Theodore Dudley "Red" Saunders (March 2, 1912 – March 5, 1981)
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 ...
drummer and bandleader. He also played
vibraphone
The vibraphone (also called the vibraharp) is a percussion instrument in the metallophone family. It consists of tuned metal bars and is typically played by using Percussion mallet, mallets to strike the bars. A person who plays the vibraphone ...
and
timpani
Timpani (; ) or kettledrums (also informally called timps) are musical instruments in the percussion instrument, percussion family. A type of drum categorised as a hemispherical drum, they consist of a Membranophone, membrane called a drumhead, ...
.
Life and career
Saunders was born in
Memphis, Tennessee
Memphis is a city in Shelby County, Tennessee, United States, and its county seat. Situated along the Mississippi River, it had a population of 633,104 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List of municipalities in Tenne ...
, and after his mother's death moved to
Chicago
Chicago is the List of municipalities in Illinois, most populous city in the U.S. state of Illinois and in the Midwestern United States. With a population of 2,746,388, as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, it is the List of Unite ...
with his sister. He took drum lessons while attending a
boarding school
A boarding school is a school where pupils live within premises while being given formal instruction. The word "boarding" is used in the sense of "room and board", i.e. lodging and meals. They have existed for many centuries, and now extend acr ...
in
Milwaukee
Milwaukee is the List of cities in Wisconsin, most populous city in the U.S. state of Wisconsin. Located on the western shore of Lake Michigan, it is the List of United States cities by population, 31st-most populous city in the United States ...
, received a music scholarship to the University of Texas, and became a professional musician in 1928, playing in Stomp King's band.
He then spent several years touring the country as drummer with Ira Coffey's Walkathonians, a band that played at competitive
walkathon
A walkathon (walk-a-thon), walking marathon or sponsored walk is a type of community or school fundraiser in which participants raise money by collecting donations or pledges for walking a predetermined distance or course. They are similar in for ...
events, before joining a
revue
A revue is a type of multi-act popular theatre, theatrical entertainment that combines music, dance, and sketch comedy, sketches. The revue has its roots in 19th century popular entertainment and melodrama but grew into a substantial cultural pre ...
, Curtis Mosby's ''Harlem Scandals''.
On returning to Chicago in 1934, he joined a band led by
Tiny Parham
Hartzell Strathdene "Tiny" Parham (February 25, 1900 – April 4, 1943) was a Canadian-born American jazz bandleader and pianist of African-American descent.
Life and career
Parham was born in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, but grew up in Kansas Ci ...
at the
Savoy Ballroom
The Savoy Ballroom was a large ballroom for music and public dancing located at 596 Lenox Avenue, between 140th and 141st Streets in the Harlem neighborhood of Manhattan, New York City.
Lenox Avenue was the main thoroughfare through upper Harlem ...
, and thereafter became a well-known drummer in Chicago clubs and hotels. In 1937, Saunders joined the house band at the
Club DeLisa
The Club DeLisa, also written Delisa or De Lisa, was an African-American nightclub and music venue in Chicago, Illinois. Located at 5521 South State Street (State Street and Garfield Avenue, on the South Side), it was possibly the most prestigiou ...
, initially led by pianist
Albert Ammons
Albert Clifton Ammons (March 1, 1907 – December 2, 1949) was an American pianist and player of boogie-woogie, a blues style popular from the late 1930s to the mid-1940s.
Life and career
Ammons was born in Chicago, Illinois. His parents were ...
, and then briefly by saxophonist Delbert Bright, before taking over as bandleader himself.
[ Robert L. Campbell, Armin Büttner, and Dan Kochakian, "Red Saunders Discography", updated 2016]
Campber.people.clemson.edu, Retrieved 24 October 2016
Saunders remained in control of the Club DeLisa house band, playing four to six shows nightly, until the club closed in 1958, apart from a hiatus between 1945 and 1947 when he led a smaller band at other venues in Chicago and Indianapolis.
Among his sidemen were
Leon Washington
Leon Dewitt Washington Sr. (born August 29, 1982) is an American former professional football player who played in the National Football League (NFL) as a running back and return specialist and made 2 Pro Bowls and 2 All-Pro teams during his c ...
,
Porter Kilbert,
Earl Washington,
Sonny Cohn
George Thomas Cohn (March 14, 1925 – November 7, 2006), known professionally as Sonny Cohn, was an American jazz trumpeter whose career spanned over six decades. After working for fifteen years with Red Saunders (1945–1960), Cohn went on ...
,
Ike Perkins
Ike or IKE may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Ike (given name), a list of people and fictional characters with the given name or nickname
* Ike (surname), a list of people
* Dwight D. Eisenhower (1890–1969), Supreme Commander of th ...
,
Riley Hampton Riley may refer to:
Businesses
* Riley (brand), British sporting goods brand founded in 1878
* Riley Motor, British motorcar and bicycle manufacturera 1890–1969
* Riley Technologies, American auto racing constructor and team, founded by Bob Ri ...
, singer
Joe Williams and
Mac Easton
Mac or MAC may refer to:
Common meanings
* Mac (computer), a line of personal computers made by Apple Inc.
* Mackintosh, a raincoat made of rubberized cloth
* Mac, a prefix to surnames derived from Gaelic languages
* McIntosh (apple), a Canadian ...
. Among the arrangers he employed were
Johnny Pate
John William Pate (born December 5, 1923) is an American former musician, a jazz bassist who became a producer, arranger, and leading figure in Chicago soul, pop, and rhythm and blues.
He learned piano and tuba as a child and later picked up th ...
Johnny Pate
John William Pate (born December 5, 1923) is an American former musician, a jazz bassist who became a producer, arranger, and leading figure in Chicago soul, pop, and rhythm and blues.
He learned piano and tuba as a child and later picked up th ...
at 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 ...
and
Sun Ra
Le Sony'r Ra (born Herman Poole Blount, May 22, 1914 – May 30, 1993), better known as Sun Ra, was an American jazz composer, bandleader, piano and synthesizer player, and poet known for his experimental music, "cosmic" philosophy, prolific ou ...
.
[
Saunders made his first recordings as bandleader for ]Savoy Records
Savoy Records is an American record company and label established by Herman Lubinsky in 1942 in Newark, New Jersey. Savoy specialized in jazz, rhythm and blues, and gospel music.
In September 2017, Savoy was acquired by Concord Bicycle Music.
...
in late 1945, and later accompanied such rhythm and blues
Rhythm and blues, frequently abbreviated as R&B or R'n'B, is a genre of popular music that originated within African American communities in the 1940s. The term was originally used by record companies to describe recordings marketed predomina ...
performers as T-Bone Walker
Aaron Thibeaux "T-Bone" Walker (May 28, 1910 – March 16, 1975) was an American blues musician, composer, songwriter and bandleader, who was a pioneer and innovator of the jump blues, West Coast blues, and electric blues sounds. In 2018 ''R ...
, Big Joe Turner
Joseph Vernon "Big Joe" Turner Jr. (May 18, 1911 – November 24, 1985) was an American blues shouter from Kansas City, Missouri. According to songwriter Doc Pomus, "Rock and roll would have never happened without him". Turner's greatest fa ...
, Sugar Chile Robinson
Frank Isaac Robinson (born December 28, 1938), known in his early musical career as Sugar Chile Robinson, is an American jazz pianist and singer. A Detroit native, Robinson became famous as a child prodigy in the mid-1940s.
Early life, family an ...
, Rosetta Tharpe
Sister Rosetta Tharpe (born Rosetta Nubin, March 20, 1915 – October 9, 1973) was an American singer, songwriter and guitarist. She gained popularity in the 1930s and 1940s with her gospel recordings, characterized by a unique mixture of spirit ...
, Willie Mabon
Willie James Mabon (October 24, 1925 – April 19, 1985) was an American Rhythm and blues, R&B singer, songwriter, pianist, and harmonica player. He had two number one hits on the ''Billboard (magazine), Billboard'' R&B chart, "I Don't Know (Will ...
, Little Brother Montgomery
Eurreal Wilford "Little Brother" Montgomery (April 18, 1906 – September 6, 1985) was an American jazz, boogie-woogie and blues pianist and singer.
Largely self-taught, Montgomery was an important blues pianist with an original style. He was ...
and LaVern Baker
Delores LaVern Baker (born Delores Evans; November 11, 1929 – March 10, 1997) was an American rhythm and blues singer who had several hit records on the pop charts in the 1950s and early 1960s. Her most successful records were " Tweedle Dee" ...
(then credited as "Miss Sharecropper") on sessions. He continued to record under his own name with relatively little commercial success for several years, until early 1952 when his recording of the traditional children's song " Hambone" on the OKeh
OKeh Records () is an American record label founded by the Otto Heinemann Phonograph Corporation, a phonograph supplier established in 1916, which branched out into phonograph records in 1918. The name originally was spelled "OkeH" from the init ...
label, with Dolores Hawkins
Dolores Hawkins (September 22, 1929 '' – '' January 15, 1987) was an American rhythm & blues singer from Brooklyn, New York.
Vocal career
She is remembered for her vocals that accompanied band leaders Gene Krupa and Red Saunders (musician), Re ...
and the Hambone Kids (who included Dee Clark
Dee Clark (November 7, 1938 – December 7, 1990) was an American soul singer and songwriter best known for a string of R&B and pop hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, including the song " Raindrops", which became a million-seller in the Uni ...
), reached some R&B charts. In 1956, he recorded with Guy Warren
Guy Warren of Ghana, also known as Kofi Ghanaba (4 May 1923 – 22 December 2008), was a Ghanaian musician, most notable as the inventor of Afro-jazz — "the reuniting of African-American jazz with its African roots" — and as a member of The ...
on Warren's album ''Africa Speaks—America Answers!''[ Despite his regular gig and disinclination to go on the road, Saunders also played with ]Duke Ellington
Edward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington (April 29, 1899 – May 24, 1974) was an American Jazz piano, jazz pianist, composer, and leader of his eponymous Big band, jazz orchestra from 1924 through the rest of his life.
Born and raised in Washington, D ...
, Louis Armstrong
Louis Daniel Armstrong (August 4, 1901 – July 6, 1971), nicknamed "Satchmo", "Satch", and "Pops", was an American trumpeter and vocalist. He was among the most influential figures in jazz. His career spanned five decades and several era ...
, and Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) 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 roo ...
. He continued to lead a band at the Regal Theater in Chicago into the 1960s, and played with Little Brother Montgomery and Art Hodes
Arthur W. Hodes (November 14, 1904 – March 4, 1993), was a Russian-born American jazz and blues pianist. He is regarded by many critics as the greatest white blues pianist.
Biography
Hodes was born in Nikolaev, in the Russian Empire (now Myk ...
at the New Orleans Jazz Festival
The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival (commonly called Jazz Fest or Jazzfest) is an annual celebration of local music and culture held at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, Louisiana. Jazz Fest attracts thousands of visitors to New ...
in the 1970s.
Personal life
Saunders met his wife, Ella, when she was working as a chorus girl and they were playing the same show in California. Saunders and his wife and their two children were the subject of a series of photographs taken in Chicago by Security Administration photographer Jack Delano
Jack Delano (born Yakov Ovcharov, ; August 1, 1914 – August 14, 1997) was a Russian Empire-born Ukrainian photographer, filmmaker, and composer, who spent much of his life in Puerto Rico. In the United States, he worked for the Works Progress A ...
in April 1942 where their last name was mistakenly transcribed as "Sounders."
Saunders died in Chicago in 1981, aged 69.
References
External links
Red Saunders Research Foundation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Saunders, Red
1912 births
1981 deaths
African-American drummers
American jazz drummers
Musicians from Memphis, Tennessee
Duke Records artists
20th-century American drummers
American male drummers
Jazz musicians from Tennessee
20th-century American male musicians
American male jazz musicians
20th-century African-American musicians
Drummers from Tennessee