Carl Kress (October 20, 1907 – June 10, 1965) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

guitarist.

Music career

Kress started on piano before picking up the banjo. Beginning in 1926, he played guitar during his brief period in

Paul Whiteman Paul Samuel Whiteman (March 28, 1890 – December 29, 1967) was an American Jazz bandleader, composer, orchestral director, and violinist. As the leader of one of the most popular dance bands in the United States during the 1920s and early 193 ...

's orchestra. For most of his career, he was a studio musician and sideman buried in large orchestras, and his name was little known. His work in the 1920s and 1930s included sessions with The Boswell Sisters, The Dorsey Brothers,

Bix Beiderbecke Leon Bismark "Bix" Beiderbecke ( ; March 10, 1903 – August 6, 1931) was an American jazz cornetist, pianist and composer. Beiderbecke was one of the most influential jazz soloists of the 1920s, a cornet player noted for an inventive lyrical a ...

Hoagy Carmichael Hoagland Howard "Hoagy" Carmichael (November 22, 1899 – December 27, 1981) was an American musician, composer, songwriter, actor, author and lawyer. Carmichael was one of the most successful Tin Pan Alley songwriters of the 1930s and 1940s, a ...

, Miff Mole, Red Nichols,

Adrian Rollini Adrian Francis Rollini (June 28, 1903 – May 15, 1956) was an Americans, American jazz instrumentalist, multi-instrumentalist who primarily played the bass saxophone, piano, and vibraphone. He is also known for playing novelty instruments such ...

, and Frankie Trumbauer. Outside of orchestras, Kress played in several guitar duets with Eddie Lang (1932), Dick McDonough (1934, 1937), Tony Mottola (1941), and George Barnes (1961–1965). In 1938 and 1939, he made some solo recordings, the songs "Peg Leg Shuffle", "Helena", "Love Song", "Sutton Mutton", and "Afterthoughts". During the 1940s, he played

Dixieland Dixieland jazz, also referred to as traditional jazz, hot jazz, or simply Dixieland, is a style of jazz based on the music that developed in New Orleans at the start of the 20th century. The 1917 recordings by the Original Dixieland Jass Band ( ...

jazz with Bobby Hackett, Pee Wee Russell, and Muggsy Spanier. Kress was married to Helen Carroll, a native of Bloomington, Indiana, who moved to New York City to become a singer. She was a member of the Satisfiers and sang with

Perry Como Pierino Ronald "Perry" Como (; May 18, 1912 – May 12, 2001) was an American singer, actor, and television personality. During a career spanning more than half a century, he recorded exclusively for RCA Victor for 44 years, from 1943 until 1987 ...

Frank Sinatra Francis Albert Sinatra (; December 12, 1915 – May 14, 1998) was an American singer and actor. Honorific nicknames in popular music, Nicknamed the "Chairman of the Board" and "Ol' Blue Eyes", he is regarded as one of the Time 100: The Most I ...

, and

Jo Stafford Jo Elizabeth Stafford (November 12, 1917July 16, 2008) was an American traditional pop singer, whose career spanned five decades from the late 1930s to the early 1980s. Admired for the purity of her voice, she originally underwent classical tr ...

. Carl and Helen Kress lived in

Manhasset Manhasset is an affluent hamlet and census-designated place (CDP) in Nassau County, on the North Shore of Long Island, in New York, United States. It is considered the anchor community of the Greater Manhasset area. The population was 8,176 ...

, New York. Carl Kress died of a heart attack in 1965 while he was on tour with George Barnes (musician) in Reno, Nevada.

Technique

Like many early jazz guitarists, Kress played

banjo The banjo is a stringed instrument with a thin membrane stretched over a frame or cavity to form a resonator. The membrane is typically circular, and in modern forms is usually made of plastic, where early membranes were made of animal skin. ...

before switching to guitar. The tenor banjo tunes its consecutive strings in intervals of fifths, : C-G-D-A, and Kress adapted this all-fifths tuning for his guitar : B-F-C-G-D-A,: : : although he down-tuned the A-string an

octave In music, an octave (: eighth) or perfect octave (sometimes called the diapason) is an interval between two notes, one having twice the frequency of vibration of the other. The octave relationship is a natural phenomenon that has been referr ...

. Before switching to fifths tuning, Kress used other tunings on the banjo and

tenor guitar The tenor guitar or four-string guitar is a slightly smaller, four-string relative of the steel-string acoustic guitar or electric guitar. The instrument was initially developed in its acoustic form by Gibson and C.F. Martin so that players o ...

. His fifths-tuning gave Kress's playing "fuller chords and basslines", according to Richard Lieberson. When Kress's duets with Dick McDonough were published, they were transposed from his fifths tuning to standard tuning. All-fifths tuning is used by other instruments besides tenor banjos. For example, it is used by

mandolin A mandolin (, ; literally "small mandola") is a Chordophone, stringed musical instrument in the lute family and is generally Plucked string instrument, plucked with a plectrum, pick. It most commonly has four Course (music), courses of doubled St ...

violin The violin, sometimes referred to as a fiddle, is a wooden chordophone, and is the smallest, and thus highest-pitched instrument (soprano) in regular use in the violin family. Smaller violin-type instruments exist, including the violino picc ...

mandola The mandola (US and Canada) or tenor mandola (Ireland and UK) is a fretted, stringed musical instrument. It is to the mandolin what the viola is to the violin: the four double courses of strings tuned in fifths to the same pitches as the viola ...

viola The viola ( , () ) is a string instrument of the violin family, and is usually bowed when played. Violas are slightly larger than violins, and have a lower and deeper sound. Since the 18th century, it has been the middle or alto voice of the ...

mandocello The mandocello () is a plucked string instrument of the mandolin family. It is larger than the mandolin, and is the baritone instrument of the mandolin family. Its eight strings are in four paired courses, with the strings in each course tuned in ...

s, and

cello The violoncello ( , ), commonly abbreviated as cello ( ), is a middle pitched bowed (sometimes pizzicato, plucked and occasionally col legno, hit) string instrument of the violin family. Its four strings are usually intonation (music), tuned i ...

Discography

As leader

* 1934-37 - ''The Guitar Genius of Dick McDonough & Carl Kress in the Thirties'' (Jazz Archives, 1976) * 1934-37 - ''Pioneers of the Jazz Guitar'' ( Yazoo, 1992) (Karl Cress only in four tracks) * 1939.02 - ''Original Guitar Solos'' (

Decca Decca may refer to: Music * Decca Records or Decca Music Group, record label * Decca Gold, classical music record label owned by Universal Music Group * Decca Broadway, musical theater record label * Decca Studios, recording facility in West ...

, 1940) * 1941 - ''Fun on the Frets'' (Yazoo, ?) w Tony Mottola - Transcriptions * 1961 - ''Guitar Galaxies'' (Mercury, 1962) (under George Barnes name) * 1962 - ''Something Tender'' with George Barnes (

United Artists United Artists (UA) is an American film production and film distribution, distribution company owned by Amazon MGM Studios. In its original operating period, it was founded in February 1919 by Charlie Chaplin, D. W. Griffith, Mary Pickford an ...

, 1963) * 1962 - ''Two Guitars Volume 1'' with George Barnes ( Stash, 1983) * 1962 - ''Two Guitars and a Horn Volume II'' (Stash, 1983) with George Barnes under Bud Freeman name * 1963.04 - ''Town Hall Concert'' with George Barnes (United Artists, 1963) * 196?- ''Guitars, Anyone? Why Not Start at the Top?'' with George Barnes (Carney, 1963) *

As sideman

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

, ''Satchmo in Style'' (1959) *

, ''The Bix Beiderbecke Story Volume 2: Bix and Tram'' (Columbia, 1952) * Erskine Butterfield, ''Just for Kicks'' (Livingston, 1955) * Helen Caroll, ''Singin' & Swingin' '' (Stere-O-Craft, 1958) *

Bob Crosby George Robert Crosby (August 23, 1913 – March 9, 1993) was an American jazz singer and bandleader, best known for his group the Bob-Cats, which formed around 1935. The Bob-Cats were a New Orleans Dixieland-style jazz octet. He was the younge ...

, ''South Pacific Blows Warm'' (1958) *

Jimmy Dorsey James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peopl ...

, ''Dixie by Dorsey'' (1950) * Jimmy McPartland, ''Shades of Bix'' (Brunswick, 1953) * Red Nichols, ''Rhythm of the Day'' (1983) *

Jack Teagarden Weldon Leo "Jack" Teagarden (August 20, 1905 – January 15, 1964) was an United States, American jazz Trombone, trombonist and singer. He led both of his bands himself and was a sideman for Paul Whiteman's orchestra. From 1946 to 1951, he played ...

, ''Jazz Great'' (Bethlehem, 1955) * Jack Teagarden/ Maxine Sullivan, ''My Memories of You'' (Everest, 1956)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kress, Carl 1907 births 1965 deaths Jazz musicians from Newark, New Jersey Guitarists from New Jersey American jazz guitarists Inventors of musical tunings 20th-century American guitarists The Dorsey Brothers members