Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Robert Alexander Scobey, Jr. was born on December 9, 1916 in Tucumcari, New Mexico. He began his career playing in dance orchestras and nightclubs in the 1930s and by 1938 was working as second trumpeter for Lu Watters in the Yerba Buena Jazz Band. 1949 saw him leading his own band under the name Bob Scobey’s Frisco Band and the following year secured a three-year residency at the Victor & Roxie’s, which expanded their popularity.

Clancy Hayes joined the band to sing, play banjo bringing his own compositions such as Huggin’ and a Chalkin‘. The collaboration recorded over two hundred tracks until he left in 1959 to follow a solo career. The Frisco Band broadcasted in 1952 and 1953 on Rusty Draper’s television show. In 1953 Louis Armstrong sang with the band and the following year  blues singer Lizzie Miles began recording and touring with the band, a relationship that lasted three years.

Beginning in 1955 Scobey and his band played San Quentin Prison, the roadhouse Rancho Grande, recorded for Verve Records and RCA Victor,. and toured colleges and universities, recorded many student favorites on the album College Classics.

Bob opened the Club Bourbon Street in Chicago, Illinois in 1959, and began suffering with stomach issues while touring in 1960. Trumpeter Bob Scobey passed away of cancer on June 12, 1963. His wife produced a biography titled He Rambled!, arranged for his band to form again and record some blues songs, and saw to the reissuing of his albums.

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