W. E. "Buddy" Burton (10 January 1890 – 6 July 1977) was a multi-instrumentalist and band leader who appeared on many 1920s

Chicago Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...

South Side jazz and Blues 78 rpm

Phonograph records A phonograph record (also known as a gramophone record, especially in British English) or a vinyl record (for later varieties only) is an analog sound storage medium in the form of a flat disc with an inscribed, modulated spiral groove. The g ...

as vocalist and drummer, and also played washboard, piano,

celeste Celeste may refer to: Geography * Mount Celeste, unofficial name of a mountain on Vancouver Island, British Columbia, Canada * Celeste, Texas, a rural city in North Texas ** Celeste High School, public high school located in the city of Celes ...

, and

kazoo The kazoo is a musical instrument that adds a ''buzzing'' timbral quality to a player's voice when the player vocalizes into it. It is a type of '' mirliton'' (itself a membranophone), one of a class of instruments that modify the player's v ...

. He was born in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville is the List of cities in Kentucky, most populous city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky, sixth-most populous city in the Southeastern United States, Southeast, and the list of United States cities by population, 27th-most-populous city ...

and went to Chicago around 1922. He first recorded with

Jelly Roll Morton Ferdinand Joseph LaMothe ( Lemott, later Morton; c. September 20, 1890 – July 10, 1941), known professionally as Jelly Roll Morton, was an American blues and jazz pianist, bandleader, and composer of Louisiana Creole descent. Morton was jazz ...

and sessions that were led by

Jimmy Blythe James Louis Blythe (May 20, 1901 – June 14, 1931) was an American jazz and boogie-woogie pianist and composer. Blythe is known to have recorded as many as 300 piano rolls, and his song "Chicago Stomp" is considered one of the earliest examples ...

. Burton released five sides under his own name in 1928, six sides with Marcus Norman (as "Alabama Jim And George" which some experts have listed as being made with Bob Hudson, although Norman is credited with co-writing), two sides as a duo with Blythe and one with Irene Sanders. He also backed blues singers Tillie Johnson and Mae Mathews, and played with the Dixie Four and The Harlem Trio. Other than five numbers in 1929, duets with pianist Bob Hudson in 1932, and the duet with Sanders in 1936, little is known about Burton's life after the mid-thirties although he was probably somewhat active. He died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound while living in senior housing in Louisville, Kentucky and was reported to be a 'retired musician and elevator operator'.

References

External links

* 1977 deaths 1890 births Musicians from Louisville, Kentucky 20th-century American musicians Jazz musicians from Kentucky 1977 suicides Suicides by firearm in Kentucky {{jazz-musician-stub