Harding, Buster (Lavere)
Harding, Buster (Lavere)
Harding, Buster (Lavere), jazz arranger, pianist; b. Buxtom, Ontario, Canada, March 19, 1917; d. N.Y., Nov. 14, 1965. He was raised in Cleveland. He led his own band there during the early 1930s, then worked in Buffalo with Marion Sear’s band. He led his own trio at Boston’s Savarin Cafe (1938), then settled in N.Y. He played second piano and arranged for Teddy Wilson’s Big Band (late 1939 to spring 1940), and also arranged for Coleman Hawkins’s Big Band (late 1939). He led his own quartet at Nick’s, N.Y. (May 1940) and was a staff arranger for Cab Calloway (1941–42), then did prolific freelance arranging for Artie Shaw, Count Basie, Dizzie Gillespie, and Benny Goodman, among many others. He was musical director (and occasional accompanist) for Billie Holiday (ca. 1954). He was seriously ill for the last few years of his life, but continued to arrange, and worked occasionally in various small groups including a brief spell with Jonah Jones in the 1960s.
—John Chilton Who’s Who of Jazz/Lewis Porter