Jesse Crawford (December 2, 1895 – May 28, 1962), known
as "The Poet of the Organ" was an American pianist and organist. He
was well known in the 1920s as a theatre organist for silent films
and as a
popular recording artist. In the 1930s, he switched to the Hammond organ and
became a freelancer. In the 1940s, he authored instruction books on organ and
taught organ lessons.
Crawford's father died when Jesse was one year old,
leaving an impoverished wife and mother. She placed the baby in an orphanage
asylum near Woodland, California where Jesse taught himself music. By age nine,
he was playing a cornet in the orphanage band. At age 14 he left the orphanage
to play piano in a small dance band, and then took a job playing piano in a
ten-cent-admission silent film house.
His early theatre organ experience was at Washington's
Spokane Gem Theater in 1911 and at the Clemmer-owned Casino Theatre (on an
eight-rank Estey organ). He next played briefly at theatres in Billings, Montana,
Spokane, Washington and Seattle. When he met Oliver Wallace, Crawford learned
about the then-new types of theatre organ sounds. Crawford’s next jobs were
playing at the Strand in San Francisco and the Mission Theatre in Los Angeles.
In the 1920s, Crawford began forming a fan base and was
dubbed the "Poet of the Organ" for his style of playing ballads in
Chicago. In 1921, he was employed by the Balaban and Katz theatre chain playing
its 29-rank Wurlitzer in the Chicago Theatre. Likewise, Crawford was hired to
play a large Wurlitzer organ in Grauman's Million Dollar Theatre in Los
Angeles.
During the greatest years of his career, Jesse was
married to Helen Crawford, herself a fine theatre organist in 1923. The organs
in Chicago and New York were equipped with twin consoles so that they could
play duets - the New York recording studio also had twin consoles, and a few
records feature the husband and wife team playing duets. Helen died after being
injured in a road accident in 1943.
After some recordings for the small local Autograph
Records label, Crawford made a series of gramophone records for the Victor
Records label which proved very popular with record buyers. He had hits such as
"Rose Marie", "Valencia", and "Russian Lullaby".
Other popular songs included "At Dawning" and "Roses of
Picardy".
Here's "La Estrellita" from above 1950 recording.
With the end of the silent film era, work for theatre organists in movie houses dried up. Crawford played a Kilgen organ at Chicago's
Century of Progress World's Fair in 1934, and in 1936 he got a job as staff
organist in NBC Radio studios in Chicago.
In 1940, the self-taught Crawford undertook his first
formal music study with Joseph Schillinger, whose other students included
George Gershwin, Benny Goodman, Glenn Miller, and movie score composers Leith
Stevens and Nathan Van Cleave.
Crawford recorded Hammond organ LPs for Decca Records and
worked and began writing, producing sheet music song arrangements for Hammond
organ and instruction books. He also taught organ students, both in one-on-one
lessons and in class style lessons, where he mostly lectured.
He made many hundreds of 78s on theatre pipe organs, plus
many more on Hammond; made several theatre pipe organ LPs in the 1950s using
the Lorin Whitney Studio Robert Morton organ in Glendale California. His final
LP recordings were made at Richard Simonton's residence organ in Toluca Lake,
California.
He died on May 27, 1962 in Los Angeles, California from a cerebral hemorrhage. (Edited mainly from Wikipedia)
He died on May 27, 1962 in Los Angeles, California from a cerebral hemorrhage. (Edited mainly from Wikipedia)
1 comment:
For “Jesse Crawford – All The Best” go here:
https://www.upload.ee/files/9256128/Jesse_Crawford_-_Brst_Of.rar.html
1. Amapola 3:04
2. Until Tomorrow 3:05
3. When Day is Done 3:19
4. You're the Cream In My Coffee 3:05
5. A Precious Little Thing Called Love 3:13
6. After We Kiss 3:11
7. At Dawning 2:36
8. Baby Feet Go Pitter Patter 3:22
9. Confessin' (That I Love You) 3:19
10. Estrellita 3:34
11. Just A Memory 3:01
12. Just a Night for Meditation 3:15
13. Kiss Me Again 3:19
14. La Paloma 3:12
15. Nesting Time 3:22
16. Secreto Eterno 3:15
17. Ting-A-Ling 2:55
18. The Dance Of The Blue Danube 3:08
19. Blue Skies 2:41
20. A Broken Rosary 3:01
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