James Henry Harrison (October 17, 1900,

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana borde ...

– July 23, 1931, New York City) 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 majo ...

trombonist. Harrison began on trombone at age 15, playing locally in the

Toledo, Ohio Toledo ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Lucas County, Ohio, United States. A major Midwestern United States port city, Toledo is the fourth-most populous city in the state of Ohio, after Columbus, Cleveland, and Cincinnati, and accordin ...

area. He played semi-pro

baseball Baseball is a bat-and-ball sport played between two teams of nine players each, taking turns batting and fielding. The game occurs over the course of several plays, with each play generally beginning when a player on the fielding ...

, but chose music over a career in sports when he joined a traveling

minstrel show The minstrel show, also called minstrelsy, was an American form of racist theatrical entertainment developed in the early 19th century. Each show consisted of comic skits, variety acts, dancing, and music performances that depicted people spe ...

in the late 1910s. He led his own jazz ensemble in Atlantic City by 1919, and played in the bands of Charlie Johnson and Sam Wooding. He then moved to Detroit and played with Hank Duncan and

Roland Smith Roland (; frk, *Hrōþiland; lat-med, Hruodlandus or ''Rotholandus''; it, Orlando or ''Rolando''; died 15 August 778) was a Frankish military leader under Charlemagne who became one of the principal figures in the literary cycle known as th ...

. After returning to Toledo, he played gigs with June Clark and James P. Johnson, and followed this with a stint in New York City with Fess Williams. In 1924, June Clark took over leadership of Harrison's ensemble, though he continued to perform in it. In 1925 he began working with Billy Fowler, where he remained for several years. He also played with

Duke Ellington Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous jazz orchestra from 1923 through the rest of his life. Born and raised in Washington, D.C., Ellington was ba ...

in the mid-1920s. Later in the decade Harrison played with Elmer Snowden and Fletcher Henderson. While on tour with Henderson in 1930, he took ill with a digestive ailment, and though he continued to play for several months with Chick Webb, he died of stomach cancer in 1931, aged 30.

References

;Footnotes ;General references * Jimmy Harrisonat

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the dat ...

1900 births 1931 deaths American jazz trombonists Male trombonists Musicians from Louisville, Kentucky Duke Ellington Orchestra members 20th-century American musicians Jazz musicians from Kentucky 20th-century trombonists American male jazz musicians The Chocolate Dandies members 20th-century American male musicians Deaths from stomach cancer {{Louisville-stub