Oran Thaddeus Page

Background

Oran Thaddeus Page was born on January 27, 1908 in Dallas, Texas, United States.

Education

Oran Page received his music lessons from his mother, a schoolteacher, and he experimented with the piano, clarinet, and saxophone before deciding on the trumpet when he was twelve. After attending high school in Corsicana, Texas, he joined the band that accompanied "Ma" Rainey, the earliest blues singer to attain national fame.

Career

Oran Thaddeus Page went to New York and subsequently toured the Theatre Owner's Booking Association circuit with two other renowned blues singers, Bessie Smith and Ida Cox. Returning to Texas, Page worked first in Troy Floyd's San Antonio band and then in a band led jointly by Eddie Fennell and Charles "Sugar Lou" Morgan. He was heard by the celebrated bassist Walter Page (no relation), and in 1928 joined his Blue Devils band. Barnstorming with this group, Page earned the title "Trumpet King of the West, " and his playing inspired the young Ralph Ellison to take up the trumpet.

In 1930 Page joined Bennie Moten's famous Kansas City band; after Moten died in 1935 he formed his own quintet. The following year Page fronted Count Basie's band at the Reno Club in Kansas City. Unfortunately, Page did not long remain with Basie, who soon became an international attraction, but was signed by Louis Armstrong's manager, Joe Glaser, to lead a big band in New York.

After engagements at Smalls' Paradise and the Plantation Club, this band broke up in the summer of 1938. In the years that followed, Page periodically put together other big bands, usually with scant success, then reverted to small groups. He worked with Bud Freeman, Eddie Condon, and Joe Marsala, and in 1942 was successfully featured with Artie Shaw's band for a few months, singing and playing trumpet. He remained active in New York, Chicago, and Boston, in 1946 he accompanied Ethel Waters. Page visited Europe for the first time to play at the Paris Jazz Festival in 1949. The same year in which he made the most successful record of his career, "Baby, It's Cold Outside, " with Pearl Bailey and returned for a three-month tour in 1951.

In 1953 he was featured at Café Society in New York. He continued to work around that city as a single until his death from a heart attack, to which his fast living and heavy drinking must have contributed. Early in his career, Page acquired the nickname of "Hot Lips, " which was soon abbreviated to "Lips. " His Texas background and his association with classic blues singers undoubtedly accounted for the authority with which he sang the blues, an art in which he had no rival among jazz musicians except Louis Armstrong, whose deep, throaty voice was somewhat similar to his own, and who served as his model as a trumpet player. Although well-equipped technically, Page was not given to exhibitionistic virtuosity. He was also a master of "riffs", which he delivered with maximum intensity, either in support of another soloist or as leader of the ensemble in climactic choruses. His use of plunger and derby mutes was especially distinctive. Page was an uncrowned king of jam sessions. Page's reputation among musicians was out of all proportion to his public image.

Achievements

• Oran Thaddeus Page is best remembered for his excellent recordings of "St. James Infirmary" for Artie Shaw, and for the hit single "The Hucklebuck" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" for Pearl Bailey. He was one of the giants of the Swing Era and one of the founders of what came to be known as rhythm and blues. From 1929, he made over 200 recordings.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Collection 1929-53

    (Oran 'Hot Lips' Page was a jazz trumpeter, vocalist and b...)

  • The Lady in Bed

    (The Story of Jazz - Vol. 3 Hot Lips Page - The Lady in Be...)

  • After Hours In Harlem (1940-1941)

    (N/A)

  • Hot Lips Page and His Band: The Chronological Classics, 1938-1940

Personality

Quotes from others about the person

• Hugues Panassié:"Oran played powerful trumpet with a full, big tone, a fiery temperament, and biting, sometimes poignant intonation. When he was really inspired his melodic line was clean and straight-forward, full of the spirit of Armstrong".
  
  John "Dizzy" Gillespie: "When it came to the blues, nobody could mess with Lips, not Louis, not Roy (Eldridge), not me, nobody!".

Interests

• Music & Bands

  In Chicago, Oran Thaddeus Page heard Louis Armstrong, who was then in Joseph "King" Oliver's band. Armstrong immediately became his idol.

Connections

Oran Thaddeus Page was married twice. He had one child with his first wife, Myrtle, and two children with his second wife, Elizabeth.

Spouse:

Elizabeth Page

Spouse:

Myrtle Page

References

• Who's Who Of Jazz (Storyville to Swing Street)