- Born
- Died
- Blues musician Walter Page was born in Gallatin, MO, in 1900. When he was in his 20s he joined Bennie Moten's orchestra. In 1925 he formed his own band, Walter Page's Blue Devils, which became one of the most popular and influential blues "swing bands". The band included such blues legends as Hot Lips Page, Buster Smith, Lester Young, Count Basie and Jimmy Rushing. The Blue Devils didn't record much--they only put out two singles--and its top members left to join Moten's band, which Page himself finally did in 1931. He eventually joined Count Basie and His Orchestra, and in the late 1940s worked in New York City with such blues icons as Billie Holiday.
Page stayed in the New York blues scene, and died in that city in 1957.- IMDb Mini Biography By: frankfob2@yahoo.com
- Violinist, pianist, arranger, composer and band leader (Walter Page's Blue Devils) of the 1920s and early 1930s. Active primarily in Kansas City and, briefly, in New York. Page was at various times a member of the Count Basie and His Orchestra, notably between 1935 and the late 1940s. He later freelanced with smaller jazz groups, before dying of pneumonia in December 1957.
- The death of Walter Page on December 20, 1957 was very much a surprise, as the bassist had been playing gigs around New York City right up until his death.
- Page was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist and bandleader, best known for his groundbreaking work as a double bass player with Walter Page's Blue Devils and the Count Basie Orchestra.
- It is reported that Page contracted pneumonia on his way to a recording session in the midst of a snowstorm. An obituary in Jet magazine from January 9, 1958 under the "Died" column, reads: "Walter Page, 57, one of the greatest jazz bass players, who helped Count Basie lead an invasion of Kansas City jazz to New York in 1935; of kidney ailment and pneumonia; at Bellevue Hospital in New York City.".
- It is speculated that Walter Page's early death may be a factor contributing to his relative obscurity in the history of jazz, despite his major influence and stylistic contributions. In an interview published only a month before his death in The Jazz Review, Walter Page expressed how he never sought praise and that he just wanted to know that he was appreciated for his influence on music.
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