Red Saunders (musician)

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Theodore Dudley Red Saunders (* 2. March 1912 in Memphis (Tennessee) , † 5. March 1981 in Chicago ) was an American jazz - drummer and bandleader . He also played the vibraphone and timpani .

Life

He grew up in Milwaukee , where he attended St. Benedict the Moor Catholic School. There he took his first drum lessons at the age of 13. From 1923 he lived in Chicago; there he graduated from Tilden Tech College . From 1928 Saunders lived and worked as a professional musician.

At the beginning of his musician career, Saunders played in Milwaukee and Chicago with Stomp King . He made a living from his job at Ira Coffey 's Walkathonians for five years . He worked intermittently with Tiny Parham in Chicago's Savoy Ballroom . In 1937 Club DeLisa made him head of the in-house band. He stayed there (with an interruption between 1945 and 1947) until the club finally closed its doors in 1958. Among the arrangers he hired were Johnny Pate and Sun Ra .

Despite his sedentary lifestyle and lack of inclination to tour, Saunders also played with Duke Ellington , Louis Armstrong and Woody Herman . He made recordings with Big Joe Turner . He had been friends with Count Basie since 1932. He performed a combo at the Regal Theater in Chicago until the 1960s . He played with Little Brother Montgomery and Art Hodes at the New Orleans Jazz Festival in the 1970s. He also recorded his last recordings with Montgomery. A TV recording from 1974 showing his band has been preserved. Saunders was married and had two sons to Ella Mae Saunders, who have their own website with a few biographical photos. Professionally, she had been a dancer and later union chairman of Chicago City Hall.

The Red Saunders Research Foundation has existed since 1997 and deals extensively with the jazz, rhythm and blues and blues music of the two post-war decades in Chicago, i.e. not specifically with Saunders. The naming after Saunders was done honorary.

literature

  • Art Hodes: Looking at Red in Down Beat (August 10, 1967, pp. 18, 19, 40)

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Biography materials on the clemson.edu website ( Memento from June 25, 2010 in the Internet Archive )
  2. ^ Club DeLisa website ( Memento from April 17, 2005 in the Internet Archive )
  3. ↑ Johnny Pate at Allmusic

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Saunders, Red
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Saunders, Theodore Dudley
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz drummer, vibraphonist and big band leader
DATE OF BIRTH March 2, 1912
PLACE OF BIRTH Memphis (Tennessee)
DATE OF DEATH March 5th 1981
Place of death Chicago