Charles Cyril Creath (December 30, 1890,

Ironton, Missouri Ironton is a city in Iron County, Missouri, United States. The population was 1,475 at the 2020 census. It is the county seat of Iron County, and is located 12 miles south of Belgrade. History Ironton was designated county seat in 1857, soon a ...

– October 23, 1951,

Chicago, Illinois (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

) was an American

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

trumpeter, saxophonist, accordionist, and bandleader. Creath played in

traveling circus A circus is a company of performers who put on diverse entertainment shows that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, dancers, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, magicians, ventriloquists, and unicyclis ...

es and in theater bands in the decade of the 1900s, and moved back to

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis () is the second-largest city in Missouri, United States. It sits near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Missouri Rivers. In 2020, the city proper had a population of 301,578, while the Greater St. Louis, ...

around 1919. There he led bands playing on the Streckfus company's

riverboat A riverboat is a watercraft designed for inland navigation on lakes, rivers, and artificial waterways. They are generally equipped and outfitted as work boats in one of the carrying trades, for freight or people transport, including luxury un ...

s traveling on the

Mississippi River The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it f ...

between

New Orleans New Orleans ( , ,New Orleans
Merriam-Webster. ; french: La Nouvelle-Orléans , es, Nuev ...

and St. Louis. His ensembles were so popular that he had several bands under his own name at one time in the 1920s. A young Gene Sedric, later a mainstay of

Fats Waller Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller (May 21, 1904 – December 15, 1943) was an American jazz pianist, organist, composer, violinist, singer, and comedic entertainer. His innovations in the Harlem stride style laid much of the basis for modern jazz pi ...

's combo and orchestra, played with Creath on riverboats in the 1920s, and perhaps early 1930s. He co-led a group on the ''SS Capitol'' in 1927 with

Fate Marable Fate Marable (December 2, 1890 – January 16, 1947) was an American jazz pianist and bandleader. Early life Marable was born in Paducah, Kentucky to James and Elizabeth Lillian (Wharton) Marable, a piano teacher. Fate had five siblings, includin ...

. Late in the 1920s he suffered from an extended illness, and primarily played saxophone and accordion instead of trumpet afterwards. He and Marable played together again from 1935 to 1938, and toward the end of the decade Creath opened a

nightclub A nightclub (music club, discothèque, disco club, or simply club) is an entertainment venue during nighttime comprising a dance floor, lightshow, and a stage for live music or a disc jockey (DJ) who plays recorded music. Nightclubs gener ...

in Chicago. He worked in an airplane manufacturing plant during

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

and retired in 1945. His last years were plagued with illness. Aside from his brother-in-law,

Zutty Singleton Arthur James "Zutty" Singleton (May 14, 1898 – July 14, 1975) was an American jazz drummer. Career Singleton was born in Bunkie, Louisiana, United States, and raised in New Orleans. According to his ''Jazz Profiles'' biography, his unusual ...

, members of Creath's bands included Ed Allen,

Pops Foster George Murphy "Pops" Foster (May 19, 1892 – October 30, 1969) was an American jazz musician, best known for his vigorous slap bass playing of the string bass. He also played the tuba and trumpet professionally. Biography Foster was born to ...

Jerome Don Pasquall Jerome Don Pasquall (September 20, 1902 – October 18, 1971) was an American jazz reed player. Early life Pasquall was born in Fulton, Kentucky, and grew up in St. Louis. As a child, he played the mellophone in brass bands. He served in ...

, Leonard Davis, and Lonnie Johnson. He recorded as a leader for

Okeh Records Okeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name was spelled "OkeH" from the initials of Ott ...

between 1924 and 1927 billed as ''Chas. Creath's Jazz-O-Maniacs'', which were some of hottest and most collectable jazz items recorded for OKeh's race 8000 series.

References

Sources

Leonard Feather Leonard Geoffrey Feather (13 September 1914 – 22 September 1994) was a British-born jazz pianist, composer, and producer, who was best known for his music journalism and other writing. Biography Feather was born in London, England, into an u ...

and

Ira Gitler Ira Gitler (December 18, 1928 – February 23, 2019) was an American jazz historian and journalist. The co-author of ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz'' with Leonard Feather—the most recent edition appeared in 1999—he wrote hundreds of ...

, ''The Biographical Encyclopedia of Jazz''. Oxford, 1999, p. 155. *Lawrence Koch, "Charlie Creath". '' Grove Jazz'' online. {{DEFAULTSORT:Creath, Charlie 1890 births 1951 deaths American jazz trumpeters American male trumpeters American jazz bandleaders Okeh Records artists Jazz musicians from Missouri 20th-century American conductors (music) 20th-century trumpeters People from Ironton, Missouri 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians