[78-L] Jack Denny, brief bio

[Harold Aherne]

Thanks for all this valuable info! Contra George Simon, I've found Denny's band
to be quite enjoyable, at least in the handful of recordings I've heard. Simon's assessments
can be interesting, but bands that date from before the mid-30s, or which did their
best work before then, are not Simon's forte. I liked his chapter on Isham Jones, but
Jones's band and recordings from the 20s are treated virtually as footnotes. Even
Jean Goldkette isn't given the credit that he clearly deserves, and Simon and I simply
have ontologically different views on society bands.
 
-Harold

--- On Thu, 1/22/09, Stephen Davies <SDavies at mtroyal.ca> wrote:

From: Stephen Davies <SDavies at mtroyal.ca>
Subject: [78-L] Jack Denny, brief bio
To: 78-l at klickitat.78online.com
Date: Thursday, January 22, 2009, 12:48 PM

        I had thought Denny was Canadian because he was mentioned in "The 
bands Canadians danced to" (19 but I can see now that he was an American.

        Denny was born in Indiana (1895-sep-25), and retired from the 
orchestra business c. 1944 to become a piano salesman.  He died in 
Sawtelle, Calif on 1950-sep-15, a few days shy of his 55th birthday. 
[courtesy of iMDB.com which lists his appearance in a handful of soundies]

        The tart George Simon describes his outfits as being "as musical 
as a submerged submarine", and that "his old fashioned style featured
an 
accordion and dull arrangements".[snip]

  - Stephen D
Calgary