  ernest loring "red" nichols (may 8, 1905 â june 28, 1965) was an american jazz cornettist, composer, and jazz bandleader. over his long career, nichols recorded in a wide variety of musical styles, and critic steve leggett describes him as "an expert cornet player, a solid improviser, and apparently a workaholic, since he is rumored to have appeared on over 4,000 recordings during the 1920s alone." ==biography== ===early life and career=== nichols was born on may 8, 1905 in ogden, utah. his father was a college music professor, and nichols was a child prodigy, because by twelve he was already playing difficult set pieces for his father's brass band. young nichols heard the early recordings of the original dixieland jazz band, and later those of bix beiderbecke, and these had a strong influence on the young cornet player. his style became polished, clean and incisive. in the early 1920s, nichols moved to the midwest and joined a band called the syncopating seven. when that band broke up he joined the johnny johnson orchestra and went with it to new york city in 1923. new york would remain his base for years thereafter. in new york he met and teamed up with trombonist miff mole, and the two of them were inseparable for the next decade. jazz was still comparatively young then and consisted of two racially separated streams. the musicians of both races mingled, listened to each other, and played together at least in after-hour jams. ===brunswick records era=== nichols had good technique, could read music, and easily got session and studio work. in 1926 he and miff mole began a prodigious stint of recording with a variety of bands, most of them known as "red nichols and his five pennies". very few of these groups were actually quintets; the name was simply a pun on "nickel", since there were "five pennies" in a nickel. "that was only a number we tied in with my name", nichols once explained. "we'd generally have eight or nine [musicians], depending on who was around for the session and what i was trying to do." nichols recorded over 100 sides for the brunswick label under that band name. he also recorded under a number of othe
1905_births 1965_deaths American_jazz_bandleaders American_jazz_cornetists Burials_at_Forest_Lawn_Memorial_Park_(Hollywood_Hills) Capitol_Records_artists Deaths_from_myocardial_infarction People_from_Ogden,_Utah Vocalion_Records_artists