Eddie Lang
The first jazz guitar virtuoso, Eddie Lang was everywhere in the late '20s; all of his fellow musicians knew that he was the best. A boyhood friend of Joe Venuti, Lang took violin lessons for 11 years but switched to guitar before he turned professional. In 1924, he debuted with the Mound City Blue Blowers and was soon in great demand for recording dates, both in the jazz world and in commercial settings. His sophisticated chord patterns made him a superior accompanist who uplifted everyone else's music, and he was also a fine single-note soloist. He often teamed up with violinist Venuti (including some classic duets) and played with Red Nichols' Five Pennies, Frankie Trumbauer, and Bix Beiderbecke (most memorably on "Singing the Blues"), the orchestras of Roger Wolfe Kahn, Jean Goldkette, and Paul Whiteman (appearing on one short number with Venuti in Whiteman's 1930 film The King of Jazz), and anyone else who could hire him. A measure of Lang's versatility and talents is that he mostly played the chordal parts on a series of duets with Lonnie Johnson (during which he used the pseudonym Blind Willie Dunn), yet on his two duets with Carl Kress (whose chord voicings were an advancement on Lang's), he played the single-note leads. Eddie Lang, who led some dates of his own during 1927-1929, worked regularly with Bing Crosby during the early '30s in addition to recording many sessions with Venuti. Tragically his premature death was caused by a botched operation on a tonsillectomy.
© Scott Yanow /TiVo
Similar artists
-
Jazz Figures / Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang (1926-1933)
Jazz - Released by Collector Records Greece on 24 Oct 2011
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Eddie Lang - Lonnie Johnson
Jazz - Released by Documents on 1 Sep 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang Collection 1926-33
Jazz - Released by Fabulous on 14 Apr 2014
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
1928-29
Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Eddie Lang
Jazz - Released by Hallmark on 1 Jan 2000
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang 1926-28
Jazz - Released by Documents on 1 Sep 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Pink Elephants
Dixieland - Released by Supreme Media on 9 Oct 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang 1928-31
Jazz - Released by Documents on 1 Sep 2009
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
-
Joe Venuti & Eddie Lang, 20 Essential Classics
Jazz - Released by Firefly Entertainment on 1 Oct 2012
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Eddie's Twister
Jazz - Released by Comfort Classics on 17 Oct 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Snowy Christmas (Christmas Edition)
Jazz - Released by Crusade Records on 24 Oct 2015
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Classic Recordings
Jazz - Released by Firefly Entertainment on 5 May 2008
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I'll Never Be the Same
Jazz - Released by Supreme Media on 1 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
I'll Never Be the Same
Jazz - Released by Lumi Entertainment on 1 Feb 2013
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
-
Jazz Guitar (HD Remastered)
Vocal Jazz - Released by Reborn recordings on 1 Apr 2019
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo