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On June 27, 1915, Harry "The Hipster" Gibson was born.
New for 2026. I've been meaning to post a thread about Harry Gibson for quite some time.
Harry Gibson
Gibson (middle) in New York, c. 1948
Background information
Born: Harry Raab; June 27, 1915; New York City, U.S.
Died: May 3, 1991 (aged 75); Brawley, California, U.S.
Genres: Jazz
Harry "The Hipster" Gibson (June 27, 1915 – May 3, 1991), born Harry Raab, was an American jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter. He played New York style stride piano and boogie woogie while singing in a wild, unrestrained style. His music career began in the late 1920s, when, under his real name, he played stride piano in Dixieland jazz bands in Harlem. He continued to perform there throughout the 1930s, adding the barrelhouse boogie of the time to his repertoire.
Early life
Gibson was Jewish. He came from a musical family that operated a player piano repair shop. He began playing piano in the 1920s as a child, in the Bronx and Harlem. His first professional piano gig was at age 13 with his uncle's orchestra. He began playing boogie woogie and talking in a jive style. He was invited into black speakeasies in Harlem to play piano while still a teenager.
Career
In the 1930s, after Prohibition ended, Gibson played regularly in Harlem nightclubs. He punctuated his piano stylings with a running line of jive patter, which can be traced directly to recordings of Fats Waller".
Gibson was fond of playing Fats Waller tunes, and when Waller heard Gibson in a club in Harlem in 1939 he hired Gibson to be his relief pianist at club dates. Between 1939 and 1945, Gibson played at Manhattan jazz clubs on 52nd Street {"Swing Street"}, most notably the Three Deuces, run by Irving Alexander, and Leon and Eddie's run by Leon Enkin and Eddie Davis. During one audition for a nightclub engagement, where he played piano for a girl singer, he gave his true name of Harry Raab. The club owner insisted on a "showbiz" name, shouting, "I'm calling you two The Gibsons!" Harry adopted Gibson as his professional name.
In the 1940s, Gibson was known for writing unusual songs considered ahead of their time. He was also known for his unique, wild singing style, his energetic and unorthodox piano styles, and his intricate mixture of hardcore, gutbucket boogie rhythms with ragtime, stride and jazz piano styles. He took the boogie woogie beat of his predecessors, but he made it frantic, similar to the rock and roll music of the 1950s. Examples of his wild style are found in "Riot in Boogie" and "Barrelhouse Boogie". Other songs that he recorded were "Handsome Harry, the Hipster", "I Stay Brown All Year 'Round", 4-F Ferdinand the Frantic Freak", "Get Your Juices at the Deuces" and "Stop That Dancin' Up There".
Gibson recorded often, but there are very few visual examples of his work. In 1944, he filmed three songs in New York for the Soundies film jukeboxes, and he went to Hollywood in 1946 to appear as himself in the feature-length film musical Junior Prom. He preceded white rock-and-rollers by a decade: the Soundies he recorded are similar to Jerry Lee Lewis's raucous piano numbers of the 1950s.
Like Mezz Mezzrow, Gibson consciously abandoned his ethnicity to adopt black music and culture. He grew up near Harlem in New York City, and his constant use of black jive talk was not an affectation; it was something he picked up from his fellow musicians. His song "I Stay Brown All Year Round" is based on this. In his autobiography, he claimed he coined the term hipster between 1939 and 1945 when he was performing on Swing Street, and he started using "Harry the Hipster" as his stage name.
Classical music work
Gibson's wild-man theatrics belied the fact that he was also a highly trained classical musician. While working on "Swing Street" at night, he was a fellow at the Juilliard Graduate School during the day.
Gibson was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall, for a jazz concert held on December 2, 1944. Hosted by Eddie Condon, the program featured many celebrities from the jazz world. Gibson performed a serious rendition of Bix Beiderbecke's piano piece "In a Mist". "The acoustics are so big in Carnegie Hall that when I hit that piano, I thought I was playing 40 pianos," said Gibson. "After I did the Carnegie Hall concert, I got a write-up in Downbeat and he said the best thing in the whole program was Harry Gibson, the guy that went up and played Bix Beiderbecke solos. Musicraft [Records] saw the writeup, came down to the Deuces to listen to me. Billie Holiday was late for her show, and Irving Alexander always stuck me on when she was late for her show to keep the people there... And I'm doing my Harry the Hipster act... and I go out with 'Barrelhouse Boogie.'" Musicraft signed Gibson on the spot, and he recruited drummer Big Sid Catlett and bassist John Simmons for a recording session the next morning, resulting in the hit album Boogie Woogie in Blue. "Eight songs, and not a clinker in 'em," said Gibson proudly. "Right straight out, eight takes, eight songs. Perfect."
{snip}
Gibson (middle) in New York, c. 1948
Background information
Born: Harry Raab; June 27, 1915; New York City, U.S.
Died: May 3, 1991 (aged 75); Brawley, California, U.S.
Genres: Jazz
Harry "The Hipster" Gibson (June 27, 1915 – May 3, 1991), born Harry Raab, was an American jazz pianist, singer, and songwriter. He played New York style stride piano and boogie woogie while singing in a wild, unrestrained style. His music career began in the late 1920s, when, under his real name, he played stride piano in Dixieland jazz bands in Harlem. He continued to perform there throughout the 1930s, adding the barrelhouse boogie of the time to his repertoire.
Early life
Gibson was Jewish. He came from a musical family that operated a player piano repair shop. He began playing piano in the 1920s as a child, in the Bronx and Harlem. His first professional piano gig was at age 13 with his uncle's orchestra. He began playing boogie woogie and talking in a jive style. He was invited into black speakeasies in Harlem to play piano while still a teenager.
Career
In the 1930s, after Prohibition ended, Gibson played regularly in Harlem nightclubs. He punctuated his piano stylings with a running line of jive patter, which can be traced directly to recordings of Fats Waller".
Gibson was fond of playing Fats Waller tunes, and when Waller heard Gibson in a club in Harlem in 1939 he hired Gibson to be his relief pianist at club dates. Between 1939 and 1945, Gibson played at Manhattan jazz clubs on 52nd Street {"Swing Street"}, most notably the Three Deuces, run by Irving Alexander, and Leon and Eddie's run by Leon Enkin and Eddie Davis. During one audition for a nightclub engagement, where he played piano for a girl singer, he gave his true name of Harry Raab. The club owner insisted on a "showbiz" name, shouting, "I'm calling you two The Gibsons!" Harry adopted Gibson as his professional name.
In the 1940s, Gibson was known for writing unusual songs considered ahead of their time. He was also known for his unique, wild singing style, his energetic and unorthodox piano styles, and his intricate mixture of hardcore, gutbucket boogie rhythms with ragtime, stride and jazz piano styles. He took the boogie woogie beat of his predecessors, but he made it frantic, similar to the rock and roll music of the 1950s. Examples of his wild style are found in "Riot in Boogie" and "Barrelhouse Boogie". Other songs that he recorded were "Handsome Harry, the Hipster", "I Stay Brown All Year 'Round", 4-F Ferdinand the Frantic Freak", "Get Your Juices at the Deuces" and "Stop That Dancin' Up There".
Gibson recorded often, but there are very few visual examples of his work. In 1944, he filmed three songs in New York for the Soundies film jukeboxes, and he went to Hollywood in 1946 to appear as himself in the feature-length film musical Junior Prom. He preceded white rock-and-rollers by a decade: the Soundies he recorded are similar to Jerry Lee Lewis's raucous piano numbers of the 1950s.
Like Mezz Mezzrow, Gibson consciously abandoned his ethnicity to adopt black music and culture. He grew up near Harlem in New York City, and his constant use of black jive talk was not an affectation; it was something he picked up from his fellow musicians. His song "I Stay Brown All Year Round" is based on this. In his autobiography, he claimed he coined the term hipster between 1939 and 1945 when he was performing on Swing Street, and he started using "Harry the Hipster" as his stage name.
Classical music work
Gibson's wild-man theatrics belied the fact that he was also a highly trained classical musician. While working on "Swing Street" at night, he was a fellow at the Juilliard Graduate School during the day.
Gibson was invited to perform at Carnegie Hall, for a jazz concert held on December 2, 1944. Hosted by Eddie Condon, the program featured many celebrities from the jazz world. Gibson performed a serious rendition of Bix Beiderbecke's piano piece "In a Mist". "The acoustics are so big in Carnegie Hall that when I hit that piano, I thought I was playing 40 pianos," said Gibson. "After I did the Carnegie Hall concert, I got a write-up in Downbeat and he said the best thing in the whole program was Harry Gibson, the guy that went up and played Bix Beiderbecke solos. Musicraft [Records] saw the writeup, came down to the Deuces to listen to me. Billie Holiday was late for her show, and Irving Alexander always stuck me on when she was late for her show to keep the people there... And I'm doing my Harry the Hipster act... and I go out with 'Barrelhouse Boogie.'" Musicraft signed Gibson on the spot, and he recruited drummer Big Sid Catlett and bassist John Simmons for a recording session the next morning, resulting in the hit album Boogie Woogie in Blue. "Eight songs, and not a clinker in 'em," said Gibson proudly. "Right straight out, eight takes, eight songs. Perfect."
{snip}
Juilliard fellow (for real) Harry "The Hipster" Gibson plays the ivories while those crazy zoos suit-wearing kids show off the latest steps in this 1944 Soundie. Yowzah!
Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - "Handsome Harry The Hipster" - ORIGINAL "VIDEO" - 1944
RJBinghamesq
9.73K subscribers
62,495 views May 21, 2011
1944. Harry was Rock 'N' Roll ten years BEFORE it existed - with the sex AND drugs. His "Piano Boogie Jump" is at • Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - "Piano Boogie...
RIP, Harry.
RJBinghamesq
9.73K subscribers
62,495 views May 21, 2011
1944. Harry was Rock 'N' Roll ten years BEFORE it existed - with the sex AND drugs. His "Piano Boogie Jump" is at • Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - "Piano Boogie...
RIP, Harry.
Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - "Piano Boogie Jump" - ORIGINAL "VIDEO"
RJBinghamesq
10K subscribers
Subscribe
83,767 views Aug 11, 2010
Harry made three of these "soundies" in 1944 - you can find another at • Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - "Handsome Har...
Music
1 song
Opus 12eee
Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
Bop Bop!
Music
RJBinghamesq
10K subscribers
RJBinghamesq
10K subscribers
Subscribe
83,767 views Aug 11, 2010
Harry made three of these "soundies" in 1944 - you can find another at • Harry "The Hipster" Gibson - "Handsome Har...
Music
1 song
Opus 12eee
Harry "The Hipster" Gibson
Bop Bop!
Music
RJBinghamesq
10K subscribers
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