Jan Savitt

The exact year of violinist, vocalist, arranger, and bandleader Jan Savitt’s birth remains unsettled, although September 4, 1913 is the date carried on official records; some evidence suggests he may actually have arrived as early as 1908. His father had served as a musician in Tsar Nicholas II’s Imperial Regiment Band before the family emigrated to America in 1914. As a youngster Savitt took up the violin and, at fifteen, received an invitation to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra. He pursued further training both abroad and at the Curtis Institute; during the 1930s he assembled a string quartet that secured its own coast-to-coast radio program. In 1937 he organized the Top Hatters, launching them on the road the following year. While his early reputation rested on prodigious instrumental skill, lasting recognition arrived through his work as a leader whose ensembles were drilled to a high standard of cohesion and whose polished sound ranked with the era’s best. “Quaker City Jazz” served as the band’s theme, and “720 in the Books” became its major commercial success. Vocalist George Tunnell, billed as Bon Bon, appeared with the group—one of the first Black singers or instrumentalists to integrate a white orchestra. The outfit scored several additional hits throughout the 1940s and appeared in a pair of low-budget films in 1946 and 1947. Savitt died suddenly while touring in 1948.