vic Berton
Vic Berton , was an American jazz drummer.Berton was born, Victor Cohen, in Chicago. His father was a violinist and began his son on string instruments around age five. He was hired as a percussionist at the Alhambra Theater in Milwaukee in 1903 when he was only seven years old...
replaced Vic Moore on drums just before their June recording date. However, Berton's tenure did not last long, and Moore returned to the band before the end of the year.
In September 1924 they booked dates at the Roseland Ballroom
Roseland Ballroom
The Roseland Ballroom is a multi-purpose hall, in a converted ice skating rink, with a colorful ballroom dancing pedigree, in New York City's theatre district, on West 52nd Street....
in New York City
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...
, and recorded for Gennett again in New York in September and October. After finding out that the Roseland engagement was to be cancelled in November, Beiderbecke left the group to play with Jean Goldkette
Jean Goldkette
John Jean Goldkette was a jazz pianist and bandleader born in Patras, Greece. Goldkette spent his childhood in Greece and Russia, and emigrated to the United States in 1911....
. Jimmy McPartland
Jimmy McPartland
James Dugald McPartland , better known as Jimmy McPartland, was an American cornetist and one of the originators of Chicago Jazz...
eventually replaced him, and they recorded yet again for Gennett in December before taking off for a gig in Palm Beach, Florida
Palm Beach, Florida
The Town of Palm Beach is an incorporated town in Palm Beach County, Florida, United States. The Intracoastal Waterway separates it from the neighboring cities of West Palm Beach and Lake Worth...
.
After 1925 the group's history is less well documented, since the intense interest in the group centers mainly on Beiderbecke's tenure. Voynow sold the rights to the name "Wolverine Orchestra" to a promoter named Husk O'Hare, who began booking several different ensembles under that name through the end of the decade. One of the bands remained popular in the Midwest and played for radio station WLW
WLW
WLW is a clear channel talk radio station located in Cincinnati, Ohio, run by Clear Channel Communications. The station broadcasts locally on 700 kHz AM...
, though they only recorded once for Vocalion in 1928.
O'Hare's Wolverines disbanded in 1931, and Al Gande, the original group's trombonist, began touring as the New Wolverine Orchestra in 1936. He remained at the helm of this ensemble until his death in a car crash in 1946. Since then many jazz revival groups have performed under the name "Wolverines".
Members
- Dudley MecumDudley Mecum (songwriter)Dudley Mecum was an American pianist, vocalist and songwriter. He was based in Chicago and had a musical group, Dudley Mecum's Wolverines. In the 1920s he also performed with a number of other ensembles such as Merritt Brunies and his Friar's Inn Orchestra. Mecum co-wrote the song "Angry" Merritt...
- piano - Dick Voynow - piano
- Jimmy Hartwell - clarinet
- Turk Savage - clarinet
- Rosy McHargueRosy McHargueJames "Rosy" McHargue was an American jazz clarinetist, associated principally with the Dixieland jazz scene....
- clarinet - Bix BeiderbeckeBix BeiderbeckeLeon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke was an American jazz cornetist, jazz pianist, and composer.With Louis Armstrong, Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s...
- cornet - Jimmy McPartlandJimmy McPartlandJames Dugald McPartland , better known as Jimmy McPartland, was an American cornetist and one of the originators of Chicago Jazz...
- trumpet - Min LeibrookMin LeibrookWilford F. Leibrook was an American jazz tubist and bassist.Born in Hamilton, Ohio, Leibrook began as a cornetist before switching to tuba and bass. In the 1920s he played in the Ten Foot Band in Chicago...
- tuba - Bob Gillette - banjo
- Al Gande - trombone
- George Johnson - tenor saxophone
- Vic Moore - drums
- Vic BertonVic BertonVic Berton , was an American jazz drummer.Berton was born, Victor Cohen, in Chicago. His father was a violinist and began his son on string instruments around age five. He was hired as a percussionist at the Alhambra Theater in Milwaukee in 1903 when he was only seven years old...
- drums
Major Recordings
- "Fidgety Feet"/"Jazz Me Blues," recorded on February 18, 1924, in Richmond, Indiana, and released as Gennett 5408
- "Oh Baby"/"Copenhagen," recorded on May 6, 1924, and released as Gennett 5453 and Claxtonola 40336
- "Riverboat Shuffle"/"Susie (Of the Islands)," recorded on May 6, 1924, and released as Gennett 5454
- "I Need Some Pettin'"/"Royal Garden Blues", recorded on June 20, 1924 in Richmond, Indiana and released as Gennett 20062
- "Tiger RagTiger Rag"Tiger Rag" is a jazz standard, originally recorded and copyrighted by the Original Dixieland Jass Band in 1917. It is one of the most recorded jazz compositions of all time.-Origins:...
", recorded on June 20, 1924 in Richmond, Indiana, unissued test pressing. It was released in 1936 by English Brunswick as 02205-B and as Hot Record Society 24 - "Sensation"/"Lazy Daddy," recorded on September 16, 1924 and released as Gennett 5542
- "Tia Juana"/"Big Boy", recorded on October 7, 1924 in New York and released as Gennett
5565.