Red Nichols, On Lawrence Welk, 1956

Red Nichols and his Five Pennies were one of the most popular bands of the New York Jazz scene of the 1920s. They recorded under a variety of different names, including the Arkansas Travelers, The Red Heads, The Louisiana Rhythm Kings, The Charleston Chasers, The Six Hottentots, The Hottentots and Miff Mole and his Little Molers. The band's style was often called "Chamber Jazz" by critics and for what it lacked in hot intensity it made up for with a cool somewhat detached, yet urban and sophisticated sound. In 1959 Hollywood made a highly fictionalized movie about the band called "The Five Pennies", starring Danny Kaye as Red Nichols.

Here is a bonus recording of Red Nichols and His Five Pennies performing the songs"Ida (Sweet As Apple Cider)", "Whispering", "Nobody's Sweetheart", "Who Cares" and "China Boy"." from the 1929 Vitaphone short "Red Nichols and His Five Pennies". Eddie Condon is the vocalist.

Thanks to Dennis Pereyra, James Gallup and Verne Buland for their help with this page. Additional thanks to Scott and Mark of Vintage Music Company If you are looking for great jazz on 78's, visit the Vintage Music Company's homepage (www.vintagemusicco.com)
Read more: http://www.redhotjazz.com/rn5p.html

Red Nichols and his Five Pennies, featured on Lawrence Welk's New Year's Eve show, on Saturday, Dec 29, 1956.

Tune trifecta: Louisiana, Fidgety Feet, Maple Leaf Rag.

Band members: Al Stevenson(p), Joe Rushton(bsx), Bill Wood(c), Rollie Culver(d), King Jackson(tbn), Red Nichols(cor).

Red was enjoying renewed popularity during the 1950s with this six piece band. They traveled extensively, played many venues, and if you didn't catch them at a nightclub near you, this was a rare look at them at work on nationwide television.

You wouldn't think it based on his general music format, but Welk loved Dixieland and had many guys like these on his show over the years — Al Hirt, Pete Fountain, just to name a couple.

I thank the huge generosity of Steve Cooper for providing this clip. Check out his other offerings and tributes to jazz greats on YouTube also. Check out his Louisiana rendition of the above Nichols take at — http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8KwbQk... .