
Ernest Loring “Red” Nichols
(1905-1965)
Ernest W. Nichols came to Ogden in October 1904 as a member of the touring John Philip Sousa Band. Shortly after, his wife became ill with an asthma affliction, and was advised to find a dry climate to live in. This brought the Nichols’ to Ogden in 1905, and Ernest Nichols became a music instructor at Weber Academy, along with conducting the Academy Band and the Industrial School Band for several years from 1905 to 1923.
Ernest Loring Nichols was born on May 8, 1905. Loring’s father made sure he was trained at an early age on the cornet, the violin, and evenutally enrolled him in piano lessons. Loring became a talented musician. He was playing accomplished pieces in the band at the age of 5, and in 1917 at the age of 12, he was featured as the major instrumentalist in a program performed by the senior Nichols’ band.
In 1922, Loring moved to the Midwest and joined a band called the Syncopating Seven, but as the band broke up a year later, he went to New York where he was quickly recognized as an outstanding jazz musician.
In 1924, he formed his own band using the nickname given to him because of his red hair, “Red” Nichols and His Five Pennies. Some of the great jazz artists that played with him or in his bands were Jimmy Dorsey, Eddie Lang, Miff Mole, Joe Venuti, Benny Goodman, Fud Livingston and Lennie Hayton, even Glenn Miller joined him occasionally. The “Red” Nichols band played in most of the major music halls all over the country, recorded several records of jazz hits, and Nichols was music director for Bob Hope’s first radio show.
Red Nichols in His Own Words:
" . . . I grew up in an atmosphere of musical discipline that has been a great help to me all my life, and I never cease to be grateful to my father for it. Every man in the band has the opportunity for individual expression; we play with freedom, but it’s disciplined freedom, so that the result has an over-all pattern. This pattern gives it form, and without form there is nothing, even in an art as fluid and subject to change as jazz music."
At the beginning of WWII, the bands broke up and Nichols tried to enlist in the army, but was rejected. In 1942, when his daughter Dorothy contracted polio, Nichols left his career as a musician to work in the wartime shipyards as a welder and spend more time at home. He and wife, Willa devoted their lives to Dorothy in the hopes of a recovery.
After his daughter’s eventual recovery and the end of the war in 1945, “Red” reorganized the Five Pennies and continued to play for another 20 years — until his death on June 28, 1965.
This exhibit covers the fascinating musical life of “Red” from the young age of five to his eventual passing in 1965. Nichols was featured in many music publications, wrote and produced music, was involved in over 4,000 recordings, and was featured in a movie about his life. His colleagues in the music world dubbed him “the Father of Jazz” because of his early influences in the music industry.
Original copies of the materials shown can be found in the “Red” Nichols collection in the Special Collections and University Archives department.
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