Everett "Happy" Robbins (1899 – April 16, 1926) was a Chicago-based

pianist A pianist ( , ) is a musician who plays the piano. A pianist's repertoire may include music from a diverse variety of styles, such as traditional classical music, jazz piano, jazz, blues piano, blues, and popular music, including rock music, ...

,Frank Himpsl Archive "Everett Robbins"
Retrieved 15 May 2013.

bandleader A bandleader is the leader of a music group such as a dance band, rock or pop band or jazz quartet. The term is most commonly used with a group that plays popular music as a small combo or a big band, such as one which plays jazz, blues, rhyth ...

and

composer A composer is a person who writes music. The term is especially used to indicate composers of Western classical music, or those who are composers by occupation. Many composers are, or were, also skilled performers of music. Etymology and def ...

. Born in

Muskogee, Oklahoma Muskogee () is the 13th-largest city in Oklahoma and is the county seat of Muskogee County, Oklahoma, Muskogee County. Home to Bacone College, it lies approximately southeast of Tulsa, Oklahoma, Tulsa. The population of the city was 36,878 as of ...

in 1899, he moved to Chicago in 1916 and studied at the

American Conservatory of Music The American Conservatory of Music (ACM) was a major American school of music founded in Chicago in 1886 by John James Hattstaedt (1851–1931). The conservatory was incorporated as an Illinois non-profit corporation. It developed the Conservat ...

. He started his musician career in 1919 as a pianist for James Like's orchestra. Lineups of his bands in the 1920s, such as Everett and his Syncopated Robins, included Eddie Vincent, Benney Fields, Jimmy Dudley, William Hoy, and Henry Johnson, while Everett Robbins' Jazz Screamers included

Bob Shoffner Bob Shoffner (April 4, 1900 – March 5, 1983) was an American jazz trumpeter. Shoffner grew up in St. Louis, Missouri, and played drums and bugle before settling on trumpet at age eleven. He played trumpet in a military band while serving in th ...

. As well as leading his own bands, he also recorded, as a pianist, in 1922, with

Mamie Smith Mamie Smith ( Robinson; May 26, 1891 – August or September 16, 1946) was an American singer. As a vaudeville singer, she performed in multiple styles, including jazz and blues. In 1920, she entered blues history as the first African-American a ...

's Jazz Hounds, coinciding with

Garvin Bushell Garvin Bushell ''(né'' Garvin Lamont Payne; September 25, 1902 – October 31, 1991) was an American clarinetist, saxophonist, and bassoonist. He performed with many prominent 20th-century jazz musicians, including Jelly Roll Morton and John Co ...

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 ...

Bubber Miley Bubber is a nickname and surname which may refer to: People: * Bubber or Bubba Brooks (1922-2002), American jazz tenor saxophonist * James Bubber Epps (born 1943), American politician * Clarence James Bubber Jonnard (1897-1977), American Major Leag ...

and

Herb Flemming Herb Flemming (April 5, 1898 – October 3, 1976) was an American jazz trombonist and vocalist who played extensively in Europe. Early life Flemming was born Nicolaiih El-Michelle, and was of North African descent. Flemming studied music an ...

. Robbins made

piano rolls A piano roll is a music storage medium used to operate a player piano, piano player or reproducing piano. Piano rolls, like other music rolls, are continuous rolls of paper with holes punched into them. These perforations represent note control d ...

for the Capitol Roll & Record Company and is possibly most known for "

Ain't Nobody's Business "Ain't Nobody's Business" (originally "Tain't Nobody's Biz-ness if I Do") is a 1920s blues song that became one of the first blues standards. It was published in 1922 by Porter Grainger and Everett Robbins. The song features a lyrical theme of ...

", a song he co-wrote with

Porter Grainger Porter Grainger ( Granger; October 22, 1891 − October 30, 1948) was an African American pianist, songwriter, playwright, and music publisher. Early life When Grainger was born in Bowling Green, Kentucky, the Granger family name did not include ...

in 1922. Both pianists played in Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds around the same time, but as they played the same instrument, they are unlikely to have coincided. He died in April 16, 1926, following a year of illness, when he was only 27 years old.

Discography

As leader/co-leader

*1923: "Hard Luck Blues" *1991: ''Boogie Woogie Blues'' *2001: ''Jazz & Blues Piano, Vol. 2: 1924-1947''"Credits"

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

. Retrieved 15 May 2013.

As sideman

*1922: with Mamie Smith's Jazz Hounds

References

External links

''They called him 'Happy' Everett Robbins''
article by Len Kunstadt in ''Record Research'' issue #61 (July 1964). {{DEFAULTSORT:Robbins, Everett 1899 births 1926 deaths American jazz bandleaders American male pianists American jazz pianists American jazz composers Musicians from Oklahoma