Biography
Born in 1899 in the United States and deceased in 1973, Meroff handled violin, saxophone, and clarinet with equal facility. Vaudeville supplied his earliest paid work before he assembled his own dance orchestra in the mid-1920s, drawing on an array of leading players that at one time or another comprised Norman Hendrickson, Harold White, Gene Gory, Pete Ross, Bill Hughes, Hymie Milrod, Al de Vito, M. Clauberg, Phil Grossi, Wild Bill Davison, Joe Rullo, Joe Quartell, Lenny Cohen, Tony Ciccone, Arnold Pritikin, Al Nillson, George Physter, Bennie Metz, Roy Cole, Al King, Larry Powell, Elmer Eberhardt, Meyer Drumzinsky, Vernon Brown, Jack Marshall, Irving Barnett, Don Ellis, Bill Gollin, Marty Ross, Phil Stevens, Johnny Perrin, Danny Lynch, Al d’Artega, Fred Brown, ‘Mouse’ Powell, ‘Pappy’ Graham, Santo Pecora, Tommy Thomas, Carl Osborne, Rudy Bundy and ‘Red’ Pepper. Meroff’s own magnetism set the group’s tone, steering it toward a polished merger of jazz and dance material whose best-known titles were ‘What’s The Use Of Cryin’?’, ‘Wherever You Go’ and the theme ‘Diane’. He also led the stage presentation himself, injecting a pronounced theatrical flair. The band’s activities centered on the Chicago area and peaked between the late 1920s and early 1930s, yielding releases on Victor Records, OKeh Records and Columbia Records, while intermittent bookings took the musicians to New York for theater and hotel dates. By the time World War II began, Meroff had already dissolved the orchestra in favor of other pursuits.