Tom Archia
Tom Archia , actually Ernest Alvin Archia Jr., called Sonny, he also appeared as Texas Tom , (born November 26, 1919 in Groveton (Texas) , † January 16, 1977 in Houston ) was an American tenor saxophonist .
Life
He started out with the violin and then switched to the saxophone. In his Houston neighborhood, where he grew up, then lived Illinois Jacquet and his brother Russell. In high school he was in the school band (under Percy McDavid), with the Jacquet brothers and Arnett Cobb . In 1935, Duke Ellington himself, whose compositions were studied by the band, heard the band on a visit. He toured with Milt Larkin's band after school , with Eddie Cleanhead Vinson , Illinois Jacquet and Arnett Cobb. They played at the Rumboogie Club in Chicago, where the band members who had arrived from Texas were gradually lured away by better-known bands such as Lionel Hampton and Cootie Williams and Larkin finally had to give up in 1943. Archia recorded with Roy Eldridge in 1943 . In 1943/44 he was in the Dream Band of the Rhumboogie Café , in which Charlie Parker also played.
In the mid-1940s he went to Los Angeles, where he played in the Howard McGhee combo , recorded with Illinois Jacquet and Helen Humes , and accompanied Dinah Washington . In 1946 he was back in Chicago, where he played in Leonard Chess' Macomba Lounge Club (until it burned down in 1950) and recorded under his own name for Aristocrat Records (Tom Archia and his All Stars). He also recorded with Wynonie Harris and Hot Lips Page , fought tenor duels with Gene Ammons and played with rhythm & blues and blues musicians (recorded with Lonnie Johnson ) and recorded again in 1952 with Dinah Washington. He went downhill in the 1960s - at times he couldn't play because of a broken jaw - and his sister brought him back to Houston from Chicago in 1967, where he played in various bands (giving him a new nickname, The Devil ). In 1973 he was a member of the Sonny Franklin Big Band with Arnett Cobb .
On his death in 1977 he received a jazz funeral in the Fifth Ward neighborhood of Houston, where he grew up.
Web links
- Tom Archia at Allmusic (English)
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Archia, Tom |
| ALTERNATIVE NAMES | Archia, Ernest Alvin |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | American jazz saxophonist |
| DATE OF BIRTH | November 26, 1919 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Groveton |
| DATE OF DEATH | January 16, 1977 |
| Place of death | Houston |