Leon Brown "Chu" Berry (September 13, 1908 – October 30, 1941) 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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...

tenor saxophonist during the 1930s. He is perhaps best known for his time as a member of singer

Cab Calloway Cabell "Cab" Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American jazz singer and bandleader. He was a regular performer at the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he became a popular vocalist of the Swing music, swing era. His niche ...

big band A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s and ...

. According to music critic

Gary Giddins Gary Giddins (born 1948) is an American jazz critic and author. He wrote for ''The Village Voice'' from 1973; his "Weather Bird" column ended in 2003. In 1986, Gary Giddins and John Lewis created the American Jazz Orchestra which presented conc ...

, musicians called him "Chu" either because he chewed on the mouthpiece of his saxophone or because he had a Fu Manchu mustache.

Early life

Berry was born in

Wheeling, West Virginia Wheeling is a city in Ohio County, West Virginia, Ohio and Marshall County, West Virginia, Marshall counties in the U.S. state of West Virginia. The county seat of Ohio County, it lies along the Ohio River in the foothills of the Appalachian Mo ...

, to father Brown Berry and mother Maggie Glasgow Berry. He graduated from Lincoln High School, in Wheeling, then attended West Virginia State College for three years. His sister Ann played piano. Berry became interested in music at an early age, playing alto saxophone, at first with local bands. He was inspired to take up the tenor saxophone after hearing

Coleman Hawkins Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first ...

on tour.

Career

Most of Berry's career was spent with swing bands: Sammy Stewart, 1929–1930, with whom he switched to tenor sax;

Benny Carter Bennett Lester Carter (August 8, 1907 – July 12, 2003) was an American jazz saxophonist, clarinetist, trumpeter, composer, arranger, and bandleader. With Johnny Hodges, he was a pioneer on the alto saxophone. From the beginning of his career ...

, 1932–1933; Teddy Hill, 1933–1935;

Fletcher Henderson James Fletcher Hamilton Henderson (December 18, 1897 – December 29, 1952) was an American pianist, bandleader, arranger and composer, important in the development of big band jazz and swing music. He was one of the most prolific black musical ...

, 1935–1937; and

, his best-known affiliation, from 1937 to 1941. He is credited with turning Calloway's band into a legitimate jazz orchestra over the four years of his membership. Throughout his brief career, Berry was in demand as a

sideman A sideman is a professional musician who is hired to perform live with a solo artist, or with a group in which they are not a regular band member. The term is usually used to describe musicians that play with jazz or rock artists, whether solo o ...

for recording sessions under the names of various other jazz artists, including Spike Hughes (1933),

Bessie Smith Bessie Smith (April 15, 1892 – September 26, 1937) was an African-American blues singer widely renowned during the Jazz Age. Nicknamed the "Honorific nicknames in popular music, Empress of the Blues" and formerly Queen of the Blues, she was t ...

(1933), the Chocolate Dandies (1933),

Mildred Bailey Mildred Bailey (born Mildred Rinker; February 27, 1907 – December 12, 1951) was a Native American jazz singer during the 1930s, known as "The Queen of Swing", "The Rockin' Chair Lady", and "Mrs. Swing". She recorded the songs " For Sentime ...

(1935–1938),

Teddy Wilson Theodore Shaw Wilson (November 24, 1912 – July 31, 1986) was an American jazz pianist. Described by critic Scott Yanow as "the definitive Swing music, swing pianist", Wilson's piano style was gentle, elegant, and virtuosic. His style was high ...

(1935–1938),

Billie Holiday Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday made significant contributions to jazz music and pop ...

(1938–1939), Wingy Manone (1938–1939), and

Lionel Hampton Lionel Leo Hampton (April 20, 1908 – August 31, 2002) was an American jazz vibraphonist, percussionist, and bandleader. He worked with jazz musicians from Teddy Wilson, Benny Goodman, and Buddy Rich, to Charlie Parker, Charles Mingus, an ...

(1939). During the period 1934–1939, while saxophone pioneer Hawkins was playing in Europe, Berry was one of several younger tenor saxophonists, such as

Budd Johnson Albert J. "Budd" Johnson III (December 14, 1910 – October 20, 1984) was an American jazz saxophonist and clarinetist who worked extensively with, among others, Ben Webster, Benny Goodman, Big Joe Turner, Coleman Hawkins, Dizzy Gillespie, Duke ...

Ben Webster Benjamin Francis Webster (March 27, 1909 – September 20, 1973) was an American jazz tenor Saxophone, saxophonist. He performed in the United States and Europe and made many recordings with Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, Johnny Hodges, a ...

, and

Lester Young Lester Willis Young (August 27, 1909 – March 15, 1959), nicknamed "Pres" or "Prez", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and occasional clarinetist. Coming to prominence while a member of Count Basie's orchestra, Young was one of the most i ...

, who vied for supremacy on their instrument. Berry's mastery of advanced harmony was an influence on

Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie ( ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improvisation, improviser, building on the virtuosic style of Roy El ...

and

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz Saxophone, saxophonist, bandleader, and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of beb ...

. Parker named his first son Leon in Chu's honor. Berry was among the musicians who took part in the

jam session A jam session is a relatively informal musical event, process, or activity where musicians, typically instrumentalists, play improvised solos and vamp over tunes, drones, songs, and chord progressions. To "jam" is to improvise music without ...

s at

Minton's Playhouse Minton's Playhouse is a jazz club and bar located on the first floor of the Cecil Hotel at 210 West 118th Street in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. It is a registered trademark of Housing and Services, Inc. a New York City nonprofit provider ...

in New York City, which helped lead to the development of

bebop Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early to mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo (usually exceeding 200 bpm), complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerou ...

. The song "

Christopher Columbus Christopher Columbus (; between 25 August and 31 October 1451 – 20 May 1506) was an Italians, Italian explorer and navigator from the Republic of Genoa who completed Voyages of Christopher Columbus, four Spanish-based voyages across the At ...

", which Berry composed with lyrics by

Andy Razaf Andy Razaf (born Andriamanantena Paul Razafinkarefo; December 16, 1895 – February 3, 1973) was the American lyricist of such well-known songs as " Ain't Misbehavin'" and " Honeysuckle Rose". He was also a composer, poet and vocalist. Biograph ...

, was the last important hit recording of the Fletcher Henderson orchestra and was recorded in 1936. It is one of the most popular

riff A riff is a short, repeated motif or figure in the melody or accompaniment of a musical composition. Riffs are most often found in rock music, punk, heavy metal music, Latin, funk, and jazz, although classical music is also sometimes based ...

tunes from the swing era and was later incorporated into

Jimmy Mundy James Mundy (June 28, 1907 – April 24, 1983) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist, arranger, and composer, best known for his arrangements for Benny Goodman, Count Basie, and Earl Hines. Mundy died of cancer in New York City at the age of 7 ...

's arrangement of " Sing, Sing, Sing" for

Benny Goodman Benjamin David Goodman (May 30, 1909 – June 13, 1986) was an American clarinetist and bandleader, known as the "King of Swing". His orchestra did well commercially. From 1936 until the mid-1940s, Goodman led one of the most popular swing bi ...

's band. Four sessions were organized with Berry as leader, in 1937, 1938, and 1941. Berry died on October 30, 1941, in

Conneaut, Ohio Conneaut ( ) is the northeastern most city in Ashtabula County, Ohio, United States, as well as the entire state as a whole. Located in the Greater Cleveland, Cleveland metropolitan area, it is settled along Lake Erie at the mouth of Conneaut Cre ...

, after being in a car accident."Chu Berry Obituary." The Afro-American (Baltimore) - November 8, 1941, p. 14
From Ohio County Public Library. Retrieved April 3, 2013.

The Chu Berry saxophone

Chu Berry is the unofficial name of a series of saxophones produced by the C.G. Conn company during the 1920s, though it is more accurate to refer to them as the Conn New Wonder Series II. The company never officially used the term "Chu Berry" to refer to any of their saxophones. In fact, Berry played a model of tenor sax generally known as the Conn Transitional and is not known to have ever played a New Wonder Series II. Some saxophone owners use the term "Chu Berry" to refer to any Conn saxophone made between 1910 and the mid-1930s, including soprano, alto, baritone, and

C melody saxophone The C melody saxophone, also known as the C tenor saxophone, is a saxophone pitched in the key of C one whole tone above the common B-flat tenor saxophone. The C melody was part of the series of saxophones pitched in C and F intended by the in ...

s, none of which Berry played.

Discography

As leader

* "Now You're Talking My Language"/"Too Marvelous for Words" (Variety, 1937) * "Indiana"/"Limehouse Blues" (Variety, 1937) * "Sittin' in"/"Forty-six West Fifty-two" (Commodore, 1938) * "Stardust"/"Body and Soul" (Commodore, 1938) * "Blowing Up a Breeze"/ "Monday at Minton's" (Commodore, 1941) * "On the Sunny Sides of the Street" / "Gee, Ain't I Good To You" (Commodore, 1941) * ''Chu Berry'' (Commodore, 1959) * ''Sittin' In'' (Mainstream, 1965)

As sideman on compilations

* 1992 '' The Original American Decca Recordings'', Count Basie * 1995 '' The Complete RCA Victor Recordings'', Dizzy Gillespie * 2002 ''Quintessence : New York-Chicago 1924–1936'', Fletcher Henderson * 2003 ''Quintessence New York-Chicago: 1933–50'', Teddy Wilson * 2007 ''The Complete Lionel Hampton Victor Sessions 1937–1941'', Lionel Hampton * 2012 ''The Billie Holiday Collection: 1935–42'', Billie Holiday

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Berry, Chu 1908 births 1941 deaths Musicians from Wheeling, West Virginia Jazz musicians from West Virginia African-American jazz musicians American jazz tenor saxophonists American male saxophonists Swing saxophonists 20th-century American saxophonists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians The Cab Calloway Orchestra members The Chocolate Dandies members Road incident deaths in Ohio 20th-century African-American musicians