Billy Arnold (bandleader)
Billy Arnold | |
|---|---|
 Billy Arnold's band, probably in England around 1920 | |
| Background information | |
| Birth name | Arnold William Guldeman |
| Born | January 23, 1910 Paterson, New Jersey |
| Died | January 8, 1962 Paterson, New Jersey |
| Genres | Jazz |
| Occupation(s) | bandleader, piano player |
| Instrument | piano |
| Years active | 1917-1962 |
Billy Arnold led an early jazz band in first London and then Paris in the 1920. He was one of the first people to bring American jazz to Europe. His band had a strong impact on classical composer Darius Milhaud, and on the young Django Reinhardt.
Early Life
Arnold was born in Paterson, New Jersey in 1894, as Arnold William Guldeman. His family had emigrated from Switzerland shortly before his birth. The 1910 census shows William Arnold working as a "shirt cutter”, at age 16. When he registered for the draft in 1917 he gave his occupation as “theater musical director.”[1] Newspaper clippings suggest he worked in Manhattan playing music for silent films.[2] He served in the Army in WWI, and was promoted to private, then corporal, but never left the country.[3]
Career Abroad
Under the professional name “Billy Arnold” he went to London 1919, apparently with other musicians he knew from New York. He made some records in London as Billy Arnold’s Novelty band, which included his brother Henry, who had been living in London. Recordings of the band, which can be found via a web search, show the strong influence of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. While in London, in 1991, The Arnold Band played at a victory ball for General John Pershing.[4]
The composer Darius Milhaud heard the band in London, and encouraged Arnold to go to Paris, where he introduced him in avant garde music circles. The french pianist and composer Jean Wiener gave a concert in which he paired Arnold band with a mechanical piano playing Stravinsky’s “Rite of Spring.”[5] (Cook, Nicholas, and Anthony Pople. The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music, 2014 p 168-169) Milhaud mentioned him in a 1924 article, “the Jazz Band and Negro Music,” in the Living Age. Milhaud wrote:
“It is necessary to hear a serious jazz band such as Billy Arnold’s or Paul Whiteman’s. There nothing is left to chance, everything is balance and proportion, revealing the touch of the true musician, perfect master of all the possibilities of every instrument. One must hear a soiree by the Billy Arnold band in the Casino at Cannes or Deauville. Sometimes four saxophones are leading, sometimes the violin, the clarinet, the trumpet, or the trombone. Or again one may hear an infinite variety of instrumental combinations, uniting one after another with the piano and the percussion instruments, each with its own meaning, its own logic, its own timbre — each with an expression peculiar to itself.”[6]
Arnold’s band worked steadily in Paris and in the resort towns of Cannes and Deauville, but he was deported in 1924 by French government, probably at the urging of the French musician’s union.[7] He went back to Paris again shortly after. Arnold later operated a booking agency, "Billy Arnold's Trans-Variety Theatrical Agency," in Paris, specializing in presenting American acts.[8]
The young Django Reinhardt was much taken with the Arnold band, probably the first jazz he had ever heard.[9] A poster painted by Paul Colin announced the Arnold band as the “Kings of Jazz.”
While in Paris he married Minnie Isabel Shanks, an English-born dancer.
Arnold’s band performed with the Dolly Sisters, who were then internationally famous and were courted by King of Denmark among others.[10] In 1933 his wife was arrested on the beach in Nice for indecent exposure, probably part of an effort to get American bands out of the resorts.[11]
Return To US
He returned to the US for good in 1934. He ran a tavern in Glenns Falls, NJ before WWII, then operated “Billy Arnold’s Rendezvous” on rt. 4 near Paramus NJ till his death in 1962.[12]
References
- ^ United States, Selective Service System. Selective Service Registration Cards, World War II: Fourth Registration. Records of the Selective Service System, Record Group Number 147. National Archives and Records Administration.
- ^ The Paterson News 29 Nov 1945,page 59
- ^ United States, Veterans Administration Master Index, 1917-1940. Salt Lake City, Utah: FamilySearch, 2019.
- ^ Paterson Morning Call, December 22 1944 p. 22
- ^ Cook, Nicholas, and Anthony Pople. The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music, 2014 p 168-169
- ^ The Living Age October 18 1924.
- ^ New York Times May 31, 1924 p. 1; Detroit Free Press (Detroit, Michigan
- ^ Paterson Morning Call, December 22 1944 p. 22
- ^ Dregni, Michael. Django : the Life and Music of a Gypsy Legend . Oxford ;: Oxford University Press, 2004. 37-42
- ^ The Paterson News (Paterson, New Jersey) · 29 Nov 1945, Page 59
- ^ San Francisco Examiner September 17 1933 p. 81
- ^ The Paterson Morning Call, Jan 9 1962 p. 1