Daily Dose Of Jazz…

Chauncey Morehouse was born on March 11, 1902 in Niagara Falls, New York and was raised in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania where he learned and played drums from an early age. He also played piano and banjo and while in high school led a group called the Versatile Five. He landed a job with Paul Specht’s orchestra in 1922, touring with him through Europe in 1923.

Through the Roaring Twenties Chauncey played with The Georgians, Jean Goldkette, Adrian Rollini and Don Voorhees. He recorded with Frankie Trumbauer, Bix Beiderbecke, Red Nichols, The Dorsey Brothers, Joe Venuti and many others.

By 1929 Morehouse was active for the next decade chiefly as a studio musician, working in radio and television in and around New York City. In 1938, he put together his own percussion ensemble which played percussion tuned chromatically.

Morehouse invented a set of drums called the N’Goma drums, which were made by the Leedy Drum Company who endorsed Morehouse during his career. His career in the studios continued into the 1970s when he retired from studio work and began playing jazz again, mostly at festivals.

In his later years Morehouse made appearances at Carnegie Hall for the Tribute to Bix concert for the Newport Jazz Festival, and at one of the early Bix Beiderbecke Memorial Jazz Festivals in Davenport, Iowa. Chauncey Morehouse passed away on October 31, 1980 in Medford, New Jersey, aged 78.

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