Freddy Martin was raised largely in an orphanage and by various relatives. His first learned drums, then changed to C melody saxophone and ultimately tenor saxophone.

He had intended to be a journalist and hoped he would earn enough money from his musical work to enter Ohio State University. Instead, he became a professional musician.

Martin led his own band while he was in high school, then played in various local bands. He spent his spare time selling musical instruments.

After working on a ship’s band, Martin joined the Mason-Dixon band, then joined Arnold Johnson and Jack Albin. It was with Albin’s “Hotel Pennsylvania Music” that he made his first recordings, for Columbia’s Harmony, Velvet Tone, and Clarion 50-cent labels in 1930.

After a couple of years, his skill began attracting other musicians. One was Guy Lombardo, who remained friends with Martin throughout his life and gets a mention in the 1950s Freddy Martin broadcast in this week’s Phantom Dancer.

LOMBARDO

One night, when Lombardo could not do a certain date, he suggested that Martin’s band could fill in for him. The band did very well and Martin’s career got started. But, the band broke up and he did not form a permanent band until 1931, at the Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn.

At the Bossert Marine Roof, a nautical-themed restaurant positioned on the roof of the hotel, Martin pioneered the “Tenor Band” style that swept the sweet-music industry.

With his own tenor sax as melodic lead, Martin fronted an all-tenor sax section with just two brasses and a violin trio plus rhythm. The rich, lilting style quickly spawned imitators in hotels and ballrooms nationwide. “Tenor bands”, usually with just the three tenors and one trumpet, could occasionally be found playing for older dancers well into the 1980s.

The Martin band recorded first for Columbia Records in 1932. As the company was broke and signing no new contracts, the band switched to Brunswick Records after one session and remained with that label till 1938. During his tenure at Brunswick/ARC, half of his recordings were issued on ARC’s stable of budget priced labels (Banner, Conqueror, Melotone, Oriole, Perfect, Romeo, and Vocalion) as well as scores of non-vocal takes issued on ARC’s special theater use label, sold only to movie theaters as background music.

SUCCESS

In 1938, he signed with RCA Victor and was assigned to Bluebird. The band also recorded pseudonymously in the early 1930s, backing singers such as Will Osborne. From 1932 to 1938, the band’s primary vocalists were saxophonist Elmer Feldkamp and pianist Terry Shand. The former primarily sang romantic ballads, while the latter was used mostly for ‘hot’ dance tunes.

Martin took his band into many prestigious hotels, including the Roosevelt Grill in New York City, and the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. A fixture on radio, his sponsored shows included NBC’s Maybelline Penthouse Serenade of 1937.

For Martin, real success came in 1941 with an arrangement from the first movement of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 in B♭ minor. Martin recorded the piece instrumentally, but soon lyrics were added by Ray Austin, and it was re-cut as “Tonight We Love” with Clyde Rogers’ vocal – becoming his biggest hit. It sold over one million copies by 1946, and was awarded a gold disc by the RIAA.

The success of “Tonight We Love” prompted Martin to adopt several other classical themes (of Rachmaninoff, Grieg, and others), which featured the band’s pianists Jack Fina, Murray Arnold, and Barclay Allen.

In 1946, he recorded “Dingbat the Singing Cat” adapted from Prokofiev’s “Peter and the Wolf”, and later recorded “A Lover’s Concerto”, adapted from baroque composer Christian Petzold’s “Minuet in G major”, two decades before pop group The Toys released it. At this time, Martin enlarged the orchestra to a strength of six violins, four brasses, and a like number of saxes.

STYLE

Martin was nicknamed “Mr. Silvertone” by saxophonist Johnny Hodges. Chu Berry named Martin his favorite saxophonist. He has also been idolized by many other saxophonists, including Eddie Miller. Although his playing has been admired by so many jazz musicians, Martin never tried to be a jazz musician.

Martin always led a sweet styled band. Unlike most sweet bands that just played dull music, Martin’s band turned out to be one of the most musical and most melodic of all the typical hotel-room sweet bands. According to George T. Simon, Martin’s band was “one of the most pleasant, most relaxed dance bands that ever flowed across the band scene.”

He used the banner “Music in the Martin Manner.” Russ Morgan used a similar banner when he finally landed a radio series with his own band in 1936. (Morgan’s title was “Music in the Morgan Manner”.) Morgan had been playing in Martin’s band and the two were good friends for years. Morgan used some of Martin’s arrangements when he started his band.

Martin had a good ear for singers. He employed Merv Griffin, Buddy Clark, Gene Merlino, pianists Sid Appleman and Terry Shand, saxophonist Elmer Feldkamp, Stuart Wade, violinist Eddie Stone, and many others. Helen Ward was also a singer for Martin, just before she joined Benny Goodman’s new band.

Martin’s popularity as a bandleader led him to Hollywood in the 1940s where he and his band appeared in a handful of films, including Seven Days’ Leave (1942), Stage Door Canteen (1943), and Melody Time (1948), among others.

In the 1950s and 1960s, Martin continued to perform on the radio and also appeared on TV. Untroubled by changing musical tastes, he continued to work at major venues and was musical director for Elvis Presley’s first appearance in Las Vegas.

Still in demand for hotel work, Martin entered the 1970s with an engagement at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles. In the early 1970s, he was part of two tours of one-nighters that were known as ‘The Big Band Cavalcade’. Among the other performers on the show were Margaret Whiting, Bob Crosby, Frankie Carle, Buddy Morrow, Art Mooney, and George Shearing. When the tours ended, Martin returned to the West Coast. In 1977, Martin was asked to lead Guy Lombardo’s band when Lombardo was hospitalized with a heart condition.

Martin continued leading his band until the early 1980s, although by then, he was semi-retired. 

His 1947 song “Pico and Sepulveda” was recorded by Martin under the alias of “Felix Figueroa and his Orchestra” featured in the 1980 surrealist film Forbidden Zone.

29 NOVEMBER PLAY LIST