Red Saunders (musician)

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Red Saunders
Drums
Years active1928–1970s

Theodore Dudley "Red" Saunders (March 2, 1912 – March 5, 1981)[1] was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. He also played vibraphone and timpani.[2]

Life and career

Saunders was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and after his mother's death moved to Chicago with his sister. He took drum lessons while attending a boarding school in Milwaukee, received a music scholarship to the University of Texas, and became a professional musician in 1928, playing in Stomp King's band.[3][4] He then spent several years touring the country as drummer with Ira Coffey's Walkathonians, a band that played at competitive walkathon events, before joining a revue, Curtis Mosby's Harlem Scandals.[5][6] On returning to Chicago in 1934, he joined a band led by Tiny Parham at the Savoy Ballroom, and thereafter became a well-known drummer in Chicago clubs and hotels. In 1937, Saunders joined the house band at the Club DeLisa, initially led by pianist Albert Ammons, and then briefly by saxophonist Delbert Bright, before taking over as bandleader himself.[7]

Saunders remained in control of the Club DeLisa house band, playing four to six shows nightly, until the club closed in 1958, apart from a hiatus between 1945 and 1947 when he led a smaller band at other venues in Chicago and Indianapolis.[3][4] Among his sidemen were Leon Washington, Porter Kilbert, Earl Washington, Sonny Cohn, Ike Perkins, Riley Hampton, singer Joe Williams and Mac Easton. Among the arrangers he employed were Johnny Pate[8] and Sun Ra.[7]

Saunders made his first recordings as bandleader for

New Orleans Jazz Festival
in the 1970s.

Personal life

Saunders with his wife and family.

Saunders met his wife, Ella, when she was working as a chorus girl and they were playing the same show in California.[10] Saunders and his wife and their two children were the subject of a series of photographs taken in Chicago by Security Administration photographer Jack Delano in April 1942 where their last name was mistakenly transcribed as "Sounders."[11]

Saunders died in Chicago in 1981, aged 69.[1]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 978-0313344237
    .
  2. ISBN 9780822351627
    .
  3. ^ a b "KING OF DRUMMERS BRINGS BIG CLUB (CHI.) DELISA SHOW HERE". Indianapolis Recorder. March 1, 1941. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  4. ^ a b Chadbourne, Eugene. "Red Saunders biography". All Music. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  5. ^ "The WALKATHON at CENTRAL AIRPORT W.E. Tebbets' 1933 Walkathon". Camden NJ. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  6. ^ Oakley, JC (27 November 2013). "78: "Hambone" b/w "Boot 'Em Up" by Red Saunders and His Orchestra with Dolores Hawkins and the Hambone Kids/Red Saunders and His Orchestra. Okeh 6862. Recorded 1/18/52 and 8/24/51 in Chicago". 78s and 45s. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  7. ^ a b c Robert L. Campbell, Armin Büttner, and Dan Kochakian, "Red Saunders Discography", updated 2016. Campber.people.clemson.edu, Retrieved 24 October 2016
  8. ^ Johnny Pate at AllMusic
  9. ISBN 0-85112-673-1
    .
  10. ^ Delano, Jack. "Mrs. Ella Saunders, "Red's" wife. She was a chorus girl before she was married, and met Red when they were both playing the same show in California. Chicago, Illinois". Library of Congress Photographs and Prints Division. Retrieved 31 January 2018.
  11. ^ "Dancing to the music of "Red" Sounders and his band at the Club DeLisa, Chicago". NYPL Digital Collections. Retrieved 31 January 2018.

External links

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