Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Joseph Christopher Columbus Morris was born on June 17, 1902 in Greeenville, North Carolina. He led his own band from the 1930s into the late 1940s, holding a residency at the Savoy Ballroom for a period. During the mid 1940s he began drumming behind Louis Jordan, remaining with him until 1952. In the mid-to-late 1950s, Columbo backed Wild Bill Davis’s organ combo, and he recorded with Duke Ellington in 1967.

He worked again as a leader in the 1970s, in addition to doing tours of Europe with Davis. While in France he played with Floyd Smith, Al Grey, Eddie “Cleanhead” Vinson, Buddy Tate, and Milt Buckner. He got his first professional gig playing with Fletcher Henderson in 1921. Between the 1920s and the 1960s, Columbo played at most of the city’s nightclubs, and led the Club Harlem Orchestra for 34 years until 1978, when the club shut its doors.

Columbo worked, recorded, and toured with prominent jazz artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong and Ella Fitzgerald. He did an album on the Strand label called Jazz: Re-Discovering Old Favorites by the Chris Columbo Quintette featuring organist Johnny “Hammond” Smith. He appeared in the 1945 film It Happened In Harlem, based on the Harlem nightclub Smalls Paradise and the 1947 film Look Out Sister.

Prior to suffering a stroke in 1993 which partially paralyzed, Columbo was the oldest working musician in Atlantic City. Chris’ band went on to perform at practically every Atlantic City casino hotel. At the time of his stroke, he was playing regularly at the Showboat.

Drummer Chris Columbo, who was a father figure to Sonny Payne, who was also known as Crazy Chris Columbo and sometimes credited as Joe Morris on record, died on August 20, 2002 in New Jersey. He was 100 years old.

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