Kirby, John

Kirby, John, jazz bassist, leader, arranger; b. Baltimore, Dec. 31, 1908; d. L.A., June 14, 1952. He was orphaned at an early age. He learned to play the trombone and moved to N.Y. (ca. 1925). While scuffling to find gigs his instrument was stolen. He worked at a variety of day jobs (including a spell as a Pullman porter) before saving enough money to buy a tuba. He was with Bill Brown and his Brownies (1928–30), then joined Fletcher Henderson during 1930. He began doubling on string bass (with lessons from Wellman Braud and Pops Foster). After switching from an aluminum bass to a wooden one in 1933, he rarely played tuba. He was with Chick Webb from spring 1934, and led his own quartet at the President Hotel (N.Y., 1935). He rejoined Fletcher Henderson in late 1935, then rejoined Chick Webb in the summer of 1936, then worked with Lucky Millinder in autumn 1936. He was an original member of the small band that went into the Onyx Club (May 15, 1937); later Kirby was appointed leader, and during the sextet’s initial 11-month residency, they gained a wide reputation. The group was known for “jazzin’ the classics.” The band’s best-known personnel was Charlie Shavers, Buster Bailey, Russell Procope, Billy Kyle, and O’Neill Spencer, with vocals by Maxine Sullivan. Kirby occasionally doubled on trombone. From 1938 until 1941, Kirby was married to Sullivan. The sextet worked as John Kirby and His Onyx Club Boys at many N.Y. clubs, and at the N.Y. World’s Fair Zombie Club (summer 1940), as well as residencies in Chicago, L. A., etc. They did dates at whites-only hotels and even were featured on a 1940 radio show, “Flow Gently, Sweet Rhythm” The band’s personnel was virtually unchanged until 1942. Kirby struggled on through 1950 with new members, and the original sextet occasionally reunited for special concerts as well. Kirby led his own quartet (1950), then worked with Henry Allen at the Hickory Log, and with Buck Clayton at Terrasi’s in the spring of 1951; later that year he moved to Calif. In early 1952 he played occasionally in Benny Carter’s Band, then started to reorganize a new sextet (with arrangements by Gene Roland), but ill health forced him to abandon the project. He died in L.A. from complications from diabetes.

Discography

Peanut Vendor (1978); The Complete Charlie Shavers with Maxine Sullivan (1953; re-creation).

—John Chilton, Who‘s Who of Jazz/Lewis Porter