Entered the Jenkins Orphanage in 1902 and was a music instructor there from 1912-14; played clarinet, oboe and alto saxophone; worked with the LeRoy Smith Society Orchestra in New York from 1918-33 and with various big bands including Fletcher Henderson…
Born in Dillon, SC, Hamilton was a multi-instrumentalist who played the clarinet, trombone and later piano, trumpet and saxophones; his first professional gigs were in Teddy Wilson’s band…
Born in Charleston and died in Las Vegas, Green attended Charleston’s Morris Brown A.M.E. Church as a boy; studied music at the Jenkins Orphanage though not a resident; toured with the Jenkins Orphanage Band as a vocalist in the late 1920s…
One of the greatest pioneers of modern jazz in the history of this American art form, one of the country’s greatest trumpeters and bandleaders, and South Carolina’s most celebrated jazz musician, composer and bandleader; born in Cheraw, South Carolina where his father was an amateur bandleader…
Trombonist with the Jenkins Orphanage Bands during the 1900s and 1910s; worked with Will Marion Cook, Gonzelle White, Fate Marable, and Drake & Walker in the 1920s…
Multi-instrumentalist, notably trombone and vocalist; his birthplace is questionable – some sources say Butte, Montana, Honolulu, North Africa, Savannah or Charleston…
Trombonist who entered the Jenkins Orphanage in 1915 and learned to play the trombone by Eugene “Buddy” Aiken and Jacob “Jake” Frazier; gigged regularly at John O’Conner’s Club…
Born in Charleston; sang in the Jenkins Orphanage choir in the early 1900s; a popular and prolific blues composer/songwriter on Tin Pan Alley and in the 1920s whose songs were used by recording artists of the era…
Tenor saxophonist, composer and stylist; graduate of Avery, 1934; oldest of seven sons of Ethel Capers and Charles St. Julian Dash of Charleston; at Avery, he played with the Night Hawk’s Orchestra, the Royal Crusaders, and the Carolina Cotton Pickers…
The Carolina Cotton Pickers was the seminal touring band created in the 1920s from the roster of Jenkins Orphanage Band musicians. Some of the earliest musicians included Alonzo Mills, Walter Bash, John “Shadow” Wilson…
