Pee Wee Russell's
Top 10 Records |
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Pee Wee Russell |
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Name: Pee Wee Russell
| Nee: |
Charles Ellsworth Russell |
| Born: |
27 Mar 1906 |
| Died: |
15 Feb 1969 |
| Origin: |
Maple Wood, Missouri, United States |
| Instruments: |
Clarinet |
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| Pee Wee Russell was a jazz clarinetst and saxophone musician.
He Russell was born in Maple Wood, Missouri and grew up in Muskogee, Oklahoma. In Muskogee about 1919 his father took young Ellsworth to a dance given by the then famous touring band The Louisiana Five featuring New Orleans jazz clarinetist Alcide 'Yellow' Nunez. Russell was amazed by Nunez's improvisations. While he had ambitions to play music before, the event made Pee Wee decide that his primary instrument would be the clarinet and the type of music he would play would be jazz.
His family moved to Saint Louis, Missouri in 1920, then Pee Wee was enroled in the Western Military Academy in Alton, Illinois. On the side he was playing clarinet with various dance and jazz bands. He began touring professionally in 1922 and traveled widely with tent shows and on river boats. He made his analogue disc recording debut in 1924 with Herb Berger's Band in St. Louis, then moved to Chicago where he began playing with such notables as Frankie Trumbauer and Bix Beiderbecke. |
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