Jack Stillman

Jack Stillman (23 November 1894—10 May 1947) was a Ukrainian-born American trumpet player, cornetist, songwriter, bandmaster, and jazz musician. Active in the 1920s, he made several recordings with Edison Records, Paramount, Gennett, and Emerson, mostly under the names "Jack Stillman's Orchestra" or "Jack Stillman's Orioles".

A Ukrainian immigrant in New York, Stillman was instrumental in shaping American popular music in the 1920s/30, much like many other Eastern-European musician immigrants of his age, such as Emil Coleman, Nathan Glantz, Lou Gold, Sam Lanin, and Ben Selvin.

In the 1930s, Stillman arranged or directed music for most of the movies by Yiddish filmmaker Henry Lynn.

Jack Stillman was born on November 23, 1894, in Volochysk, Ukraine. In 1913, he immigrated to the United States, settling in the Lower East Side area of New York City. He listed his occupation as "musician," implying he was already working as a musician professionally in Ukraine. A few days later, his wife and three children joined him in New York.

Stillman began playing music in New York right after his arrival. At the time, the Lower East Side area served as a new home to many recent European Jewish immigrants in New York. It had a thriving music culture and Stillman flourished in that environment.

On April 27, 1920, he played solo cornet on the recording of "The Sunshine of Your Smile" for Edison Records (80862) at Edison's Manhattan studio in the Knickerbocker building on 42nd Street and Broadway. The song is a British popular love song published in London in 1913 with lyrics by Leonard Cooke and music by Lilian Ray.

Stillman became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 1921. His first major recording credit came in around November 1921 with the Club Royal Orchestra led by saxophonist Clyde Doerr.

Besides being a competent brass instrument player, Stillman also developed a reputation as a music arranger. In 1922, he arranged music for Banner Records' recording of "Opera-Trot No. 2" (originally composed by Camille Saint-Saëns). Banner's orchestra was led by Joseph Samuels. In May 1923, he recorded "Carolina Mammy" with Bob Haring (music director); Herman "Hymie" Farberman (trumpet); Ephriam Hannaford (trombone); Morris Payes, (clarinet, alto sax); Gene Fosdick (clarinet, tenor sax); Lou Raderman (violin); Ray Romano (piano); Frank Reino (banjo); and Ken Whitmer (drums). In June 1923, he recorded with New Jersey-based bandleader Paul Victorin for his Edison session.

From late 1923 to the end of 1924, Stillman joined trombonist Harry Raderman's Dance Orchestra as trumpeter and staff arranger. One of his recordings with Raderman's group was "Mandy Make Up Your Mind" and "My Baby's Blue Eyes" (Edison Records, 51450, 1925). Through Raderman, Stillman was introduced to saxophonist Nathan Glantz, with whom Stillman formed a long working relationship, often playing on each other's sides with the same ensemble of studio musicians, using Stillman's arrangements.

Stillman's first recording session under his name took place on November 25, 1924, for Edison Records. In November 1924, he was on Joseph A. Phillips and Helen Clark's recording of "Tomorrow's Another Day" (Edison 51451). The other song on the disc is "That's My Girl" (vocals by Arthur Hall).

During that time, Stillman and family moved to Brooklyn from Manhattan.

In the following years, he made several jazz and dance records for Edison, Pathé Actuelle, Paramount, Gennett, and Emerson. One of his early hits was the catchy "Nobody Knows What A Red Head Mamma Can Do" (originally composed by Al Dubin, Irving Mills, Sammy Fain), which he recorded for Edison Records on December 17, 1924, with Vernon Dalhart on vocals and Hymie Farberman (trumpet), Larry Abbott (clarinet & alto sax), Lucien Smith (clarinet & tenor sax), and Harry Reser (banjo).

In 1925, Stillman's Orchestra recorded "Wondering" (written by Bert Kalmar and Harry Ruby). In October 1925, he played trumpet and did the arrangement for Nathan Glantz And His Orchestra's recording of "Why Aren't Yez Eatin' More Oranges?" (written by Clarence Gaskill and Lew Brown). Other musicians accompanying the band were Harry Reser (banjo), William Covington "Bill" Perry (piano), Eph Hannaford (trombone), and Andy Bossen (trumpet).

Working with Glantz, Stillman also got to arrange for a recording by famed singer/comedian Sophie Tucker.

In 1926, Jack Stillman's Orchestra recorded, "I Wish't I Was In Peoria", a song written by Billy Rose, Harry MacGregor Woods, and Mort Dixon, for Bell Records. Next, his group released Archie Fletcher + Bobby Heath + Micky Marr's composition of "Roll 'Em Girls" (Bell Records – 379). On the A side is Irving Berlin's "Don't Wait Too Long" by Frank Dailey's Meadowbrooks.

In 1927, working for Emerson Records, Stillman's Orchestra released "High, High, High Up In The Hills" (vocals by Johnny Marvin) and "My Little Bunch Of Happiness". Also that year, he played trumpet on "Oriental Moonlight" at Gennett's New York recording studios with Arthur Hall (vocals) and Ken "Goof" Moyer (saxophone and clarinet), led by Nathan Glantz's orchestra.

Stillman also arranged novelties with exotic-sounding tunes, e.g., "Silver Sands Of Love" and "Cairo Moon". Many of these compositions were written

by German-born American songwriter and music publisher Fred Fisher.

In 1929, his orchestra, with vocals by Jack Parker, recorded "Evangeline" and "Go To Bed" for Edison Records.

Among Stillman's songwriting credits include "Give Me Your Heart" and "Rainy Day". His "Charleston of the Evening" was recorded by Manhattan Musicians (National Music Lovers, 1925) and Broadway Music Masters (Globe, 1926).

Stillman also performed at live venues in New York. One of his performances was at a party at the Institutional Synagogue on the west side of New York (The Hebrew Standard, October 20, 1922). In October 1926, Stillman's band provided music for a dance hosted by Young Judea of New York at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel. On October 3, 1930, he performed at RKO Theatre in Queens, New York. Also on the bill were Red McKenzie and Jack Bland's St. Louis-based novelty jazz ensemble Mound City Blue Blowers.

Stillman's recording work began to slow down by the end of the 1920s. As sound began to be introduced in movies in the 1930s, he shifted his focus to making music for films, serving as a music director for almost all movies made by Polish-born Yiddish filmmaker Henry Lynn. Many of those movies had original compositions by Joseph Rumshinsky, Art Shryer, Ludwig Satz, and William Mercur.

Selected movies

During the outbreak of the Second World War, the Yiddish film industry came to a close and Stillman's film work ended. There aren't any mentions of his recordings in the 1940s but he continued to do live performances in New York City until his untimely death in 1947. One of those was a gig in May 1940 at Boris Thomashefsky's National Theater, a Yiddish theater in the Yiddish Theater District in Manhattan.

Video: Nobody Knows What a Red-Head Mamma Can Do (1924)

Stillman was married to his wife Lena.

Stillman died of a heart attack on May 10, 1947, in a theater in New York. He was 52.