Hayes Pillars (April 30, 1906,

North Little Rock, Arkansas North Little Rock (often abbreviated "NLR") is a city in Pulaski County, Arkansas, United States. Located on the north side of the Arkansas River, it is the Twin cities, twin city of Little Rock, Arkansas, Little Rock. In the late nineteenth ce ...

- August 11, 1992,

Richmond Heights, Missouri Richmond Heights is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri. It is an inner-ring suburb of St. Louis, Missouri, United States. The United States census shows the population grew from 8,603 in 2010 to 9,286 in 2020. According to Robert L. Ramsay, th ...

) 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 and

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 ...

. Pillar began playing as a teenager, and played locally in Little Rock and

Jackson, Tennessee Jackson is a city in and the county seat of Madison County, Tennessee, United States. Located east of Memphis, Tennessee, Memphis and 130 Miles Southwest of Nashville, it is a regional center of trade for West Tennessee. Its total population wa ...

before joining the

territory band Territory bands were dance bands that crisscrossed specific regions of the United States from the 1920s through the 1960s. Beginning in the 1920s, the bands typically had 8 to 12 musicians. These bands typically played one-nighters, six or seven n ...

of Alphonso Trent in 1927-28. On January 6, 1934 Pillars, along with his brother Charles Pillars, and James Jeter, formed the

Jeter-Pillars Orchestra Jeter-Pillars Orchestra was an American jazz troupe, led by altoist James Jeter and tenor-saxophonist Hayes Pillars. Career Jeter and Pillars were previously members of Alphonso Trent's big band. After that outfit split in 1933 they formed th ...

, to work at a club called The Furnace. The ensemble which featured a large number of noted jazz sidemen over the course of its existence, was originally "formed out of the remnants of the great Alphonso Trent Orchestra." On July 4, 1934, The

came to St.Louis at the Club Plantation. Following his time in Jeter-Pillars, Pillars became a mainstay of the

St. Louis, Missouri St. Louis ( , sometimes referred to as St. Louis City, Saint Louis or STL) is an Independent city (United States), independent city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It lies near the confluence of the Mississippi River, Mississippi and the Miss ...

jazz scene, working there from the 1950s into the 1980s. He would frequently play private parties and in area country clubs. He retired in the early 1980s and in 1981, th
Institute for Jazz Studies at Rutgers University
and the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. honored him for his contributions to American Jazz.

References

*Rye/Kernfeld, "Hayes Pillars". '' Grove Jazz'' online.

References

Further reading