''For the architect, see
Don Albert & Partners.''
Albert Dominique, better known as Don Albert (August 5, 1908,
– January 1980,
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
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) 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 ...
trumpeter and bandleader.
Albert's uncle was
Natty Dominique
Anatie "Natty" Dominique (August 2, 1896 – August 30, 1982) was an American jazz trumpeter, who was born in New Orleans, Louisiana
Louisiana , group=pronunciation (French: ''La Louisiane'') is a state in the Deep South and South Centr ...
.
He got his start playing in parade
brass bands in New Orleans at the beginning of the 1920s.
He toured with the
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 ...
of
Alphonse Trent
Alphonse "Alphonso" Trent (October 24, 1902 – October 14, 1959) was an American jazz pianist and territory band leader.
Early life
Trent was born in Fort Smith, Arkansas on October 24, 1902. He played piano from childhood and worked in local ban ...
in 1925,
then played with
Troy Floyd
Troy ( el, Τροία and Latin: Troia, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒋫𒊒𒄿𒊭 ''Truwiša'') or Ilion ( el, Ίλιον and Latin: Ilium, Hittite language, Hittite: 𒃾𒇻𒊭 ''Wiluša'') was an ancient city located at Hisarlik in prese ...
at the Shadowland Ballroom in San Antonio from 1926 to 1929.
Albert led his own territory bands out of Texas in the 1930s and 1940s, with sidemen that included
Alvin Alcorn
Alvin Elmore Alcorn (September 7, 1912 – July 10, 2003) was an American jazz trumpeter.
Career
Alcorn learned music theory from his brother. In the early 1930s, he was a member of the Sunny South Syncopators led by Armand J. Piron. He worked ...
,
Louis Cottrell, Jr.
Louis Albert Cottrell Jr. (March 7, 1911 - March 21, 1978) was a Louisiana Creole jazz clarinetist and tenor saxophonist. He was the son of the influential drummer Louis Cottrell, Sr., and grandfather of New Orleans jazz drummer Louis Cottrell ...
, and
Herb Hall.
After 1932 he acted more in a manager's capacity than as a performer.
His bands played in Mexico and Canada, and won positive reviews from newspapers, but recorded only eight sides.
He disbanded this group around 1937 due to economic conditions, and found work in civil service and managing a nightclub called the Keyhole Club in San Antonio in the early and mid-1940s; his club was shut down in 1948 by local authorities.
In 1950, he opened a second location at
1619 West Poplar.
He led a group at the Palace Theater in New York in 1949.
In the 1950s he continued performing part-time, playing in small groups into the 1970s.
He recorded again in the 1960s and appeared at the
New Orleans Jazz Festival
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of vi ...
in 1969.
References
Further reading
*
Leonard Feather
Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing.
Biography
Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...
and
Ira Gitler
Ira Gitler (December 18, 1928 – February 23, 2019) was an American jazz historian and journalist. The co-author of ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' with Leonard Feather—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of ...
, ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz''. Oxford, 1999, p. 9.
External links
*Interviews with Don Albert
January 15-18, 1980February 1-8, 1980
University of Texas at San Antonio: Institute of Texan Cultures: Oral History Collection, UA 15.01, University of Texas at San Antonio Libraries Special Collections.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Albert, Don
1908 births
1980 deaths
American jazz trumpeters
American male trumpeters
American jazz bandleaders
20th-century American musicians
20th-century trumpeters
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians