William Franklin (musician)

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William Franklin (* 1906 in Memphis ; † after 1948) was an American jazz musician ( trombone , vocals ) who worked as an opera singer in later years .

Live and act

Franklin played the trombone in Chicago in 1926 with Arthur Sims and His Creole Roof Orchestra (“How Do You Like It Blues / Soapstick Blues”, Okeh 8373), in 1927 with Richard M. Jones and His Jazz Wizards, in 1928 with Fess Williams (“Dixie Stomp "), And with King Oliver , from 1929 with Earl Hines , in whose orchestra he occasionally acted as a singer, as in their first record session on February 13 and 14, 1929 in" Sweet Emma May "and" Good Little, Bad Little. " You ”, later also in“ Oh! You Sweet Thing ”(1932). In the field of jazz he was involved in 24 recording sessions between 1926 and 1936. After a traffic accident, he had to give up playing the trombone and concentrated on singing.

After training as a singer at the Chicago Conservatory of Music , he appeared in 1937 as one of the first African-American opera singers. He made his debut in the Chicago Civic Opera as Amonastro ( Aida ). He has sung in numerous operas and musicals, often as part of Mary Caldwell Dawson's National Negro Opera Company ; He became popular as the Mikado of the operetta of the same name by Gilbert and Sullivan . From 1944 he was in the New York performance of Porgy and Bess the Porgy. In 1948 he succeeded Jay Stone Toney with the vocal group Southernaires .

Lexical entry

  • Eileen Southern: The Music of Black Americans: A History . WW Norton & Company 1997 (3rd edition); ISBN 0-393-97141-4

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Discographic information at Discogs
  2. ↑ Information at Discogs
  3. ↑ Fess Williams and His Joy Boys at RedHot Jazz
  4. ↑ King Oliver at RedHot Jazz
  5. ↑ Tom Lord The Jazz Discography (online, accessed December 11, 2016)
  6. ↑ Chicago Tribune , February 13, 1944
  7. ↑ cf. William Franklin Is Now Member of the ›Southernaires‹ . Indianapolis Recorder July 24, 1948 and William Edmondson (biography)
personal data
SURNAME Franklin, William
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American jazz musician (trombone, vocals)
DATE OF BIRTH 1906
PLACE OF BIRTH Memphis
DATE OF DEATH after 1948