The Hoosier State’s Unlikely Legacy of a Century of Household Music Names
Writer / Jeff Kenney
Photography Provided
When many of us think of jazz music, particularly from some of the peak periods for the genre, understandably Indiana may not initially come to mind. 
Some have called jazz, originally an African American musical form that first grew to prominence in the New Orleans area in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, “America’s classical music.” And while the world of jazz might be most often associated with areas like the aforementioned New Orleans or New York City, it may surprise many in the lakes area to learn that the Hoosier state had quite a role to play in the early years in the recording and propagation of jazz, not to mention the origins of a number of seminal figures in the genre.
Starting in 1917, Gennett Records (pronounced “jennett”) became an unlikely powerhouse as a jazz recording studio in Richmond, Indiana, producing and distributing some of the earliest recorded works of the likes of Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Bix Beiderbecke and Hoagy Carmichael, as well as titles by Jelly Roll Morton, bluesmen like Blind Lemon Jefferson and Charley Patton, and country legend Gene Autry, among others.
The Great Depression hit Gennett hard, and in spite of a few attempts to recapture its success, its glory days were behind it by the 1930s.
Those interested in the legacy of the label, however, can visit the Gennett Walk of Fame, established in 2007 in Richmond at the site of the Starr Piano Company. It is part of a regional trail system connecting to the American Discovery Trail, America’s only coast-to-coast, non-motorized recreational trail.
One of the best-known Hoosier jazz singers of the 1920s was the aforementioned Hoagy Carmichael of Bloomington, whose early introduction to the genre was hearing a recording by Red Nichols, who, while not a native of Indiana, attended lakes-area boarding school Culver Academies (one of several renowned figures in the music business to attend the school or one of its summer programs, including big-band legend Horace Heidt, Broadway giant Joshua Logan, and more contemporary jazz singer Kurt Elling and country star Dierks Bentley).
Carmichael’s song “Stardust” became a hit when recorded in 1930 by Isham Jones and His Orchestra. It has since become an American standard, as it remains today. He went on to write or co-write hits like “Lazy Bones,” “Lazy River,” “Rockin’ Chair,” and a mega-hit popularized years later by Ray Charles, “Georgia” (or “Georgia on My Mind”). Carmichael also became a Hollywood fixture as an actor and songwriter for a number of movies.
Cole Porter, another household name throughout much of the 20th century, was born in 1891 in Peru, Indiana (though he spent childhood summers on Lake Maxinkuckee, a familiar site to most readers of this magazine).
Porter, credited with bringing an air of lyrical sophistication to the genre, composed music and lyrics for a number of Broadway and Hollywood movie hits, as well as a host of songs that also became American standards, such as “In the Still of the Night,” “Night and Day,” “I Love Paris,” “I Get a Kick Out of You,” “I’ve Got You Under My Skin” and “It’s De-Lovely.”
Unlike Porter, today’s audiences have largely forgotten a once-prolific and high-profile novelty/comedy act, the Hoosier Hot Shots. The group was formed in Arcadia, Indiana, some 20 miles north of Indianapolis. Utilizing unusual instruments such as clarinet, washboard, bass, slide whistle and guitar, the Hot Shots combined a loose variation on swing jazz with rural comedy, recording over 250 songs and appearing in more than 20 films from the 1930s into the early 1950s. The group, whose comedic hits included titles like “From the Indies to the Andes in His Undies” and “I Like Bananas (Because They Have No Bones),” performed with stars like the Three Stooges, Gene Autry, Merle Travis and Dale Evans.
Around the same time, huge hit-making vocal group the Ink Spots were formed in Indianapolis in 1934. Five years later the group had a runaway hit with “If I Didn’t Care,” with many more following in subsequent decades.
Among the Ink Spots’ many hits in the 1940s were “My Prayer,” “Into Each Life Some Rain Must Fall” and “To Each His Own.” The Ink Spots later split into a few different lineups, and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1989.
One of the greatest jazz guitarists in history, Wes Montgomery, hailed from Indianapolis (which is also where he lived when he died of a heart attack at just 45 years old, in 1968). Known for his distinctive playing style and sound, and as a veritable icon in the jazz world of the 1950s and ‘60s, he heavily influenced a long line of legendary guitarists who followed him.
Freddie Hubbard made his name as a jazz trumpet player (having begun in his school band at Arsenal Technical School in Indianapolis) around the same time period as Montgomery. Hubbard worked in the bebop style and collaborated with Montgomery, as well as working in the 1960s with the likes of Sonny Rollins, Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers, and Quincy Jones (who, though not a native Hoosier, graduated from Indiana University and went on to produce albums like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller”).
One Indiana legend working in the jazz and rhythm and blues genres has likely been heard by many lakes-area readers, even if they aren’t necessarily aware of it. Benjamin “Scatman” Crothers started in music as a teen in Terre Haute, going on to perform, mainly as a vocalist, on a number of recordings.
His work in film and television is probably his greatest claim to fame, however. He portrayed Louie on “Chico and the Man” on television, and Dick Hallorann in the film “The Shining,” as well as a number of roles in voice work in animated features and shows. This included significant, ongoing roles in “Transformers” and the “Harlem Globetrotters” series, and the lead character in the “Hong Kong Phooey” animated series. Disney fans may recognize him as the voice of Scat Cat in the movie, “The Aristocats.”
As many Lakes readers may know, Indiana has produced musical legends in other genres, including more contemporary rock and pop (the likes of Michael Jackson and Axl Rose), which merits a future article of its own in the pages of this magazine. For now, Hoosiers can take some regional pride in knowing their home state has produced a parade of jazz stars who influenced the entire world through much of the past century up to today. Not a bad legacy for a state that’s not New York or Louisiana. 
