Biography
Ziggy Elman, born Harry Finkelman, left a mark on big band, swing, jazz, and klezmer traditions alike. His 1939 recording of the klezmer melody “Fralich in Swing,” released with vocalist Martha Tilton under the title “And the Angels Sing,” turned into a major success and endures as a swing-era standard. Though he issued more than two dozen sides under his own name, Elman is chiefly recalled for his contributions to Benny Goodman & His Orchestra during the 1930s and to Tommy Dorsey & His Orchestra in the 1940s. Goodman himself, in a Collier’s interview dated February 25, 1939, looked back on an earlier episode: “Back in 1934 while we were playing for a convention hall in Kansas City, Ziggy Elman reached for his trumpet, turned it toward heaven and swung into a head arrangement for a chorus of ‘Whispering.’ A head arrangement, should you be interested, means merely that Ziggy took the deathless, if played-to-death, melody of ‘Whispering’ and embroidered it with a fanciful filigree of musical decoration, every note of which came into his head the instant before he blew it. Thus, by gifted improvisation, Ziggy put life and head into the song, gave it wings. In musical slang, he put rock into it.”
Elman first drew notice in 1932 by playing trombone on a session led by Alex Bartha. He entered Benny Goodman’s orchestra four years later. Music itself supplied his chief satisfaction; after Harry James joined the ensemble, Elman willingly provided harmony parts behind James’s solos. His most productive stretch as a leader occurred in 1938 and 1939, when he documented twenty titles. He stayed with Goodman until 1940, at which point he moved to Tommy Dorsey’s band and remained a featured soloist there through 1947. Between 1947 and 1952 he alternated between Dorsey’s group and his own unit, yet once the swing era faded he slipped from view. For the remainder of his life he appeared only sporadically on studio dates.
Elman first drew notice in 1932 by playing trombone on a session led by Alex Bartha. He entered Benny Goodman’s orchestra four years later. Music itself supplied his chief satisfaction; after Harry James joined the ensemble, Elman willingly provided harmony parts behind James’s solos. His most productive stretch as a leader occurred in 1938 and 1939, when he documented twenty titles. He stayed with Goodman until 1940, at which point he moved to Tommy Dorsey’s band and remained a featured soloist there through 1947. Between 1947 and 1952 he alternated between Dorsey’s group and his own unit, yet once the swing era faded he slipped from view. For the remainder of his life he appeared only sporadically on studio dates.
Albums
