Herman Autrey (December 4, 1904 – June 14, 1980)
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 m ...
trumpeter.
Career
Autrey was born into a musical family in
Evergreen, Alabama, United States.
He played alto horn before taking up trumpet as a teenager and performing locally in Pittsburgh and Florida.
After some time in Florida he worked in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City, where he played with
Charlie Johnson in 1933.
He became well known through
Fats Waller, who hired him in 1934 after signing a contract with
Victor Records
The Victor Talking Machine Company was an American recording company and phonograph manufacturer that operated independently from 1901 until 1929, when it was acquired by the Radio Corporation of America and subsequently operated as a subsidi ...
.
He played with the drummer Harry Dial, guitarist
Al Casey, and reedist
Gene Sedric. Autrey went on to record extensively with Waller,
Fletcher Henderson, and
Claude Hopkins
Claude Driskett Hopkins (August 24, 1903 – February 19, 1984) was an American jazz stride pianist and bandleader.
Biography
Claude Hopkins was born in Alexandria, Virginia, United States. Historians differ in respect of the actual date of his ...
.
Autrey worked as a sideman into the 1940s with
Stuff Smith
Hezekiah Leroy Gordon Smith (August 14, 1909 – September 25, 1967), better known as Stuff Smith, was an American jazz violinist. He is well known for the song " If You're a Viper" (the original title was "You'se a Viper").
Smith was, al ...
,
Sammy Price
Samuel Blythe Price (October 6, 1908 – April 14, 1992) was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and jump blues pianist and bandleader. Price's playing is dark, mellow, and relaxed rather than percussive, and he was a specialist at creating the ...
, and
Una Mae Carlisle
Una Mae Carlisle (December 26, 1915 – November 7, 1956) was an American jazz singer, pianist, and songwriter.
Early life
Carlisle was born in Zanesville, Ohio, the daughter of Edward and Mellie Carlisle. She was of African and Native American ...
.
He ensembles which sometimes included pianist
Herbie Nichols. Early in the 1950s Autrey was hurt in a car crash, sidelining his career for one year.
He played with
Saints & Sinners in the 1960s, including on their 1968/69 tours of Europe.
In 1969, he played with
Buzzy Drootin
Benjamin "Buzzy" Drootin (April 22, 1920 – May 21, 2000) was an American jazz drummer.
Career
Drootin was born near Kyiv, Ukraine, and moved to Boston, Massachusetts, United States, with his family when he was five. His father played the cl ...
's Jazz Family, which included
Benny Morton
Benny Morton (January 31, 1907 – December 28, 1985) was an American jazz trombonist, most associated with the swing genre.
Career
He was born in New York, United States.
One of his first jobs was working with Clarence Holiday, and he appea ...
,
Herb Hall, pianist Sonny Drootin, bassist
Eddie Gibbs and. In the 1970s, he began to lose his playing capacity and spent more time as a vocalist.
Herman Autrey died in June 1980 in
New York, at the age of 75.
Discography
*
Buster Bailey
William C. "Buster" Bailey (July 19, 1902 – April 12, 1967) was an American jazz clarinetist.
Career history Early career
Buster Bailey was taught clarinet by classical teacher Franz Schoepp, who also taught Benny Goodman. Bailey gained his s ...
, ''
All About Memphis
''All About Memphis'' is an album by clarinetist Buster Bailey which was recorded in 1958 and released on the Felsted label. '' (Felsted, 1958)
*
Bud Freeman
Lawrence "Bud" Freeman (April 13, 1906 – March 15, 1991) was an American jazz musician, bandleader, and composer, known mainly for playing tenor saxophone, but also the clarinet.
Biography
In 1922, Freeman and some friends from high sc ...
, ''All Star Swing Sessions'' (Prestige, 2003)
*
Saints & Sinners, ''The Saints and Sinners'' (77 Records, 1964)
*
Fats Waller, ''The Joint Is Jumpin'' (Bluebird, 1987)
*
George Wettling
George Godfrey Wettling (November 28, 1907 – June 6, 1968) was an American jazz drummer.
He was born in Topeka, Kansas, United States, and from his early teens was living in Chicago, Illinois. He was one of the young Chicagoans who fell ...
, ''George Wettling and His Windy City Seven'' (Stere-o-craft, 1958)
References
External links
*
Herman Autreyat
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 databa ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Autrey, Herman
1904 births
1980 deaths
American jazz trumpeters
American male trumpeters
20th-century American musicians
20th-century trumpeters
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
Saints & Sinners (jazz band) members