Singleton Palmer
Popular St. Louis jazz musician and band leader
Birth: November 13, 1912
Death: March 8, 1993
Birthplace: St. Louis, Missouri
Date of Interview: August 9, 1981
Interviewer: Dan Havens
Singleton Palmer began playing trumpet in the late 1930’s at Sumner High School. He soon began to play the tuba. Then, in the 1930’s, he learned to play string bass. Mr. Palmer went on to perform with the Oliver Cobb Orchestra, Erskine Tate’s Orchestra, Fate Marable, Dewey Jackson, and the George Hudson Orchestra. He left St. Louis in 1947 to play string bass for Count Basie’s band. He returned in 1950 and started his own band, the Dixieland Six, a group that he would lead for more than forty years. This popular group performed regularly at the Opera House in Gaslight Square and on the Robert E. Lee and Goldenrod showboats.
For the table of contents for the Interview of Singleton Palmer, please click on this link: Oral History and Research Materials: Singleton Palmer
E-mail comments and inquiries about the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive to Therese Dickman at tdickma@siue.edu or call 618-650-2695.
http://www.siue.edu/~tdickma
Library and Information Services
Southern Illinois University Edwardsville
Updated by Kristin Walker
April 2005