RED NICHOLS AND HIS FIVE PENNIES

“Actually, I believe that music, like every other art form, must change with the times.”

That was the philosophy of bandleader Red Nichols. Born in 1905, his father taught him to play coronet and trumpet. By age four, Red was already marching in parades. In his teens, he began hanging out with a rough bunch. Worried about his future, his father sent him to Culver Military School, but he was kicked out a year later for smoking. At twenty-three, Red Nichols joined a band and made his first recording, Toot, Toot, Tootsie. A few years later, he formed his own band, and a drummer friend suggest the name, Red Nichols and his Five Pennies. They became so famous that Danny Kaye stared as Red (actual solos provided by Red) in the movie, Five Pennies, made in 1954 by Paramount Pictures. I’ve heard it said that Red Nichols made more Jazz recordings than any other player in history.