Lucky Millinder
(born Lucius Millinder, August 8,
1900, Anniston, Ala.; died September 28, 1966, New
York, N.Y.)
In the 1940s, the Lucky
Millinder Orchestra provided a vital link between
big band swing and rhythm & blues. Although
Millinder didn't play an instrument and reputedly
couldn't even read music, he nonetheless played a
crucial role in the early development of jump blues.
Miilinder was born in Alabama but
Raised in Chicago. He got his start in music as a
emcee. In 1934 Millinder took over the directorship
of the Mills Blue Rhythm Band, one of the early
black swing bands in the 1930s. Millender worked
with Bill Doggett's band in 1938 after the Blue
Rhythm Band dissolved, and then formed the Lucky
Millinder Orchestra in 1940. The Orchestra became
one of the most rhythmically exciting bands on the
swing circuit.
The Millinder band was especially
popular in Harlem as it gradually shifted away from
swing and more toward early rhythm & blues.
Among the orchestra's many noted members were Dizzy
Gillespie and Bull Moose
Jackson. Millinder eventually secured a
recording contract with Decca; from 1942 to 1945 the
orchestra landed four records at the top of the
charts. One of the hits, "When The Lights Go On
Again (All Over The World)" featured Gillespie on
trumpet.
Along with other black bands such as
those led by Cab Calloway and Count Basie, The
Millinder band paved the way for the R&B Boom of
the late 1940s.
Robert
Santelli
- The Big Book of Blues
