Big Boy Goudie

Frank "Big Boy" Goudie (September 13, 1899 – January 9, 1964) was an American jazz tenor saxophonist and clarinetist.

Goudie was born in Youngsville, Louisiana, but raised in New Orleans, where he played cornet in Papa Celestin's Original Tuxedo Band and other groups. As a young man, his great height earned him the nickname "Tree". He played in the Southern United States and Mexico through the first half of the 1920s, then moved to Europe, settling in France in 1925 and switching to reeds. While in Europe he played with Benny Peyton, Louis Mitchell, Sam Wooding, Noble Sissle, Freddy Johnson, Bill Coleman (1937), and Willie Lewis (1935-38). Goudie played often and recorded with Django Reinhardt, the Gypsy guitar wizard; at times the two of them would play at a back table in some café late at night, "real soft, just for ourselves". In Europe he carried a wicker suitcase full of upholstery tools with which to augment his income and another case full of pots and pans. He left Paris shortly after the outbreak of World War II and lived in South America during the war, playing with his own small groups there.

In 1946 he moved back to France, playing there with Arthur Briggs, Harry Cooper and Coleman again (1949-51). Between 1951 and 1956 he led his own group in Berlin, after which he returned to the United States. Late in his life he played clarinet with Marty Marsala and Earl Hines. He finished his career in San Francisco, where he was a valued fixture at weekly big band jam sessions with Burt Bales at Pier 23. He died in San Francisco, aged 64.

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