McClure Morris

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McClure "Red Mack" Morris (born January 18, 1912 in Memphis (Tennessee) , † June 14, 1993 in Los Angeles ) was an American jazz trumpeter (also vibraphone , piano , organ , drums , vocals ) and band leader .

Life

McClure Morris' family moved to the western United States in the pre-World War I. During school he learned the trumpet and played in territory bands as a teenager . Around 1930 he met his idol Louis Armstrong at the Cotton Club in Culver City , with whom he made recordings in Los Angeles in 1931 ( The Peanut Vendor ). In the following years Morris played in African American orchestras on the west coast, u. a. with Sonny Clay , Charlie Echols , Lorenzo Flennoy and Lionel Hampton . At the end of the decade, he formed his own band, with which he played in the clubs on Central Avenue in Los Angeles. In 1941 he had an appearance in the Fred Astaire film You'll Never Get Rich , played briefly in the band of Lee and Lester Young and then in Barney Bigard 's All Stars, a swing band that also included the young Charles Mingus and belonged to the veteran Kid Ory ; shortly before the outbreak of war he toured with Will Osborne .

In the post-war period, recordings were made under his own name for the Gold Seal label; also with the singer Smokey Joe Whitfield. In 1946 he was a trumpeter with Jimmy Mundy ; In 1955 he appeared as a member of Kid Ory's Creole Jazz Band in the biopic The Benny Goodman Story . In the next few years he continued to work with his own formations in local clubs. In addition to trumpet and singing, he now also played the vibraphone and organ. In 1963 he toured Switzerland and France. In later years he worked as a real estate agent; he also performed with Nellie Lutcher and was a regular guest at jam sessions in Los Angeles. In the field of jazz he was involved in five recording sessions in 1945 and 1946, after recording with the Lee & Lester Young Band in 1942.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ The trumpeter Buck Clayton also played in the Echols band at the same time ; in his memoirs, Clayton described Echols as a mediocre trumpeter who preferred to lead the band and perform as a showman by throwing the trumpet in the air; see. Buck Clayton, Nancy Miller Elliott: Buck Clayton's Jazz World , p. 43 f.
  2. ^ Douglas Henry Daniels: Lester Leaps in: The Life and Times of Lester "Pres" Young , Boston, Beacon Press 1990, p. 241
  3. ↑ Tom Lord : The Jazz Discography (online, September 23, 2013)
personal data
SURNAME Morris, McClure
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Morris, Red Mack (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz trumpeter (also vibraphone, piano, organ, drums, vocals) and band leader
DATE OF BIRTH January 18, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Memphis (Tennessee)
DATE OF DEATH June 14, 1993
Place of death los Angeles