The great Super Bowl Jazz Trumpeter once said, “I have three loves, my horn, my team [the Saints], and my hometown.”
He was referring to his hometown of New Orleans, Louisiana home of this Sunday’s Super Bowl.
A bit of Super Bowl trivia-who was the first Super Bowl halftime act?
That New Orleans Jazz great, Al Hirt, took his trumpet on the field at Memorial Coliseum in Los Angeles at the first Super Bowl in 1967.
Hirt was the halftime entertainment along with the marching bands from the University of Michigan and Arizona. The band formed a map of the United States across the field. There was also a dude in a jetpack who took off from the field.
The Super Bowl half time shows were not million dollar must see events but still had a bit of charm in their own way.
Al Hirt would continue throughout much of the Super Bowl halftime early years and his connections with the early years of the NFL is remarkable.
Nicknamed “Jumbo”, Alois Maxwell Hirt Jr., born November 7, 1922, was the king of New Orleans Jazz at one time. Wynton Marsalis was given his first trumpet by Hurt. He was the one-time the musical director of the New Orleans Saints and part owner. He also campaigned to get the Saints into New Orleans. He won a Grammy award in 1963 for the song ”Java.”
View this post on Instagram
He and other marching bands and jazzy big band-type performers like Doc Severson the Johnny Carson Tonight Show band leader and great Jazz Vocalist would appear at the Super Bowl halftime show in the years after 1967. From all accounts, some said not that many people paid attention to the halftime show in those days, although I am not sure how you can miss a guy taking off in a jetpack.
In ’68 and ’69 schools bands continued to fill the halftime entertainment bill along with Hurt.
In 1970, Carol Channing became the first solo act to perform at the Super Bowl, although recorded history shows that Southern University also had the halftime bill and Channing’s performance was more of a side note. Al Hirt (once again), Doc Severinsen and Lionel Hampton also played two songs (see video below).
In ’71 Florida A&M bands performed.
In ’72 guess who’s back? Al Hirt, but this time the biggest of the biggest stars Ella Fitzgerald.
1975 was a tribute to Duke Ellington. Mercer Ellington, the son of Duke Ellington led his father’s former band in “Take the ‘A’ Train.“
As a matter of taste, the Super Bowl music has become noticeably more pop and flashy.
Many historians and commentators point towards the 1993 Super Bowl featuring Michael Jackson at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, CA as the first really big headline Super Bowl halftime. They are probably right, but let’s not overlook the New Kids on the Block 1991 Super Bowl Halftime show.
In 1994 the Super Bowl Halftime show was Clint Black, Tanya Tucker, Travis Tritt and the Judds.
These days the Super Bowl halftime act is announced before the start of the NFL regular season and headline news in its own right. We may never see Jazz at the Super Bowl halftime again, but the show roots will always be the Big Easy and Jazz.