Al Hirt

Al Hirt

born on 7/11/1922 in New Orleans, LA, United States

died on 27/4/1999 in New Orleans, LA, United States

Al Hirt

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Al Hirt

Al Hirt (November 7, 1922 April 27, 1999) was an American trumpeter and bandleader.[1] He is best remembered for his million-selling recordings of "Java" and the accompanying album Honey in the Horn (1963), and for the theme song to The Green Hornet. His nicknames included "Jumbo" and "The Round Mound of Sound".[1] Hirt was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in November 2009.

Biography

Alois Maxwell Hirt was born in New Orleans, Louisiana,[1] the son of a police officer. At the age of six, he was given his first trumpet, which had been purchased at a local pawnshop. He would play in the Junior Police Band with the children of Alcide Nunez, and by the age of 16, Hirt was playing professionally, often with his friend Pete Fountain. During this time, he was hired to play at the local horse racing track, beginning a six-decade connection to the sport.

In 1940, Hirt went to Cincinnati, Ohio, to study at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with Dr. Frank Simon (a former soloist with the John Philip Sousa Orchestra). After a stint as a bugler in the United States Army during World War II, Hirt performed with various Swing big bands, including those of Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Ina Ray Hutton.

In 1950, Hirt became first trumpet and soloist with Horace Heidt's Orchestra.

Hirt then returned to New Orleans, working with various Dixieland groups and leading his own bands. Despite Hirt's statement years later "I'm not a jazz trumpeter and never was a jazz trumpeter", he made a few recordings where he demonstrated his ability to play in that style, during the 1950s with bandleader Monk Hazel, and a few other recordings on the local Southland Records label.

Hirt's virtuoso dexterity and fine tone on his instrument soon attracted the attention of national labels and he signed with RCA Victor Records. Hirt posted twenty-two albums on the Billboard charts in the 1950s and 1960s. The albums Honey In The Horn and Cotton Candy were both in the Top 10 best sellers for 1964, the same year Hirt scored a hit single with his cover of Allen Toussaint's tune "Java" (Billboard No. 4), and later won a Grammy Award for the same recording. Both Honey in the Horn and "Java" sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs.[2]

Hirt's Top 40 charted hit "Sugar Lips" in 1964 would be later used as the theme song for the NBC daytime game show Eye Guess, hosted by Bill Cullen and originally airing during the mid-to-late 1960s. Hirt was chosen to record the frenetic theme for the 1960s TV show "The Green Hornet", by famed arranger and composer Billy May. Thematically reminiscent of Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee, it showcased Hirt's technical prowess. The recording again gained public attention in 2003 when it was used in the film Kill Bill.

From the mid-1950s to early 1960s, Hirt and his band played nightly at Dan's Pier 600 at the corner of St. Louis and Bourbon Street. The club was owned by his business manager, Dan Levy, Sr. In 1962 Hirt opened his own club on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, which he ran until 1983. He also became a minority owner in the NFL expansion New Orleans Saints in 1967.

In 1962, in an effort to showcase him in a different musical setting, Hirt was teamed with arranger and composer Billy May and producer Steve Sholes to record an album titled Horn A Plenty that was a departure from the Dixieland material that he was generally associated with. Covering an eclectic variety of popular, standard and show tunes, it featured a big-band supplemented by timpani, French horns and harp.

On February 8, 1970, while performing in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, Hirt was injured while riding on a float. It is popularly believed that he was struck in the mouth by a thrown piece of concrete or brick. Factual documentation of the details of the incident is sparse, consisting primarily of claims made by Hirt after the incident. Whatever the actual cause of his injuries, Hirt underwent surgery and had to wait a while and then practice slowly to make a return to the club scene. This incident was parodied in a Saturday Night Live skit from their second season Mardi Gras special, the "Let's Hit Al Hirt in the Mouth with a Brick Contest".[3]

In 1987, Hirt played a solo rendition of "Ave Maria" for Pope John Paul II's visit to New Orleans.

In 1999, Hirt died, aged 76, in New Orleans of liver failure,[1] after spending the previous year in a wheelchair due to edema in his leg. Despite the bout with edema, Hirt continued to play in local clubs including Chris Owens Club. Hirt was buried in Metairie Cemetery in New Orleans.

Hirt had eight children, ten grandchildren, and six great-grandchildren. In 1990, he married Beverly Estabrook Essel, a friend of 40 years.

He is referred to in the 1987 film, Good Morning Vietnam, in a broadcast made by Lieutenant Hauk (Bruno Kirby).

Discography

Singles

Year Name US Billboard Chart US Adult Contemporary Record Label A-Side/B-Side Album
1964 "Java" 4 1 RCA Victor 8280 B-Side: "I Can't Get Started" Honey in the Horn
"Cotton Candy" 15 3 RCA Victor 8346 B-Side: "Walkin'" Cotton Candy
"Walkin'" 103 RCA Victor 8346 A-Side: "Cotton Candy" Cotton Candy
"Sugar Lips" 30 3 RCA Victor 8391 B-Side: "Poupee Brisee (Broken Doll)" Sugar Lips
"Up Above My Head (I Hear Music in the Air)" 85 12 RCA Victor 8439 A-Side: "September Song" Sugar Lips
1965 "Feelin' Fruggy" - 30 RCA Victor 8684 B-Side: "Louisiana Lullaby"
"Fancy Pants" 47 9 RCA Victor 8487 B-Side: "Star Dust" That Honey Horn Sound
"Al's Place" 57 13 RCA Victor 8543 B-Side: "Mister Sandman"
"The Silence (Il Silenzio)" 96 19 RCA Victor 8653 B-Side: "Love Theme from The Sandpiper"
1966 "Mame" - 36 RCA Victor 8774 B-Side: "Seven Days To Tahiti"
"Trumpet Pickin'" - 27 RCA Victor 8854 B-Side: "Skillet Lickin'"
"The Arena" 129 28 RCA Victor 8736 A-Side: "Yesterday"
"Green Hornet Theme" 126 - RCA Victor 8925 B-Side: "Strawberry Jam" The Horn Meets "The Hornet"
1967 "Ludwig" - 23 RCA Victor 9381 Soul in the Horn
"Music to Watch Girls By" 119 31 RCA Victor 9060 B-Side: "His Girl"
"Puppet on a String" 129 18 RCA Victor 9198 B-Side: "Big Honey"
1968 "Keep the Ball Rollin'" 100 10 RCA Victor 9417 B-Side: "Manhattan Safari"
"We Can Fly/Up-Up and Away" 129 23
1969 "If" 116 16 RCA Victor 9717 A-Side: "Penny Arcade"

Albums

Year Album US Billboard Top 200 Top Jazz Albums Record Label
1955 Al Hirt in New Orleans - - Coral Music Group
1956 Al Hirt's Jazz Band Ball - -
1957 Al Hirt and His New Orleans All Stars - - Southland Records
1957 Blockbustin' Dixie! - - Verve Records
1958 Swingin' Dixie at Dan's Pier 600 in New Orleans, Vol. 1 - - Audio Fidelity Records
1958 Swingin' Dixie, Vol. 3 - - Audio Fidelity Records
1959 Swingin' Dixie at Dan's Pier 600 in New Orleans, Vol. 2 - - Audio Fidelity Records
1961 He's the King and His Band 61 - RCA Victor
1961 The Greatest Horn in the World 21 - RCA Victor
1962 At the Mardi Gras - - RCA Records
1962 Horn A-Plenty 24 - RCA Records
1962 Trumpet and Strings 96 - RCA Records
1963 Honey in the Horn 3 - RCA Records
1963 Our Man in New Orleans 44 - RCA Victor
1963 Personalities - - Bear Family Records
1964 Beauty and the Beard 83 - RCA Victor
1964 Sugar Lips 9 - RCA Records
1964 Cotton Candy 6 - RCA Records
1965 The Best of Al Hirt 13 - RCA Records
1965 Live at Carnegie Hall 47 - RCA Records
1965 That Honey Horn Sound 28 - RCA Victor
1965 They're Playing Our Song 39 - RCA Victor
1966 The Happy Trumpet 125 - RCA Victor
1966 The Horn Meets The Hornet - - RCA Victor
1966 Latin in the Horn - - RCA Victor
1967 Soul in the Horn - - RCA Records
1968 Al Hirt Plays Bert Kaempfert 116 - RCA Victor
1976 Super Jazz 1 - - Sony BMG
1988 That's a Plenty - 9 Pro-Arte Records
1989 Cotton Candy - 12 Pro Jazz Records
1989 Jazzin' at the Pops 12 - Pro Jazz Records
1991 Al's Place - - Special Music
1991 Raw Sugar, Sweet Sauce - - Monument Records
1992 The Sound of Christmas - - RCA Records
1992 Have a Merry Little Christmas - - Special Music
1993 Bourbon Street Parade - - Intersound Records
1996 Al Hirt & His Golden Trumpet - - Total Recording Records
1996 Live on Bourbon Street - - Laserlight Records
2000 Music to Watch Girls By - - RCA Victor

References

  1. 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Dead Rock Stars Club 1998-1999. The Dead Rock Stars Club. Retrieved on 9 March 2013.
  2. Murrells, Joseph (1978). The Book of Golden Discs, 2nd, London: Barrie and Jenkins Ltd.
  3. Season 2 Mardi Gras Special. Saturday Night Live Transcripts. Archived from the original on 7 January 2009. Retrieved on 21 December 2008.

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
  • Al Hirt. Find a Grave. Retrieved on December 28, 2010.
This page was last modified 05.12.2013 20:59:14

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