Lang, Eddie

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Eddie Lang

Musician, guitarist

In the early 1920s popular music, and jazz in particular, was in transition. Players like Eddie Lang had started out playing banjo, an instrument that worked well with the tuba, but were now switching to guitar. The change arrived, certain critics argued, because guitar blended better with the new string bass. Others believed that the invention of the electric microphone, making it easier to record acoustic guitar, augmented the change. But James Sallis, writing in The Guitar Players, offered another, more succinct reason for the transition. "More than anything else the change resulted from the playing of Eddie Lang."

Lang's life was tragically short, but within the span of ten years, he revolutionized jazz guitar and inspired a generation of players. "If Eddie had lived longer than his short 30 years," Guitar Player quoted George Van Eps, "he would have been as modern as tomorrow." During that time period Lang worked continually, traveling with a number of bands and recording prolifically. He attended sessions with the era's greatest musicians, including Joe Venuti, Louis Armstrong, Red Nichols, Lonnie Johnson, and Bix Beiderbecke. Lang's reputation as an accompanist also led to invitations from vocalists, including Bing Crosby and Ruth Etting. In 1929 he appeared briefly in the feature film The King of Jazz and accompanied Crosby in The Big Broadcast of 1932. In 1933, however, Lang died unexpectedly, following a botched operation for a tonsillectomy.

Lang was born Salvatore Massaro on October 25, 1902, in South Philadelphia, the son of an Italian banjo and guitar maker. Massaro borrowed the name Lang from a favorite baseball player. As a young man he learned to play violin and loved classical music; later, he would learn to play both the guitar and banjo. He also admired the Spanish classical guitarist Segovia, and would later translate Rachmaninoff's "Prelude in C# Minor" to solo guitar. Lang befriended violinist Joe Venuti, and later the two learned to improvise while playing duets with one another. "I'd slip something in," Venuti told Sallis, "Eddie would pick it up with a variation. Then I'd come back with a variation. We'd just sit there and knock each other out."

In 1921 Lang began his professional career, switching between banjo, violin, and a hybrid six banjo-guitar. He played violin with Bert Estlow's quintet at a restaurant in Atlantic City, his first professional job, and also played banjo with Charlie Kerr's orchestra and Russs Morgan. By 1923 Lang had settled on the guitar as his instrument of choice, though he never completely abandoned the banjo. Lang's first success came in 1924 when he joined the Mound City Blue Blowers at the Beaux Arts Café in Atlantic City. He continued to play with the group throughout most of 1925, while also performing separately with Venuti in Atlantic City.

Lang quickly gained a reputation as a studio musician due to his distinct style and ability to complement vocalists. He worked with singers Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) and Al Jolson (later to star in the The Jazz Singer, the first "talkie" motion picture). Lang, along with Venuti, began an ongoing association with the Goodkette orchestra, a 14-piece band. The orchestra also completed several sessions with cornet player Bix Beiderbecke. Lang and Beiderbecke recorded impressive versions of "Singin' the Blues," "Clementine," and "I'm Coming Virginia" in 1927. In 1926–27, Lang also recorded with Red Nichols and the Five Pennies, and continued an enduring series of recordings with violinist Venuti that began in 1926.

In November of 1928, Lang joined another guitarist at the Okeh studios for a series of legendary recordings. Because guitarist Lonnie Johnson was African American and Lang was white, however, certain facts about the recording session at Okeh had to be concealed: jazz, like most American music of the time, remained largely segregated. Since Lang was already well known, he called himself Blind Willie Dunn for the session. Over the next 11 months, the two guitarists cut ten duets. "Historical importance aside," wrote Tony Russell in Masters of Jazz Guitar, "this is also music of enormous charm, whose power to excite the listener has scarcely dimmed in the seven decades since it was made."

During the sessions, Lang supported Johnson with complex chord patterns, allowing Johnson the freedom to construct tantalizing solos. The duo covered "Hot Fingers," "A Handful of Riffs," and "Bull Frog Moan." "He was the finest guitarist I had ever heard in 1928 and 1929," Johnson told Sallis. "I think he could play anything he felt like."

During the late 1920s, Lang also performed as a soloist with the Paul Whiteman Orchestra, one of the most popular bands of its day. Whiteman distanced himself from hot jazz, co-opting a popular style that included vocalists like Mildred Bailey and Bing Crosby. It was during his residency with Whiteman that Lang met Crosby, leading to a close friendship and, later, a working relationship. Lang's second wife, Kitty Lang, was a friend of Crosby's wife Dixie Lee.

Both Lang and Crosby left Whiteman's orchestra in 1930, and in 1931 Lang accompanied Crosby full-time. The pair worked as many as four theater shows a day, and when Crosby went to Hollywood for a five-film contract, Lang followed. In 1932 Lang made a brief appearance with Crosby in The Big Broadcast of 1932. When time allowed, Lang participated in other recording sessions, including cutting two duets with guitarist Karl Kress in 1932, "Pickin' My Way" and "Feelin' My Way." He also recorded with the Boswell Sisters, a vocal trio, and recorded four sides with the Venuti-Lang All-Star Orchestra. "The four sides cut by this band are generally considered classics," wrote Sallis, "a fair summation of the past decade's achievements and a preview of music soon to come."

Lang's death at the age of 30 was both unexpected and tragic. In this short time, however, George Van Eps was still willing to bestow on Lang the title "father of jazz guitar." While Django Reinhardt would expand the guitar's palette in the Cafés of Paris during the 1930s, and Charlie Christian would popularize the electric guitar in the early 1940s, it was Lang who opened the field for these and many other players.

Lang decided, perhaps at the suggestion of Crosby, to have an operation on his throat. "Lang's chronic sore throat had worsened and begun to affect his general health." Complications during what should have been a routine operation caused excessive hemorrhaging. Lang never regained consciousness, and died on March 26, 1933. "The first jazz guitar virtuoso, Eddie Lang was everywhere in the late '20s," wrote Scott Yanow in the All Music Guide to Jazz. "All of his fellow musicians knew that he was the best."

Selected discography

Jazz Guitar, Yazoo, 1989.
A Handful of Riffs, AVA/ Living Era, 1992.
Pioneers of Jazz Guitar, 1927–1938, Challenge, 1998.
Blue Guitars, Vol. 1-2, BGO, 1998.
The New York Sessions, 1926–1935, JSP, 2003.

For the Record …

Born on October 25, 1902, in Philadelphia, PA; died March 26, 1933, in New York City.

Played violin with Bert Estlow's quintet, 1921; played banjo with Charlie Kerr's orchestra and Russs Morgan, early 1920s; joined Mound City Blue Blowers, 1924; performed with singers Cliff Edwards (Ukulele Ike) and Al Jolson; recorded series of duets with violinist Joe Venuti; worked with cornet player Bix Beiderbecke, 1927; performed series of guitar duets with Lonnie Johnson, 1928–29; appeared with Bing Crosby in The Big Broadcast of 1932.

Addresses: Record company—Yazoo Records Corp., 37 East Clinton St., Newton, NJ 07860, website: http://www.yazoorecords.com/.