Dixieland jazz trumpeter who popularized the style of his hero, Louis Armstrong.
Learning drum and ukelele from his uncle, he picked up the trumpet from a Louis Armstrong Orchestra musician and then moved to Los Angeles to jam with jazz ensembles.
His own jazz band played to crowds at nightclubs around Los Angeles for twenty-five years.
He grew up in Sherman, Texas, just north of Dallas, getting his formative music education from his extended family.
He appeared in several films of the 1930s, alongside Louis Armstrong in Pennies from Heaven and then with Fats Waller in King of Burlesque.
