Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Harold “Doc” West was born on August 12, 1915 in Wolford, North Dakota. He learned to play piano and cello as a child before switching to drums. By the 1930s he was playing in Chicago with Tiny Parham, Erskine Tate and Roy Eldridge. Towards the end of the decade he filled in for Chick Webb when he was unable to lead his own orchestra.

The early 1940s Doc played with Hot Lips Page and on the emerging bebop scene at Minton’s Playhouse in New York City alongside Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Tiny Grimes and Don Byas. He played with Oscar Pettiford in 1944 and stood in for Jo Jones occasionally in Count Basie’s orchestra.

He appears on recordings led by Slam Stewart, Leo Watson, Wardell Gray, Billie Holiday, Big Joe Turner, Jay McShann and Erroll Garner, leaving a small but impressive catalogue as a sideman. Drummer Doc West passed away on May 4, 1951 in Cleveland, Ohio while on tour with Roy Eldridge.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Bill Coleman was born William Johnson Coleman on August 4, 1904 in Paris, Kentucky. In 1909 his family moved from Kentucky to Cincinnati and his first musical explorations were on clarinet and C melody saxophone, but he eventually settled on trumpet. He studied with Cincinnati trumpeter Theodore Carpenter and played in an amateur band led by trombonist J.C. Higginbotham. He began professional work in Cincinnati with bands led by Clarence Paige, Wesley Helvey and then Lloyd and Cecil Scott.

In 1927 he traveled to New York City and played with the Scott brothers to New York City, and continued to work with them until 1929, when he joined the orchestra of pianist Luis Russell. His first recording session was with Russell and he soloed on the tune “Feelin’ the Spirit”. Over the next couple of years he floated between Russell and Scott participating in recording sessions with each of them. By 1933 Bill was on his first European tour with Lucky Millinder, then in October returned to New York, worked with the bands of Benny Carter and Teddy Hill and sat in on a recording session with Fats Waller and laying down a number of memorable sides.

Coleman returned to Europe, played a residency in Paris with entertainer and vocalist Freddy Taylor, recorded with guitarist Django Reinhardt and made several freelance sessions under his own name. In late 1936 he traveled to Bombay, India playing with Leon Abbey’s Orchestra, then back to Paris to join saxophonist William T. Lewis. Returning to the States found him playing with Benny Carter, Teddy Wilson, Andy Kirk, Ellis Larkins, Mary Lou Williams, Sy Oliver, John Kirby, Lester Young, Billie Holiday and Coleman Hawkins.

Due to racial segregation Bill Coleman returned to France in 1948 and lived out his days there touring and performing in clubs and concert halls all over Europe. In 1974 he received the Ordre National du Merite and in 1978, he performed at the first Jazz in Marciac festival (along with tenor saxophonist Guy Lafitte, later becoming an honorary president of the festival organization.

Jazz trumpeter Bill Coleman passed away in Toulouse, France on August 24, 1981. His sound and phrasing were immediately recognizable with a style of the swing era musicians.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Elmer Crumbley was born on August 1, 1908 in Kingfisher, Oklahoma. The trombonist joined the Dandie Dixie Minstrels in 1926 in between stints with bandleader Lloyd Hunter and his Serenaders. 

By 1930 Elmer made it east to Kansas City and the George E. Lee band.

During the 30s he continued to work with Lloyd Hunter as well as with western swing pioneer Tommy Douglas in Nebraska, then with Bill Owens, Jabbo Smith and in Chicago with Erskine Tate. He led an ensemble in Omaha in 1934 then joined up with Jimmie Lunceford, enjoying a thirteen-year stint playing with band mates Eddie Wilcox, Lucky Millinder and Erskine Hawkins.

By the late ’50s Crumbley was touring Europe with Sammy Price and became part of the combo scene at the Apollo in Harlem. The Sixties saw him playing with Cab Calloway and Earl Hines, keeping him in slide oil.

Little is known about him after this period and trombonist Elmer Crumbley passed away in 1993 at the age of 85.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Hilton Jefferson was born on July 30, 1903 in Danbury, Connecticut. He began his professional career in 1929 with Claude Hopkins and throughout the 1930s was busy working for the big bands of Chick Webb, Fletcher Henderson and McKinney’s Cotton Pickers.

From 1940-49 Hilton led the saxophone section of Cab Calloway’s band then went on to perform with Duke Ellington for a year in 1952 but ultimately became a bank guard to support himself with a steady income. He continued to perform through the Fifties, especially with Rex Stewart, ‘Buster Bailey, Red Richards, Gene Ramey, Vic Dickerson, Herman Autrey and some former members of the Fletcher Henderson band.

 Hilton Jefferson, alto saxophonist with a soft, delicate sound and exquisite sensibility passed away on November 14, 1968.

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Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Charlie Christian was born Charles Henry Christian on July 29, 1916 in Bonham, Texas but his family moved to Oklahoma City, Oklahoma when he was a small child. He started performing as a dancer with his father and brothers as buskers to make ends meet. His father would later teach him to play guitar and inherit all his instruments by age 12. Attending Douglass School he was further encouraged in music but a disagreement in instrument led him to leave music and excel in baseball.

By 1936 he was playing electric guitar and had become a regional attraction. He jammed with many of the big name performers traveling through Oklahoma City including Teddy Wilson, Art Tatum and Mary Lou Williams who turned him on to record producer John Hammond. This led to an audition, recommendation to Benny Goodman, subsequently gaining national exposure with the Benny Goodman Sextet and Orchestra from August 1939 to June 1941. By 1940 Christian dominated the jazz and swing guitar polls and was elected to the Metronome All Stars.

Christian was an important early performer on the electric guitar, and is cited as a key figure in the development of bebop and cool jazz. One of the best improvisational talents of the swing era, his single-string technique combined with amplification helped bring the guitar out of the rhythm section and into the forefront as a solo instrument.

Christian’s influence reached beyond jazz and swing, and in 1966, 24 years after his death, Christian was inducted into the Down Beat Hall of Fame. In 1990 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and in 2006 Oklahoma City renamed a street in its Bricktown entertainment district Charlie Christian Avenue. On March 2, 1942, Charlie Christian passed away at age 25.

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