Rozelle Ivory Gayle (February 24, 1919 – December 6, 1986) 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 ...

pianist, comic entertainer and actor.

Biography

Born in

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

, he studied at the

American Conservatory of Music The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservator ...

before working as a pianist with

Roy Eldridge David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from ...

's band, recording with them in 1943.Bob Eagle, Eric LeBlanc, ''Blues: A Regional Experience'', ABC-CIO, 2013, p.65
/ref>"West Coast Hails Pianist-Singer Called The 'New Fats Waller'", ''Jet'', 3 September 1953, pp.56-57
/ref> A follower of

Art Tatum Arthur Tatum Jr. (, October 13, 1909 – November 5, 1956) was an American jazz pianist who is widely regarded as one of the greatest in his field. From early in his career, Tatum's technical ability was regarded by fellow musicians as extraord ...

, he moved to

southern California Southern California (commonly shortened to SoCal) is a geographic and cultural region that generally comprises the southern portion of the U.S. state of California. It includes the Los Angeles metropolitan area, the second most populous urban a ...

in 1948, and started performing as a solo act in clubs. In 1953 he had a residency in Santa Ana, California. A review in '' Jet'' magazine described his "boogie-to-Bach repertoire" and claimed he was being hailed as "the new Fats Waller". He recorded several tracks for the Combo label in the mid-1950s, including some using the name Paul Preston. In 1958, he recorded the album ''Like, Be My Guest – An Evening With Rozelle Gayle'' for

Mercury Records Mercury Records is an American record label owned by Universal Music Group. It had significant success as an independent operation in the 1940s and 1950s. Smash Records and Fontana Records were sub labels of Mercury. In the United States, it i ...

. The album combined jazz with hipster comedy. He also recorded with

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

in 1964. He released a second album, ''Sex Cracks'' on the Dooto label in 1967; the album was promoted as "America's maddest album yet", containing "super sidesplitting sex-humor galore!" Gayle also acted in several movies, including '' The Devil's Daughter'' (1973), '' Coast to Coast'', ''

The Man with Bogart's Face ''The Man with Bogart's Face'' (also called ''Sam Marlowe, Private Eye'') is a 1980 American comedy film, released by 20th Century Fox and based on a novel of the same name. Andrew J. Fenady, author of the novel, produced the film and wrote the s ...

'' (both 1980), and ''

Honkytonk Man ''Honkytonk Man'' is a 1982 American comedy-drama musical western film set in the Great Depression. Clint Eastwood, who produced and directed, stars with his son, Kyle Eastwood. Clancy Carlile's screenplay is based on his 1980 novel of the same ...

'' (1982). He died of cancer in

Los Angeles Los Angeles ( ; es, Los Ángeles, link=no , ), often referred to by its initials L.A., is the List of municipalities in California, largest city in the U.S. state, state of California and the List of United States cities by population, sec ...

in 1986, aged 67."Service Set Today for Entertainer Rozelle Gayle", ''LA Times'', 11 December 1986
Retrieved 16 September 2015

Filmography

Discography

* ''Like, Be My Guest'' (Mercury, 1958) * ''Sex Cracks'' (Dooto, 1967)

References

7. Demetria Fulton previewed Rozelle Gayle in Barnaby Jones; episode titled,”The Lonely Victims”(01/08/1976). {{DEFAULTSORT:Gayle, Rozelle 1919 births 1986 deaths Musicians from Chicago American jazz pianists American male pianists Jazz musicians from Illinois 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians 20th-century American pianists