Earle Warren, Alto sax, 1914, Springfield, Oh
Earle's family was very musical, having their own band in which Earle played piano, banjo, ukulele and C-melody sax and finally the alto sax. When he started playing professionally, Earle added an "E" to his nameso that he wouldn't be confused with Earl Hines. He led several groups of his own and played with other bands in the mid west before joining Count Basie in 1937. With Basie's band he played lead alto and clarinet and also sang ballads. During the '50s Earle spent time as a manager for several rhythm-and-blues and pop groups. In the late'70s he worked with Buck Clayton and made a tour of Europe as a soloist. In 1973 he formed The Countsmen (former Basie sidemen) and performed regularly at the West End Club, in New York. Earle made his home in Geneva in the early '80s where he continued to work with many local and visiting musicians. Although he rarely if ever played as a soloist while with Basie, Warren played the melodic lead for many of the band's greatest recordings.
Ed Anderson, Trumpet, 1910, Jacksonville, Fla
Ed's first professional gig was with the band of Luckey Roberts with whom he traveled to New York in the mid '20s. There he worked with the drummer George Howe and Luis Russell and also began to perform and record with the popular Jelly Roll Morton. After working with with Benny Carter and Charlie Johnson, he joined the Mills Blue Rhythm Band in 1930. While with this band he made numerous recordings between 1931 and 1934. Anderson worked with Charlie Turner's Arcadians when the band was led by Fats Waller. Later, in the late '30s, Ed performed with Hazel Scott and Frankie Newton. After this period he ceased to be a full time musician.
Willy Dixon, Bass/Arranger, 1915, Vicksburg, MS
Willy Dixon's part in shaping the sound of modern blues can hardly be overestimated. His mother, Daisey, habitually tried to turn everything she said to Willy into rhymes, and Willy quickly followed suit. His first musical influence began at about age seven, when he would cut school to spend the afternoon scampering through the dusty streets of Vicksburg behind a truck pulling a band featuring pianist Little Brother Montgomery. In 1945 Willy and Leonard "Baby Doo" Caston teamed up to form the Big Three Trio along with guitarist Bernardo Dennis. Their gigs were mostly in Chicago's downtown loop district playing for predominantly white audiences, but they also frequently joined in at late night jam sessions with Muddy Waters and many other musicians who were developing Chicago's blues community at that time. One south side gig that Willy played was at a club called El Mocambo, a jumping joint run by a pair of Polish emigres named Leonard and Phil Chess. The Chess brothers were trying to get a record company (Chess Records) off the ground and noted that Willy was a musician who had some studio experience that they could use. Willy had gained this "experience" a few years earlier while working sessions with artists like Tampa Red, Memphis Minnie, John Lee Williamson, and other members of Chicago's old blues guard for the Bluebird and Okeh labels. Dispite the image of Chicago blues as a raw, guitar and harmonica- dominated sound, Willy was familiar with the later sounds of people like Willy Mabon, Lowell Fulson, and Jimmy Witherspoon. Willy became a songwriting force to be reconed with through his association with Muddy Waters. Dixon wrote "Hoochie Coochie Man" that was performed by Waters, and it became a smash hit. In the late '50s Willy went with the new Cobra Record Company, establishing it's credibility with Otis Rush's "I Can't Quit You Baby". Willy's arranging, production and songwriting savvy helped artists like Rush, Buddy Guy, and Magic Sam make their initial mark in the blues world, but financial difficulties with Cobra forced him to return to Chess records in 1959, where he remained for many years.
