Oral History and Research Materials: Leon King
This is the table of contents for the interview of Leon King. It is part of the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive which is located in
Lovejoy Library at Southern Illinois University Edwardsville.
For a complete contents list of all musician interviews for the oral history project, please click on this link: Oral History and Research Materials.
If interested in reviewing these materials from the National Ragtime and Jazz Archive, please contact Therese Dickman, Fine Arts Librarian.
Tape # Side Running Time on Tape Subject
1 a 015-127 Biographical; Birth, Parents, Siblings, early life
1 a 128-159 Earliest musical experience- teacher in school; piano lessons
1 a 160-190 High school - East St. Louis Lincoln; trumpet - 6 months then
trombone; first lessons
1 a 191-209
1 a 210-375 Band leader- Harold Pickett, first band job; personnel; jitney
dancing, 1923; tunes played; pay
1 a 376-444 Artisan's Hall, Collinsville, listening to Charlie Creath
1 a 445-506 University of Illinois; band audition, no blacks in band
1 a 507-534 Joined band in Champaign; played dances frats and sororities
1 a 535-566 Aluminum Ore Co.; father has stroke; stayed home from school
1 a 567-601 Joined "Bill' Polk's Band; Galesburg, 1927
1 a 602-623 Postal clerk exam, St. Louis
1 a 624-724 Playing with Cecil Scott Orchestra, St. Louis; personnel; dance
halls, Phythian Hall; hours
1 a 725-740 Dewey Jackson Band, 1930; personnel
1 b 004-083 Jackson personnel cont'd; arrangements
1 b 084-118 Where Jackson played, different halls
1 b 119-139 Jackson as leader
1 b 140-201 Playing on riverboat "St. Paul"; pay
1 b 202-212 Marriage
1 b 213-299 1931-34; riverboat "J.R." Marable and Jackson join
1 b 300-336 Towns played along Mississippi River
1 b 337-363 Dewey leaves band to join church
1 b 364-442 Creath and Marable have band; personnel; New Orleans
1 b 443-539 Lunceford Orchestra; leave from Post Office; personnel; leaves
band after two months
1 b 540-550 Back to post office and Marable
1 b 550-556 Noise on tape
1 b 557-573 Mississippi River trips; towns boat stopped in
1 b 574-617 New Orleans; jam sessions, Pelican Hall, musicians
1 b 618-664 Job on boat, pay, living arrangements, food, hours
1 b 665-667 Marable, personality, style
1 b 668-692 New Orleans musicians, Armstrong
1 b 693-718 Marable, Tab Smith; quits band, back to post office
1 b 719-740 Union merger, suspension of Local 44 Charter
2 a 004-150 Union problems cont'd, Castle Ballroom, pay scale, hard
feelings, Lige Shaw-President
2 a 151-243 Louie Armstrong plays with Jackson Band
2 a 244-253 Don Redman band in St. Louis
2 a 254-271 Types of brass mutes
2 a 272-308 Fletcher Henderson in St. Louis, early 1930's
2 a 309-325 Joe Smith, trumpet player
2 a 326-359 Other bands traveling through St. Louis, McKinney's
Cottonpickers
2 a 360-378 Post office, full time, working nights, quit Marable's band
2 a 379-464 1950, goes on days, George Hudson band; personnel; changes
in music and styles
2 a 465-490 Vocalists with Hudson, Dinah Washington; Hudson as leader
2 a 491-520 Leaves Hudson, rejoins Jackson, DeBalivere "Strip"; clubs
2 a 521-549 Joe Smith Band at Windemere; personnel
2 a 550-599 Playing on the "Strip"; second marriage; "The Barrel Club";
music - Dixieland
2 a 600-630 Boats, style of music, Foxtrots - bounce; Captain Joe
2 a 631-664 Marable's Bands, popular tunes, Tab Smith arranger
2 a 665-700 Best bands - Lunceford, Dewey Jackson, best rhythm section
2 a 701-720 Lunceford Band arrangements, Willie Smith, Joe Thomas
2 a 721-738 De Balivere, East St. Louis jobs
2 b 009-056 With Dewey Jackson in East St. Louis
2 b 057-142 Jackson going to church choir, sideman
2 b 143-266 Gaslight Square, Singleton Palmer, personnel, Thigpen, Shaw
2 b 267-284 Opera House, Gaslight Square
2 b 285-321 Eddie Johnson's Band, 1958, before Palmer; personnel
2 b 322-427 Palmer's band, drinking on the job
2 b 428-452 Other bands in Gaslight; demise of Gaslight Square
2 b 453-488 Recording with Palmer; arrangements
2 b 489-499 Norman Mason
2 b 500-529 Left Gaslight 1969; surgery, other jobs
2 b 530-641 First job with Havens and Mississippi Mudcats; 1971-72;
personnel; where band played
2 b 642-664 Milwaukee trip
2 b 667-687 Recording with Mudcats
2 b 688-740 Musicians who impressed or influenced King
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
May 2005