Gene Ramey

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Gene Ramey (born April 4, 1913 in Austin , Texas ; † December 8, 1984 there ) was an American jazz bassist.

Ramey first played the trumpet in the school band (Anderson High School) and then sousaphone in "George Corley's Royal Aces". After he moved to Kansas City in 1932 (with Terrence Holder's band ) and, like many musicians traveling through, was captured by the city's lively jazz scene, he learned bass with Walter Page and played in some local bands of his own before joining in 1938 until 1943 played mostly with Jay McShann . After the band broke up, he went to New York , where he played with many well-known jazz greats, including former "Kansas City colleagues" such as Ben Webster , Lester Young , Hot Lips Page and Charlie Parker (also a former Jay McShann band member) , as well as Miles Davis , Thelonious Monk , Coleman Hawkins , Luis Russell , Eddie Lockjaw Davis , Dizzy Gillespie . Even in the 1950s he mostly worked as a freelancer, u. a. for Count Basie and Eartha Kitt . In 1953 he was one of the first jazz messengers of Art Blakey and Horace Silver and in 1954 he played with Art Blakey. In 1955 he appeared on the side of Lee Konitz and Lennie Tristano in New York; the recordings were published on the album Lennie Tristano on Atlantic . In 1959 and 1961 he toured Europe with Buck Clayton .

In the 1960s he also played with musicians as diverse as Teddy Wilson (1963), Muggsy Spanier (1962), Peanuts Hucko , Jimmy Rushing and in 1969 again with Jay McShann (and Eddie "Cleanhead" Vinson ) on a European tour (and again 1979). In 1976 he went back to his hometown of Austin, Texas, where he actually wanted to retire, but was quickly drawn back into the local jazz scene, which he a. a. as a teacher helped promote.

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personal data
SURNAME Ramey, Gene
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz bassist
DATE OF BIRTH April 4, 1913
PLACE OF BIRTH Austin
DATE OF DEATH December 8, 1984
Place of death Austin