Online Encyclopedia
Jean Goldkette
Jean Goldkette (18 March, 1899 – 24 March, 1962) was a jazz pianist and bandleader. Born in France and raised in Greece, he emigrated to the United States in 1911.
He led many jazz and dance bands, of which the best known was his Victor Recording Orchestra of 1924 – 1929, which included, at various times, Bix Beiderbecke, Hoagy Carmichael, Jimmy Dorsey, Tommy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, Frankie Trumbauer, Pee Wee Russell, Steve Brown, and Joe Venuti, among others. In his Jazz Masters of the Thirties, Rex Stewart, a member of Fletcher Henderson's band at the time, writes that the Goldkette band's innovative arrangements and strong rhythm made it the best dance band of its day and "the first original white swing band in jazz history."
In 1927 Paul Whiteman hired away most of Goldkette's better players. Goldkette later helped organize McKinney's Cotton Pickers and the Orange Blossoms, which became famous as the Casa Loma Orchestra. In the 1930s he left jazz to work as a booking agent and classical pianist.
He moved to California in 1961 and the following year died in Santa Barbara, California.