Jesse Price (May 1, 1909,

Memphis, Tennessee Memphis is a city in the U.S. state of Tennessee. It is the seat of Shelby County in the southwest part of the state; it is situated along the Mississippi River. With a population of 633,104 at the 2020 U.S. census, Memphis is the second-mos ...

– April 19, 1974,

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the largest city in the state of California and the second most populous city in the United States after New York City, as well as one of the world' ...

) 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 ...

drummer. Price began on drums at age 14, and played locally with

blues Blues is a music genre and musical form which originated in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues incorporated spirituals, work songs, field hollers, shouts, chants, and rhymed simple narrative ballads from the Afr ...

singers, including Ida Cox, and in the Palace Theater

pit orchestra A pit orchestra is a type of orchestra that accompanies performers in musicals, operas, ballets, and other shows involving music. The terms was also used for orchestras accompanying silent movies when more than a piano was used. In performances ...

, early in his career. He moved to

Kansas City The Kansas City metropolitan area is a bi-state metropolitan area anchored by Kansas City, Missouri. Its 14 counties straddle the border between the U.S. states of Missouri (9 counties) and Kansas (5 counties). With and a population of more ...

in 1934, where he played with

George E. Lee George Ewing Lee (April 28, 1896 – October 2, 1958) was an American jazz bandleader. Born in Boonville, Missouri, Lee was the older brother of pianist/singer Julia Lee. He played in a band while serving in the Army in 1917; following this he sa ...

Thamon Hayes Thamon Hayes (October 11, 1899 – August 1, 1978) was a Dixieland jazz trombonist and composer of the early Kansas City jazz scene, who along with Bennie Moten Benjamin Moten (November 13, 1893 – April 2, 1935) was an American jazz pia ...

, Count Basie (1936), and Harlan Leonard (1939–41). He then moved to

, where he worked with

Ella Fitzgerald Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...

Louis Armstrong Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...

(1943), Stan Kenton (1944), Basie again (1944), Benny Carter, and

Slim Gaillard Bulee "Slim" Gaillard (January 9, 1911 – February 26, 1991), also known as McVouty, was an American jazz singer and songwriter who played piano, guitar, vibraphone, and tenor saxophone. Gaillard was noted for his comedic vocalese singing ...

(1949). He recorded with Jay McShann when back in Kansas City again in the 1950s. He led a band at the

Monterey Jazz Festival The Monterey Jazz Festival is an annual music festival that takes place in Monterey, California, United States. It debuted on October 3, 1958, championed by Dave Brubeck and co-founded by jazz and popular music critic Ralph J. Gleason and jaz ...

in 1971, which included Harry Edison,

Jimmy Forrest James, Jim or Jimmy Forrest may refer to: Sports * James Forrest (rugby union) (born 1907), Scotland international rugby union player * James Forrest (baseball) (1897–1977), American baseball player * James Forrest (basketball) (born 1972), Ame ...

and

Big Joe Turner Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American singer from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him." His greatest fame was due to ...

. Price recorded 23 tracks as a leader between 1946 and 1948, most of them for

Capitol Records Capitol Records, LLC (known legally as Capitol Records, Inc. until 2007) is an American record label distributed by Universal Music Group through its Capitol Music Group imprint. It was founded as the first West Coast-based record label of note ...

. All are published on a Blue Moon CD: ''The Singing Drummer Man; Jesse Price. The Complete Recordings 1946–1957'' (BMCD 6019).

Discography

As sideman

;With

B.B. King Riley B. King (September 16, 1925 – May 14, 2015), known professionally as B.B. King, was an American blues singer-songwriter, guitarist, and record producer. He introduced a sophisticated style of soloing based on fluid string bending, shimm ...

*1956: ''

Singin' the Blues ''Singin' the Blues'' is the first LP album by American bluesman B.B. King, released in 1957 by the Bihari brothers on their Crown budget label. It is a compilation album whose songs were issued between 1951 and 1956 on singles by RPM Records a ...

'' ( Crown) ;With Jay McShann *''

McShann's Piano ''McShann's Piano'' is an album by jazz pianist Jay McShann recorded in 1966 and released by the Capitol label. Reception The Allmusic review by Scott Yanow noted "Jay McShann's first recording in a decade (and first official full-length LP) is ...

'' (Capitol, 1967)

References

;Footnotes ;General references *

Scott Yanow Scott Yanow (born October 4, 1954) is an American jazz reviewer, historian, and author.Allmusic Biography/ref> Biography Yanow was born in New York City and grew up near Los Angeles. Since 1974, he was a regular reviewer of many jazz styles an ...

Jesse Price Jesse Dashiell Price (August 15, 1863 – May 14, 1939) was a Congressman for the 1st congressional district of Maryland who served two full terms and one partial term from 1914 to 1919. Price was born in Whitehaven, Maryland, and engaged ...

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 ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Price, Jesse 1909 births 1974 deaths American jazz drummers Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Jazz musicians from Tennessee 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians