Eddie Heywood

In the mid-1940s the Eddie Heywood Sextet drew strong audiences with its lyrical, precisely crafted treatments of swing standards. Eddie Heywood Sr., a capable jazz pianist active in the 1920s who frequently backed the vaudeville team Butterbeans and Susie, gave his son formal piano instruction; the younger musician turned professional at fourteen. After stints with Wayman Carver in 1932 and Clarence Love from 1934 to 1937, Heywood Jr. moved to New York and performed with Benny Carter between 1939 and 1940. From then on he led his own ensembles and occasionally accompanied Billie Holiday, beginning in 1941. During a 1943 Coleman Hawkins quartet session he contributed memorable solos, most prominently on “The Man I Love,” and formed his first sextet, which included Doc Cheatham and Vic Dickenson. The group’s 1944 recording of “Begin the Beguine” became a hit and launched three years of steady success. Partial paralysis of his hands kept Heywood from playing between 1947 and 1950. He resumed work gradually in the 1950s, concentrating largely on simplified commercial fare while also composing the standard “Canadian Sunset.” A second episode of paralysis occurred in the late 1960s, yet he continued performing into the 1980s.