Biography
Jazz pianist, saxophonist, trombonist, cornetist, accordionist, singer ("Maybe You'll Be There", a 1948 gold record)", arranger and composer (his first tune was the 1928 "Please Don't Go Away), educated at the College of Fine Arts and the University of Oklahoma. He had been a member, usually on alto sax, with Herb Cook's Oklahoma Joy Boys, Frank Williams and his Oklahomans, and Etzi Covato before 1929. In the early 1930s he performed in and around Oklahoma City, then went on tour and then came to Chicago in late 1932, leading his own bands and those of Wingy Manone and Jack Teagarden on their first recordings. Going back on tour in the mid-1930s he toured Texas and the midwest with Eddie Neibauer and Dell Coon, and led his own all-star recording group in Chicago (1935) before starting on radio in 1935. Going to Hollywood in 1938, he joined Frank Trumbauer in 1938, then worked in radio and recording studios in Hollywood with Skinnay Ennis, Victor Young, John Scott Trotter and Gordon Jenkins, and accompanied Bob Hope, Bing Crosby, Dick Haymes and other stars into 1950. He sang in the 'Golden Horseshoe Revue' at Disneyland until 1960, which was the most performed stage show in the Guinness Book of World Records. In 1958 he recorded as the blues vocalist on the concept album "The Letter" with Judy Garland. After an extremely busy decade following that, he organized a piano-repair and tuning service in Southern California. Joining ASCAP in 1956, his chief musical collaborators were Tom Adair and 'Bonnie Lake', and his popular-song compositions include: "The Blues Have Got Me", "Cuban Boogie Woogie", "It's All In Your Mind", and "Mis'ry & The Blues".
