Elmer Crumbley (August 1, 1908 – September 17, 1993) was an American trombonist.

Early life

Born in

Kingfisher, Oklahoma Kingfisher is a city in and the county seat of Kingfisher County, Oklahoma,. The population was 4,903 at the time of the 2020 census. It is the former home and namesake of Kingfisher College. According to the ''Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History ...

, Crumbley was raised in

Denver Denver () is a consolidated city and county, the capital, and most populous city of the U.S. state of Colorado. Its population was 715,522 at the 2020 census, a 19.22% increase since 2010. It is the 19th-most populous city in the United ...

and

Omaha, Nebraska Omaha ( ) is the largest city in the U.S. state of Nebraska and the county seat of Douglas County, Nebraska, Douglas County. Omaha is in the Midwestern United States on the Missouri River, about north of the mouth of the Platte River. List of ...

Career

Crumbley performed with

Cab Calloway Cabell Calloway III (December 25, 1907 – November 18, 1994) was an American singer, songwriter, bandleader, conductor and dancer. He was associated with the Cotton Club in Harlem, where he was a regular performer and became a popular vocali ...

and Earl Hines in the 1960s and 1970s. He joined the Dandie Dixie Minstrels in 1926 with bandleader Lloyd Hunter. He played with the George E. Lee Band, western swing pioneer

Tommy Douglas Thomas Clement Douglas (20 October 1904 – 24 February 1986) was a Scottish-born Canadian politician who served as seventh premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961 and Leader of the New Democratic Party from 1961 to 1971. A Baptist min ...

, and Bill Owens. But he continued to work with Hunter as well as players such as Jabbo Smith and

Erskine Tate Erskine Tate (January 14, 1895, Memphis, Tennessee, – December 17, 1978, Chicago) was an American jazz violinist and bandleader. Tate moved to Chicago in 1912 and was an early figure on the Chicago jazz scene, playing with his band, the Ve ...

. Crumbley founded his own ensemble in Omaha in 1934, and joined up with the Jimmie Lunceford Band the same year. He also played with

Eddie Wilcox Eddie Wilcox (December 27, 1907 – September 29, 1968) was an American jazz pianist and arranger. Biography Born in Method, North Carolina, Wilcox studied at Fisk University, where he met Jimmie Lunceford. He played with Lunceford in college b ...

Lucky Millinder Lucius Venable "Lucky" Millinder (August 8, 1910 – September 28, 1966) was an American swing and rhythm-and-blues bandleader. Although he could not read or write music, did not play an instrument and rarely sang, his showmanship and musical ...

, and

Erskine Hawkins Erskine Ramsay Hawkins (July 26, 1914 – November 11, 1993) was an American trumpeter and big band leader from Birmingham, Alabama, dubbed "The 20th Century Gabriel". He is best remembered for composing the jazz standard " Tuxedo Junction ...

. He toured Europe in the late 1950s with

Sammy Price Samuel Blythe Price (October 6, 1908 – April 14, 1992) was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and jump blues pianist and bandleader. Price's playing is dark, mellow, and relaxed rather than percussive, and he was a specialist at creating the ...

, a period when he also became part of the scene at the Apollo in Harlem with a lively combo led by Reuben Phillips.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Crumbley, Elmer 1908 births 1993 deaths American jazz trombonists Male trombonists 20th-century trombonists 20th-century American male musicians American male jazz musicians People from Kingfisher, Oklahoma Musicians from Oklahoma Jazz musicians from Oklahoma Jazz musicians from Colorado Jazz musicians from Nebraska Musicians from Denver Musicians from Omaha, Nebraska