Eddie Lang
October 25, 1902, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania – March 26, 1933, New York, New York
Man & Music
Eddie Lang, born Salvatore Massaro in 1902 in South Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (1), was the first jazz and blues guitar virtuoso (18) and stood virtually alone in his use of the guitar as both accompaniment and solo instrument. (3) His highly advanced technical, harmonic, and rhythmic skills saw him write the textbook in the 1920’s for the modern guitar method (the same one we’re using one hundred years later). (4)
During his brief lifetime, Lang gave the six-string instrument a distinctive voice in jazz and popular music, bringing the guitar to prominence on records, radio, films, and stage. In his day, he was acknowledged as the world’s premier pop and jazz guitarist and the most sought-after studio and broadcast session musician, recording hundreds of discs with singers, dance bands, jazz groups, and novelty combos (1924-33). (4)
Solely an instrumentalist, Eddie Lang’s recorded legacy is founded on a series of sides he made as a leader (featuring solo and accompanied guitar improvisations)
Along with the chamber jazz sessions with his partner, violinist Joe Venuti
And stacks of jazz, pop, and blues records, including sessions with Bix Beiderbecke, Bessie Smith, Bing Crosby, Louis Armstrong, the Boswell Sisters, Red Nichols, and Lonnie Johnson. Many of these 78rpm discs rank alongside the most significant recordings of the Jazz Age. (5)
Classically trained in solfege and violin, his roots run deep, finding inspiration in the harmonies of Debussy and Ravel. He gleamed major and minor sixth, seventh, and ninth chords, whole tone, augmented, and passing chords from these classicists. (4)
When the first jazz records began circulating in Philadelphia (1918-1919) (4), Venuti and Massaro (along with a generation of teens) were captivated by these new pop sounds. With their command of classical music, opera, and the vernacular (the sounds & rhythms of South Philadelphia's Italians, Jews, Polish, German, and Irish communities), the two ingeniously began applying these harmonies and melodies to popular music and jazz, modernizing the centuries long-standing tradition of violin and guitar playing. The pair were soon to produce landmark recordings in various unique settings, both intimate and orchestral (1926-1933). (5)
A gifted billiard and card player who loved betting on the nags (horseracing), he was much beloved by those who crossed his path, inside and outside the music business. Salvatore Massaro began using the stage name Eddie Lang (6), or variations thereof (Eddie Lange, Ed Lange, Edward Lang, Ed Lang), around the time he joined the Philadelphia Musicians Union (1919). (5) His first professional gig was with Charlie Kerr’s Orchestra (1920), starting on violin, then adding banjo and guitar. (7)
NOTE: a 1924 image of Lang with the Scranton Sirens has him seated with a plectrum banjo, and to his left in a stand on the floor is a tenor banjo, guitar, violin, and what looks like a balalaika! (10)
His big break came in 1924 when he was added to the novelty trio, the Mound City Blue Blowers (kazoo, comb (comb & paper) and banjo). It is with this hot little ensemble that Eddie Lang made his first appearance as a guitar soloist (DEEP SECOND STREET BLUES, Brunswick records, December 10, 1924). (8)
1924, December 10 (Wed): Eddie Lang-guitar, Brunswick RECORDING SESSION, NYC (5).
Mound City Blue Blowers
Red McKenzie-comb, Dick Slevin-kazoo, Jack Bland-banjo, Eddie Lang-guitar.
14440 DEEP SECOND STREET BLUES (McCauley, McKenzie, Lange)-Brunswick 2804
A piece called Deep Second Street Blues reveals that Lang had already fixed several aspects of his personal style and was well on the way toward establishing the guitar as an important band instrument as well. For one thing, Eddie, like comb player McKenzie, knew how to get inside a blues and express himself convincingly in this essentially Southern idiom. Deep Second Street, for all its emphasis on novelty effects, is performed with genuine blues feeling, a feeling Lang apparently acquired quite easily and was never to lose, even on very commercial assignments. Deep Second Street also has Lang playing rhythm in a manner that was highly personal and distinctly advanced for the time. His tendency was toward an even four-to-the-bar pulse, often with a new chord position, inversion, or alteration on every stroke of the strings. In contrast to the monotonous chopping of most banjoists of the day, Eddie’s ensemble guitar sparkled with passing tones, chromatic sequences, and single-string fills. With all this went a firm, individual tone unlike the sound of any other instrument yet heard in jazz. (6)
A part of bandleader and booking agent Ray Miller’s stage show, the MCBB’s landed a two-month gig performing in England.
Harry Francis recalls the transforming thrill of discovery.
“My earliest recollection of Eddie Lang, however, goes back to 1924, a couple of years before I entered the music profession when he came to London with the Mound City Blue Blowers, who appeared in cabaret at the Piccadilly Hotel and also recorded a couple of titles for the old Brunswick label. I heard a relay broadcast from the hotel via the old British Broadcasting Company, with the aid of my crystal set, and was knocked for six by hearing, for the first time, jazz performed on the guitar.” (19)
NOTES
The year of Harry Francis’ recollection was 1925.
Joe Tarto was in England with the Vincent Lopez Orchestra on a three-month run at the same time as the MCBB.
For more, see Eddie Lang – The Formative Years, 1902-1925 by Nick Dellow, vjm.biz.
Joe Tarto’s autograph book, London, 1925.
MCBB, St. James Park, London, c. April 1925.
At a time when a banjo drove the rhythm of dance and jazz bands, Lang's arrival on the music scene in 1924 displayed firsthand what the future of the guitar was and the role it could play in pop & jazz (Joe Venuti called him a "trailblazer and pioneer"). (9) He was instrumental in opening the ears of bandleaders, musicians, singers, arrangers, and recording engineers to the texture and rhythmic pulse of the guitar, changing how pop and jazz were played and heard. Eddie Lang ended the banjo's reign and led to the smoother pulse of the next phase in the development of jazz, Swing! (18)
His six recording sessions with Ross Gorman (1925-1926) display an artist with extraordinary technique and inventiveness. Even more astonishing is that the charts for these sessions appear to be crafted or modified, especially for his talents. (18)
Note: Lang’s participation on most of these Gorman sides remains undocumented and even attributed to other guitarists! (18)
SEE “THE EDDIE LANG YOU NEED TO HEAR.”
The montages below of solos, runs, and fills illustrate Eddie Lang's ability to conceive jazz guitar lines and fills of immense repute. There was no one at the time who possessed the ability to originate and execute passages of a caliber like those found here. Oddly, he avoided displays of technique and creative line playing such as this in most of his improvisations, favoring instead simple, trumpet-like phrases, which he most often graced with a blues moan (string bends), to the detriment of his jazz guitar legacy, and the guitarist's footprint has unfairly suffered due to it. (18)
Eddie Lang SOLOS, RUNS, FILLS Montage Pt. 1 (1925-1933)
I’d Rather Be the Girl in Your Arms (intro)-Ross Gorman and His Earl Carroll Orchestra (1926)
Four-String Joe-Joe Venuti’s Blue Four (1927)
Hurricane-Red Nichols and His Five Pennies (1927)
I’d Rather Be the Girl in Your Arms (solo)-Ross Gorman and His Earl Carroll Orchestra (1926)
Gettin’ Told-Mound City Blue Blowers (1925)
I’m Coming, Virginia-Frankie Trumbauer and His Orchestra (1927)
Jig Saw Puzzle Blues-Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang’s Blue Five (1933)
No More Worryin’-Ross Gorman and His Orchestra (1926)
If You Never Come Back-Mound City Blue Blowers (1925)
Feeling My Way (intro)-Eddie Lang & Carl Kress (1932)
Eddie Lang SOLOS, RUNS, FILLS Montage Pt. 2 (1926-1932)
Trumpet Sobs-We Three (1926)
Bad Habits-Boyd Senter (1927)
What Ya Want Me To Do-Clarence Williams & His Novelty Four (1928)
Kickin’ The Cat-Joe Venuti’s Blue Four (1927)
Pickin’ My Way-Eddie Lang & Carl Kress (1932)
Idolizing-Ross Gorman and His Orchestra (Edison-1926)
April Kisses-Eddie Lang (1927)
Wringin’ An’ Twistin’-Tram, Bix and Lang (1927)
For the next five-plus years, Eddie Lang’s date book swelled with appearances in vaudeville, nightclubs, on Broadway, radio, and in films. (beginning in the autumn of 1926, wife Kitty managed his schedule). (12) A typical busy week for Massaro in 1927 & 1928 saw him bouncing from recording and radio studios to a Broadway pit or vaudeville stage and finishing the day with a nightclub gig. (18)
What separated Eddie from many of his contemporaries was a gift of inventiveness and creativity. Richard Sudhalter, in his excellent work, Lost Chords, says it best: “It’s far more likely that Lang’s approach to his instrument, like those of Armstrong, Beiderbecke, Teagarden, and other innovators was a product of his own sensibility and response to the musical world around him.” (3) Add to that the unmistakable sound he produced from the instrument (his “voice”), Lang joins the short list of jazz age originals. When in tandem with Venuti, arriving and departing in their inimitable fashion, they often took ownership of a performance, a testament to their extraordinary talents. (2023mp)
These three examples (of many) showcase Venuti & Lang in action, working within an orchestra.
Having conquered records and radio, his next step, which was instrumental in raising his profile and that of the guitar, was sound film. With this medium, and for only two bits (twenty-five cents), Lang was brought to cities and towns wherever there was a picture house, and the country was littered with them. (14) If you were an aspiring guitarist or banjoist, Lang’s film performance would have significantly impacted your musical path. There are three excellent examples of Eddie Lang performing for the movie camera.
KING OF JAZZ
The clip from the pre-code color film King Of Jazz (1930) finds Venuti & Lang miming a pre-record of WILD CAT. The duo blazes through their showcase number in thirty-four seconds, with Eddie using his Gibson L-5 (dot fingerboard) guitar. All too brief, it is nonetheless a spectacular performance. (Lang seems to be having the time of his life, while Venuti looks like he’s waiting on death row). Imagine seeing these two projected on the big screen like the giants they were!
Note: Catch Lang’s figure-eight stroke. (2023mp).
A REGULAR TROUPER
The Ruth Etting Vitaphone short (film), A Regular Trouper (1932), captures the guitarist from four different angles playing his 1929 Gibson L-5 archtop (with block fingerboard) accompanying Ruth Etting as she sings WITHOUT THAT MAN (GAL). Three angles (Lang full, rear, closeup, Etting closeup) are live. Eddie’s closeup is from a fourth camera angle and serves as an eleven-second insert; it is not live. This is the money shot!
Note: Eddie’s accompaniment is loaded with leading & passing chords and is a lesson in the art of accompaniment. Check out how effortlessly he whips out a breezy single-string E-minor flourish after he sits down. (18)
THE BIG BROADCAST
Lennie Hayton, Bing Crosby, Eddie Lang on the set of The Big Broadcast.
The Big Broadcast (1932) has Eddie Lang making three uncredited appearances playing his 1929 Gibson L-5 (block fingerboard) guitar. The film performance of PLEASE gives us a sample of how the team of Crosby, Lang, and (Lennie) Hayton (playing piano, off-screen) sounded as they crossed the country playing theatres heading to the west coast to film the movie.
The Big Broadcast brought Crosby national success. Paramount Pictures offered the singer a $300,000 contract for five pictures to be made over three years. (15) With that in mind, Bing spoke to Eddie about his taking a speaking role in his next film (College Humor). Lang, a man of few words, was uncomfortable with the idea. At the same time this was playing out, Eddie was facing a more pressing issue. He suffered stomach problems (indigestion) for most of his adult life. Around the end of 1932, the pains began occurring more frequently, and he also noticed that his voice was getting hoarse, forcing him to clear his throat constantly. Crosby encouraged Eddie to seek medical assistance, something Lang feared even more than acting in a movie. For some unknown reason, Eddie was diagnosed with tonsillitis, but it appears Lang was suffering from Acid Reflux (often successfully treated with antacid medication and changes in diet). (4)
See Eddie Lang STUDIO CHATTER December 5, 1932.
On Sunday morning, March 26, 1933, Eddie Lang was admitted to Park West Hospital on the upper west side of New York City to have his tonsils removed. The operation was a success, and Lang was in good condition. At 5 o’clock that evening, he became cyanotic (a disorder of the circulatory system caused by inadequate oxygenation of the blood), which made his skin look blue. Hospital staff rushed oxygen to his room, but Eddie passed out ten minutes later and died soon after that. (16)
Acknowledged as “The Father of the Jazz Guitar,” the name Eddie Lang was synonymous with the instrument for decades, and he remained the single most crucial jazz guitarist worldwide for fifteen years, nearly six years after his death, influencing a generation of guitarists who followed him. A 1937 Melody Maker musicians poll placed him first with 1,737 votes (Django Reinhardt came in second with 245 votes). Lang’s legacy was not immune to the advent of the amplified guitar. In 1939, a new generation of strummers (personified by Charlie Christian) bought new axes, plugged them in, and turned up the volume. Even Lang’s disciples eventually acquiesced. From the 1950s onward, the guitar (acoustic or electric) changed the sound and the direction of music. Since the nineteen-sixties, the guitar has remained the most popular instrument in the world. (18)
Eddie Lang’s premature death tragically prevented him from witnessing or being a part of the instrument’s phenomenal success. As the man who symbolized the guitar’s past, had fate not intervened, he may have played a role in its future. Every pop, jazz, folk, blues & country guitar player should understand that they are indebted to Eddie Lang, and still, there’s much to be learned from him. (18)
“It’s very fair to call Eddie Lang the father of jazz guitar.”
GEORGE VAN EPS
“The pioneer of the guitar, the greatest there ever was.”
JOE VENUTI
“Eddie Lang was a superb player.”
STEPHANE GRAPPELLI
“Lang was one of the greatest musical geniuses we ever had in the band.”
PAUL WHITEMAN
“Eddie Lang could play guitar better than anyone I know.”
LONNIE JOHNSON
“Eddie Lang first elevated the guitar and made it artistic in Jazz.”
BARNEY KESSEL
“Eddie Lang was the first and had a very modern technique. I had to figure out what he was doing.”
LES PAUL
“In the opinion of all the guitar players of his day and many since, he was the greatest one of the craft who ever lived.”
BING CROSBY
Eddie Lang’s final resting place is Holy Cross Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. (17)
SOURCES
1. Salvatore Massaro birth certificate 176861.
2. The Great Jazz Guitarists, Scott Yanow, Backbeat Books, 2013.
3. Lost Chords, White Musicians and Their Contribution to Jazz 1915-1945, Richard M. Sudhalter, Oxford University Press, 1999.
4. The Classic Columbia and OKeh Joe Venuti and Eddie Lang Sessions, Mosaic Records MD8-213, 2002. mosaicrecords.com
5. Feeling My Way, A Discography of the recordings of Eddie Lang 1923-1933, Raymond F. Mitchell, 2002.
6. Jazz Masters Of The Twenties, Richard Hadlock, Collier Books, 1965.
7. Richard DuPage, Stringing The Blues, Columbia Records, 1962.
8. Jazz Records 1897-1942, 4th Revised & Enlarged Edition, Brian Rust, Arlington House, 1978.
9. Conversations with Joe Venuti 1974-1978 (Mike Peters).
10. Eddie Lang Stringin’ The Blues, Adriano Mazzoletti, Pantheon, 1997.
11. See The Eddie Lang You Need To Hear
12. Still A Ziegfeld Girl, Memoirs of a Showgirl, An Autobiography by Kitty Good, Writers Guild Of America, 136497.
13. See Sessions & Timeline.
14. Movie attendance in the depression.
1931: 124 M-55% attend weekly-$0.35 (68 million attended films weekly)
1932: 125 M-45% attend weekly … (56 million attended films weekly)
1933: 125 M-40% attend weekly-$0.25 (50 million attended films weekly)
businessinsider.com/movie-attendance-over-the-years-2015-1
www.multpl.com/united-states-population/table/by-year
15. Bing Crosby A Pocketful Of Dreams The Early Years 1903-1940, Gary Giddins, Little, Brown and Company 2001.
16. Salvatore Massaro death certificate 25084.
17. Holy Cross Cemetery, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
18. Mike Peters, 2023.
IMAGES
Venuti/Lang archive, Joe Tarto, pinterest.com, TCM.