Roy Eldridge—”Heckler’s Hop” (1937)
This recording of Roy Eldridge‘s composition “Heckler’s Hop,” ranks among the very best records in his discography. In addition to the breathtaking playing of the leader, also note the magnificent drumming of Zutty Singleton.
Which Roy Eldridge record do you consider to be one of your favorites?
Roy Eldridge and his Orchestra: Roy Eldridge-trumpet; George “Scoops” Carry and Roy’s brother Joe Eldridge-alto saxophones; Dave Young-tenor saxophone; Teddy Cole-piano; John Collins-guitar; Charles “Tuck” Parham-double bass; and Zutty Singleton-drums. For Vocalion in Chicago on January 23, 1937.
At the time, Pennsylvanian Roy Eldridge (1911-1989) was leading this eight-piece band at The Three Deuces Club at 222 North State Street in Chicago. These were the happiest musical days of his life. He was given a free hand to select the content of his nightly radio shows and often threw caution to the wind in broadcasting innovative material.
Early in life, Roy, “tempted by the exercises in his brother Joe’s clarinet method books, developed an extraordinary ability to play long lines in the trumpet’s highest register,” says British trumpeter and author John Chilton, and he describes how Roy “made this skill even more remarkable by fingering the trumpet valves with more speed than any of his contemporaries could muster.” Roy practiced the trumpet at every available moment. Six hours solitary blowing was his daily routine.
Joe Eldridge coached his younger brother in harmonic progressions, and Roy’s acute ear soon led him to conceive new ways of resolving standard chord changes as to create fascinatingly novel “turnaround” phrases that linked one eight-bar pattern with the next. Roy said that his model and inspiration was not another trumpeter but tenor saxophone player Coleman Hawkins.
The CBS Records Jazz Masterpieces Series describes “Heckler’s Hop” as being “a trumpet tour de force that highlights Roy’s ability to stoke up excitement chorus by chorus. He climaxes his efforts with some stratospheric phrases way above top ‘C’ -- then regarded as the upper limits of the trumpet’s range. The band sounds positively inspired by Roy’s electrifying ideas, and drummer Zutty Singleton excels himself.”
