DailyDose Of Jazz…

Leonard Ware was born in Richmond, Virginia on December 28, 1909. He went to college at the Tuskegee Institute and learned to play the oboe.

By 1938 Ware was playing electric guitar on recordings by Sidney Bechet. He then started working with Jimmy Shirley, who was one of the first groups to have two electric guitarists.

In December 1938, he played at Carnegie Hall with the Kansas City Six alongside Lester Young and Buck Clayton. 1939 saw him recording Umbrella Man with Benny Goodman. He performed in a trio during the 1940s and recorded as a leader in 1947. Leonard also recorded with Don Byas, Albinia Jones, Buddy Johnson, and Big Joe Turner.

Ware was the co-composer of Hold Tight, which he recorded with Bechet and I Dreamt I Dwelt in Harlem with Jerry Gray and Buddy Feyne, which was recorded by Glenn Miller and The Delta Rhythm Boys in 1941. 

Dropping out of music a few years later, guitarist Leonard Ware, who was one of the first American jazz guitarists to play electric guitar, died at the age of 64 on March 30, 1974.

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