Yank Lawson

John Rhea "Yank" Lawson (* 3. May 1911 in Trenton (Missouri) ; † 18th February 1995 in Indianapolis ) was an American jazz - trumpet of Dixieland jazz and swing .

Lawson initially played the saxophone and piano and played with local bands at the University of Missouri and around Shreveport, Louisiana . He was from 1933 to 1934 in the orchestra of Ben Pollack , in 1935 with Will Osborne and in the same year one of the founding members of the " Bob Crosby Orchestra" (a "cooperative band", that is, all musicians were involved). With him and his Bobcats he also made many recordings from 1935 to 1938. Around 1938/39 he played with Tommy Dorsey , in 1941/42 (and in many reunions from the 1950s) again with Bob Crosby and in 1942 with Benny Goodman .

He then worked as a studio musician, for radio and TV stations and with his own Dixieland bands such as the “Lawson-Haggart Band” with Bob Haggart , with whom he recorded in the 1950s. The main musicians of this band were Lou McGarity (tb), Cliff Leeman (dr), Billy Butterfield (tp) and Peanuts Hucko (cl); she specialized in new interpretations of older jazz titles such as Jelly Roll's Jazz, King Olivers's Jazz . The most successful was the album South of the Mason-Dixon Line from 1953.

In 1957 he recorded with Louis Armstrong for his "Musical Autobiography" at Decca . In the 1960s he had his own band (1962), he played regularly with Peanuts Hucko at Eddie Condon's (in his club in New York 1964–1966) and on a Far East tour with Bob Crosby , before joining others in 1969 ( Bob Wilber , Bob Haggart and others) founded The World's Greatest Jazz Band , which lasted about ten years. Lawson continued to play with Haggart after that and had a dominant position in the Dixieland scene until his death .

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personal data
SURNAME	Lawson, Yank
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Lawson, John Rhea (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION	American jazz trumpeter
DATE OF BIRTH	May 3, 1911
PLACE OF BIRTH	Trenton, Missouri
DATE OF DEATH	February 18, 1995
Place of death	Indianapolis