William Thornton Blue (1902 – 1968), sometimes credited as Bill Blue, 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 ...
reed player.
Blue grew up playing in local bands in
St. Louis
St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the bi-state metropolitan area, which e ...
,
Missouri
Missouri is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern region of the United States. Ranking List of U.S. states and territories by area, 21st in land area, it is bordered by eight states (tied for the most with Tennessee ...
, where his father was a part-time music instructor. He played with
Wilson Robinson's Bostonians, 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 ...
, and worked with
Charlie Creath
Charles Cyril Creath (December 30, 1890, Ironton, Missouri – October 23, 1951, Chicago, Illinois) was an American jazz trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader.
Creath played in traveling circuses and in theater bands in the dec ...
and
Dewey Jackson
Dewey Jackson (June 21, 1900 – January 1, 1994) was an American jazz trumpeter and cornetist.
Early life
Jackson was a native of St. Louis, Missouri.
Career
Jackson began playing professionally at an early age, with the Odd Fellows Bo ...
in the middle of the 1920s. Later that decade he worked with
Andrew Preer's Cotton Club Orchestra in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
and on tour in Europe as a member of
Noble Sissle
Noble Lee Sissle (July 10, 1889 – December 17, 1975) was an American jazz composer, lyricist, bandleader, singer, and playwright, best known for the Broadway musical ''Shuffle Along'' (1921), and its hit song "I'm Just Wild About Harry".
Ea ...
's ensemble. He remained in
Paris
Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
briefly, playing with
John Ricks.
When he returned to New York, he joined
The Missourians
''The Missourians'' is a 1950 American Western film directed by George Blair and written by Arthur E. Orloff. The film stars Monte Hale, Paul Hurst, Roy Barcroft, Lyn Thomas, Howard Negley and Scott Elliott. The film was released as a Fawce ...
, led by
Cab Calloway
Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocalist ...
, then worked with
Luis Russell
Luis Russell (August 5, 1902 – December 11, 1963) was a pioneering Panamanian jazz pianist, orchestra leader, composer, and arranger.
Career
Luis Carl Russell was born on Careening Cay, near Bocas del Toro, Panama, in a family of African-Car ...
. Due to failing health, Blue played little in the late 1930s and afterwards; he spent the last several years of his life in a
sanatorium
A sanatorium (from Latin '' sānāre'' 'to heal, make healthy'), also sanitarium or sanitorium, are antiquated names for specialised hospitals, for the treatment of specific diseases, related ailments and convalescence. Sanatoriums are often ...
.
References
*
Eugene Chadbourne,
William Thornton Blueat
AllMusic
AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...
1902 births
1968 deaths
American jazz clarinetists
American jazz musicians
Jazz musicians from Missouri
20th-century American musicians
Musicians from St. Louis
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