Take Two

Rhythm Is Our Business

Rhythm is our business, rhythm is what we sell
Rhythm is our business, business sure is swell
Now, if you blue, rhythm's what you need
If you got rhythm you're sure to succeed
Rhythm is our business, business sure is swell

Saxophonist and bandleader Jimmie Lunceford was born on a farm in Mississippi in 1902. The family then moved to Denver where Jimmie attended high school and studied music under Wilberforce J. Whiteman, father of Paul Whiteman. In 1927, Jimmie organised a student band, the Chickasaw Syncopators, whose name was changed to the Jimmie Lunceford Orchestra. Under the new name, the band started its professional career in 1929, and made its first recordings in 1930. After a period of touring, in 1934 the band accepted a booking at the the Cotton Club for their revue "Cotton Club Parade" starring Adelaide Hall.

Rhythm Is Our Business was composed by Jimmie, Sammy Cahn and Saul Chaplin and became one of the band's most popular numbers. The band was more know for its ensemble work, but this number introduced some members of the band who then took breaks. This is a notion that we find again in the film High Society (Now You Has Jazz). With Now You Has Jazz, the breaks are brief and are introduced and/or credited: "Now you has Mr Barrett Deems"; In Rhythm Is Our Business, the breaks again are short. and expectations are also set for how the soloist will play: "X plays the saxophone in the band. Oh, when he goes up that scale. (One line of scat singing followed by saxophone break)" and "He blows on the trumpet in the band. X blows on that trumpet in the band. Oh, he's the guy, hits `em high."

Here is Jimmie Lunceford's Orchestra with the number in 1936:

Jimmie Lunceford was just 45 years old when he died. On the 12th July, 1947, Jimmie and his orchestra were in Seaside, Oregon, to play at The Bungalow dance hall. Before the performance, Jimmie collapsed during an autograph session at a local record store. He had complained about an aching leg as they arrived in Seaside; he had been suffering with high blood pressure for a while, and had recently complained about not feeling well. He died while being taken by ambulance to the local hospital.

Over the years since then, Rhythm Is Our Business has gone on being performed by big and small bands. Here are Vince Giordano and the Nighthawks in 2016: (or you can taste a small band version here with the Tooscanians from Tuscany).

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