ALEX HILL

Born in Little Rock, Arkansas in April 1906, Alex Hill, the eldest son of an African Episcopalian minister and a pianist/music teacher, defied his parents' wishes by devoting most of his life to secular music. An experienced pianist before he turned professional at the age of 16, Hill then served his apprenticeship with several territory bands, including those of alto saxophonist Alvin "Fats" Waller (nominally an uncanny harbinger of his association with Fats Waller) and Terrence Holder. Having formed his own band in 1924, by 1926, as musical director of a touring revue, Alex Hill became stranded on the West Coast, where he joined the trumpeter Mutt Carey's Jeffersonians, in addition to writing for other bands, such as Paul Howard's Quality Serenaders. By the late 1920s, Alex Hill had settled in Chicago, then the Mecca of jazz. Appointed staff arranger for the Melrose Brothers' publishing company, Hill followed read more...