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Alois Maxwell " Al" Hirt (November 7, 1922 – April 27, 1999) was an American trumpeter and bandleader. He is best remembered for his million-selling recordings of "Java" and the accompanying album Honey in the Horn (1963), and for the theme music to The Green Hornet. His nicknames included "Jumbo" and "The Round Mound of Sound". Colin Escott, an author of musician biographies, wrote that RCA Victor, for which Hirt had recorded most of his best-selling recordings and for which he had spent most of his professional recording career, had simply dubbed him "The King." Hirt was inducted into The Louisiana Music Hall of Fame in November 2009. He received eight Grammy Awards nominations during his lifetime, including winning the Grammy award in 1964 for his version of "Java".
In 1940, Hirt went to Cincinnati, to study at the Cincinnati Conservatory of Music with Dr. Frank Simon (a former soloist with the John Philip Sousa Orchestra). After a stint as a bugler in the United States Army during World War II, Hirt performed with various swing , including those of Tommy Dorsey, Jimmy Dorsey, Benny Goodman, and Ina Ray Hutton.
In 1950, Hirt became first trumpet and featured soloist with Horace Heidt's Orchestra. After spending several years on the road with Heidt, Hirt returned to New Orleans working with various Dixieland groups and leading his own bands. Despite Hirt's statement years later "I'm not a jazz trumpeter and never was a jazz trumpeter", he made a few recordings where he demonstrated his ability to play in that style, during the 1950s with bandleader Monk Hazel, and a few other recordings on the local Southland Records label.
Hirt's virtuoso dexterity and fine tone on his instrument soon attracted the attention of major record labels and he signed with RCA Victor. Hirt posted twenty-two albums on the Billboard record chart in the 1950s and 1960s. The albums Honey in the Horn and Cotton Candy were both in the Top 10 best sellers for 1964, the same year Hirt scored a hit single with his cover version of Allen Toussaint's tune "Java" (Billboard No. 4), and later won a Grammy Award for the same recording. Both Honey in the Horn and Java sold over one million copies, and were awarded gold discs.
Hirt's Top 40 charted hit "Sugar Lips" in 1964 would be later used as the theme song for the NBC daytime game show Eye Guess, hosted by Bill Cullen and originally airing from January 1966 to September 1969. Hirt was chosen to record the frenetic theme for the 1960s TV show The Green Hornet, by famed arranger and composer Billy May. Based on Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov's Flight of the Bumblebee from his opera The Tale of Tsar Saltan, it showcased Hirt's technical prowess. In 2003, the recording again gained public attention when it was featured in the film Kill Bill.
From the mid-1950s to early 1960s, Hirt and his band played nightly at Dan's Pier 600 at the corner of St. Louis and Bourbon Street. The nightclub was owned by his business manager, Dan Levy, Sr.
Hirt opened his own club, the Basin St. South, on Bourbon Street in the French Quarter, which existed from 1962 to 1983. He also became a minority owner in the NFL expansion New Orleans Saints in 1967.
In 1962, in an effort to showcase him in a different musical setting, Hirt was teamed with arranger and composer Billy May and RCA Victor producer Steve Sholes to record an album titled Horn a Plenty that was a departure from the Dixieland material that he was generally associated with. Covering an eclectic variety of popular, standard and show tunes, it featured a big-band supplemented by timpani, French horns and harp. He also appeared opposite Troy Donahue and Suzanne Pleshette in the 1962 motion picture, Rome Adventure.
In 1965, Hirt hosted the hour-long television variety series Fanfare, which aired Saturday nights on CBS as the summer replacement for Jackie Gleason and the American Scene Magazine.
Hirt starred along with Marguerite Piazza, Lionel Hampton, Doc Severinsen and the Southern University marching band at Super Bowl IV halftime show on January 11, 1970.
On February 8, 1970, while performing in a Mardi Gras parade in New Orleans, Hirt was injured while riding on a float. It was widely reported that he was struck in the mouth by a thrown brick or a piece of concrete and required 12 stitches to the underside of his upper lip. Factual documentation of the details of the incident is sparse, consisting primarily of claims made by Hirt after the incident although police reported that the 1970 Mardi Gras was one of the worst for trouble, with hundreds arrested for drunkenness and violence. Whatever the actual cause of his injuries, Hirt underwent surgery and made a return to the club scene. This incident was parodied in a Saturday Night Live skit from their second season Mardi Gras special, the "Let's Hit Al Hirt in the Mouth with a Brick Contest".
In 1987, Hirt played a solo rendition of "Ave Maria" for Pope John Paul II's visit to New Orleans. He is referred to in the 1987 film Good Morning, Vietnam, in a broadcast made by Lieutenant Hauk (Bruno Kirby).
Hirt died of liver failure at the age of 76, after having spent the previous year in a wheelchair due to edema in his leg. He was survived by his wife, Beverly Essel Hirt, and eight children from a previous marriage.
Discography
Singles
1961 "Janine"
b/w "Elegie"– – – RCA Records Non-album tracks "I'm On My Way"
b/w "Perky"– – – RCA Records Al's Place 1962 "Al Di La"
b/w "Talkin 'Bout That River"– – – RCA Records Honey In The Horn "Theme From 'The Eleventh Hour'"
b/w "Song From 'Two For The Seesaw'" (Non-album track)– – – RCA Records Al's Place 1963 "Roman Nocturne"
b/w "Pickin' Cotton" (Non-album track)– – – RCA Records 1964 "Java"
b/w "I Can't Get Started"4 4 1 RCA Records Honey In The Horn "Cotton Candy" / 15 15 3 RCA Records Cotton Candy "Walkin'" 103 134 — "Floatin' Down To Cotton Town"
b/w "After You've Gone"– – – Coral Records Floatin' Down To Cotton Town "Sugar Lips"
b/w "Poupee Brisee (Broken Doll)"30 20 3 RCA Records Sugar Lips "Up Above My Head (I Hear Music in the Air)"
b/w "September Song"85 94 12 RCA Records "Hooray For Santa Claus"
b/w "White Christmas"– – – RCA Records Non-album tracks 1965 "Feelin' Fruggy"
b/w "Louisiana Lullaby"– 135 30 RCA Records "Fancy Pants"
b/w "Star Dust"47 37 9 RCA Records That Honey Horn Sound "Al's Place"
b/w "Mister Sandman"57 67 13 RCA Records Al's Place "The Silence (Il Silenzio)"
b/w "Love Theme from The Sandpiper"96 129 19 RCA Records Non-album tracks "Nutty Jingle Bells"
b/w "Santa Claus Is Comin' To Town"– – – RCA Records The Sound Of Christmas 1966 "Mame"
b/w "Seven Days To Tahiti"– 135 36 RCA Records Non-album tracks "Trumpet Pickin'"
b/w "Skillet Lickin'"– 129 27 RCA Records "The Arena" / 129 115 28 RCA Records "Yesterday" - tag - "Green Hornet Theme"
b/w "Strawberry Jam" (Non-album track)126 121 – RCA Records The Horn Meets "The Hornet" "The Evil One"
b/w "(Theme From) The Monkees" (from The Horn Meets "The Hornet")– – – RCA Records Non-album track 1967 "Music To Watch Girls By"
b/w "His Girl"119 — 31 RCA Records Music To Watch Girls By
"Yo-Yo (Puppet Song)"
b/w "Boy Watchers' Theme" (Non-album track)– – – RCA Records "Puppet On A String"
b/w "Big Honey"129 — 18 RCA Records Non-album tracks "Calypsoul"
b/w "Honey Pot"— — — RCA Records Soul In The Horn "Ludwig"
b/w "Long Gone"– — 23 RCA Records 1968 "Keep the Ball Rollin'"
b/w "Manhattan Safari"100 — 10 RCA Records Al's Place "We Can Fly/Up-Up and Away"
b/w "The Glory Of Love"129 — 23 RCA Records Non-album tracks "The Odd Couple"
b/w "Do You Know the Way to San Jose"– – – RCA Records "The Garbage"
b/w "Those Were the Days"– – – RCA Records 1969 "If"
b/w "Penny Arcade"116 95 16 RCA Records "Viva Max March"
b/w "Don't Turn Back"
Both sides with Hugo Montenegro– – – RCA Records Viva Max! "The Gospel Of No Name City"
b/w "I Still See Elisa"– – – GWP 516 Paint Your Wagon 1970 "Break My Mind"
b/w "Louisiana Man"– – – GWP 519 Al Hirt Country 1971 "Orange Blossom Special"
b/w "I Really Don't Want to Know"– – – GWP 522 1974 "Sweet Sauce"
b/w "Melody For Michelle"– – – Monument Records Raw Sugar/Sweet Sauce/Banana Pudd'n 1975 "Feuding Pipers"
b/w "Southern Scramble"
Both sides with Boots Randolph– – – Monument Records Non-album tracks "Monkey Farm"
b/w "The Sound Of Jazz and The Scent Of Jasmine"– – – Monument Records Al Hirt's Jumbo Gumbo
Albums
1962 Al Hirt in New Orleans – – Coral Records 1957 Al Hirt and His New Orleans All Stars – – Southland 1957 Blockbustin' Dixie! – – Verve Records 1958 Al Hirt's Jazz Band Ball – – Verve Records 1958 Swingin' Dixie at Dan's Pier 600 in New Orleans, Vol. 1 – – Audio Fidelity 1959 Swingin' Dixie at Dan's Pier 600 in New Orleans, Vol. 2 – – Audio Fidelity 1960 Swingin' Dixie, Vol. 3 – – Audio Fidelity 1961 Swingin' Dixie, Vol. 4 – – Audio Fidelity 1961 He's the King and His Band 61 – RCA Victor 1961 The Greatest Horn in the World 21 – RCA Victor 1962 At the Mardi Gras – – RCA Victor 1962 Horn A-Plenty 24 – RCA Victor 1962 Trumpet and Strings 96 – RCA Victor 1963 Honey in the Horn 3 – RCA Victor 1963 Our Man in New Orleans 44 – RCA Victor 1964 Beauty and the Beard 83 – RCA Victor 1964 "Pops" Goes the Trumpet (Holiday for Brass) - – RCA Victor 1964 Sugar Lips 9 – RCA Victor 1964 Cotton Candy 6 – RCA Victor 1965 The Sound of Christmas – – RCA Victor 1965 Live at Carnegie Hall 47 – RCA Victor 1965 That Honey Horn Sound 28 – RCA Records 1965 They're Playing Our Song 39 – RCA Records 1966 The Happy Trumpet 125 – RCA Records 1966 The Horn Meets "The Hornet" – – RCA Records 1966 Latin in the Horn – – RCA Records 1967 Soul in the Horn – – RCA Victor 1967 Struttin' Down Royal Street – – RCA Victor 1967 Music to Watch Girls By – – RCA Records 1968 Al Hirt Plays Bert Kaempfert 116 – RCA Records 1968 In Love With You – – RCA Records 1968 Al Hirt Now! – – RCA Records 1968 Unforgettable – – RCA Records 1969 Here in My Heart – – RCA Records 1988 That's a Plenty – 9 Pro-Arte 1989 Cotton Candy – 12 Pro Jazz 1989 Jazzin' at the Pops 12 – Pro Jazz 1991 Al's Place – – Special Music 1991 Raw Sugar, Sweet Sauce – – Monument Records 1972 Have a Merry Little Christmas – – RCA Camden 1993 Bourbon Street Parade – – Intersound 1996 Al Hirt & His Golden Trumpet – – Total Recording 1996 Live on Bourbon Street – – Laserlight
See also
Explanatory notes
External links
Categories: 1922 Births, 1999 Deaths, 20th-century American Male Musicians, 20th-century American Trumpeters, American Jazz Bandleaders, American Jazz Trumpeters, American Male Jazz Musicians, American Male Trumpeters, Audio Fidelity Records Artists, Burials At Metairie Cemetery, Deaths From Liver Failure In The United States, Dixieland Bandleaders, Dixieland Revivalist Bandleaders, Dixieland Revivalist Trumpeters, Dixieland Trumpeters, Grammy Award Winners, Jazz Musicians From New Orleans, Monument Records Artists, Rca Victor Artists, Southland Records Artists, United States Army Personnel Of World War Ii
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