Hayes Pillars (April 30, 1906, North Little Rock, Arkansas - August 11, 1992, Richmond Heights, Missouri) 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 ...

tenor saxophonist and

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhythm and blues or ...

. Pillar began playing as a teenager, and played locally in Little Rock and

Jackson, Tennessee Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population was 68,205 as of the 2020 United States ...

before joining the territory band of Alphonso Trent in 1927-28. On January 6, 1934 Pillars, along with his brother Charles Pillars, and James Jeter, formed the

Jeter-Pillars Orchestra Jeter-Pillars Orchestra was an American jazz troupe, led by altoist James Jeter and tenor-saxophonist Hayes Pillars. Career Jeter and Pillars were previously members of Alphonso Trent's big band. After that outfit split in 1933 they formed the g ...

, to work at a club called The Furnace. The ensemble which featured a large number of noted jazz sidemen over the course of its existence, was originally "formed out of the remnants of the great Alphonso Trent Orchestra." On July 4, 1934, The

came to St.Louis at the Club Plantation. Following his time in Jeter-Pillars, Pillars became a mainstay of the

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

jazz scene, working there from the 1950s into the 1980s. He would frequently play private parties and in area country clubs. He retired in the early 1980s and in 1981, th
Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University
and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. honored him for his contributions to American Jazz.

References

*Rye/Kernfeld, "Hayes Pillars". '' Grove Jazz'' online.

References

Further reading