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Eddie Condon

From HitStory, the pop encyclopedia of School of Rock · Artist

Eddie Condon was an American banjo player, guitarist and bandleader, born in 1905 in Goodland, Indiana, and raised in Illinois. He began on the ukulele, switched to banjo and was already a professional musician in 1921. In the 1920s he played mainly in Chicago, with, among others, Bix Beiderbecke, Jack Teagarden and Frank Teschemacher. In 1925 he founded the Chicago Rhythm Kings together with Red McKenzie. He went to the Lincoln Gardens club to see King Oliver and his band and to learn from them.

Music and breakthrough

In 1928 Condon moved to New York. There he organised jam sessions and recordings for record companies, sometimes with Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller, and he arranged mixed-race recording sessions at a time when they were still rare. From the late 1930s he often played at Nick's in Manhattan. The refined variety of Dixieland that he made there with his colleagues was nicknamed Nicksieland, although Condon himself hated the word Dixieland. From 1945 to 1967 he had a jazz club of his own in New York. In 1944 and 1945 his jazz concerts were broadcast from Town Hall. His autobiography is called We Called It Music, from 1948. He toured England in 1957 and Australia and Japan in 1964.

Influence

Condon played a four-string guitar, but never recorded a solo on it. His role lay mainly in organising, leading and bringing players together. He is the face of the Chicago style, a fiery, collective jazz in which everyone plays at once and drives the rhythm. He died in 1973.

Listening

Listening tip. Listen to a recording of Eddie Condon with his band, for example from the album At the Jazz Band Ball, and notice how the horns weave in and out of each other while the rhythm guitar keeps the tempo. Can you hear the guitar as a quiet engine beneath the whole?

Discography

Studio albums

In School of Rock

The chapters, maps and magazine stories of School of Rock are currently available in Dutch only.

Categories: Artists