Lammar Wright Sr.
Lammar Wright Sr. was born in Texarkana, Texas, in 1912 and, like Joplin before him, moved to Missouri. His family settled in Kansas City, where he attended Lincoln High School, whose music department produced a number of early jazz figures, including bassist Walter Page. Wright would be hired by Bennie Moten, leader of an early jazz band whose members went on to form the core of Count Basie's orchestra. Wright can be heard on Moten's records "Elephant's Wobble" and "Crawdad Blues," among others. Through the Moten band's records, Wright's playing came to the attention of Andy Preer, leader of the house orchestra at the Cotton Club in New York, where Duke Ellington would later make his name. Preer's band -- known as The Missourians -- would be taken over by Cab Calloway, the first African American to have a million-selling single record and a nationally syndicated radio show. Wright would remain Calloway's lead trumpeter for 15 years and l...