Eddie Heywood

'S Wonderful

Eddie Heywood

EmArcy MG36042

1955

From the back cover: There is more to this record than greets the ear. There is more than just a pair of gifted hands gliding assuredly over a keyboard; more than an excursion into the picturesque highways and byways of melody, harmony and rhythm that bespeak its musical message.

The story behind these sides is one of which you might be a little skeptical if you saw it as a motion picture melodrama. Yet it happened in real life, and it had a story-book happy ending. For just a few short years ago, Eddie Heywood though he would never be able to play the piano again.

His hands were paralyzed. For months on end they were encased in a plaster cast. There was little to do but hope, pray and listen to the music of others, music you wished you were making yourself.

Imagine the plight of the blinded painter, the deafened composer, and you may have some remote clue to the agony in the mind of a pianist who has lost, perhaps forever, the use of his precious hands.

For Eddie, it was like losing his whole life, for as as far back as he could remember, the piano had been a second form of speech for him.

To learn the full story you have to investigate the inner meaning of Eddie's full name – Eddie Heywood Junior. When Eddie was born in Atlanta, Ga., in 1915, Heywood Senior already was a well known pianist and combo leader. During the decade after World War I he toured as musical director and pianist for the famous old vaudeville team of Butterbeans and Susie, as well as with the "Black and White Revue", one of the first interracial variety shows of its kind. Senior began giving lessons to Junior as early as 1923. At the age of 15 young Eddie made his professional debut in a local theatre band.

After he had completed his education the second-generation Heywood played for a number of band in Atlanta before he received an offer to join Clarance Love's Orchestra, a well known group in Dallas. Eddie stayed with this band for a year or two before migrating to New York, where he was first seen in 1938 making an impression on normally inattentive audiences in a couple of small night clubs.

Benny Carter, a man with a vigilant ear for talent, was not slow in finding out about the new arrival, and in 1939 Eddie became a featured member of the memorable Carter band that featured such other distinguished sidemen as Vic Dickenson and Tyree Glenn. After a year with Carter and a long spell on his own at the Village Vanguard, Eddie formed his own sextet late in 1943.

This was the decisive move of his career. Eddie fashioned a novel, tricky arrangement of Begin The Beguine. The reaction was such that within a year the tune was closely associated with him as it had been a few years earlier with Artie Shaw.

The Heywood combo soon was a nation-wide demand. For three years Eddie had all the handy accouterments of success – radio network guest shots, record dates with Bing Crosby, the Andrew Sisters and others, and a consistent demand for his services in the biggest and best paying night clubs. Writing his own arrangements for all these appearances, for the records, as well as playing night after night without a breathing spell, began little by little to take its toll. He found himself the victim of what might have been called manual battle fatigue. Instead of a mental collapse, he had a kind of nervous breakdown that hit at the part of him which had taken the hardest and longest punishment. Eddie's hands stopped functioning. 

That was in 1947. For eight long, endless months the hands were in casts. Eddie spent some time at home in Atlanta, trying to adjust. His beautiful wife and his mother were, as he says now, "the only hope I had in life." And in 1949, a new incentive was created when his son was born.

Slowly, painfully, after the cast came off, Eddie went back to the keyboard. At first the doctor would only allow him to practice twenty minutes a day. Little by little he regained his confidence as the affected nerves went back to work. Eddie made some records, but the old agility was not yet back with him. It was not until 1951 that he had completely regained not only the use of the hands, but, just as vitally, the self-assurance so necessary to a performance that would measure up to the old Heywood standards.

It was a miracle that he made it through those years. Financially, he could almost say that the record royalties kept him alive. (By now Begin The Beguine has topped a million sales and shows no signs of stopping).

As Eddie get back into the swing of things, the breaks began to come his way; a long run at the fashionable Embers on East 54th Street, an increasing degree of acceptance in the field of popular music, and more recently a few happy ventures as a songwriter. Land Of Dreams, Love For Love and Sunny Sunday are among those that have been recorded by name bands. On this record you will hear three of his original composition: Soft Summer Breeze, Heywood's Bounce and You Never Gave It A Try. Alec Wilder wrote lyrics for the last and Peggy King has been helping to popularize it.

In addition, you will hear on this disc a few of the more familiar old favorites – Tenderly, Love Me Or Leave Me, 'S Wonderful, Let's Fall In Love – and some that are less well known and deserve to  be played more often – Secret Love, Let's Take An Old Fashioned Walk, So Little Time. Eddie even applied his personal touch to such comparatively recent popular hits as Hey There and Young At Heart to demonstrate that they were compatible with his unique keyboard personality.

Eddie's rhythmic support comprises two men whose names speak for themselves. Jimmy Crawford, once a cornerstone of the old Jimme Lunceford band, today is one of New York's most sought after drummers, a man whose sense for the beat fits perfectly no matter what the musical circumstances; Wendell Marshall, the bassist, has been no less busy a free-lancer since his quit Duke Ellington's orchestra early in 1955 after a six-year stay.

Eddie Heywood, as this record so eloquently testifies, is back at the peak of his playing form. The pleasure of knowing the such listenable music was produced under such heartwarming conditions is a pleasure twice enjoyed.

From Billboard - November 19, 1955: While Heywood's natural habitat is the swank Gotham nitery, the music he purveys is a far cry from background piano tinkling. His style has substance as well as form. In relaxed, lyric readings of standards, as well as in three fine originals, Heywood is a listenable keyboard personality that can be enjoyed by regular pop customers as well as by jazz fans. Rhythm support is rendered by two top-notch sidemen: Wendell Marshall on bass and Jimmy Crawford on drums.

Hey There

You Never Gave It A Try

Love Me Or Leave Me

Tenderly

So Little Time

Let's Fall In Love

Secret Love

Old Fashioned Walk

Soft Summer Breeze

Heywood's Bounce

Young At Heart

'S Wonderful