Irving Milfred Mole, better known as Miff Mole (11 March 1898 – 29 April 1961) was a jazz trombonist and band leader. He is generally considered as one of the greatest jazz trombonists and credited with creating "the first distinctive and influential solo jazz trombone style."
 |
| Miff Mole October 1921 |
Others were "Miff's Blues", "There'll Come a Time (Wait and See)", on the film soundtrack to the 2008 movie The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, and "Toddlin' Blues" and "Davenport Blues", recorded in 1925 with Bix Beiderbecke and Tommy Dorsey as Bix Beiderbecke and His Rhythm Jugglers.
 |
Miff Mole and his Little Molers - 1928 |
Miff Mole and his band the Molers backed Sophie Tucker who was known as "The Last Of The Red Hot Mammas" and who was one of the most popular singers of the Teens and 1920s. Mole and his band supported her on her 1927 Okeh recordings of "After You've Gone", "Fifty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong", "I Ain't Got Nobody", and "One Sweet Letter From You". Miff Mole and his band, which included Eddie Lang, Jimmy Dorsey, Red Nichols, and Vic Berton, also backed her during her live performances.
Navy Blues - Phil Napoleon t / Miff Mole, tb / Jimmy Dorsey, cl, as / Babe Russin, ts / Adrian Rollini, bsx, hip / Lennie Hayton, p / Carl Kress, g / Stan King, d / Harold "Scrappy" Lambert, v. New York, February 6, 1930.
In addition to the groups under his own name, Mole was prominently identified from 1925 to 1929 with various recording bands led by cornetist Red Nichols: The Red Heads, The Hottentots, The Charleston Chasers, The Six Hottentots, The Cotton Pickers, Red and Miff’s Stompers, and especially Red Nichols and his Five Pennies.
![]()
These bands recorded for a variety of different labels, though the Five Pennies name was only used for their recordings on Brunswick. The original Five Pennies band consisted of Nichols on cornet, Mole on trombone, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto sax, Eddie Lang on guitar, Arthur Schutt on piano and Vic Berton on drums, but over time the personnel changed and expanded dramatically.
These bands recorded for a variety of different labels, though the Five Pennies name was only used for their recordings on Brunswick. The original Five Pennies band consisted of Nichols on cornet, Mole on trombone, Jimmy Dorsey on clarinet and alto sax, Eddie Lang on guitar, Arthur Schutt on piano and Vic Berton on drums, but over time the personnel changed and expanded dramatically. When Jack Teagarden arrived in New York in 1928, he quickly replaced Mole as the new role model for trombonists, with a more legato, blues-oriented approach. Mole, having started working for radio in 1927 (at WOR), changed his focus to working with NBC (1929–38). In 1938–40 he was a member of Paul Whiteman's orchestra, but his style by then had changed under the influence of Teagarden. In 1942–3 Mole played in Benny Goodman's orchestra, and between 1942–7 he led various Dixieland bands. He worked in Chicago in 1947–54.
 |
| Miff & Pee Wee Russell |
Miff's friends in the jazz world, led by fellow trombonist Charlie Galbraith, had planned a "Miff Mole Day" in New York to celebrate the trombonist's career on June 21, 1961, but Mole did not survive to see it. On April 29, 1961, Miff Mole suffered a cerebral haemorrhage at his 250 West 88th Street apartment. Proceeds from the concert went to help his widow and family pay off the debts that he had incurred from his lengthy medical treatments.After his death, even his prized trombone had been seized by the Welfare Committee of New York, from whom he had been drawing support in his later years. He was buried in a pauper's grave.
![]()
Despite the tragedy of his late life, Mole left a legacy as one of the first models of the jazz trombone style. Many of the music's subsequent trombone virtuosi learned how to play by transcribing his solos with the Original Memphis Five and the Five Pennies. This enduring influence led one of his earliest admirers, Tommy Dorsey, to aptly describe him as "the trombone player's trombone player." (Info various mainly Wikipedia)