AMPLIFIED GUITAR: Eddie Durham invented it; AMPLIFIED & ELECTRIC GUITAR: Eddie Durham 1st to Record on it.

The 1st to record an AMPLIFIED guitar and to widely showcase the Electric Guitar - was Eddie Durham. Gibson ES-150 Eddie recalls: "I was playing straight guitar and was always a hit with the big bands; but they drown you out, so I'd take a straight guitar, put the mike right in its soundhole. I don't think anyone had done that before". While still in Moten's band (1929-1932), Eddie had already worked out the way of performing through a separate amplifier outside the PA system. He built the box around it, get a special amplifier and say, "Make me a box and set it in... and the things were so heavy. Now they have some very near perfect ones, but the sound isn't the same. They used to plug it into the big house set, with a jack and the cord, to your guitar and you'd get the effect of a pipe organ in church. You'd make it loud and all the people'd look 'round and say, 'Where's that sound coming from?'"..."With the resonator guitar, always wanted to get vibrato. So I took a clothes hanger and I attached that to the bridge...and I used to hook it in this finger. When I'd play, I'd shake it...Now they build it in the foot pedal, anywhere. Just touch it and you got it."

"After the people that made the resonator had gone out of business, I [Durham] found someone who was manufacturing an electrically amplified instrument."

Guitarist Lawrence Lucie, who was a young admirer, states: "I used to go to the Savoy all the time, and the first guitar player I ever heard play single-string solo was Eddie Durham, when he came with Moten's band around 1932. He had one of those National guitars with a resonator inside it and it sounded loud and rather metallic, although there was no electrical amplifications. Eddie played very good solos on it." (Lucie has been interviewed for forthcoming documentary).

Earliest Durham guitar Solo's: With Moten Oct. 1929, single-line solos on "BAND BOX SHUFFLE" (metal-bodied, with a homemade pie tin resonator inside and megaphones to increase its projection), also "NEW VINE STREET BLUES," (Basie on piano); and 1930 "BOOT IT" as Durham's arranging has tightened the section work of the Moten Orchestra. With Lunceford Sept. 1935, amplified solo on "HITTIN THE BOTTLE" (metal-bodied Dobro "resphonic"). Audio links

But many audiences and clubs were unprepared for amplification: "A lot of people thought that was a screwy idea, having an amplified guitar, and the ballroom managers were always afraid you'd blow out their lights. There was DC current all over the place, so I'd often had trouble finding electrical outlets when I was touring with Basie." Guitar Player Magazine - Links

HOW EDDIE DURHAM LEFT HIS MARK ON CHARLIE CHRISTIAN,
IS BEST TOLD BY GUITAR PLAYER MAGAZINE - PLEASE CLICK HERE AND CHECK IT OUT FOR YOURSELF!

1920 Joe Durham, Jr. forms DURHAM BROTHERS ORCHESTRA

1928 Performs with ' The OKLAHOMA BLUE DEVILS ORCHESTRA' (with Buster Smith, Bill Basie and Hot Lips Page);

1929 Records on Victor Label with 'BENNIE MOTEN ORCHESTRA'; cousin ALLEN records with Andy Kirks Clouds of Joy

1933-35 Arranges for ANDY KIRK and WILLIE BRYANT in New York

1936 Records with The 'JIMMIE LUNCEFORD ORCHESTRA' as arranger, trombonist and guitarist

1937 Records on Decca Label the compositions Durham arranged for and wrote with 'COUNT BASIE ORCHESTRA' - These Recordings, including TOPSY, and specifically all the Charts and arrangements, are the signature of the SWING ERA, the mold set on wax

1938 Wins an American Band Poll for acoustic guitar solo on HONEY KEEP YOUR MIND ON ME (Lunceford)

John Hammond produces 'THE KANSAS CITY FIVE' recording session to showcase the electric guitar sound as a replacement to Basie's piano (Buck Clayton, Jo Jones, Walter Page and Freddie Green). On the 'KC SIX' Recordings where Lester Young is the added 6th on clarinet and tenor sax - Durham solos on I WANT A LITTLE GIRL

Arranged for Artie Shaw, Jan Savitt, Harry James (recordings: Life Goes To A Party and I Can Dream, Can't I?) and arranged and rehearsed the 'GLENN MILLER ORCHESTRA' (In The Mood, yes, In The Mood!, Tuxedo Junction. Durham composes/scores Sliphorn Jive and Glenn Island Special)

In 1939 Durham records the Carnegie Hall Concerts; also arranges IN THE MOOD for Glenn Miller Orchestra

In 1940 'DURHAM BROTHERS ORCHESTRA' reunites a short period

'THE SWINGIN SMALL BANDS 2' (Eddie Williams, Buster Smith, William White, Ben Smith, Stanley Payne; trumpeters Joe Keyes, Eddie Roane, Freddie Webster; trombonists John Haughton and Sandy Watson; pianist Conrad Frederick; guitarist Mario Dorcey; bassist Doles Dickens and drummer Artie Hebert)

late 1940's Musical Director for 'BON BON TUNNELL and his Buddies' - recording I DON'T WANT TO SET THE WORLD ON FIRE (composed by Durham, et al.)

1941 Musical Director for Ina Ray Hutton's 'INTERNATIONAL SWEETHEARTS OF RHYTHM' (all women)

1942 In Washington, D.C. at the Howard Theatre, opening for Fats Waller Orchestra, with another all girl Orchestra (piano Frankie Elridge; bass Edith Farthing; drums Trump Gibson; trombones Lila Julius, Sammy Lee Jett and Jessie Turner; trumpets Nova Lee McGee, Jean Starr and Ersa Bell Durham/wife; Sax Helen Scott, Elaridge Thomas, Alma Cortez, Selma (alto) and Mildred Jones)

1947 - 1970's Tours with the 'CAVALCADE OF JAZZ', WYNONNIE HARRIS & LARRY DARNELL, 'SWINGER's INC.', Franc Williams 'SWING FOUR' and 'BUDDY TATE BAND'

1973 Appears in documentary of Count Basie: "Born To Swing" (rent from public library)

1974 Records album with the Basie alumni band titled 'EARLE WARREN AND THE COUNTSMEN'

1974 Records 1st album as a band leader - made overseas

1980 Appears in documentary of Oklahoma Blue Devils Orchestra: "Last of the Blue Devils" (rent from public library)

1981 Records 2nd album as leader, titled 'BLUE BONE' in London for JSP Records

1985 Records with 'THE HARLEM BLUES AND JAZZ ORCHESTRA' as a culmination of touring with them for a decade.

1983 Inducted into the NATIONAL ACADEMY of RECORDING ARTS & SCIENCES (NARAS) HALL OF FAME for ARRANGEMENT of "IN THE MOOD" for Glenn Miller, 1939

1985 Receives KANSAS CITY JAZZ HERITAGE PROCLAMATION from the KC JAZZ COMMISSION "In recognition of the contributions that have helped establish and perpetuate the style of music known around the world as Kansas City Jazz"

1986 HARLEM WEEK honoree (along with honorees Ella Fitzgerald and Dexter Gordan) unveils new band

1986 All Star Birthday Party at Saint Peters Church, by Phil Schaap

1987 Inducted into the AMERICAN JAZZ HALL OF FAME

1987 Durham goes to his eternal resting place