Wallace Theodore "Ed" Kirkeby (October 10, 1891 – June 12, 1978) was an American bandleader, vocalist, manager, and salesman, best remembered as the manager of Fats Waller. He was one of the first recording managers at Columbia Records to record

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 m ...

and organized the California Ramblers to record it. He recorded extensively during the 1920s and early 1930s using many pseudonyms for recording including The Little Ramblers, The Goofus Five, Five Birmingham Babies, The Vagabonds, The Varsity Eight, Ted Wallace (And His Campus Boys), Ed Kirkeby Wallace, and Eddie Lloyd (and Loyd). Over the years he also managed the

Pickens Sisters Jane Pickens Hoving (10 August 1907 – 21 February 1992)DeLong, Thomas A. (1996). ''Radio Stars: An Illustrated Biographical Dictionary of 953 Performers, 1920 through 1960''. McFarland & Company, Inc. . P. 216-217. was an American singer on B ...

, was an A&R person at RCA Victor, and worked in the band booking department at

NBC The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) is an American English-language commercial broadcast television and radio network. The flagship property of the NBC Entertainment division of NBCUniversal, a division of Comcast, its headquarters are l ...

. As Fats Waller's manager he also acted as his archivist building a collection which is held today by the

Institute of Jazz Studies The Institute of Jazz Studies (IJS) is the largest and most comprehensive library and archives of jazz and jazz-related materials in the world. It is located on the fourth floor of the John Cotton Dana Library at Rutgers University–Newark in Newa ...

. After Waller's death in 1943 Kirkeby remained active managing many other groups and musicians (including Pat Flowers) through 1977.

Discography

*''The Columbia House Bands: Ed Kirkeby, Vol. 1''

Books

*''Ain't Misbehavin' '' - Describes his years with Fats Waller

References

External links

The Ed Kirkeby Collection at IJS by Paul Machlin

Ed Kirkeby recordings
at the Discography of American Historical Recordings. 1891 births 1978 deaths American jazz bandleaders 20th-century American conductors (music) {{US-jazz-musician-stub