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Pee Wee Russell

Clarinetist Pee Wee Russell is one of those unique players that comes along only once in a lifetime, squawking his way quite expressively in an unpredictable fashion, carving out his own distinctive voice.

Pee Wee was born Charles Ellsworth Russell in St. Louis and began playing clarinet in Muskogee Oklahoma which is famous for giving the jazz world pianist Jay McShann. Pee Wee's career in jazz began in the early 1920's in Chicago with Bix Beiderbecke and Frank Trumbauer, cutting his first sides with Red Nichols and his Five Pennies in 1929. The band also featured Glenn Miller and Jack Teagarden on trombones, Bud Freeman on tenor sax and Eddie Condon on guitar.

By the early 1930's, Pee Wee moved to New York where he found a steady home in the bands of Eddie Condon and jamming with a roster of hot jazz players including Bobby Hackett, Red Allen, Edmond Hall, Hot Lips Page, Jack Bland, Buster Bailey and Vic Dickenson. Pee Wee played in the all-star band put together by Eddie Condon for Fats Waller's Carnegie Hall debut in 1942, which also included Bud Freeman and Gene Krupa. Throughout most of the 1940's Pee Wee could be found playing at Nick's, the popular Greenwich Village restaurant/club that was a mainstay for hot musicians as the swing era evolved into bop. During this period Pee Wee was recording sides for Milt Gabler's Commodore label under his own name and as a sideman.

In 1951 after years of heavy drinking and not taking care of himself, Russell fell ill and so near death that a benefit concert was held in his honor. After weeks in the hospital, including several blood transfusions, Pee Wee returned to New York and played a well received set at the Newport Jazz Festival with Thelonious Monk thus proving his talent for all music whether traditional or bop.

Pee Wee was a consummate small group player. Although he was offered jobs with many of the top-name big bands of the day, Pee Wee preferred the small group swing that he had been playing all his life, and with the exception of a short stint with Bobby Hackett's Big Band played exclusively in small groups. Russell was a mainstay in traditional jazz bands along the east coast until his death in 1969.

Pee Wee Russell: Portrait Of Pee Wee

Read "Portrait Of Pee Wee" reviewed by David Rickert

by David Rickert
April 2, 2006

Pee Wee Russell was an early pioneer, a Dixieland veteran, and an inspired clarinetist with an unusual voice. No less than Gene Krupa once said that he had “the most fabulous musical mind... I've never run into anybody who had that much musical talent.

During the fifties, long after his style of music had fallen out of favor, he stayed at the top of his game by absorbing the new styles that had come along, recording Coleman tunes with a ...

129

Album Review

Pee Wee Russell: Ask Me Now!

Read "Ask Me Now!" reviewed by Joel Roberts

by Joel Roberts
July 25, 2003

Who says you can't teach an old dog--or an old clarinetist--new tricks? Approaching his 60th birthday in the early '60s, Pee Wee Russell, long associated with Dixieland and traditional jazz, formed a new pianoless quartet with trombonist Marshall Brown and started exploring the more modern sounds of Thelonious Monk, John Coltrane, and even Ornette Coleman. The finest fruit of that collaboration was Ask Me Now!, an exceptional 1963 session for Impulse! that seamlessly mixes the old with the ...

230

Album Review

Pee Wee Russell: Ask Me Now

Read "Ask Me Now" reviewed by David Rickert

by David Rickert
May 13, 2003

Pee Wee Russell enjoyed a significant comeback with the original release of this session. Not content to live in the past, Russell doesn’t gaze in the rearview mirror as far back as we would expect. First off, he has chosen a program of (at the time) modern works by the likes of Coleman, Monk, and Coltrane, instead of the earlier jazz tunes that were his forte. Second, Russell dispenses with a piano and instead shares the front line Marshall Brown ...

207

Album Review

Pee Wee Russell: Swingin' With Pee Wee

by Mike Neely
June 1, 2001

Pee Wee Russell was an odd-duck of a clarinetist who in his idiosyncratic way foreshadowed some of the innovations of modern jazz. His playing at times seems “off" in the way that some of the earliest jazz sounds almost otherworldly with its unique tones and timbres. Russell’s expressive slides and dips pre-figure the likes of the later Lester Young, and in our day Lee Konitz, especially when his playing became more voice-like, and the expectations of others seemed to matter ...

160

Album Review

Pee Wee Russell: Swingin' with Pee Wee

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 1999

“We just made a record,” he said at the bar. “And it was a good one – I think.” The formula was simple: after Buck Clayton was picked for the front line, the producer was told to get a rhythm section. “You go ahead and surprise me. I trust your judgment. But don’t make it a ‘Dixieland’ section.” What he got was Tommy Flanagan, and a modern sheen for the old horn. A similar tack was taken in 1958, on ...

154

Album Review

Pee Wee Russell: Swingin' with Pee Wee

by AAJ Staff
June 1, 1999

229

Festival

Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp

Source: All About Jazz
February 7, 2008

The New Jersey Jazz Society presents its 39th Annual Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp, a swinging afternoon of great jazz dedicated to the legendary clarinetist.

Sunday March 2, 2008 noon to 5 p.m. at the Birchwood Manor, 111 North Jefferson Road in Whippany (off Route 10)

The lineup: Smith Street Society Jazz Band Jon-Erik Kellso, trumpeter and band Barbara Rosene, vocalist and group George Gee's Jump, Jivin' Wailers ...
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Event

Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp March 4 in Whippany, New Jersey

Source: All About Jazz
January 28, 2007

Four hot jazz bands will perform at the 38th annual Pee Wee Ruseell Memorial Stomp Sunday, March 4, noon to 5 PM at the Birchwood Manor, 111 North Jefferson Rd., Whippany, NJ. Sponsored by the New Jersey jazz Society and dedicated to the legendary jazz clarinetist, the Stomp features table seating and a spacious dance floor, food and drink, and a wide selection of jazz CDs for purchase. The schedule: ...
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Festival

Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp Sunday, March 5 in Whippany, NJ

Source: All About Jazz
February 3, 2006

Four hot jazz bands will perform at the 37th annual Pee Wee Russell Memorial Stomp Sunday, March 5, noon to 5 PM, at Birchwood Manor, Whippany, NJ.

Sponsored by the New Jersey Jazz Society and dedicated to the one-of-a-kind jazz clarinetist, the Stomp features table seating and a spacious dance floor, with food and drink and a wide selection of jazz CDs for purchase. The schedule:

1-1:45 Harlem Blues and Jazz Band 2-2:45 Smith Street Society Jazz Band ...
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