Austin James Wylie (1893 – December 7, 1947) was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...
bandleader.
Biography
Wylie led a dance band in the 1920s and early 1930s which operated as a
territory band
Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, six or seven n ...
based out of
Cleveland, Ohio
Cleveland ( ), officially the City of Cleveland, is a city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Cuyahoga County. Located in the northeastern part of the state, it is situated along the southern shore of Lake Erie, across the U.S. ...
, though he also broadcast on national radio. The band was sometimes billed as the Golden Pheasant Orchestra. A number of noted jazz musicians played in Wylie's orchestra, such as
Jack Jenney
Truman Eliot "Jack" Jenney (May 12, 1910 – December 16, 1945) was an American jazz trombonist.
Early life
Born in Mason City, Iowa, Jenney first played trumpet, then switched to trombone. His father was a musician and music teacher. Jenney pe ...
,
Tony Pastor
Antonio Pastor (May 28, 1837 – August 26, 1908) was an American impresario, variety performer and theatre owner who became one of the founding forces behind American vaudeville in the mid- to late-nineteenth century. He was sometimes referr ...
,
Nate Kazebier,
Spud Murphy
Miko Stefanovic (August 19, 1908 – August 5, 2005), better known as Lyle 'Spud' Murphy, was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, bandleader, and arranger.
Early life
Born Miko Stefanovic to Serbian émigré parents in Berlin, Germany, Murphy ...
,
Bill Stegmeyer,
Joe Bishop
Joe Bishop (November 27, 1907 – May 12, 1976) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and composer.
Early life and education
Bishop was born in Monticello, Arkansas. He learned piano, trumpet, and tuba when he was young, and also played ...
,
Billy Butterfield
Charles William Butterfield (January 14, 1917 – March 18, 1988) was an American jazz bandleader, trumpeter, flugelhornist, and cornetist.
Early years
Charles William Butterfield was born in Middletown, Ohio and attended high school in Wyoming ...
,
Johnnie Davis
John Gustave Davis (April 11, 1910 – October 28, 1983) was an American actor, singer and trumpeter.
Born in Brazil, Indiana, into a family of musicians, Davis developed an interest in music during his childhood. He learned to play the tr ...
,
Vaughn Monroe
Vaughn Wilton Monroe (October 7, 1911 – May 21, 1973) was an American baritone singer, trumpeter, big band leader, actor, and businessman, who was most popular in the 1940s and 1950s. He has two stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, one for rec ...
,
Claude Thornhill
Claude Thornhill (August 10, 1908 – July 1, 1965) was an American pianist, arranger, composer, and bandleader. He composed the jazz and pop standards "Snowfall" and "I Wish I Had You".
Early years
Thornhill was the son of J. Chester Thornhill ...
, and
Artie Shaw
Artie Shaw (born Arthur Jacob Arshawsky; May 23, 1910 – December 30, 2004) was an American clarinetist, composer, bandleader, actor and author of both fiction and non-fiction.
Widely regarded as "one of jazz's finest clarinetists", Shaw led ...
.
Shaw also served as arranger and director for the group. After Shaw formed his own band later in the 1930s, Wylie acted as his manager.
Wylie died at Crile Veterans Hospital in Parma, Ohio, at the age of 54.
References
External links
Austin Wylieat Solid!
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Wylie, Austin
1893 births
1947 deaths
American jazz bandleaders
Vocalion Records artists
20th-century American conductors (music)