John Kirby (musician)

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John Kirby(born December 31, 1908 in Winchester, Virginia and died June 14, 1952 in Hollywood, California) was a jazz bassist who played the trombone as well as tuba.

[edit] Background

In 1926 he moved to Baltimore, Maryland, a town he is still linked to by some. He played with Chick Webb and Fletcher Henderson before starting his own band in 1937. His John Kirby's Sextet "The Onyx Club Boys" would become one of the more significant "small groups" in a Big band era and had the first recording of the song Undecided. He tended toward a lighter classical influenced style of jazz, which has strong defenders and critics. After World War II his career declined and he died before a planned comeback. In 1993 he was inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame.