Hot Lips Page


Oran Thaddeus "Hot Lips" Page was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, and bandleader. He was known as a scorching soloist and powerful vocalist.
Page was a member of Walter Page's Blue Devils, Artie Shaw's Orchestra and Count Basie's Orchestra, and he worked with Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith and Ida Cox. He was one of the five musicians booked for the opening night at Birdland with Charlie Parker in 1949.

Life and career

Oran Thaddeus Page was born in Dallas, Texas, United States, to a schoolteacher and musician mother. He moved with his mother to Corsicana where he began attending Corsicana High School and later Texas College while also working at the oilfields. His earliest gigs were in circuses and minstrel shows while also backing such blues singers as Ma Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Ida Cox. Page's main trumpet influence was Louis Armstrong, though throughout his career he cited other local trumpeters, including Harry Smith and Benno Kennedy as being early influences.
In the mid-1920s, while still a teenager, Page is believed to have appeared with Troy Floyd and His Orchestra in San Antonio, Texas, and with Eddie and Sugar Lou, a dance band headquartered in Tyler, Texas, though no documentation has been unearthed to support his presence in either band. He also claimed to have appeared around 1925 with a band in Shreveport, Louisiana, known as Goog and His Jazz Babies and with a band in New Orleans known as French's Jazz Orchestra, though no documentation has been discovered.
In 1926, he caught the eye of the bassist Walter Page who had recently assumed leadership of the Oklahoma City Blue Devils. It is believed that Oran Page joined the Blue Devils circa 1927, though no known documentation exists to support his presence with the band until the fall of 1928. He played and toured with the Blue Devils until early 1931, when he joined the Bennie Moten Orchestra, the leading dance band of Kansas City.
Though not a regular member of the band, Page appeared as a vocalist, emcee and hot trumpet soloist with Count Basie's Reno Club orchestra, after the Moten band finally disbanded upon that leader's sudden death in April 1935. Page embarked upon a solo career during this period, playing with small pick up bands from Kansas City, where he had moved in early 1931.
File:Hot Lips Page, Sidney Bechet, Freddie Moore, and Lloyd Phillips, Jimmy Ryan's, New York, N.Y., ca. June 1947.jpg|thumb|left|Hot Lips Page, Sidney Bechet,, and Lloyd Phillips at Jimmy Ryan's
Page recorded duets with Pearl Bailey on "The Hucklebuck" and "Baby, It's Cold Outside" in 1949. He traveled to Europe in 1949 and appeared at Salle Pleyel in the first international jazz festival there, and returned to Europe at least twice for extended tours in the early 1950s.
He was one of the most flexible of trumpeters, demonstrating a broad tone and a wide range on the instrument. He is considered by many to be one of the founders of what came to be known as rhythm and blues.
Page died in New York in November 1954, aged 46.

Discography

  • 1938-40 – The Chronological Classics
  • 1940-44 – The Chronological Classics
  • 1944-46 – The Chronological Classics
  • 1946-50 – The Chronological Classics
  • 1950-53 – ''The Chronological Classics''