- Irving
Peskin is listed in his birth record as Israel N. Peskin, son of Hyman
Peskin, occupation tailor, and Kate Segal, both born in Russia. [1] -
In
the 1910 US Census for Worcester Ward 4, MA he is listed as Ezy
Peskin, age 2, born in Massachusetts, living at 299 Pleasant
Street, Worcester City, MA with his father Hyman, age 29, born in
Russia, married for six years,
immigrated to the US in 1904,occupation tailor own business; his mother
Creashy, age 30, married for six years,
immigrated to the US in 1907; brother Charley, age 5, born in Russia;
and sister Susie, age 1, born in Massachusetts.
[2]
- In
the 1920 US Census for Worcester Ward 4, MA he is listed as Isadore
Peskin, age 12, born in Massachusetts, living at 46 Columbia
Street, Worcester City, MA with his father Hyman, age 38, born in
Russia, immigrated to the US in 1904, became a US citizen in 1910,
occupation tailor in a department store; his mother Clara, age 36, immigrated
to the US in 1904, became a US citizen in 1910; brother Charles, age 14
and sister Susie, age 11, both born in Massachusetts; and grandmother
Sarah Sigel, age 60, born in Russia, immigrated
to the US in 1904. [3]
- In high school he was known as Irving Peskin. He and brother Charles
had a band known as Irving Peskin and his orchestra, "The Boy Wonder
Cornetist." [4]
- By the late 1920s, the Peskin family changed its last name
to Parker. The 1930 US Census for the city of
Beverly Hills, Los Angeles County, CA has a listing for Irving
Parker, age 22, living at 434 N. Oakhurst St, born in Massachusetts,
parents born in Rusia, occupation musician with orchestra.
- There are listings for Irving Parker in incoming passenger records
for 1932, 1933, born January 20 or 21, 1908 in Worcester, MA, with a
Washington DC address in the US. [5, 6]
- According
the New York City Marriage Records, On Jan 6, 1934, Irving Parker age
26, son of Hyman Parker and Clare Siegal [sic] married Ruth Schwartz,
age 24, born in New York, NY, daughter of Abraham Schwartz and Anna
Bernstein. [7]
- In the 1940 US Census for Los Angeles, CA he is listed as Irving
Parker, age 32, born in Massachusetts, occupation musican private
business. [8]
- According to the US World War Two Enlistment Records, Irving Parker
born in 1908 in Massachusetts enlisted for military service in Los
Angeles on May 25, 1942. His civilian occupation is given as musician
and teacher of music. [9]
- His obituaries in the Los Angeles Times, Variety and elsewhere give
his name as Isadore Nathaniel (Niel) Parker. [10, 11]
- His gravestone gives his name as Irving Niel
Parker.
Obituary in the Los Angeles Times
of February 19 to 20, 2011.
Provides a useful biographical sketch of Irving Peskin.
PARKER,
Isadore Nathaniel (I Niel) Born Worcester,
MA
on January 20,
1908. Died Feb. 4, 2011 in Los Angeles
at the age of 103. Niel Parker had a long multifaceted and
distinguished
career. He started trumpet and cornet lessons at the age of eight,
later studying
with George Mager of the Boston Symphony. In high school he formed the
Peskin
Orchestra with his brother Charles, who played clarinet and saxophone.
He met
Jerry Colonna in 1922, played with him in Boston
area orchestras, and then went with Colonna to New York
where they performed in jam sessions at the Roseland with major
musicians,
including Bix Beiderbeck, and Tommy Dorsey. Over the course of his
career Niel
worked with many notable orchestras and bands such as Meyer Davis, Sam
Lanin,
Glenn Miller, the Dorsey Brothers, Joe Venuti, Eddy Duchin, Henry
Busse, George
Olson, Xavier Cugat, Benny Goodman, Irving Aaronson, Paul Whiteman, and
Barney
Sorkin, among others. He joined George Olson, touring in a variety of
performances, including Ziegfield shows, clubs and theaters. Among his
compositions are "Chinese Jumble" and "State and Madison
Stomp" which were published by Denton & Haskins Co. and recorded on
Edison Records. (Thomas Edison supervised the first recording.) He also
made
recordings for RCA and Gennet Records. At Columbia Records he did the
first
recording of "I can't give you anything but love" with Ruby Bloom and
the Star of Blackbirds of 1928. In New York
he worked on many radio shows, including Jack Renard's first Lucky
Strike
program, Jack Benny/Olsen, Eveready Program, and Eddie Cantor's Show on
WABC,
NBC, CBS and other stations. After coming to Los Angeles, he played for many
studios, such
as Columbia, RKO,
United
Artists and MGM. He worked under Georgie Stoll, Herbert Stothert, Franz
Waxman,
Alfred Newman, and others. He also wrote and arranged music for "Fox
Movietone Follies of 1929" and appeared in scenes with comedian El
Brendel. He coached Jackie Cooper for his role in "Man with a Horn"
and did a six month tour with the Kate Smith Revue. In 1942 he toured
with the
Hollywood Caravan for Army-Navy Relief, following which he enlisted in
the Army Air
Forces. For about 3 1/2 years he organized music for his unit in the
States and
overseas and did programs for the Armed Forces Radio in Hawaii.
After leaving the service he continued performing, with Red Skelton,
Sinatra
("Old Gold"), Bergen/McCarthy, and others. He also attended Los
Angeles State College where he earned a B.A. in Liberal Arts with High
Honors
and an M.A. in Vocational Counseling & Guidance and did graduate
work at
Harvard. He then taught in Culver
City
and Hawthorne
schools for
four years. After that he worked in the aerospace industry at Douglas
Aircraft
Co and Aerojet General Corp. all the while continuing his education
taking
courses related to aerospace. He was also proficient in several
languages. On
September 15, 1989, he received a Diamond Circle Award from the Pacific
Pioneer
Broadcasters for his many distinguished years in radio and television.
In 2003
he was interviewed by Jerry Fabris, Curator of the Edison National
Historical
Site in W. Orange,
NJ,
about
his Edison
recordings in the 1920s. The interviews were played on WFMU (91.1 FM)
in Jersey
City, NJ on Sept. 9th and 23rd, 2003 for the program Thomas Edison's
Attic and
can be heard on http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/8964 The first program featured
a piece
composed by him in 1926 and published in 1928 under the name Irving
Peskin, and
recorded by the California Ramblers. Besides his music, he enjoyed many
activities. He loved to fly, and held a California
pilot's license. He was an avid golfer, and he enjoyed deep-sea
fishing,
traveling around the world, and reading. He loved all animals and found
everyone he knew and met to be beautiful. He was preceded in death by
his
parents, sister, brother, former wife Charlotte Marilyn Abelson and
stepson
Arthur Lance Aaron. He is survived by his longtime partner Hannah M.
Walker,
nephews Theodore and Robert Parker, Carl and Stuart Levin, niece
Dorothy
Parker, and several great nieces and nephews. A memorial service was
held at Hillside
Memorial Park,
Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 1 p.m. In lieu of flowers donations may be
made to
the Anti-defamation League in memory of Irving Niel Parker
.
The Early Life of
Irving Peskin - Worcester's Bix Beiderbecke. By Chet Williamson.
Very important, highly documented account of Peskin's life during his
first two decades.
http://jazzriffing.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-early-life-of-irving-peskin.html
Some additional information in
http://jazzriffing.blogspot.com/2014/01/when-jazz-happened-here-birth-of-music.html
Irving Peskin in the Bixography Forum.
Links to all postings in the Forum.
http://www.network54.com/Forum/27140/search?searchterm=peskin&sort=date
Irving Peskin Discography,
1927-1929.
Prepared by Malcolm Walton and Jonathan Horne. Work in progress.
Some of the recordings listed are from Irving Peskin's 1928 diary,
courtesy of Hannah Walker.
Prior to this
discography, recordings known to have included Irving Peskin on trumpet
were few in number. Some Piccadilly Players tracks, some Oreste, and
some George Herlihy was pretty well the extent of it.
This new discography
of Irving Peskin's New York recordings owes its existence, in the first
instance, to the 2003 interview of Irving by Jerry
Fabris, for the Thomas Edison Attic Radio Programme. Following this, we
contacted Jerry to enquire whether he had contact
details for Irving's long-time friend Hannah Walker. He spoke to her
and it was agreed that we could make contact. She very kindly agreed to
photocopy Irving's 1928 work diary, which contained, among other
things, all the record dates he took part in that year.
From that, using the Johnson and Shirley Dance Band Discography (the
five volume sequel to Rust), and the On Line Discographical Project, it
was eventually possible to pin-point the majority of 1928 tracks
that he recorded. Quite often, the only clue in the diary was along the
lines of "date for Gennet, 9AM". The detective work that Jon and I had
to do was not inconsequential! For example, we spent weeks trying to
identify a session that he noted in his diary, included Don Murray and
Bill Trone. One of the obstacles was that the dates in Rust are
sometimes approximate. We can now correct these dates with certainty.
Having created the
1928 portion of the discography, and knowing that Irving started his
recording career late 1926 and moved to Los Angeles in mid 1929, we
were determined to establish as many probable Peskin recordings as we
could during this overall time period by checking recordings made by
bands he was known to record with on a regular basis, and to aurally
identify his presence. This is an ongoing project and the
discography will be updated periodically. One of the biggest
disappointments so far, is the almost total non-existence of copies of
Carl Fenton's New Yorkers Gennet recordings. Irving recorded
prolifically for this outfit and is certain to have been a featured
soloist. Any information from readers which will lead to finding
any of these elusive sides will be much appreciated.
The most significant
discovery to date, due to our research methodology, has been the
positive identification of the elusive Birmingham Breakdown by
the Dixie Dance Demons as Irving Peskin with George Hall's
Orchestra. This was only made possible by obtaining tracks with
adjacent matrix numbers, where we knew Peskin to be present, and
establishing that the trumpet player was one and the same. For this we
owe a lot of thanks to the On Line Discographical Project, and to
Jon's conviction, right from the start, that this just had to
be Peskin.
The green shading
indicates that we have, in our possession, either a copy of the
78, a commercial CD issue, or a You Tube download.
http://bixbeiderbecke.com/IRVING
PESKIN DISCOGRAPHY.xlr The xlr file was created by
Malcolm Walton and Jonathan Horne.
http://bixbeiderbecke.com/IRVINGPESKINDISCOGRAPHY.pdf
the pdf file was reformatted from the xlr file, courtesy of Nick Dellow.
Irving Peskin Interviews by Jerry
Fabris.
Jerry was the host of the "Thomas Edison Attic" radio
programs (2003-2007) on WFMU of Jersey City, NJ and is the
curator of the audio collections at the Edison National Historic Site
of West Orange NJ. The interviews are fascinating and highly
instructive. They last for about one hour
Sep
9, 2003. An interview of Irving Peskin, 1920s NYC trumpeter, part 1.
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/8804
Sep 23, 2003. An interview of Irving Peskin, 1920s NYC trumpeter, part
2.
https://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/8964
This webpage was uploaded on
September 5,
2017 by Albert Haim ahaim@bixography.com
[1]
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GRKQ-971Z?mode=g&i=45&cc=1727033
[2]
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HY-XXDF-BY?mode=g&i=986&cc=1536925
[3] https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9RXR-9D
[4]
http://jazzriffing.blogspot.com/2013/05/the-early-life-of-irving-peskin.html
[5]
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-95D9-24Z?mode=g&i=213&cc=1923888
[6]
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-G5D9-Z5H?mode=g&i=378&cc=1923888
[7] https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:24DL-392
[8]
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QSQ-G9MT-JSZ9?mode=g&i=24&cc=2000219
[9] https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:KMFM-D4F
[10]
http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/latimes/obituary.aspx?pid=148735807
[11]
http://variety.com/2011/music/news/trumpeter-isadore-nathaniel-parker-dies-at-103-1118032627/