Obituary: Bob Crosby

George Robert Crosby, singer and bandleader, born Spokane Washington 25 August 1913, married (five children), died La Jolla California 9 March 1993.

'I'M THE ONLY guy in the business who made it without any talent.' Bob Crosby's rueful admission was not quite true, but he certainly had less involvement with his band than any other star bandleader did, and yet by 1937 the band he led was second only in popularity to that of Benny Goodman. The fact that he was Bing Crosby's brother gave him his start and supercharged his subsequent career.

In fact the band which he led was formed some time before he became its leader. The drummer Ben Pollack had an orchestra which specialised in dance music with jazz touches, and his band was full of good soloists. But Pollack became more interested in the singing career of his wife, Doris Robbins, and neglected the band. It was a mistake, for from that point his life took a downward spiral which ended when he cut his throat some years later.

Pollack's musicians took the unusual decision to sack their leader and at dawn one day in 1935 they deposited all the band's sheet music on Pollack's doorstep.

A nucleus of Pollack's musicians decided to form a new band dedicated to recreating classic jazz rather than playing dance music, but they soon found out that the booking agents in New York didn't feel that the time was ripe for a jazz revival. The men persevered and decided that they needed a leader with a well-known name. They settled on Jack Teagarden, and the trombonist began rehearsing with them. But it soon emerged that Teagarden's contract with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra still had two years to run, and Whiteman reeled him in.

Gil Rodin, an alto sax player who had taken on the job of band manager, remembered Bob Crosby, whom he had met when Crosby was the vocalist with the bands of Anson Weeks and the Dorsey Brothers. He arranged a meeting between the band and Crosby and the co-operative decided that Crosby's abilities as a singer and compere made him a good bet. He was co-opted and given an equal share in the band. (In fact Crosby was no great shakes as a singer - and there was a badly controlled shake to his vibrato.)

Key members of the band were the tenor saxist Eddie Miller, the guitarist Nappy Lamare and the drummer Ray Bauduc. These three came from New Orleans and instilled an important essence of the Crescent City's jazz into the music. The bassist Bob Haggart, the clarinettist Matty Matlock and the saxophonist Deane Kincaide contributed arrangements and amongst the other powerful soloists were the trumpeter Yank Lawson and the pianist Bob Zurke.

The music caught on through the regular theatre bookings and broadcasts which the band had during 1936. It was pungent stuff, powered by Bauduc's basic two- beat drumming and the forceful trumpet of Lawson. Later stars were the trumpeter Billy Butterfield who stayed with the band for three years and Jess Stacy who was the pianist for two. Joe Sullivan also played piano for some time and Muggsy Spanier came in on cornet.

The key to the band and its most important contribution to jazz was the first band within a band (a small group formed from within the ranks of a large one), Bob Crosby's Bob Cats. The Bobcats defined the style of Dixieland jazz and featured the band's main soloists in the classic jazz recreations which the original nucleus had always aimed for.

When the New Orleans clarinettist Irving Fazola joined in 1938 the sound of the Bobcats became especially potent. Fazola's fat, limpid sound was one of the finest clarinet tones in jazz. He was a strange man, whose real name was Irving Prestopnik but he built himself a pseudonym from the solfeggio notes fa, so, la.

The Crosby band and the Bobcats had innumerable hit records, from minor ones like 'The Big Crash from China', a feature for Bauduc's drumming, to 'South Rampart Street Parader', a vivid representation of a New Orleans street parade worked out by Haggart and Bauduc. 'One night in 1936 when we were playing at the New Yorker Hotel, Ray and I were sitting at a table when he had this idea for a parade jazz march. He sang some of it to me and I wrote it down on the tablecloth.' Haggart remembered to steal the table cloth and a couple of days later came back with the new number scored for the band. Haggart also wrote 'I'm Free' as a feature for the glorious trumpet of Billy Butterfield. Later, with lyrics added, the tune became the ballad 'What's New?'

One which vied with 'South Rampart Street' for the honours was 'The Big Noise from Winnetka'. This was a duet which originally came about when an audience demanded an encore to the 'The Big Crash from China'. Haggart had begun whistling a blues theme through his teeth and accompanying himself on bass. Bauduc had joined in and then began playing on the strings of Haggart's bass with his drumsticks while Haggart fingered the notes. 'Big Noise' had an immortal succes fou with the general public, but it drove some of us to the bar when it was repeated remorselessly and at length on the band's public appearances.

During the Forties the band waned in competition with those of Goodman, Artie Shaw and Tommy Dorsey and desperate attempts were made to prop up the vocal department - the band singers were Crosby and a series of girl singers which had included Doris Day, Gloria de Haven and Kay Starr. Copying Tommy Dorsey, who had Frank Sinatra, Jo Stafford and a vocal group called the Pied Pipers within his band, the Crosby band formed the Bob-o-Links, a vocal group consisting of Crosby and some boy singers, but fortunately they were soon disposed of.

'Come to think of it,' Crosby said, 'We fired some pretty good arrangers, too, like Ray Conniff, Henry Mancini, Nelson Riddle and Paul Weston.'

Gil Rodin continued to manage the band's affairs with more talent than he showed as a saxophone player. He was never asked to take a solo, and this became a joke within the band. In 1940 Downbeat magazine ran a feature where each issue published a transcribed solo from a famous jazz musician. The band arranged the publication of a cooked-up solo alleged to be by Gil, the first 12 bars of which consisted of a single long note.

Although Crosby's sense of humour and ability to handle crowds made him popular, he was right not to value his singing abilities highly, and his insistence on taking vocals caused friction within the band. The fact that it was his name and not his contribution to the music which was his attraction was confirmed at an appearance at the Nice Jazz Festival a few years ago. Crosby, despite his position as leader, appeared superfluous, and it became irritating as he milked his relationship to Bing and made the same wisecracks at every performance by the band.

When the US entered the war, Bauduc and Rodin were soon drafted, to be followed by other key men. Crosby was offered a career in movies and called the band together to suggest that Eddie Miller take over as leader. This was agreed, but soon afterwards Miller was also drafted and the band broke up.

Crosby made the films Presenting Lily Mars and Reveille with Beverly (both 1943) before he was commissioned in the Marines and led a navy band in the Pacific.

After his service he returned to his Hollywood career and in 1944 made a film called The Singing Sheriff. 'We made it in exactly 10 days and do you know it set back Western pictures exactly three years.' Crosby remembered. 'Why, Randolph Scott, he and I used to be pretty good friends - but after he saw that picture, he wouldn't talk to me for six months. Claimed I was trying to ruin his racket]'

Eventually Crosby reformed the band and won a radio series sponsored by Ford, but the band had to change its emphasis from jazz to dance music to survive. It failed when television became popular and Crosby concentrated in working as a vocalist again, appearing on television and in night clubs and touring in Australia and the Far East. The original members of the Bobcats mainly settled on the West Coast, where they worked in the studios, although Haggart and Lawson were notably successful in New York. Rodin became a television producer and had charge of the Bing Crosby and Jack Benny shows.

As jazz returned to popularity Bob Crosby reformed the Bobcats for special occasions and tours. The band, with Eddie Miller and Lawson still being imaginative soloists, remained a good one.

A collection of his scores and other material relating to the band is held in the American Heritage Center of the University of Wyoming.

(Photograph omitted)