Pee Wee Russell: The Life of a Jazzman

by Robert Hilbert

"No jazz musician has ever played with the same daring and nakedness and intuition," Whitney Balliett wrote in a New Yorker profile of Pee Wee Russell. "He took wild improvisational chances, and when he found himself above the abyss, he simply turned in another direction, invariably hitting
firm ground." Gunther Schuller, America's preeminent jazz historian, also had high praise for Russell, saying that "he defined and exemplified what it is to be a true jazz musician.... The unorthodox tone, the halting continuity, the odd note choices--are manifestations of a unique, wondrously
self-contained musical personality.... He was also one of the most touching and human players jazz has ever known." Clarinetist Pee Wee Russell was indeed one of the great innovators in jazz history. Now, in Jazzman , Robert Hilbert provides the first full-length biography of this unique jazz
stylist.
Based on hundreds of interviews with musicians and friends, Pee Wee Russell fills in much that was not known about Russell's life, illuminating his fifty year career from his early days as a teenage dance band musician, to his final work with musicians such as Thelonious Monk and Gerry Mulligan.
Hilbert draws a vivid portrait of Pee Wee's early friendship with legendary Bix Beiderbecke (fond of Stravinsky, Debussy, and Ravel, both Bix and Pee Wee delighted in the new techniques of modern composers--dissonance, whole-tone scales--and their styles reflected this). The author describes
Russell's early work in Chicago and Hollywood, his first taste of the big time in New York as a member of Red Nichols's band, Pee Wee's success as one of the first stars on "Swing Street" (52nd Street in New York City), as a member of Louis Prima's band, and his decade-long association with Nick's,
a famous Greenwich Village jazz spot. In addition, Russell lived a bohemian existence, and Hilbert does an excellent job of capturing his colorful life and times. But we also see the down side of a musician's life--Russell was one of the monumental drinkers in jazz history, and after separating from
his mercurial wife Mary in 1949, he lapsed into complete dissipation, landing in a charity ward of San Francisco County Hospital, with only 73 pounds on his six-foot frame. He recovered once his wife returned, and went on to his finest years, only to fall apart again when she died suddenly of
cancer. Russell died in January, 1969, a few weeks after playing at President Nixon's inauguration.
"His was the pure flame," Robert Hilbert writes of Pee Wee Russell. "Hot, gritty, profane, real. No matter what physical or mental condition Russell was in, night after night he spun wondrous improvisations. No matter how disjointed his life, how scrambled his mind, how incomprehensible his
speech, his music remained logical and authoritative, elegant and graceful, haughty and proud." In Pee Wee Russell , Hilbert does full justice to this remarkable figure in American jazz.

Genres: Biography, Music

336 pages, Hardcover

First published March 4, 1993

Reviews

[Eddie Watkins · Rating 4 out of 5]

A somewhat unheralded jazzman, but one of the great clarinetists and allaround soulful guy. For a traditionalist he took a tremendous number of chances in his improvisations, sounding like a bluesy netless arialist, and with a sound as naked and throaty and unpredictable as his the attentive listener is right there with him, feeling his thrills, concerned for his safety and hoping he finds his way safely back where he began. He definitely wore his clarinet on his sleeve.

I say he was a traditionalist, but he really just seemed traditional. He was actually such an original that he didn't need to keep up with the times.

Jazz musicians often have bumpy lives, swinging with the times, and Pee Wee had one of the bumpier ones. There was always resistance from the general jazz community about the quality of his playing. Many other jazz artists thought him amateurish and unskilled. Sidney Bechet was particularly unaccepting of him. He also had a serious drinking problem and at one point ended up as an 80 pound pauper nearly on his deathbed in the charity ward of a hospital. It's like his whole life was one death-defying improvisation (with a wife who provided incredible support). But he always managed to get through, and keep playing, and late in life he even took up abstract painting, somewhat in the style of Stuart Davis.

Reading about the earlier days of Jazz is refreshing and for some reason reminds me of the earlier days of baseball, something itinerant and open air about it, and also something levelling between players and spectators, with almost everyone there for the love of it, giving it their all for the next thrill (with whoring and drinking and general craziness added for extra spice).

[Colin Feely · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fantastic read. As another reviewer said it can read like a bit of an itinerary but with so many back to back concerts and recording dates I think it’s unavoidable. The anecdotes and remembrances of Pee Wee paint a picture of a troubled man who found his comfort behind the clarinet. Even at the most precarious moments of his life, emotionally and health wise, he was always adventurous and creative with his playing. It’s admirable that an artist who was active for more than 40 years was able to keep growing and keep exploring. Never one to placate others his “out there” style wouldn’t be appreciated until later in his life. That’s okay, Pee Wee didn’t play to attain fame or acclaim. He played because he had to. It was his passion. If he couldn’t play “he’d rather be dead.” Very moving. In the final chapter Whitney Balliet is quoted as saying “Pee Wee had discovered some secrets of life” and that his playing was “an attempt to tell those secrets in a new, funny, gentile way”. I think Nietzsche would have enjoyed his playing and this book, Picture Pee Wee the smiling sisyphus.

[e b · Rating 4 out of 5]

Four stars for getting the info down in one place in a very readable fashion, but truthfully feels more like a three. Impossible to say what and how numerous Hilbert's sources were, as there is no bibliography, but there are many gaps, whole years of activity dealt with in a paragraph just listing where Russell played that year. As a result it can sometimes seem more like an annotated itinerary than a biography. Little time is spent examining the music in much detail either. But Russell was one of jazz's singular characters so the book is heavy with anecdotes, many amusing, many extremely sad.

[Tom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Before reading this book, listen to as much Pee Wee as you can :)

People either love him or hate him. For those of us who love him, this was a great read. For those who hate him, or haven't listened, parts of the book may be intolerably dry.

I would love for there to be a multimedia edition of the book so that we could listen to the various tunes (and alternate takes of the tunes) at the same time we read about them.

[Dana Woodaman · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a clarinet player who recently discovered Pee Wee, this volume is invaluable to me, if for nothing else to search out and listen and learn some of his best licks. One thing for sure, from this vantage point in the 21st century, I haven't heard a thing on any of his solos that was outside or weird at all. He really was way ahead of this time.
A great book!

[Harold · Rating 5 out of 5]

Well researched bio about a great musician.