Walter Barnes (July 8, 1905 – April 23, 1940) 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 ...

clarinetist, saxophonist, and bandleader.

Early life and education

Barnes was born in

Vicksburg, Mississippi Vicksburg is a historic city in Warren County, Mississippi, United States. It is the county seat, and the population at the 2010 census was 23,856. Located on a high bluff on the east bank of the Mississippi River across from Louisiana, Vi ...

, but grew up 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 under Franz Schoepp in addition to attending the

Chicago Musical College Chicago Musical College is a division of the Chicago College of Performing Arts at Roosevelt University. History Founding Dr. Florenz Ziegfeld Sr (1841–1923), founded the college in 1867 as the Chicago Academy of Music. The institution h ...

and 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 ...

Career

Barnes led his own bands from the early 1920s in addition to playing with Detroit Shannon and his Royal Creolians. After Shannon's retinue became dissatisfied with his leadership, Barnes took control of this group as well. He played mostly in Chicago, though the band did hold a residency at the

Savoy Ballroom The Savoy Ballroom was a large ballroom for music and public dancing located at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City. Lenox Avenue was the main thoroughfare through upper Harlem ...

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

as well. His band recorded in 1928 and 1929 for

Brunswick Records Brunswick Records is an American record label founded in 1916. History From 1916 Records under the Brunswick label were first produced by the Brunswick-Balke-Collender Company, a company based in Dubuque, Iowa which had been manufacturing prod ...

. He toured the American South in the 1930s to considerable success, touring there yearly; by 1938 his ensemble included 16 members. Around this time, Barnes also worked as a columnist for the ''

Chicago Defender ''The Chicago Defender'' is a Chicago-based online African-American newspaper. It was founded in 1905 by Robert S. Abbott and was once considered the "most important" newspaper of its kind. Abbott's newspaper reported and campaigned against Jim ...

'' newspaper, a periodical popular with African-American audiences, and used his position to advertise his own tours and promote other entertainers on the same touring trail. Barnes is thus credited as an early originator of the so-called " Chitlin' Circuit"; a network of entertainment venues where it was safe and acceptable for African-American entertainers to perform. Barnes was one of the victims of the

Rhythm Club fire The Rhythm Club fire (or The Natchez Dance Hall Holocaust) was a fire in a dance hall in Natchez, Mississippi on the night of April 23, 1940, which killed 209 people and severely injured many others. Hundreds of people were trapped inside the buil ...

in Natchez, Mississippi, on April 23, 1940. When the club caught fire, he had the group continue playing the song "Marie" in order to keep the crowd from stampeding out of the building. The band that took the stand at the Rhythm Club on April 23 consisted of Paul Stott, Calvin Roberts, James Cole, John Reed, Jesse Washington, John Henderson, Clarence Porter, Harry Walker, Arthur Edwards, Oscar Brown, and Juanita Avery. All of the band's members, except for drummer Walter Brown and bassist Arthur Edward, were among the 201 victims of the fire. Barnes's death was repeatedly immortalized in song thereafter. Jo Jones, drummer with the

Count Basie Orchestra The Count Basie Orchestra is a 16 to 18 piece big band, one of the most prominent jazz performing groups of the swing era, founded by Count Basie in 1935 and recording regularly from 1936. Despite a brief disbandment at the beginning of the 195 ...

at the time, related in an interview how arrangements were made to hire one of Barnes' tenor saxophone players, to whom Jones only referred to by the nickname of "Pimpy," as a replacement for

Herschel Evans Herschel "Tex" Evans (9 March 1909 – 9 February 1939) was an American tenor saxophonist who was a member of the Count Basie Orchestra. He also worked with Lionel Hampton and Buck Clayton. He is also known for starting his cousin Joe McQueen's i ...

, effective after completing one last tour with Barnes. John Hammond, liner notes, ''The Lester Young Story, vol. 3'' Columbia JG 34840, 1977

References

Additional sources

*Howard Rye, "Walter Barnes". '' Grove Jazz'' online. * Walter Barnesat

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 ...

1905 births 1940 deaths American jazz saxophonists American male saxophonists American jazz bandleaders American jazz clarinetists Musicians from Vicksburg, Mississippi Musicians from Chicago Accidental deaths in Mississippi Deaths from fire in the United States American conductors (music) American male conductors (music) 20th-century American saxophonists Jazz musicians from Illinois Jazz musicians from Mississippi 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians {{US-jazz-saxophonist-stub