Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Wendell “Cassino” Simpson was born on July 22, 1909. He may have studied piano under Zinky Cohn. His first recording was in 1923 with Bernie Young, then recorded with the Moulin Rouge Orchestra in 1925. Following this he joined Arthur Sims’s orchestra, recording with them in 1926. With Sims dying soon after Bernie Young took over as bandleader and Simpson remained in the ensemble until 1930.

He simultaneously recorded with Jabbo Smith’s Rhythm Aces on his 1929 Brunswick Records releases. From 1931 to 1933 he played with Erskine Tate, though he never recorded with him. Cass recorded as a leader under various names, with Jabbo Smith and Milt Hinton as sidemen. In 1933 he cut a few sides with Half Pint Jaxon, a female impersonator.

Soon after his recordings with Jaxon, Simpson apparently became mentally disturbed, and was institutionalized in 1935 in Elgin, Illinois. While there, he continued to play piano and vibraphone in a hospital dance band, and played bass drum in the hospital’s marching band.

 He recorded solo piano numbers on the grounds of the hospital in the middle of the 1940s. Pianist Cass Simpson, who was best known for his associations on the Chicago, Illinois jazz scene and was never released from the hospital, died on March 27, 1952.

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